Why an English King’s Traitorous Brother Was (Allegedly) Drowned in a Barrel of Wine
George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, spent his life engaged in a power struggle that pitted cousins and siblings against each other. He was executed for treason on this day in 1478
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George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, was born into a tumultuous family oft engaged in power struggles. His death on February 18, 1478, followed his conviction for treason against his older brother, Edward IV of England. George, who never held the throne, could have become just a footnote in history books. But his colorful personality and the alleged manner of his death have captivated the public imagination for centuries. According to popular lore, George was executed by drowning in a barrel of wine.
The tumult began in George’s early childhood. His father was Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, a claimant to the English throne. George was born in 1449, and by 1459, violence had escalated between his father’s supporters and those of the reigning king, Henry VI. The two camps were factions of the Plantagenet family, engaged in a civil war known as the Wars of the Roses. On one side was the House of York, led by George’s father. On the other side was the House of Lancaster, led by Henry VI. At stake was which side of the family had the rightful claim to rule England.
The Duke of York’s attempts to seize the throne were unsuccessful, and he was ultimately killed in battle in 1460. But George’s luck began to turn when his older brother assumed the throne as Edward IV in 1461. With the House of York in power, George was given the dukedom of Clarence and lieutenancy over Ireland.
Any peace in the family was brief. George and his allies took offense when Edward married Elizabeth Woodville, a Lancastrian widow. This began a multi-decade attempt by George to usurp power from Edward and take the throne for himself. It sowed paranoia in Edward and made for challenging family dynamics. For his part, Edward disapproved of George’s marriage to Isabel Neville, the daughter of a powerful cousin who’d once supported Edward but now opposed him.
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The following years brought chaos to England and to the Plantagenet family as Edward and George feuded and reconciled, and their supporters repeatedly swapped sides in the feud.
For a brief period in 1470 and 1471, Henry VI was restored to power. But by April 1471, Edward had regained the throne. Eventually, the back and forth with brother George began anew.
George’s final chapter began in 1477, when a member of his household was charged with “imagining the king’s death by necromancy.” After George protested this verdict at Westminster Palace, he was arrested for contempt of the law. Just a few months later, his brother charged him with treason. The punishment for his crimes was death.
On February 18, 1478, George was put to death in the Tower of London. As the story goes, his manner of execution was immersion in a vat of Malmsey wine, a fortified sweet wine made with Portuguese grapes. Because his execution was private, this remains a rumor, historians’ best guess as to what happened that day.
The Wars of the Roses continued after George’s death, and the Houses of York and Lancaster continued feuding until 1485. That year, the Lancastrian Henry Tudor triumphed over George’s younger brother, Richard III, at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Through his subsequent marriage to Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, the Lancastrian claimant united the two factions as Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch.
