After King Edward IV's public recognition of Elizabeth Woodville as his wife, the new queen sought to raise her family's standing by arranging a series of advantageous marriages for her five brothers and seven unwed sisters.

In January 1467, Mary Woodville was married to Lord Dunster at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle "amid profuse magnificence.

Nothing seems to have aggravated Warwick more than the marriage of the Lady Mary, the Queen's sister, to Herbert's eldest son.

Mary's death in 1481 considerably weakened her husband's links with the Prince of Wales's associates, and he was forced to give up the earldom of Pembroke for that of Huntingdon, and a less valuable endowment in Somerset and Dorset.

In 1484, he took as his second wife, Catherine Plantagenet, the illegitimate daughter of King Richard III; however, this marriage failed to produce offspring.