father-in-law of the Yorkist king Edward IV of England (reigned 1461–70, 1471–83). Nobles opposed to Rivers initiated the uprising that temporarily drove Edward into exile in 1470.

Woodville fought with distinction during the last two decades of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) against France and in about 1436 married the wealthy Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Duchess of Bedford. He was created Baron Rivers in 1448. In the opening years of the Wars of the Roses (Roses, Wars of the) (1455–85), Rivers supported the Lancastrian king Henry VI against his Yorkist opponents. Rivers was present when the Lancastrian army was annihilated at Towton, Yorkshire, in March 1461; and he then shifted his allegiance to the newly crowned Yorkist monarch Edward IV.

On May 1, 1464, Rivers married his daughter Elizabeth to Edward. Through royal favour most of his five surviving sons and eight daughters were married into noble families. Rivers himself was created Earl Rivers in 1466 and constable of England in 1467. Meanwhile, the older nobility eyed the upstart Woodvilles with hatred. The destruction of the family's influence was one of the aims of the rebellion against Edward instigated by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, in 1469. After the defeat of Edward at Edgecote, Northamptonshire (July 1469), Rivers and one of his sons were captured and beheaded.