George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence 1449 – 1478

Biography

Born into the lion’s den of fifteenth-century power politics, George Plantagenet commanded attention as one of England’s highest-ranking nobles and brother to two future kings. The Duke of Clarence occupied a dizzying position at the heart of the Wars of the Roses, his royal blood and strategic importance making him a pivotal player in the deadly game of dynastic succession that consumed the era.

His life ended in infamy on February 27, 1478, when he was executed by drowning in the Tower of London—a shocking fall from grace that underscored the brutal stakes of medieval politics. The circumstances of his death remain as dramatic as his life, cementing his place in the turbulent saga of fifteenth-century England. He was buried at Tewkesbury Abbey, where his memory joined the pantheon of nobility caught in history’s most ruthless power struggle.