Editing Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (section)

==Fictional portrayals==
[[File: Cecily neville.jpg|thumb|Cecily as imagined by Edward Harding, 1792, [[National Portrait Gallery, London]]]]
Cecily Neville as the Duchess of York is a principal character in [[Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[The Tragedy of King Richard III]]''. She is portrayed as having deep affection for her dead sons George and Edward, but is cold and unloving to Richard, to whom she refers as a "false glass that grieves me when I see my shame in him." Because Richard is depicted as a [[hunchback]], the Duchess seems to hate him for his deformity and for his difficult birth, which several characters in the play gossip about. After Richard has done away with the [[Princes in the Tower]], his mother turns against him completely, cursing him with the damning words: "Bloody thou art, Bloody will be thy end!" She has been portrayed by many noted actresses, including [[Elinor Aickin]], [[Eleanor Bron]], [[Annette Crosbie]] (for [[BBC Shakespeare]] in 1983), [[Helen Haye]] (in [[Laurence Olivier]]'s [[Richard III (1955 film)|1955]] film), [[Anne Jeffreys]], and, in the [[Richard III (1995 film)|1995]] film starring [[Ian McKellen]], [[Dame Maggie Smith]].

In 2013 and 2017, the Duchess is portrayed by [[Caroline Goodall]] in the television series ''[[The White Queen (TV series)|The White Queen]]'' and ''[[The White Princess (miniseries)|The White Princess]]'', respectively; a series based on three of the novels from the ''[[Cousins' War]]'' series by author [[Philippa Gregory]]. In episode one, Lady Cecily's first scene is an exchange with [[Jacquetta of Luxembourg]] and her daughter, [[Elizabeth Woodville]]. In this meeting, Jacquetta, as her daughter's mouthpiece, really oversteps the historical mark. The disapproving Duchess, who was known in real life as "proud Cis", is too easily overcome by her social inferiors when they whip out her apparent "secret" affair with a French archer and Elizabeth commands that she bow before her. Lost for words, she is silenced within minutes, almost cowed by them. While contemporary notions of "courtesy" dictated extreme forms of submission to the queen, this is a Lady Cecily straight from the pages of a novel rather than the actual proud aristocrat who asserted her own right to rule.{{sfn|Licence|2013}}

In 2016, Neville was portrayed by [[Judi Dench]] in the [[BBC]] television mini-series [[The Hollow Crown (TV series)|''The Hollow Crown: The War of the Roses'']], in the third episode; which is based on [[William Shakespeare]]'s play, [[Richard III (play)|''Richard III'']].

[[Sharon Kay Penman]]'s historical novel ''[[The Sunne in Splendour]]'' portrays Neville relatively accurately to the historical record, as the proud matriarch of the York family and a loving but stern mother to all her children. The book heavily focuses on her disdain for Elizabeth Woodville, as well as her attempts to reconcile the various feuds between her sons.