Elizabeth Woodville

Elizabeth Woodville
Queen consort of England
Tenure	1 May 1464 – 9 April 1483
Coronation	26 May 1465
Spouse	Sir John Grey m. c. 1452; dec. 1461 Edward IV of England m. 1464; dec. 1483
Issue
Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset Richard Grey Elizabeth, Queen of England Mary of York Cecily, Viscountess Welles Edward V of England Margaret of York Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York Anne, Countess of Surrey George Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford Catherine, Countess of Devon Bridget of York
House	House of York
Father	Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers
Mother	Jacquetta of Luxembourg
Born	circa 1437 Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire
Died	8 June 1492(1492-06-08) (age 55) Bermondsey, London
Burial	St. George's Chapel, Windsor

Elizabeth Woodville (or Wydeville) (circa 1437 – 8 June 1492) was the Queen consort of Edward IV, King of England, from 1464 until his death in 1483. Elizabeth was a key figure in the series of dynasty civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses. Her first husband, Sir John Grey of Groby was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans. As the daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, she was the first commoner to marry an English sovereign. It was because of this that Edward's former staunch ally Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known to history as "The Kingmaker" switched his allegiance to the House of Lancaster. Her children included Elizabeth of York, and the Princes in the Tower. She may have served as a Maid of Honour to Queen consort Margaret of Anjou, but the evidence of this is uncertain^[1].

Early life and first marriage

Elizabeth was born circa 1437^[2] at Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire, the daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers and his wife, the former Jacquetta of Luxembourg, widow of John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford. Although spelling of the family name has sometimes been modernized to "Woodville", it was spelled "Wydeville" in contemporary publications by Caxton and as "Widvile" on Queen Elizabeth's tomb at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Through her mother, Elizabeth was a distant descendant of King John of England.

She may have been a maid of honour to Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI in 1445, when she was about eight years of age. The identification of Elizabeth as the "Isabel Grey" referred to in the record in question is uncertain, however; as A. R. Myers and George Smith have each noted, assuming that the eight-year-old Elizabeth was then married to John Grey, there were several women by the name of Isabella or Elizabeth Grey, including an Elizabeth Grey who is noted as serving Margaret and as being the widow of a Ralph Grey.^[1] In about 1452, she married Sir John Grey of Groby, who was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461, fighting for the Lancastrian cause, which would become a source of irony as Edward IV was the Yorkist claimant to the throne. Elizabeth had two sons from the marriage, Thomas (later Marquess of Dorset) and Richard.

Elizabeth was called "the most beautiful woman in the Island of Britain" with "heavy-lidded eyes like those of a dragon", suggesting a perhaps unusual criterion by which beauty in late medieval England was judged.

Queen consort

Edward IV had many mistresses, the most notorious being Jane Shore, and did not have a reputation for fidelity. His marriage to the widowed Lady Grey took place secretly (with only the bride's mother and two ladies in attendance) at her family home in Northamptonshire on 1 May 1464.^[3]

In the early years of his reign, Edward's governance of England was dependent upon a small circle of supporters, most notably his cousin, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (later known as "Warwick the Kingmaker" because of the part he played in putting Edward on the throne and afterward replacing him with Henry VI). At around the time of Edward's secret marriage, Warwick was negotiating an alliance with France in an effort to thwart a similar arrangement being made by his sworn enemy Margaret of Anjou, wife of the deposed Henry VI. The plan was that Edward should marry a French Princess. When the marriage to Elizabeth became public, its concealment was the cause of considerable rancour on Warwick's part.

Later, when Elizabeth's relatives, especially her brother, Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, began to challenge Warwick's pre-eminence in English political society, he turned against Edward and fled to France with his son-in-law, Edward's brother the Duke of Clarence. Warwick and Margaret of Anjou then formed an alliance of their own to restore Henry VI to the throne and Warwick's daughter Anne married Margaret's son Edward of Westminster.

Elizabeth was crowned Queen on Ascension Day, 26 May 1465.

With the arrival on the scene of the new queen came a host of siblings who soon married into some of the most notable families in England.^[4] The marriages of her sisters to the sons of the earls of Kent, Essex and Pembroke have left no sign of unhappiness on the parts of the parties involved, nor does that of her sister, Catherine Woodville, to the queen's 11-year-old ward Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, though the duke stood with the duke of Gloucester in opposition to the Woodvilles after the death of Edward IV. The one marriage which may be considered shocking was that of her 20-year-old brother John Woodville to Lady Katherine Neville, daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland by Joan Beaufort, widow of John Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and dowager Duchess of Norfolk. The wealthy Katherine had been widowed three times and was probably in her sixties.

Elizabeth Woodville's arms as queen consort^[5]

In 1469, Elizabeth's mother, the Duchess of Bedford, was accused by a follower of the Earl of Warwick of having practiced witchcraft. Jacquetta was acquitted the following year.^[6] Although Richard III, in declaring Elizabeth's children by Edward IV to be illegitimate, would later accuse Elizabeth Wydeville herself of having procured her marriage through witchcraft, he never brought her to trial on witchcraft charges or otherwise proved their veracity. The 1484 Act of Parliament Titulus Regius that contains the witchcraft charge gives no pertinent details. The House of Luxembourg, however, is said to have claimed a mythical descent from Melusine, but there is no evidence that Elizabeth Wydeville made use of this legend or that her beliefs were anything other than the conventional Christianity of her day. In their article "A 'Most Benevolent Queen': Queen Elizabeth Woodville's Reputation, Her Piety and Her Books," Anne Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs document Elizabeth's acts of Christian piety, which were in keeping with what was expected of a medieval queen consort. Her acts included making pilgrimages, obtaining a papal indulgence for those who knelt and said the Angelical Salutation, or Angelus, three times per day, and founding the chapel of St. Erasmus in Westminster Abbey^[7]

Queen Mother

Elizabeth and Edward's marriage was to produce ten children, including two sons who were still living at the time of the King's sudden death in 1483. The elder, Edward, had been born in sanctuary at Westminster Abbey in 1470, during the period when his father was out of power and in exile following his overthrow by Warwick in favour of Henry VI. Edward later returned to England and Warwick was killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471.

Following Edward's death, Elizabeth now, briefly, became Queen Mother, but on 25 June 1483, her marriage was declared null and void by Parliament in the act Titulus Regius ^[8] on the grounds that Edward had made a previous promise (known as a precontract) to marry Lady Eleanor Butler, which was considered a legally binding contract that rendered any other marriage contract invalid as bigamous. One source, the Burgundian chronicler Philippe de Commines, claims that Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, carried out the ceremony between Edward and Eleanor. Titulus Regius itself gives no details of the alleged precontract except for the identity of the lady involved.

On the basis of the alleged precontract, all Elizabeth's children by Edward, including King Edward V, were declared illegitimate, and her brother-in-law, Richard III, was given the crown. Young Edward and his brother Richard, Duke of York, were kept in the Tower of London, where they had already been lodged to await the Coronation. The exact fate of the so-called Princes in the Tower has been long debated; whether they died, disappeared, or were murdered is still unknown.

Elizabeth now lost the title of Queen Mother and was referred to as Dame Elizabeth Grey. She and her other children were in sanctuary again, fearing for their safety. This may have been to protect themselves against jealous courtiers who wanted revenge against the entire Woodville clan.

Elizabeth and Richard III

Elizabeth Woodville made an alliance with Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, who was the last surviving Lancastrian claimant. Although Henry was the great-great-great-grandson of King Edward III,^[9] his claim to the throne was weak due to the clause barring ascension to the throne by any heirs of the legitimized offspring of his great-great-grandparents, John of Gaunt (son of King Edward III) and Katherine Swynford. Despite this, his mother and Elizabeth Woodville agreed Henry should move to claim the throne, and once he had taken it, he would marry Elizabeth of York, uniting the two rival Houses. In December 1483, in the cathedral in Rennes, Henry swore an oath promising to marry her, and then began planning an invasion.

On 1 March 1484, Elizabeth and her daughters came out of sanctuary and returned to Court. Rumours even spread that the now-widowed King Richard was going to marry his niece Elizabeth of York. Richard issued a denial; though according to the Crowland Chronicle he was pressured to do this by the Woodvilles' enemies who feared, among other things, that they would have to return the lands they had confiscated from the Woodvilles.

Elizabeth's behaviour has been a source of frustration to historians. They reason that she would never have recognised Richard as King unless she knew for sure that both her sons were dead and that she would have to resort to other means to keep her family in power. There was also the fact that Richard had had her brother Earl Rivers and her son Richard Grey executed.

The Wars of the Roses were notable for the number of times that leading figures changed sides for expediency's sake (examples including Edmund, Lord Grey of Ruthin, during the Battle of Northampton, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and even George, Duke of Clarence), and it is possible that Elizabeth was no exception.

It should be noted that before Elizabeth and her daughters came out of sanctuary, Richard III publicly swore an oath that her daughters would not be harmed or ravished and that they would not be imprisoned in the Tower of London or in any other prison. Richard III also promised to provide them with marriage portions and to marry them to "gentlemen born."

In the end, Richard was defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth. Henry Tudor became King Henry VII and married Elizabeth of York. Elizabeth Wydeville's marriage to Edward IV was declared to have been valid, and thus their children were once again legitimised (because Henry wanted his wife to be the Yorkist heir to the throne, to cement his hold on it). Elizabeth was accorded the title of Queen Dowager.

Later life

Scholars differ about why Dowager Queen Elizabeth spent her last five years living at Bermondsey Abbey. Among her modern biographers, David Baldwin believes that Henry VII forced her retreat from the Court, while Arlene Okerlund presents evidence that indicates she was planning a religious, contemplative life as early as July 1486.^[10] At the Abbey, Elizabeth was treated with all the respect due to a Queen Mother, lived a regal life, and received a pension of £400 and small gifts from the King. She did not attend her daughter's coronation, but was present at the birth of her second grandchild, Margaret, at Westminster Palace in November 1489. The Queen rarely visited her, although Elizabeth's younger daughter, Viscountess Welles, came to see her as often as she could.

Henry VII briefly contemplated marrying Elizabeth off to King James III of Scotland, when James' wife, Margaret of Denmark, died in 1486.^[11] James was killed in battle later that year, rendering the plans of Henry VII moot.

Elizabeth died at Bermondsey Abbey on 8 June 1492.^[2] With the exception of the Queen, who was awaiting the birth of her fourth child and Cecily (Viscountess Welles), her daughters attended the funeral at Windsor Castle: Anne (the future Countess of Surrey), Catherine (the future Countess of Devon) and Bridget (a sister at Dartford Priory). Her will specified a simple funeral. Many ardent Yorkists, who considered themselves slighted by the ordinary and very simple burial of Edward IV's Queen on 12 June 1492, were not pleased. Elizabeth was laid to rest in the same chantry as her husband King Edward IV in St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle.

Legacy

During her later years, Elizabeth Woodville had the satisfaction of knowing that her daughter was securely on the consort's throne. She lived to see the birth of two grandsons, Princes Arthur and Henry, the latter of whom would later become Henry VIII. Through her granddaughter, Queen Margaret of Scotland, Elizabeth became an ancestress of the Stuart, Hanover, and Windsor dynasties, whose descendants today reign over Great Britain.

Issue of Elizabeth Woodville

By Sir John Grey

• Thomas Grey, Earl of Huntingdon, Marquess of Dorset and Lord Ferrers de Groby (1457- 20 September 1501), married firstly Anne Holland, but she died young without issue; he married secondly on 18 July 1474, Cecily Bonville, suo jure Baroness Harington and Bonville, by whom he had fourteen children.
• Richard Grey (1458- 25 June 1483)

By King Edward IV

• Elizabeth of York (1466–1503), Queen Consort of England
• Mary of York (1467–1482), buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
• Cecily of York (1469–1507), Viscountess Welles
• Edward V of England (1470-1483/5), one of the Princes in the Tower
• Margaret of York (Apr. 1472-Dec. 1472), buried in Westminster Abbey
• Richard, Duke of York (1473-1483/5), one of the Princes in the Tower
• Anne of York, Countess of Surrey (1475–1511)
• George Plantagenet (1477–1479), Duke of Bedford; buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
• Catherine of York (1479–1527), Countess of Devon
• Bridget of York (1480–1517), nun at Dartford Priory, Kent

In literature

Elizabeth is a character in the plays Richard III and Henry VI Part 3 by William Shakespeare.

Philippa Gregory's 2009 novel The White Queen follows a (at times, highly) fictionalized account of Elizabeth's life from meeting her future husband, King Edward, up through the disappearance of her sons and the reign of her brother-in-law, Richard III. The novel places a great deal of focus on the legend of Melusine and Elizabeth and her mother's ties to witchcraft.

Sympathetic fictional portraits of Elizabeth Woodville can be found in Jan Westcott's The White Rose and in A Secret Alchemy by Emma Darwin (novelist). A less sympathetic picture is given in Sandra Worth's Lady of the Roses (2008). She is also found in Sharon Kay Penman's The Sunne in Splendour, where she is seen mainly through the eyes of others. Rosemary Hawley Jarman's fictionalised biography of Elizabeth Woodville is entitled The King's Grey Mare (1972).

Ancestry

Screen portrayals

Film

• Richard III (1911): Elizabeth was played by Violet Farebrother
• Richard III (1912): Elizabeth was played by Carey Lee.
• In the French film, Les enfants d'Édouard (1914), Elizabeth was played by Jeanne Delvair.
• Jane Shore (1915): Elizabeth was played by Maud Yates.
• Tower of London (1939): Elizabeth was played by Barbara O'Neil.
• Richard III (1955): Elizabeth was portrayed by Mary Kerridge.
• In the Hungarian TV movie III. Richárd (1973) Elizabeth was played by Rita Békés.
• Richard III (1995): Elizabeth was played by Annette Bening.
• Looking For Richard (1996): Elizabeth was played by Penelope Allen.
• Richard III (2005): Elizabeth was played by Caroline Burns Cooke.
• Richard III (2008): Elizabeth was played by Maria Conchita Alonso.

Television

• An Age of Kings (1960): Elizabeth is portrayed by Jane Wenham.
• Wars of The Roses (1965): Elizabeth was played by Susan Engel.
• The Third Part of Henry the Sixth and The Tragedy of Richard III (1983): Elizabeth was played by Rowena Cooper.

References

Further reading

• David Baldwin, Elizabeth Woodville (Stroud, 2002) [1]
• Christine Carpenter, The Wars of the Roses (Cambridge, 1997) [2]
• Michael Hicks, Edward V (Stroud, 2003) [3]
• Rosemary Horrox, Richard III: A Study of Service (Cambridge, 1989) [4]
• J.L. Laynesmith, The Last Medieval Queens (Oxford, 2004) [5]
• A. R. Myers, Crown, Household and Parliament in Fifteenth-Century England. London and Ronceverte: Hambledon Press, 1985.
• Arlene Okerlund, Elizabeth Wydeville: The Slandered Queen (Stroud, 2005); Elizabeth: England's Slandered Queen (paper, Stroud, 2006) [6]
• Charles Ross, Edward IV (Berkeley, 1974) [7]
• George Smith, The Coronation of Elizabeth Wydeville. Gloucester: Gloucester Reprints, 1975 (originally published 1935).
• Anne Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, "'A Most Benevolent Queen': Queen Elizabeth Woodville's Reputation, Her Piety, and Her Books," The Ricardian, X:129, June 1995. PP. 214–245.

External links

• Queens' College website:Brief notes and the portrait

Wars of the Roses Red Rose of Lancaster · White Rose of York · Tudor Rose Key figures Monarchs of England Henry VI · Edward IV · Edward V · Richard III · Henry VII Lancastrian Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England · Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland · Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland · Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick · Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset · Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset · Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset · George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence Yorkist Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York · Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick · Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury · John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu · William Neville, 1st Earl of Kent · Thomas Neville Battles Lancastrian victories Battle of Ludford Bridge · Battle of Wakefield · Second Battle of St Albans · Battle of Ferrybridge (Indecisive) · Battle of Edgecote Moor · Battle of Bosworth Field · Battle of Stoke Field Yorkist victories First Battle of St Albans · Battle of Blore Heath · Battle of Sandwich · Battle of Northampton · Battle of Mortimer's Cross · Battle of Ferrybridge (Indecisive) · Battle of Towton · Battle of Hedgeley Moor · Battle of Hexham · Battle of Lose-coat Field · Battle of Barnet · Battle of Tewkesbury See also Act of Accord · Percy-Neville feud · Issue of Edward III of England Book:Wars of the Roses · Category:Wars of the Roses · Portal:England / Monarchy