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{{Short description|Queen of England (1464–70, 1471–83)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox royalty {{Infobox royalty
| consort = yes | consort = yes
| name = Elizabeth Woodville
| image = ElizabethWoodville.JPG | image = ElizabethWoodville.JPG
| caption = Posthumous portrait, 16th century
| succession = ]
| succession = ]
| reign = 1 May 1464 - 3 October 1470<br> 11 April 1471 - 9 April 1483
| reign-type = Tenures
| reign = {{ubl|1 May 1464 – {{nowrap|3 October 1470}}|11 April 1471 – {{nowrap|9 April 1483}}}}
| coronation = 26 May 1465 | coronation = 26 May 1465
| spouses = {{plainlist|
| spouse = ]<br />m. c. 1452; dec. 1461<br />]<br />m. 1464; dec. 1483
* ]<br />({{abbr|m.|marriage}} {{circa|1452}}; died 1461)
| issue = ]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]<br />]
* {{marriage|]|1464|1483|end=died}} }}
| house = ]
| issue = {{plainlist|
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
}}

| issue-link = #Issue of Elizabeth Woodville
| issue-pipe = more...
| father = ] | father = ]
| mother = ] | mother = ]
| birth_date = c. 1437/8 | birth_date = {{circa|1437}}
| birth_place = ], ] | birth_place = ], Northamptonshire, England
| death_date = {{Death date|1492|6|8|df=yes}} (age 55) | death_date = 8 June 1492 (aged 54–55)
| death_place = ], ] | death_place = ], Surrey, England
| burial_date = 12 June 1492
| place of burial = ], ]
| burial_place = ]
| signature = ElizabethWoodvilleSignature.svg
}} }}

'''Elizabeth Woodville''' (also spelled '''Wydeville''' or '''Widvile'''; c. 1437<ref name="Ref_">], ''Divorced, Beheaded, Survived'', xviii, Perseus Books, 1995</ref> – 8 June 1492) was ] as the spouse of ] from 1464 until his death in 1483. Elizabeth was a key figure in the series of dynastic civil wars known as the ]. As Lady Grey (née Woodville), Elizabeth had two sons by her first husband, Sir ] who was killed at the ]. As the daughter of ], she was the first commoner (i.e. non royal) to marry an English sovereign. It was because of this that Edward's former staunch ally ], known to history as "The Kingmaker" switched his allegiance to the ]. Her children included the ] and ]; the latter made her the maternal grandmother of ] and great grandmother of ]. Tradition holds that she served as a ] to ], but the evidence of this is uncertain.<ref name="Myers, p. 182 n.2; Smith, p. 28">Myers, p. 182 n.2; Smith, p. 28.</ref>
'''Elizabeth Woodville''' (also spelt '''Wydville''', '''Wydeville''', or '''Widvile''';{{Efn|Although the spelling of the family name is usually modernised to "Woodville", it was spelt "Wydeville" in contemporary publications by Caxton, but her tomb at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle is inscribed thus: "Edward IV and his Queen Elizabeth Widvile".}} c. 1437<ref name="Ref_">Karen Lindsey, ''Divorced, Beheaded, Survived'', p. xviii, Perseus Books, 1995.</ref> – 8 June 1492), later known as '''Dame Elizabeth Grey''', was ] from 1 May 1464 until 3 October 1470 and from 11 April 1471 until 9 April 1483 as the wife of King ]. She was a key figure in the ], a dynastic civil war between the ] and the ] factions between 1455 and 1487.

At the time of her birth, Elizabeth's family was of ] in the English ]. Her mother, ], had previously been an aunt-by-marriage to ], and was the daughter of ]. Elizabeth's first marriage was to a minor supporter of the ], ]. He died at the ] in 1461, leaving Elizabeth a widowed mother of two young sons.

Elizabeth's second marriage, in 1464, to Edward IV became a ]. Elizabeth was known for her beauty but came from minor nobility with no great estates, and the marriage took place in secret. Edward was the first king of England since the ] to marry one of his subjects,<ref>A Complete History of England with the Lives of all the Kings and Queens thereof; London, 1706. p. 486</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://archive.org/details/completehistoryo02kenn |title=A complete history of England: with the lives of all the kings and queens thereof; from the earliest account of time, to the death of His late Majesty King William III. Containing a faithful relation of all affairs of state, ecclesiastical and civil |first1=White |last1=Kennett |first2=John |last2=Hughes |first3=John |last3=Strype |first4=John |last4=Adams |last5=John Adams Library (Boston Public Library) BRL |date=16 June 2019 |publisher=London: Printed for Brab. Aylmer ... |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> and Elizabeth was the first such consort to be crowned queen.{{Efn|]'s marriage to ] was annulled shortly after his accession, and she was never crowned; ]'s first wife ] died before he became king.}} The couple had ten children together. The marriage greatly enriched Elizabeth's siblings and children, but their advancement incurred the hostility of ], and his various alliances with the most senior figures in the increasingly divided royal family. This hostility turned into open discord between King Edward and Warwick, leading to a battle of wills that finally resulted in Warwick's switching allegiance to the Lancastrian cause, and to the execution of Elizabeth's father, ], and her brother, ], by Warwick in 1469.

After the death of her husband in 1483, Elizabeth remained politically influential even after her son, briefly proclaimed King ], was ] by her brother-in-law, ]. Edward and his younger brother ] ] soon afterwards, and are presumed by some historians to have been murdered on Richard III's orders; conversely, there is evidence to the contrary as well, and it is uncertain who actually was responsible for their disappearances. Elizabeth subsequently played an important role in securing the accession of ] in 1485.

Henry married Elizabeth's eldest daughter, ], which ended the ] and established the ]. Through her daughter, Elizabeth Woodville was a grandmother of the future ]. Elizabeth was forced to yield pre-eminence to Henry VII's mother, ]; her influence on events in these years, and her eventual departure from court into retirement, remain obscure.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ud_BAAAAIAAJ&q=political+role+of+elizabeth+woodville&pg=PA135 |title=Women in Medieval England |isbn=9780719040177 |last1=Jewell |first1=Helen M. |year=1996 |publisher=Manchester University Press }}</ref><ref name="baldwin-EWMOPT">{{cite book | last = Baldwin | first = David | title = Elizabeth Woodville : mother of the princes in the tower | publisher = Sutton Pub | location = Stroud, Gloucestershire | year = 2002 | isbn = 9780750927741 }}</ref>


==Early life and first marriage== ==Early life and first marriage==
Elizabeth was born about 1437<ref name=oxforddnb>{{Citation | last = Hicks | first = Michael | title = Elizabeth (c.1437–1492) {{subscription required}} | work = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2004 | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/8634 | url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8634 | accessdate =25 September 2010}}</ref> at ], ], the daughter of ], and his wife, the former ], widow of ]. 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.


Elizabeth Woodville was born in about 1437 (no record of her birth survives), at ], ]. She was the firstborn child of a socially unequal marriage between ] and ], which briefly scandalised the English court. The Woodvilles, though an old and respectable family, were ] rather than noble, a ] and wealthy family that had previously produced commissioners of the peace, sheriffs, and ], rather than peers of the realm. Elizabeth's mother, in contrast, was the eldest daughter of ], Count of ], ] and ], and as the widow of ], uncle of King ], was before her second marriage one of the highest ranking women in England.<ref name="baldwin-EWMOPT" /> As Jacquetta had pledged, upon the death of her first husband, that she would not remarry without first obtaining royal permission, and as royal permission to marry Woodville was out of the question, the pair married secretly. When the marriage became public knowledge, the couple was heavily fined, but was pardoned on 24 October 1437: it has been conjectured that the pardon coincided with the birth of Elizabeth, the couple's firstborn child.<ref name="baldwin-EWMOPT" /><ref name=oxforddnb>{{cite ODNB |last=Hicks |first=Michael |title=Elizabeth (c.1437–1492) |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/8634 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8634 |access-date=25 September 2010 }} {{subscription required}}</ref>
She may have been a ] to ], Queen of ], 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.<ref name="Myers, p. 182 n.2; Smith, p. 28"/> In about 1452, she married Sir ], who was killed at the ] in 1461, fighting for the ] cause, which would become a source of irony as ] was the ] claimant to the throne. Elizabeth's two sons from this first marriage were ] (later ]) and ].

Around 1452{{clarify|reason=Conflicts with John Grey's article|date=March 2022}}, Elizabeth Woodville married ], the heir to the ]. He was killed at the ] in 1461, fighting for the ] cause. This would become a source of irony, since Elizabeth's future husband Edward IV was the ] claimant to the throne. Elizabeth Woodville's two sons from this first marriage were ] (later ]) and ].


Elizabeth was called "the most beautiful woman in the Island of Britain" with "heavy-lidded eyes like those of a dragon",<ref name="Ref_a">Jane Bingham, ''The Cotswolds: A Cultural History'', (Oxford University Press, 2009), 66</ref> suggesting a perhaps unusual criterion by which beauty in late medieval England was judged. Elizabeth Woodville was called "the most beautiful woman in the Island of Britain" with "heavy-lidded eyes like those of a dragon".<ref name="Ref_a">Jane Bingham, ''The Cotswolds: A Cultural History'', (Oxford University Press, 2009), 66</ref>


==Queen consort== ==Queen consort==
] and Elizabeth Woodville, '']'' by ], 15th century]]
Edward IV had many mistresses, the most notorious being ], and did not have a reputation for fidelity. His marriage to the widowed Lady Grey took place secretly and though the date is not accepted as exactly accurate is traditionally said to have taken place (with only the bride's mother and two ladies in attendance) at her family home in ] on 1 May 1464,<ref name="Ref_b">Robert Fabian, ''The New Chronicles of England and France'', ed. Henry Ellis (London: Rivington, 1811), 654; “Hearne’s Fragment of an Old Chronicle, from 1460-1470,” The Chronicles of the White Rose of York. (London: James Bohn, 1845), 15-16.</ref> just over three years after he had taken the English throne subsequent to leading the Yorkists in an overwhelming victory over the Lancastrians at the ]. Elizabeth was crowned Queen on ], 26 May 1465.
]. From '']'', ].]]
]
Edward IV had many mistresses, the best known of them being ], and he did not have a reputation for fidelity. His marriage to the widowed Elizabeth Woodville took place secretly and, though there is no documentary evidence of the date, it is traditionally said to have taken place at her family home in ] on 1 May 1464.<ref name="Ref_b">Robert Fabian, ''The New Chronicles of England and France'', ed. Henry Ellis (London: Rivington, 1811), 654; "Hearne’s Fragment of an Old Chronicle, from 1460–1470," The Chronicles of the White Rose of York. (London: James Bohn, 1845), 15–16.</ref> Only the bride's mother and two ladies were in attendance. Edward married her just over three years after he had assumed the English throne in the wake of his overwhelming victory over the Lancastrians, at the ], which resulted in the displacement of King Henry VI. Edward introduced Elizabeth Woodville as his queen to the royal court at ] on Michaelmas Day (29 September 1464).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Reading Museum |url=http://collections.readingmuseum.org.uk/index.asp?page=record&mwsquery=%7Btotopic%7D=%7BReading+Abbey%7D&filename=REDMG&hitsStart=4 |access-date=2024-10-17 |website=collections.readingmuseum.org.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Baxter |first=Ron |title=The Royal Abbey of Reading |date=2016 |publisher=The Boydell Press |isbn=978-1-78327-084-2 |location=Woodbridge |pages=122–123 |language=English}}</ref> Elizabeth Woodville was crowned queen on 26 May 1465, a few days after ].


In the early years of his reign, Edward's governance of England was dependent upon a small circle of supporters, most notably his cousin, ]. 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 ], wife of the deposed ]. The plan was that Edward should marry a French Princess. When his marriage to Elizabeth, who was both a commoner and from a family of Lancastrian supporters, became public, Warwick was both embarrassed and offended, and his relationship with Edward never recovered. The match was also badly received by the ], who according to ] told Edward with great frankness that "he must know she was no wife for a prince such as himself." In the early years of his reign, Edward IV's governance of England was dependent upon a small circle of supporters, most notably his cousin, ]. At around the time of Edward IV's secret marriage, Warwick was negotiating an alliance with France in an effort to thwart a similar arrangement being made by his sworn enemy ], wife of the deposed Henry VI. The plan was that Edward IV should marry a French princess. When his marriage to Elizabeth, who was both a ] and from a family of Lancastrian supporters, became public Warwick was both embarrassed and offended. His relationship with Edward IV was ruined. The match was also badly received by the ], who according to ] told Edward with great frankness that "he must know that she was no wife for a prince such as himself".


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.<ref name="Ref_c">Ralph A. Griffiths, "The Court during the Wars of the Roses". In ''Princes Patronage and the Nobility: The Court at the Beginning of the Modern Age, cc. 1450&ndash;1650.'' Edited by Ronald G. Asch and Adolf M. Birke. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-19-920502-7. 59-61.</ref> 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, ], to the queen's 11-year-old ward ], 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 ] to ], daughter of ], by ], and widow of ]. The wealthy Katherine had been widowed three times and was probably in her sixties. With the arrival on the scene of the new queen came many relatives, some of whom married into the most notable families in England.<ref name="Ref_c">Ralph A. Griffiths, "The Court during the Wars of the Roses". In ''Princes Patronage and the Nobility: The Court at the Beginning of the Modern Age, cc. 1450–1650.'' Edited by Ronald G. Asch and Adolf M. Birke. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. {{ISBN|0-19-920502-7}}. 59–61.</ref> Three of her sisters married the sons of the earls of Kent, Essex and Pembroke. Another sister, ], married the queen's 11-year-old ward ], who later joined Edward IV's brother ], in opposition to the Woodvilles after the death of Edward IV. Elizabeth's 20-year-old brother ] married ], Edward IV and Warwick's aunt. The Duchess had been widowed three times and was in her sixties, so the marriage created a scandal at court. Elizabeth's son, Thomas Grey, married firstly Anne Holland, a niece of Edward, and later ].
] ] Wooville (Quartlerly, first argent, a lion rampant double queued gules, crowned or (Luxemburg, her mother’s family), second quarterly, I and IV, gules a star if eight points argent; II and III, azure, semée of fleurs de lys or; third, barry argent and azure, overall a lion rampant gules; fourth, gules, three bendlets argent, on a chief of the first, charged with a fillet in base or, a rose of the second ''(here shown in inverse: the rose should be argent on a chief gules)''; fifth, three pallets vairy, on a chief or a label of five points azure, and sixth, a fess and a canton conjoined gules (Woodville))<ref>
{{citation|last=Boutell|first=Charles|authorlink=CharlesBoutell|title=A Manual of Heraldry, Historical and Popular|year=1863|publisher=Winsor & Newton|location=London|pages=277}}</ref><ref>Blazon of Woodville quoted from: , The House of York</ref>]]


Elizabeth's status as a commoner before her sudden, secret marriage to Edward was primarily the reason for the backlash against her queenship. She was often seen as arrogant and disrespectful for actions that would be seen as normal by a lady of higher rank, such as her predecessor ]. Such was Elizabeth's unpopularity that ], rebellious brother of her husband, later even accused her of witchcraft in order to murder his wife ]. Most historians now believe that Isabel died of either consumption or ].
When Elizabeth's relatives, especially her brother, ], began to challenge Warwick's pre-eminence in English political society, Warwick conspired with his son-in-law, the ], the king's younger brother. One of his followers accused Elizabeth's mother, the Duchess of Bedford, of practising witchcraft. Jacquetta was acquitted the following year.<ref name="Ref_d">Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1467-77, pg. 190.</ref> Warwick and Clarence twice rose in revolt and then fled to France. Warwick formed an uneasy alliance with the Lancastrian Queen ] and restored her husband Henry VI to the throne in 1470, but, the following year, Edward IV returned from exile and defeated Warwick at the ] and the Lancastrians at the ]. Henry VI was murdered soon afterwards.


When Elizabeth Woodville's relatives, especially her brother ], began to challenge Warwick's pre-eminence in English political society, Warwick conspired with his son-in-law ], the king's younger brother. One of his followers accused Elizabeth Woodville's mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, of practising witchcraft. She was acquitted the following year.<ref name="Ref_e">Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1467–77, pg. 190.</ref>
Following her husband's temporary fall from power, Elizabeth had sought ] in ], where she gave birth to a son, ] (later Edward V of England). Her marriage to Edward IV produced a total of ten children, including another son, ], who would later join his brother as one of the ].<ref name=oxforddnb /> Five daughters also lived to adulthood.


Warwick and Clarence twice rose in revolt and then fled to France. Warwick formed an uneasy alliance with the Lancastrian Queen Margaret of Anjou, executed Elizabeth's father and brother after the Yorkist defeat at the ], and restored Margaret's husband Henry VI to the throne in 1470. But the following year, Edward IV returned from exile and defeated Warwick at the ], and the Lancastrians at the ]. Henry VI was killed soon afterwards.
Queen Elizabeth engaged in acts of Christian piety, which was 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 ] three times per day, and founding the chapel of St. Erasmus in Westminster Abbey.<ref name="Ref_e">Sutton and Visser-Fuchs, "A 'Most Benevolent Queen;'"Laynesmith, pp. 111, 118-19.</ref>


Following her husband's temporary fall from power, Elizabeth Woodville sought ] in ], where she gave birth to a son, Edward (later King ] of England). Her marriage to Edward IV produced a total of ten children, including another son, ], who would later join his brother as one of the ].<ref name=oxforddnb /> Five daughters also lived to adulthood.
==Queen Mother==


Elizabeth Woodville engaged in acts of Christian piety in keeping with conventional expectations of a medieval queen consort. She also became a patroness of ]. Her acts included making pilgrimages, obtaining a papal indulgence for those who knelt and said the ] three times per day, and founding the chapel of ] in ].<ref name="Ref_f">Sutton and Visser-Fuchs, "A 'Most Benevolent Queen;'"Laynesmith, pp. 111, 118–19.</ref>
Following Edward's sudden death, possibly from pneumonia, in April 1483, Elizabeth briefly became Queen Mother as her son, ] became king, with his uncle, ], acting as Lord Protector. Fearing the Woodvilles would attempt to seize power, Richard quickly moved to take control of the young king and had ], and ], brother and son to Queen Elizabeth, arrested and beheaded. The young king was transferred to the ] to await the Coronation. With her daughters, Elizabeth again sought sanctuary and conspired against the Lord Protector with ], who was subsequently also beheaded.


==Queen dowager==
Richard now moved to take the throne himself and on 25 June 1483, an act of parliament, the '']'' (1 Ric. 3), declared Edward's and Elizabeth's children illegitimate on the grounds that Edward had made a previous promise (known as a precontract) to marry ], which was considered a legally binding contract that rendered any other marriage contract invalid. One source, the Burgundian chronicler ], says that ], ], claimed to have carried out the ceremony between Edward and Eleanor.<ref>Philipe de Commines, ’’The memoirs of Philip de Commines, lord of Argenton’’, Volume 1, H.G. Bohn, 1855, pp.396-7.</ref> The act also contained charges of witchcraft against Elizabeth, but gave no details and had no further repercussions. As a consequence, the Duke of Gloucester became King Richard III. Young Edward and his brother ], remained in the ]. The exact fate of the so-called ] has been long debated; whether they died, disappeared, or were murdered is still unknown.
Following Edward IV's sudden death, possibly from pneumonia or being worn out from "high living",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bucholz |first=R. O. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1104915225 |title=Early modern England 1485–1714 : a narrative history |date=2020 |others=Newton Key |isbn=978-1-118-53222-5 |edition=Third |location=Chichester, West Sussex, UK |page=40 |oclc=1104915225}}</ref> in April 1483, Elizabeth Woodville became queen dowager. Her young son, ], became king, with his uncle, ], acting as ]. In response to the Woodvilles' attempt to monopolise power, Gloucester quickly moved to take control of the young king and had the king's uncle Earl Rivers and half-brother ], son to Elizabeth, arrested. The young king was transferred to the ] to await the coronation. With her younger son and daughters, Elizabeth again sought sanctuary. ], the late king's leading supporter in London, initially endorsed Gloucester's actions, but Gloucester then accused him of conspiring with Elizabeth Woodville against him. Hastings was ]. Whether any such conspiracy really occurred is not known.<ref>C. T. Wood, "Richard III, William, Lord Hastings and Friday the Thirteenth", in R. A. Griffiths and J. Sherborne (eds.), ''Kings and Nobles in the Later Middle Ages'', New York, 1986, 156–61.</ref> Richard accused Elizabeth of plotting to "murder and utterly destroy" him.<ref>Charles Ross, ''Richard III'', University of California Press, 1981 p81.</ref>

On 25 June 1483, Gloucester had Elizabeth Woodville's son Richard Grey and brother ], executed in ], Yorkshire. The '']''<ref>1 Ric. III</ref> – an ] – declared that Edward IV's children with Elizabeth were ] on the grounds that Edward IV had a precontract with the widow ], which was considered a legally binding contract that rendered any other marriage contract invalid. One source, the Burgundian chronicler ], says that ], ], carried out an engagement ceremony between Edward IV and Lady Eleanor.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.archive.org/details/memoirsofphilipd01comm/page/394/mode/2up|last=Philipe de Commines|title=The memoirs of Philip de Commines, lord of Argenton, Volume 1|date=1877|location=London|pages=396–7}}</ref> The act also contained charges of witchcraft against Elizabeth, but gave no details and the charges had no further repercussions. As a consequence, the Duke of Gloucester and Lord Protector was offered the throne and became King Richard III. Edward V, who was no longer king, and his brother ], remained in the ]. There are no recorded sightings of them after the summer of 1483.

{{anchor|Letters Patent to the late Queen Annulled Act 1483}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title = Letters Patent to the late Queen Annulled Act 1483
| type = Act
| parliament = Parliament of England
| long_title = An Acte for adnullinge letters patentes made to Elizabeth late Wyfe of Sir Jo. Grey.
| year = 1483
| citation = ]. c. 15
| introduced_commons =
| introduced_lords =
| territorial_extent =
| royal_assent = 20 February 1484
| commencement =
| expiry_date =
| repeal_date =
| amends =
| replaces =
| amendments =
| repealing_legislation = ]
| related_legislation =
| status = repealed
| legislation_history =
| theyworkforyou =
| millbankhansard =
| original_text =
| revised_text =
| use_new_UK-LEG =
| UK-LEG_title =
| collapsed = yes
}}
Additionally, Elizabeth was stripped of all her entitlements as queen dowager and her lands reverted to the Crown.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Seah |first=Michele |date=2020 |title='My Lady Queen, the Lord of the Manor': The Economic Roles of Late Medieval Queens |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/62/article/776636 |journal=Parergon |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=9–36 |doi=10.1353/pgn.2020.0060 |s2cid=235070132 |issn=1832-8334}}</ref> She was granted most, but not all, of these lands back in March 1486 by Henry VII.<ref name=":0" />


==Life under Richard III== ==Life under Richard III==


Elizabeth, now referred to as Dame Elizabeth Grey,<ref name=oxforddnb /> conspired to free her sons and restore her eldest to the throne. However, when the ], one of Richard III's closest allies, entered the conspiracy, he told her that the princes had been murdered. Elizabeth and Buckingham now allied themselves with ] and espoused the cause of Margaret's son ], a great-great-great-grandson of ]<ref name="Ref_g">Genealogical Tables in Morgan, (1988), p. 709.</ref> the closest male heir of the Lancastrian claim to the throne with any degree of validity.<ref>Henry's claim to the throne was weak due to Henry IV's declaration barring the accession to the throne of any heirs of the legitimized offspring of his father, ] (son of King Edward III) by his third wife Katherine Swynford. The original act legitimizing the children of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford passed by Parliament and the bull issued by the Pope in the matter legitimised them fully, which made the legality of Henry IV’s declaration questionable.</ref> To strengthen his claim and unite the two feuding noble houses, Elizabeth and Margaret agreed that Henry should marry Edward IV and Elizabeth's oldest daughter, ], who upon the death of her brothers became the Yorkist heiress. Henry agreed to this plan and in December publicly swore an oath to that effect in the cathedral in Rennes, France. A month earlier, an uprising in his favour, led by Buckingham, had been crushed. Now referred to as '''Dame Elizabeth Grey''',<ref name=oxforddnb/> she and ] (a former close ally of Richard III and now probably seeking the throne for himself) allied themselves with ] (née ]) and espoused the cause of Margaret's son ], a great-great-great-grandson of ],<ref name="Ref_g">Genealogical Tables in Morgan, (1988), p. 709.</ref> the closest male heir of the Lancastrian claim to the throne with any degree of validity.{{Efn|Henry Tudor's claim to the throne was weak, owing to a declaration of ] that barred the accession to the throne of any heirs of the legitimised offspring of his father ] by his third wife Katherine Swynford. The original act legitimizing the children of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford passed by Parliament and the bull issued by the Pope in the matter legitimised them fully, making questionable the legality of Henry IV's declaration.}} To strengthen his claim and unite the two feuding noble houses, Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort agreed that the latter's son should marry the former's eldest daughter, ], who upon the death of her brothers became the heiress of the House of York. Henry Tudor agreed to this plan and in December 1483 publicly swore an oath to that effect in the cathedral in ], Brittany. A month earlier, an uprising in his favour, led by Buckingham, had been crushed.


On 1 March 1484, she and her daughters came out of sanctuary after Richard publicly swore an oath that her daughters would not be harmed or molested and that they would not be imprisoned in the Tower of London or in any other prison. He also promised to provide them with marriage portions and to marry them to "gentlemen born". The family returned to Court, apparently reconciled to King Richard. After the death of Richard's Queen ] in 1485, rumours arose that the now-widowed King was going to marry his beautiful teenaged niece ].<ref name="Ref_h"></ref> Richard issued a denial; though according to the ] 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. Richard III's first Parliament of January 1484 stripped Elizabeth of all the lands given to her during Edward IV's reign.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://partyparcel.co.uk/#annullment_elizabeth|work=Rotuli Parliamentorum A.D. 1483 1 Richard III Cap XV|title=Parliamentary Rolls Richard III|access-date=1 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130901080051/http://www.partyparcel.co.uk/#annullment_elizabeth|archive-date=1 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> On 1 March 1484, Elizabeth and her daughters came out of sanctuary after Richard III publicly swore an oath that her daughters would not be harmed or molested and that they would not be imprisoned in the Tower of London or in any other prison. He also promised to provide them with marriage portions and to marry them to "gentlemen born". Richard also awarded Elizabeth a pension of 700 Marks per year.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Markham |first1=Clements E. |title=Richard III: His Life and Character |page=136 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/36451/36451-h/36451-h.htm}}</ref> The family returned to Court, apparently reconciled to Richard III. After the death of Richard III's wife ], in March 1485, rumours arose that the newly widowed king was going to marry his niece Elizabeth of York.<ref name="Ref_h"> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060709203718/http://www.r3.org/basics/basic8.html |date=9 July 2006 }}</ref> It is known that Richard was in negotiation to marry ] and to marry off Elizabeth to ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ashdown Hill |first1=John |title=The Last Days of Richard III |date=2013 |publisher=The History Press |isbn=9780752492056 |pages=25–35}}</ref>


==Life under Henry VII== ==Life under Henry VII==


In 1485, Henry Tudor invaded England and defeated Richard III at the ]. As King, he married Elizabeth of York and had the Titulus Regius revoked. Elizabeth was accorded the title and honours of a queen dowager. In 1485, Henry Tudor invaded England and defeated Richard III at the ]. As king, Henry VII married ] and had the ] revoked and all found copies destroyed.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rotuli Parliamentorum A.D. 1485 1 Henry VII – Annullment of Richard III's Titulus Regius|url=http://partyparcel.co.uk/information/price-guarantee.html#annullment|access-date=1 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902193242/http://www.partyparcel.co.uk/information/price-guarantee.html#annullment|archive-date=2 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> Elizabeth Woodville was accorded the title and honours of a queen ].<ref>{{cite web|title=Rotuli Parliamentorum A.D. 1485 1 Henry VII – Restitution of Elizabeth Queen of Edward IV|url=http://partyparcel.co.uk/information/price-guarantee.html#restitution_elizabeth|access-date=1 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902193242/http://www.partyparcel.co.uk/information/price-guarantee.html#restitution_elizabeth|archive-date=2 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>


Scholars differ about why Dowager Queen Elizabeth spent her last five years living at ]. Among her modern biographers, ] 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.<ref name="Ref_i">Arlene Okerlund, Elizabeth: England's Slandered Queen. Stroud: Tempus, 2006, 245.</ref> At the Abbey, Elizabeth was treated with all the respect due to a queen dowager, lived a regal life, and received a pension of £400 and small gifts from the King. She was present at the birth of her second grandchild, Margaret, at ] in November 1489. The Queen rarely visited her, although Elizabeth's daughter ] is known to have done so more often. Scholars differ about why Dowager Queen Elizabeth spent the last five years of her life living at ], to which she retired on 12 February 1487. Among her modern biographers, David Baldwin believes that Henry VII forced her retreat from the court, while Arlene Okerlund presents evidence from July 1486 that she was already planning her retirement from court to live a religious, contemplative life at Bermondsey Abbey.<ref name="Ref_i">Arlene Okerlund, ''Elizabeth: England's Slandered Queen''. Stroud: Tempus, 2006, 245.</ref> Another suggestion is that her retreat to Bermondsey was forced on her because she was in some way involved in the 1487 Yorkist rebellion of ], or at least was seen as a potential ally of the rebels.<ref>Bennett, Michael, ''Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke'', New York, St. Martin's Press, 1987, pp.42; 51; Elston, Timothy, "Widowed Princess or Neglected Queen" in Levin & Bucholz (eds), ''Queens and Power in Medieval and Early Modern England'', University of Nebraska Press, 2009, p.19.</ref>


At Bermondsey Abbey, Elizabeth was treated with the respect due to a dowager queen. She lived on a pension of £400 and received small gifts from Henry VII.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CcR5DAAAQBAJ&q=At+Bermondsey+Abbey,+Elizabeth+was+treated+with+all+the+respect+due+to+a+queen+dowager.+She+lived+a+regal+life+and+received+a+pension+of+%C2%A3400+and+small+gifts+from+Henry+VII&pg=PT206|title=Henry VII: The Maligned Tudor King|last=Breverton|first=Terry|date=15 May 2016|publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited|isbn=9781445646060}}</ref> She was present at the birth of her granddaughter ] at ] in November 1489 and at the birth of her grandson, the future ], at ] in June 1491. Her daughter ], wife of ], visited her on occasion at Bermondsey, although another one of her other daughters, ], visited her more often.
Henry VII briefly contemplated marrying his mother-in-law off to King ], when James' wife, ], died in 1486.<ref name="Ref_j">http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-MargaretofDenmark.html.</ref> However, James was killed in battle in 1488, rendering the plans of Henry VII moot.


Henry VII briefly contemplated marrying his mother-in-law to King ], when James III's wife, ], died in 1486.<ref name="Ref_j">{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Margaret_of_Denmark.aspx#2-1O110:MargaretofDenmark-full |title=Margaret of Denmark Facts, information, pictures |website=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref> James was killed in battle in 1488.
Elizabeth died at Bermondsey Abbey on 8 June 1492.<ref name=oxforddnb/> With the exception of the Queen, who was awaiting the birth of her fourth child, and ], her daughters attended the funeral at Windsor Castle: ] (the future Countess of Surrey), ] (the future Countess of Devon) and ] (a sister at ]). 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 ] as her husband King ] in ] in ].<ref name=oxforddnb />

Elizabeth Woodville died at Bermondsey Abbey, on 8 June 1492.<ref name=oxforddnb/> With the exception of the queen, who was awaiting the birth of her fourth child, and ], her daughters attended the funeral at ]: ] (the future wife of ]), ] (the future Countess of Devon) and ] (a nun at ]). Elizabeth's will specified a simple ceremony.<ref name = "Lay">J. L. Laynesmith, ''The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship 1445–1503'', Oxford University Press, New York, 2004, pp.127–8.</ref> The surviving accounts of her funeral on 12 June 1492 suggest that at least one source "clearly felt that a queen's funeral should have been more splendid" and may have objected that "Henry VII had not been fit to arrange a more queenly funeral for his mother-in-law", although simplicity was the queen dowager's own wish.<ref name = "Lay"/> A letter discovered in 2019, written in 1511 by ], the ] ambassador in London, suggests that she had died of ], which would explain the haste and lack of public ceremony.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/25/white-queen-died-of-plague-claims-letter-found-in-national-archives |title='White Queen' died of plague, claims letter found in National Archives |newspaper=The Guardian |author=Alison Flood |date= 25 April 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Roger |first1=Euan C. |date=2019 |title=To Be Shut Up: New Evidence for the Development of Quarantine Regulations in Early-Tudor England |journal=Social History of Medicine |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=5–7 |doi=10.1093/shm/hkz031 }}</ref> Elizabeth was laid to rest in the same ] as her husband King ] in ].<ref name=oxforddnb />


==Issue of Elizabeth Woodville== ==Issue of Elizabeth Woodville==


===By Sir John Grey=== ===By John Grey===
* ], ], ] and ] (1457 – 20 September 1501), married firstly ], but she died young without issue; he married secondly on 18 July 1474, ], ] Baroness Harington and Bonville, by whom he had fourteen children. * ], ], ] and ] (1455 – 20 September 1501), married first Anne Holland, but she died young without issue; he married second on 18 July 1474, ], '']'' Baroness Harington and Bonville, by whom he had fourteen children. The disputed queen ] is a direct descendant of this line.<ref>Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham II (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. {{ISBN|1449966381}}, pp 304–7</ref>
* ] (1458 – 25 June 1483) * ] (1457 – 25 June 1483) was executed at ].


===By King Edward IV=== ===By King Edward IV===
* ] (1466–1503), ] of England * ] (11 February 1466 – 11 February 1503), ] of England as the wife of ] (reigned 1485–1509). Mother of ] (reigned 1509–1547).
* ] (1467–1482), buried in ], ] * ] (11 August 1467 – 23 May 1482), buried in ], ]
* ] (1469–1507), ]ess Welles * ] (20 March 1469 – 24 August 1507), ]ess Welles
* ] (1470&ndash;1483/5), one of the ] * ] of England (2 November 1470 – c. 1483), one of the ]
* ] (Apr. 1472-Dec. 1472), buried in ] * ] (10 April 1472 – 11 December 1472), buried in ]
* ], ] (1473&ndash;1483/5), one of the ] * ], ] (17 August 1473 – c. 1483), one of the ]
* ] (1475–1511) * ] (2 November 1475 – 23 November 1511), Lady Howard
* ] (1477–1479), ]; buried in ], ] * ] (March 1477 March 1479), buried in ], ]
* ] (1479–1527), ] * ] (14 August 1479 – 15 November 1527), ]
* ] (1480–1517), nun at Dartford Priory, Kent *] (10 November 1480 – 1507), nun at ], ] ]


==In literature== ==In literature==
One of only three lyric poems in ] ascribed to a woman author,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barratt |first=Alexandra |title=Women's Writing in Middle English |publisher=Pearson Education |year=2010 |isbn=9781408204146 |edition=2nd |location=Harlow, England |pages=282}}</ref> alongside "An Anchoress' Hymn to the Virgin" and "Eleanor Percy's Prayer", "My heart is set upon a lusty pin"<ref name="FeuillesMortes2021"/> is attributed to one "Queen Elizabeth", sometimes thought to have been Elizabeth Woodville (although the author is also argued<ref name="FeuillesMortes2021">{{cite web |author=May (FeuillesMortes) |date=2021-06-30 |title=Where does the "my heart is set upon a lusty pin" quote come from? |website=richmond-rex.tumblr.com |url=https://richmond-rex.tumblr.com/post/655405786792656896/where-does-the-my-heart-is-set-upon-a-lusty-pin |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220129202035/https://richmond-rex.tumblr.com/post/655405786792656896/where-does-the-my-heart-is-set-upon-a-lusty-pin |archive-date=2022-01-29 |access-date=2022-01-29}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Jean R. Brink |chapter=Responses to a Pedagogy Survey |title=Attending to Women in Early Modern England |editor1=Betty S. Travitsky |editor2=Adele F. Seeff |publisher=University of Delaware Press |location=Newark |year=1994 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n7bMfOlgEgoC&pg=PA321 |page=321|isbn=9780874135190 }}</ref> to have been her daughter, ]). This hymn to ], found in one single manuscript,<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cteyEYBjdTsC&pg=PA227 |title=A Companion to the Middle English Lyric |editor1=Thomas Gibson Duncan |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |year=2005
Elizabeth is a character in the plays '']'' and ''Henry VI Part 3'' by William Shakespeare.
|isbn=9781843840657 |author=Sarah Stanbury |chapter=Middle English Religious Lyrics |pages=227–41}}</ref> is a complex six-stanza poem<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GtPSOP3jvLYC&pg=PA195 |first=Sarah |last=McNamer |chapter=Lyrics and romances |title=The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women's Writing |editor1-last=Wallace |editor1-first=David |editor2-first=Carolyn |editor2-last=Dinshaw |publisher=Cambridge UP |year=2003 |isbn=9780521796385 |pages=195–209}}</ref> with rhyme scheme ABABBAA, an "elaboration of the ],"<ref>{{cite book |title=Women's Writing in Middle English |editor1-first=Alexandra |editor1-last=Barratt |pages=275–77 |publisher=Longman |location=New York |isbn=0-582-06192-X |year=1992}}</ref> in which the seventh line of each stanza is the same as its first, and the six unique lines of the first stanza provide the first lines for each of the poem's six stanzas.


=== Non-fiction ===
]'s 2009 novel ''The White Queen'' follows a fictionalized account of Elizabeth's life from meeting her future husband, ], 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 ] and Elizabeth and her mother's ties to witchcraft.


* ''Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower'' (2002) by ]
Other sympathetic fictional portraits of Elizabeth Woodville include that found in ''A Secret Alchemy'' by ]. A less sympathetic picture is given in Sandra Worth's ''Lady of the Roses'' (2008) as well as in ]'s 1929 novel ''Dickon'' where she is portrayed as a schemer who is at the very heart of the various conspiracies against Richard III. She is also found in ]'s ''The Sunne in Splendour'', where she is seen mainly through the eyes of others, and in ]'s '']'', where she is not evil but too self-centered and too kind to her family. ]'s fictionalized biography of Elizabeth Woodville is entitled ''The King's Grey Mare'' (1972).
* ''Elizabeth Wydeville: The Slandered Queen'' (2005) by Arlene Okerlund
* ''The Women of the Cousins' War'' (2011) by ], David Baldwin and Michael Jones. The book deals with ] (mother of Elizabeth Woodville) (chapter written by Philippa Gregory), Elizabeth Woodville (chapter written by David Baldwin), and ] (mother of Elizabeth Woodville's son-in-law King Henry VII) (chapter written by Michael Jones)
* ''Elizabeth Woodville'' (2013) by David MacGibbon
* ''The Woodvilles: The Wars of the Roses and England's Most Infamous Family'' (2013) by ]
* ''Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville: A True Romance'' (2016) by Amy Licence
* {{cite book |last1=Hollman |first1=Gemma |title=Royal Witches: Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century England |date=1 September 2020 |publisher=Pegasus Books |isbn=978-1-64313-395-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5vsDwAAQBAJ}}


=== Fiction ===
==Schools named after Elizabeth Woodville==
* ], Northamptonshire<ref>www.ews.northants.sch.uk/ -
Elizabeth Woodville Secondary School .</ref>
* Elizabeth Woodville Primary School, ], Leicestershire.<ref>www.elizabethwoodvilleprimaryschool.co.uk/</ref>


Edward IV's love for his wife is celebrated in sonnet 75 of ]'s '']''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/astrophel-and-stella-75|title=Astrophel and Stella: 75|work=utoronto.ca}}</ref> (written by 1586, first pub. 1591).
==Ancestry==
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|1= 1. ''' Elizabeth Woodville '''
|2= 2. ]
|3= 3. ]
|4= 4. Sir Richard Wydeville of Grafton
|5= 5. Joan Bittlesgate
|6= 6. ]
|7= 7. ]
|8= 8. John Wydeville
|9= 9. Isabel Gobion
|10= 10. Thomas Bittlesgate
|11= 11. Joan de Beauchamp
|12= 12. ]
|13= 13. ]
|14= 14. Francesco del Balzo, Duke of Andria
|15= 15. Sueva Orsini
|16= 16. Richard de Wydeville
|17=
|18=
|19=
|20= 20. John Bittlesgate
|21=
|22= 22. Sir John de Beauchamp
|23= 23. Joan de Bridport
|24= 24. ]
|25= 25. ]
|26= 26. ]
|27= 27. Giovanna of Sanseverino
|28= 28. Bertrand III del Balzo, Count of Andria and Squillace
|29= 29. Marguerite d'Aulnay
|30= 31. Nicola Orsini, Count of Nola
|31= 31. Jeanne de Sabran
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{{ahnentafel bottom}}


She appears in two of ]'s plays: '']'' (written by 1592), in which she is a fairly minor character, and '']'' (written approx. 1592), where she has a central role. Shakespeare portrays Elizabeth as a proud and alluring woman in ''Henry VI Part 3''. By ''Richard III,'' she is careworn from having to defend herself against detractors in the court, including her titular brother-in-law, Richard. She spends much of the play bemoaning her fate as family members and supporters of her are killed, including her two young sons. She is one of Richard's cleverest opponents and among the few who see through him from the beginning, though she is mostly powerless to stop him once he murders her allies in the court. Although most modern editions of ''Henry VI Part 3'' and ''Richard III'' call her "Queen Elizabeth" in the stage directions, the original Shakespearean Folio never actually refer to her by name, instead calling her first "Lady Grey" and later simply "Queen."
==Screen portrayals==

Novels that feature Elizabeth Woodville as a character include:
* '']'' by ] .
* ''Dickon'' (1929) by ].
* '']'' (1951), ]'s classic mystery.
* ''The White Rose'' (1969) by ].
* ''The King's Grey Mare'' (1972) by ], a fictionalised biography of Elizabeth Woodville.
* ''The Woodville Wench'' (published in US as ''The Queen Who Never Was'') (1972) by ].
* ''The Sunne in Splendour ''(1982) by ].
* ''The Sun in Splendour'' (1982) by ].
* ''A Secret Alchemy'' (2009) by ].
* '']'' (2009) by ], which borrows ]'s supernatural elements from ''The King's Grey Mare''. Elizabeth Woodville also appears in other novels in Gregory's '']'' series.
* ''The King's Grace'' (2009) by ] The life of Edward IV's illegitimate daughter who spent many years in service of the Dowager Queen.
* ''The Kingmaker’s Daughter'' (2012) by ].
* ''Das Spiel der Könige'', a historical novel in German by ].
* ''Bloodline'' (2015) and ''Ravenspur'' (2016), in the "War of Roses" series by ]
* ''The Last White Rose'' (2022) by ].

==Media portrayals==


===Film=== ===Film===
*'']'' (1911): Elizabeth was played by ] *''Richard III'' (1911): Woodville was played by ]
*'']'' (1912): Elizabeth was played by ]. *'']'' (1912): Woodville was played by Carey Lee.
* In the ] film, '']'' (1914), Elizabeth was played by ]. * In the French film, ''Les enfants d'Édouard'' (1914), Woodville was played by ].
*'']'' (1915): Elizabeth was played by ]. *'']'' (1915): Woodville was played by ].
*'']'' (1939): Elizabeth was played by ]. *'']'' (1939): Woodville was played by ].
*'']'' (1955): Elizabeth was portrayed by ]. *'']'' (1955): Woodville was portrayed by ].
*In the Hungarian TV movie '']'' (1973) Elizabeth was played by ]. *In the Hungarian TV movie ''III. Richárd'' (1973) Woodville was played by Rita Békés.
*'']'' (1995): Elizabeth was played by ]. *'']'' (1995): Woodville was played by ].
*'']'' (1996): Elizabeth was played by ]. *'']'' (1996): Woodville was played by Penelope Allen.
*'']'' (2005): Elizabeth was played by ]. *''Richard III'' (2005): Woodville was played by Caroline Burns Cooke.
*'']'' (2008): Elizabeth was played by ]. *'']'' (2007): Woodville was played by ].


===Television=== ===Television===
*'']'' (1960): Elizabeth is portrayed by ]. *'']'' (1960): Woodville was portrayed by ].
*'']'' (1965): Elizabeth was played by ]. *'' Wars of the Roses'' (1965): Woodville was played by ].
*'']'' and '']'' (1983): Elizabeth was played by ]. *'' The Shadow of the Tower'' (1972): Woodville was played by ]
*'']'' (2013): Elizabeth will be portrayed by ]. *''The Third Part of Henry the Sixth'' and '']'' (1983): Woodville was played by ].
*'']'' (2013): Woodville was portrayed by ].
*'']'', ''Henry VI'' and ''Richard III'' (2016): Woodville was played by ].
*'']'' (2017): Woodville was played by ].

===Music===
*In 2020, Vicki Manser portrayed Elizabeth Woodville on the ] of ''A Mother's War'', a musical based on the ].

==Schools named after Elizabeth Woodville==
* Elizabeth Woodville Primary School, ], Leicestershire (1971).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.elizabethwoodvilleprimaryschool.co.uk/ |title=Elizabeth Woodville Primary School |website=Elizabethwoodvilleprimaryschool.co.uk |access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref>
* ], ], Northamptonshire (2011).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ewsacademy.org.uk/ |title=The Elizabeth Woodville School |website=Ewsacademy.org |access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref>

==Arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = Coat_of_Arms_of_Elizabeth_Woodville.svg
|escutcheon = Elizabeth Woodville's arms as queen consort, the ] ] Woodville (Quarterly, first argent: a lion rampant double queued gules, crowned or (Luxembourg, her mother's family); second: quarterly, I and IV: gules a star of eight points argent; II and III: azure, semée of fleurs de lys or (Baux); third: barry argent and azure, overall a lion rampant gules (Lusignan); fourth: gules, three bendlets argent, on a chief of the first, charged with a fillet in base or, a rose of the second (Orsini); fifth: three pallets vairy, on a chief or a label of five points azure (Châtillon); and sixth, argent a fess and a canton conjoined gules (Woodville))
|supporters = Dexter, a lion argent. Sinister, a greyhound argent collared gules.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Boutell|first=Charles|author-link=Charles Boutell|title=A Manual of Heraldry, Historical and Popular|url=https://archive.org/details/amanualheraldry00boutgoog|year=1863|publisher=Winsor & Newton|location=London|pages=}}</ref>}}

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}


==References== ==References==
{{Reflist|2}} {{Reflist}}


==Further reading== ==Further reading==
* Philip Butterworth and Michael Spence, 'William Parnell, supplier of staging and ingenious devices, and his role in the visit of Elizabeth Woodville to Norwich in 1469', Medieval English Theatre 40 (2019) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612172127/https://boydellandbrewer.com/medieval-english-theatre-40-pb.html |date=12 June 2019 }}
* David Baldwin, ''Elizabeth Woodville'' (Stroud, 2002)
* ], ''Elizabeth Woodville'' (Stroud, 2002)
* Christine Carpenter, ''The Wars of the Roses'' (Cambridge, 1997) * Christine Carpenter, ''The Wars of the Roses'' (Cambridge, 1997)
* ], David Baldwin, ], '']'' (], 2011)
* Michael Hicks, ''Edward V'' (Stroud, 2003) * Michael Hicks, ''Edward V'' (Stroud, 2003)
* Rosemary Horrox, ''Richard III: A Study of Service'' (Cambridge, 1989) * Rosemary Horrox, ''Richard III: A Study of Service'' (Cambridge, 1989)
* J.L. Laynesmith, ''The Last Medieval Queens'' (Oxford, 2004) * J.L. Laynesmith, ''The Last Medieval Queens'' (Oxford, 2004)
* A. R. Myers, ''Crown, Household and Parliament in Fifteenth-Century England.'' London and Ronceverte: Hambledon Press, 1985. * 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) * Arlene Okerlund, ''Elizabeth Wydeville: The Slandered Queen'' (Stroud, 2005); ''Elizabeth: England's Slandered Queen'' (paper, Stroud, 2006)
* Charles Ross, ''Edward IV'' (Berkeley, 1974) * Charles Ross, ''Edward IV'' (Berkeley, 1974)
* George Smith, ''The Coronation of Elizabeth Wydeville.'' Gloucester: Gloucester Reprints, 1975 (originally published 1935). * 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. * 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.


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| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Queen consort of England
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Latest revision as of 21:31, 30 December 2024

Queen of England (1464–70, 1471–83)

Elizabeth Woodville
Posthumous portrait, 16th century
Queen consort of England
Tenures
  • 1 May 1464 – 3 October 1470
  • 11 April 1471 – 9 April 1483
Coronation26 May 1465
Bornc. 1437
Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire, England
Died8 June 1492 (aged 54–55)
Bermondsey Abbey, Surrey, England
Burial12 June 1492
St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Spouses Edward IV of England ​ ​(m. 1464; died 1483)
Issue
more...
FatherRichard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers
MotherJacquetta of Luxembourg
SignatureElizabeth Woodville's signature

Elizabeth Woodville (also spelt Wydville, Wydeville, or Widvile; c. 1437 – 8 June 1492), later known as Dame Elizabeth Grey, was Queen of England from 1 May 1464 until 3 October 1470 and from 11 April 1471 until 9 April 1483 as the wife of King Edward IV. She was a key figure in the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic civil war between the Lancastrian and the Yorkist factions between 1455 and 1487.

At the time of her birth, Elizabeth's family was of middle rank in the English social hierarchy. Her mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, had previously been an aunt-by-marriage to King Henry VI, and was the daughter of Peter I, Count of Saint-Pol. Elizabeth's first marriage was to a minor supporter of the House of Lancaster, John Grey of Groby. He died at the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461, leaving Elizabeth a widowed mother of two young sons.

Elizabeth's second marriage, in 1464, to Edward IV became a cause célèbre. Elizabeth was known for her beauty but came from minor nobility with no great estates, and the marriage took place in secret. Edward was the first king of England since the Norman Conquest to marry one of his subjects, and Elizabeth was the first such consort to be crowned queen. The couple had ten children together. The marriage greatly enriched Elizabeth's siblings and children, but their advancement incurred the hostility of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, "The Kingmaker", and his various alliances with the most senior figures in the increasingly divided royal family. This hostility turned into open discord between King Edward and Warwick, leading to a battle of wills that finally resulted in Warwick's switching allegiance to the Lancastrian cause, and to the execution of Elizabeth's father, Richard Woodville, and her brother, John, by Warwick in 1469.

After the death of her husband in 1483, Elizabeth remained politically influential even after her son, briefly proclaimed King Edward V, was deposed by her brother-in-law, Richard III. Edward and his younger brother Richard both disappeared soon afterwards, and are presumed by some historians to have been murdered on Richard III's orders; conversely, there is evidence to the contrary as well, and it is uncertain who actually was responsible for their disappearances. Elizabeth subsequently played an important role in securing the accession of Henry VII in 1485.

Henry married Elizabeth's eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York, which ended the Wars of the Roses and established the Tudor dynasty. Through her daughter, Elizabeth Woodville was a grandmother of the future Henry VIII. Elizabeth was forced to yield pre-eminence to Henry VII's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort; her influence on events in these years, and her eventual departure from court into retirement, remain obscure.

Early life and first marriage

Elizabeth Woodville was born in about 1437 (no record of her birth survives), at Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire. She was the firstborn child of a socially unequal marriage between Richard Woodville and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, which briefly scandalised the English court. The Woodvilles, though an old and respectable family, were gentry rather than noble, a landed and wealthy family that had previously produced commissioners of the peace, sheriffs, and MPs, rather than peers of the realm. Elizabeth's mother, in contrast, was the eldest daughter of Peter I of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, Conversano and Brienne, and as the widow of John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, uncle of King Henry VI of England, was before her second marriage one of the highest ranking women in England. As Jacquetta had pledged, upon the death of her first husband, that she would not remarry without first obtaining royal permission, and as royal permission to marry Woodville was out of the question, the pair married secretly. When the marriage became public knowledge, the couple was heavily fined, but was pardoned on 24 October 1437: it has been conjectured that the pardon coincided with the birth of Elizabeth, the couple's firstborn child.

Around 1452, Elizabeth Woodville married John Grey of Groby, the heir to the Barony Ferrers of Groby. He was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461, fighting for the Lancastrian cause. This would become a source of irony, since Elizabeth's future husband Edward IV was the Yorkist claimant to the throne. Elizabeth Woodville's two sons from this first marriage were Thomas Grey (later Marquess of Dorset) and Richard Grey.

Elizabeth Woodville was called "the most beautiful woman in the Island of Britain" with "heavy-lidded eyes like those of a dragon".

Queen consort

Illuminated miniature depicting the marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, Anciennes Chroniques d'Angleterre by Jean de Wavrin, 15th century
Elizabeth as queen, with Edward and their oldest son. From Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, Lambeth Palace.
Elizabeth at the time of her coronation surrounded by pink and white roses, symbolic of her union with Edward IV.

Edward IV had many mistresses, the best known of them being Jane Shore, and he did not have a reputation for fidelity. His marriage to the widowed Elizabeth Woodville took place secretly and, though there is no documentary evidence of the date, it is traditionally said to have taken place at her family home in Northamptonshire on 1 May 1464. Only the bride's mother and two ladies were in attendance. Edward married her just over three years after he had assumed the English throne in the wake of his overwhelming victory over the Lancastrians, at the Battle of Towton, which resulted in the displacement of King Henry VI. Edward introduced Elizabeth Woodville as his queen to the royal court at Reading Abbey on Michaelmas Day (29 September 1464). Elizabeth Woodville was crowned queen on 26 May 1465, a few days after Ascension Day.

In the early years of his reign, Edward IV's governance of England was dependent upon a small circle of supporters, most notably his cousin, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick. At around the time of Edward IV'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 IV should marry a French princess. When his marriage to Elizabeth, who was both a commoner and from a family of Lancastrian supporters, became public Warwick was both embarrassed and offended. His relationship with Edward IV was ruined. The match was also badly received by the privy council, who according to Jean de Waurin told Edward with great frankness that "he must know that she was no wife for a prince such as himself".

With the arrival on the scene of the new queen came many relatives, some of whom married into the most notable families in England. Three of her sisters married the sons of the earls of Kent, Essex and Pembroke. Another sister, Catherine Woodville, married the queen's 11-year-old ward Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who later joined Edward IV's brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in opposition to the Woodvilles after the death of Edward IV. Elizabeth's 20-year-old brother John married Katherine, Duchess of Norfolk, Edward IV and Warwick's aunt. The Duchess had been widowed three times and was in her sixties, so the marriage created a scandal at court. Elizabeth's son, Thomas Grey, married firstly Anne Holland, a niece of Edward, and later Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington.

Elizabeth's status as a commoner before her sudden, secret marriage to Edward was primarily the reason for the backlash against her queenship. She was often seen as arrogant and disrespectful for actions that would be seen as normal by a lady of higher rank, such as her predecessor Margaret of Anjou. Such was Elizabeth's unpopularity that George, Duke of Clarence, rebellious brother of her husband, later even accused her of witchcraft in order to murder his wife Isabel Neville. Most historians now believe that Isabel died of either consumption or childbed fever.

When Elizabeth Woodville's relatives, especially her brother Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, began to challenge Warwick's pre-eminence in English political society, Warwick conspired with his son-in-law George, Duke of Clarence, the king's younger brother. One of his followers accused Elizabeth Woodville's mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, of practising witchcraft. She was acquitted the following year.

Warwick and Clarence twice rose in revolt and then fled to France. Warwick formed an uneasy alliance with the Lancastrian Queen Margaret of Anjou, executed Elizabeth's father and brother after the Yorkist defeat at the Battle of Edgecote, and restored Margaret's husband Henry VI to the throne in 1470. But the following year, Edward IV returned from exile and defeated Warwick at the Battle of Barnet, and the Lancastrians at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Henry VI was killed soon afterwards.

Following her husband's temporary fall from power, Elizabeth Woodville sought sanctuary in Westminster Abbey, where she gave birth to a son, Edward (later King Edward V of England). Her marriage to Edward IV produced a total of ten children, including another son, Richard, Duke of York, who would later join his brother as one of the Princes in the Tower. Five daughters also lived to adulthood.

Elizabeth Woodville engaged in acts of Christian piety in keeping with conventional expectations of a medieval queen consort. She also became a patroness of Queens' College, Cambridge. Her acts included making pilgrimages, obtaining a papal indulgence for those who knelt and said the Angelus three times per day, and founding the chapel of St. Erasmus in Westminster Abbey.

Queen dowager

Following Edward IV's sudden death, possibly from pneumonia or being worn out from "high living", in April 1483, Elizabeth Woodville became queen dowager. Her young son, Edward V, became king, with his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, acting as Lord Protector. In response to the Woodvilles' attempt to monopolise power, Gloucester quickly moved to take control of the young king and had the king's uncle Earl Rivers and half-brother Richard Grey, son to Elizabeth, arrested. The young king was transferred to the Tower of London to await the coronation. With her younger son and daughters, Elizabeth again sought sanctuary. Lord Hastings, the late king's leading supporter in London, initially endorsed Gloucester's actions, but Gloucester then accused him of conspiring with Elizabeth Woodville against him. Hastings was summarily executed. Whether any such conspiracy really occurred is not known. Richard accused Elizabeth of plotting to "murder and utterly destroy" him.

On 25 June 1483, Gloucester had Elizabeth Woodville's son Richard Grey and brother Anthony, Earl Rivers, executed in Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire. The Titulus Regius – an act of parliament – declared that Edward IV's children with Elizabeth were illegitimate on the grounds that Edward IV had a precontract with the widow Lady Eleanor Butler, which was considered a legally binding contract that rendered any other marriage contract invalid. One source, the Burgundian chronicler Philippe de Commines, says that Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, carried out an engagement ceremony between Edward IV and Lady Eleanor. The act also contained charges of witchcraft against Elizabeth, but gave no details and the charges had no further repercussions. As a consequence, the Duke of Gloucester and Lord Protector was offered the throne and became King Richard III. Edward V, who was no longer king, and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, remained in the Tower of London. There are no recorded sightings of them after the summer of 1483.

United Kingdom legislation
Letters Patent to the late Queen Annulled Act 1483
Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Long titleAn Acte for adnullinge letters patentes made to Elizabeth late Wyfe of Sir Jo. Grey.
Citation1 Ric. 3. c. 15
Dates
Royal assent20 February 1484
Other legislation
Repealed byStatute Law Revision Act 1948
Status: Repealed

Additionally, Elizabeth was stripped of all her entitlements as queen dowager and her lands reverted to the Crown. She was granted most, but not all, of these lands back in March 1486 by Henry VII.

Life under Richard III

Now referred to as Dame Elizabeth Grey, she and Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham (a former close ally of Richard III and now probably seeking the throne for himself) allied themselves with Margaret Stanley (née Beaufort) and espoused the cause of Margaret's son Henry Tudor, a great-great-great-grandson of King Edward III, the closest male heir of the Lancastrian claim to the throne with any degree of validity. To strengthen his claim and unite the two feuding noble houses, Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort agreed that the latter's son should marry the former's eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York, who upon the death of her brothers became the heiress of the House of York. Henry Tudor agreed to this plan and in December 1483 publicly swore an oath to that effect in the cathedral in Rennes, Brittany. A month earlier, an uprising in his favour, led by Buckingham, had been crushed.

Richard III's first Parliament of January 1484 stripped Elizabeth of all the lands given to her during Edward IV's reign. On 1 March 1484, Elizabeth and her daughters came out of sanctuary after Richard III publicly swore an oath that her daughters would not be harmed or molested and that they would not be imprisoned in the Tower of London or in any other prison. He also promised to provide them with marriage portions and to marry them to "gentlemen born". Richard also awarded Elizabeth a pension of 700 Marks per year. The family returned to Court, apparently reconciled to Richard III. After the death of Richard III's wife Anne Neville, in March 1485, rumours arose that the newly widowed king was going to marry his niece Elizabeth of York. It is known that Richard was in negotiation to marry Joana of Portugal and to marry off Elizabeth to Manuel, Duke of Beja.

Life under Henry VII

In 1485, Henry Tudor invaded England and defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. As king, Henry VII married Elizabeth of York and had the Titulus Regius revoked and all found copies destroyed. Elizabeth Woodville was accorded the title and honours of a queen dowager.

Scholars differ about why Dowager Queen Elizabeth spent the last five years of her life living at Bermondsey Abbey, to which she retired on 12 February 1487. Among her modern biographers, David Baldwin believes that Henry VII forced her retreat from the court, while Arlene Okerlund presents evidence from July 1486 that she was already planning her retirement from court to live a religious, contemplative life at Bermondsey Abbey. Another suggestion is that her retreat to Bermondsey was forced on her because she was in some way involved in the 1487 Yorkist rebellion of Lambert Simnel, or at least was seen as a potential ally of the rebels.

At Bermondsey Abbey, Elizabeth was treated with the respect due to a dowager queen. She lived on a pension of £400 and received small gifts from Henry VII. She was present at the birth of her granddaughter Margaret at Westminster Palace in November 1489 and at the birth of her grandson, the future Henry VIII, at Greenwich Palace in June 1491. Her daughter Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII, visited her on occasion at Bermondsey, although another one of her other daughters, Cecily of York, visited her more often.

Henry VII briefly contemplated marrying his mother-in-law to King James III of Scotland, when James III's wife, Margaret of Denmark, died in 1486. James was killed in battle in 1488.

Elizabeth Woodville died at Bermondsey Abbey, on 8 June 1492. With the exception of the queen, who was awaiting the birth of her fourth child, and Cecily of York, her daughters attended the funeral at Windsor Castle: Anne of York (the future wife of Thomas Howard), Catherine of York (the future Countess of Devon) and Bridget of York (a nun at Dartford Priory). Elizabeth's will specified a simple ceremony. The surviving accounts of her funeral on 12 June 1492 suggest that at least one source "clearly felt that a queen's funeral should have been more splendid" and may have objected that "Henry VII had not been fit to arrange a more queenly funeral for his mother-in-law", although simplicity was the queen dowager's own wish. A letter discovered in 2019, written in 1511 by Andrea Badoer, the Venetian ambassador in London, suggests that she had died of plague, which would explain the haste and lack of public ceremony. Elizabeth was laid to rest in the same chantry as her husband King Edward IV in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Issue of Elizabeth Woodville

By John Grey

By King Edward IV

In literature

One of only three lyric poems in Middle English ascribed to a woman author, alongside "An Anchoress' Hymn to the Virgin" and "Eleanor Percy's Prayer", "My heart is set upon a lusty pin" is attributed to one "Queen Elizabeth", sometimes thought to have been Elizabeth Woodville (although the author is also argued to have been her daughter, Elizabeth of York). This hymn to Venus, found in one single manuscript, is a complex six-stanza poem with rhyme scheme ABABBAA, an "elaboration of the sestina," in which the seventh line of each stanza is the same as its first, and the six unique lines of the first stanza provide the first lines for each of the poem's six stanzas.

Non-fiction

Fiction

Edward IV's love for his wife is celebrated in sonnet 75 of Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella. (written by 1586, first pub. 1591).

She appears in two of Shakespeare's plays: Henry VI Part 3 (written by 1592), in which she is a fairly minor character, and Richard III (written approx. 1592), where she has a central role. Shakespeare portrays Elizabeth as a proud and alluring woman in Henry VI Part 3. By Richard III, she is careworn from having to defend herself against detractors in the court, including her titular brother-in-law, Richard. She spends much of the play bemoaning her fate as family members and supporters of her are killed, including her two young sons. She is one of Richard's cleverest opponents and among the few who see through him from the beginning, though she is mostly powerless to stop him once he murders her allies in the court. Although most modern editions of Henry VI Part 3 and Richard III call her "Queen Elizabeth" in the stage directions, the original Shakespearean Folio never actually refer to her by name, instead calling her first "Lady Grey" and later simply "Queen."

Novels that feature Elizabeth Woodville as a character include:

Media portrayals

Film

Television

Music

Schools named after Elizabeth Woodville

Arms

Coat of arms of Elizabeth Woodville
Escutcheon
Elizabeth Woodville's arms as queen consort, the royal arms of England impaling Woodville (Quarterly, first argent: a lion rampant double queued gules, crowned or (Luxembourg, her mother's family); second: quarterly, I and IV: gules a star of eight points argent; II and III: azure, semée of fleurs de lys or (Baux); third: barry argent and azure, overall a lion rampant gules (Lusignan); fourth: gules, three bendlets argent, on a chief of the first, charged with a fillet in base or, a rose of the second (Orsini); fifth: three pallets vairy, on a chief or a label of five points azure (Châtillon); and sixth, argent a fess and a canton conjoined gules (Woodville))
Supporters
Dexter, a lion argent. Sinister, a greyhound argent collared gules.

Notes

  1. Although the spelling of the family name is usually modernised to "Woodville", it was spelt "Wydeville" in contemporary publications by Caxton, but her tomb at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle is inscribed thus: "Edward IV and his Queen Elizabeth Widvile".
  2. John's marriage to Isabel of Gloucester was annulled shortly after his accession, and she was never crowned; Henry IV's first wife Mary de Bohun died before he became king.
  3. Henry Tudor's claim to the throne was weak, owing to a declaration of Henry IV that barred the accession to the throne of any heirs of the legitimised offspring of his father John of Gaunt by his third wife Katherine Swynford. The original act legitimizing the children of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford passed by Parliament and the bull issued by the Pope in the matter legitimised them fully, making questionable the legality of Henry IV's declaration.

References

  1. Karen Lindsey, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived, p. xviii, Perseus Books, 1995.
  2. A Complete History of England with the Lives of all the Kings and Queens thereof; London, 1706. p. 486
  3. Kennett, White; Hughes, John; Strype, John; Adams, John; John Adams Library (Boston Public Library) BRL (16 June 2019). "A complete history of England: with the lives of all the kings and queens thereof; from the earliest account of time, to the death of His late Majesty King William III. Containing a faithful relation of all affairs of state, ecclesiastical and civil". London: Printed for Brab. Aylmer ... – via Internet Archive.
  4. Jewell, Helen M. (1996). Women in Medieval England. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719040177.
  5. ^ Baldwin, David (2002). Elizabeth Woodville : mother of the princes in the tower. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Pub. ISBN 9780750927741.
  6. ^ Hicks, Michael (2004). "Elizabeth (c.1437–1492)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8634. Retrieved 25 September 2010. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) (subscription required)
  7. Jane Bingham, The Cotswolds: A Cultural History, (Oxford University Press, 2009), 66
  8. Robert Fabian, The New Chronicles of England and France, ed. Henry Ellis (London: Rivington, 1811), 654; "Hearne’s Fragment of an Old Chronicle, from 1460–1470," The Chronicles of the White Rose of York. (London: James Bohn, 1845), 15–16.
  9. "Reading Museum". collections.readingmuseum.org.uk. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
  10. Baxter, Ron (2016). The Royal Abbey of Reading. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. pp. 122–123. ISBN 978-1-78327-084-2.
  11. Ralph A. Griffiths, "The Court during the Wars of the Roses". In Princes Patronage and the Nobility: The Court at the Beginning of the Modern Age, cc. 1450–1650. Edited by Ronald G. Asch and Adolf M. Birke. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-19-920502-7. 59–61.
  12. Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1467–77, pg. 190.
  13. Sutton and Visser-Fuchs, "A 'Most Benevolent Queen;'"Laynesmith, pp. 111, 118–19.
  14. Bucholz, R. O. (2020). Early modern England 1485–1714 : a narrative history. Newton Key (Third ed.). Chichester, West Sussex, UK. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-118-53222-5. OCLC 1104915225.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  15. C. T. Wood, "Richard III, William, Lord Hastings and Friday the Thirteenth", in R. A. Griffiths and J. Sherborne (eds.), Kings and Nobles in the Later Middle Ages, New York, 1986, 156–61.
  16. Charles Ross, Richard III, University of California Press, 1981 p81.
  17. 1 Ric. III
  18. Philipe de Commines (1877). The memoirs of Philip de Commines, lord of Argenton, Volume 1. London. pp. 396–7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  19. ^ Seah, Michele (2020). "'My Lady Queen, the Lord of the Manor': The Economic Roles of Late Medieval Queens". Parergon. 37 (2): 9–36. doi:10.1353/pgn.2020.0060. ISSN 1832-8334. S2CID 235070132.
  20. Genealogical Tables in Morgan, (1988), p. 709.
  21. "Parliamentary Rolls Richard III". Rotuli Parliamentorum A.D. 1483 1 Richard III Cap XV. Archived from the original on 1 September 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  22. Markham, Clements E. Richard III: His Life and Character. p. 136.
  23. Richard III and Yorkist History Server Archived 9 July 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  24. Ashdown Hill, John (2013). The Last Days of Richard III. The History Press. pp. 25–35. ISBN 9780752492056.
  25. "Rotuli Parliamentorum A.D. 1485 1 Henry VII – Annullment of Richard III's Titulus Regius". Archived from the original on 2 September 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  26. "Rotuli Parliamentorum A.D. 1485 1 Henry VII – Restitution of Elizabeth Queen of Edward IV". Archived from the original on 2 September 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  27. Arlene Okerlund, Elizabeth: England's Slandered Queen. Stroud: Tempus, 2006, 245.
  28. Bennett, Michael, Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke, New York, St. Martin's Press, 1987, pp.42; 51; Elston, Timothy, "Widowed Princess or Neglected Queen" in Levin & Bucholz (eds), Queens and Power in Medieval and Early Modern England, University of Nebraska Press, 2009, p.19.
  29. Breverton, Terry (15 May 2016). Henry VII: The Maligned Tudor King. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781445646060.
  30. "Margaret of Denmark Facts, information, pictures". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  31. ^ J. L. Laynesmith, The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship 1445–1503, Oxford University Press, New York, 2004, pp.127–8.
  32. Alison Flood (25 April 2019). "'White Queen' died of plague, claims letter found in National Archives". The Guardian.
  33. Roger, Euan C. (2019). "To Be Shut Up: New Evidence for the Development of Quarantine Regulations in Early-Tudor England". Social History of Medicine. 33 (4): 5–7. doi:10.1093/shm/hkz031.
  34. Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham II (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 1449966381, pp 304–7
  35. Barratt, Alexandra (2010). Women's Writing in Middle English (2nd ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson Education. p. 282. ISBN 9781408204146.
  36. ^ May (FeuillesMortes) (30 June 2021). "Where does the "my heart is set upon a lusty pin" quote come from?". richmond-rex.tumblr.com. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  37. Jean R. Brink (1994). "Responses to a Pedagogy Survey". In Betty S. Travitsky; Adele F. Seeff (eds.). Attending to Women in Early Modern England. Newark: University of Delaware Press. p. 321. ISBN 9780874135190.
  38. Sarah Stanbury (2005). "Middle English Religious Lyrics". In Thomas Gibson Duncan (ed.). A Companion to the Middle English Lyric. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 227–41. ISBN 9781843840657.
  39. McNamer, Sarah (2003). "Lyrics and romances". In Wallace, David; Dinshaw, Carolyn (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women's Writing. Cambridge UP. pp. 195–209. ISBN 9780521796385.
  40. Barratt, Alexandra, ed. (1992). Women's Writing in Middle English. New York: Longman. pp. 275–77. ISBN 0-582-06192-X.
  41. "Astrophel and Stella: 75". utoronto.ca.
  42. "Elizabeth Woodville Primary School". Elizabethwoodvilleprimaryschool.co.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  43. "The Elizabeth Woodville School". Ewsacademy.org. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  44. Boutell, Charles (1863). "A Manual of Heraldry, Historical and Popular". London: Winsor & Newton. pp. 277.

Further reading

  • Philip Butterworth and Michael Spence, 'William Parnell, supplier of staging and ingenious devices, and his role in the visit of Elizabeth Woodville to Norwich in 1469', Medieval English Theatre 40 (2019) Archived 12 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine
  • David Baldwin, Elizabeth Woodville (Stroud, 2002)
  • Christine Carpenter, The Wars of the Roses (Cambridge, 1997)
  • Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, Michael Jones, The Women of the Cousins' War (Simon & Schuster, 2011)
  • Michael Hicks, Edward V (Stroud, 2003)
  • Rosemary Horrox, Richard III: A Study of Service (Cambridge, 1989)
  • J.L. Laynesmith, The Last Medieval Queens (Oxford, 2004)
  • 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)
  • Charles Ross, Edward IV (Berkeley, 1974)
  • 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

English royalty
VacantTitle last held byMargaret of Anjou Queen consort of England
Lady of Ireland

1 May 1464 – 3 October 1470
Succeeded byMargaret of Anjou
Queen consort of England
Lady of Ireland

11 April 1471 – 9 April 1483
VacantTitle next held byAnne Neville
EnglishScottish and British royal consorts
Royal consorts in England until 1603Royal consorts in Scotland until 1603
Spouses of debatable or disputed rulers are in italics
Wars of the Roses
Key figures
Monarchs
Lancaster
Red Rose Badge of Lancaster

Tudor
Tudor rose
York
White Rose of York
Events
See also
Briefly joined the Lancastrians. Briefly joined the Yorkists. Defected from the Yorkist to the Lancastrian cause. Initially a Yorkist who later supported the Tudor claim. Initially a Lancastrian who later supported the Tudor claim.
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