Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of England

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of England; Credit – Wikipedia

The wife of King Edward IV of England, Elizabeth Woodville was born around 1437 at the family home in Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire, England. She was the eldest of the 13 children of Sir Richard Woodville and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, daughter of Peter I of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, Conversano and Brienne.  Jacquetta was the widow of John, 1st Duke of Bedford, son of King Henry IV of England.

Elizabeth had 13 siblings:

As a young girl, Elizabeth was a maid of honor to Margaret of Anjou, wife of King Henry VI of England.  Elizabeth married Sir John Grey of Groby, a Lancastrian knight around 1452. In 1461, Sir John was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans.

Elizabeth and Sir John had two sons:

The widow Dame Elizabeth Grey first came to the attention of King Edward IV when she petitioned him for the restoration of her husband’s forfeited land. Traditionally, the wedding is said to have taken place at Elizabeth’s family home in Northamptonshire on May 1, 1464. Elizabeth was crowned queen in Westminster Abbey on May 26, 1465.

Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, from the illuminated manuscript Anciennes Chroniques d’Angleterre by Jean de Wavrin; Credit – Wikipedia

Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV had ten children:

King Edward IV of England; Credit – Wikipedia

The favors that were given to the Woodville family and the excellent marriages arranged for Elizabeth’s siblings caused much resentment at court. In particular, the king’s brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later King Richard III) had great resentment and showed his dislike for Elizabeth at every opportunity. From October 1470 – April 1471, when the Lancastrian King Henry VI regained power, Elizabeth and her children sought sanctuary at Westminster Abbey. Elizabeth’s son, the future, but short-lived, King Edward V, was born there.

On April 9, 1483, King Edward IV died, several weeks before his 41st birthday, and his eldest son Edward became king with his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester as his Lord Protector. Richard feared that the Woodvilles would attempt to take control of the young king. Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, the young king’s maternal uncle, and Sir Richard Grey, the young king’s half-brother, were arrested and executed.

The Duke of Gloucester had his nephew brought to the Tower of London on May 19, 1483, to await his coronation, which never happened. Elizabeth and her children once again sought sanctuary at Westminster Abbey, fearing the Duke of Gloucester’s further actions. Cardinal Thomas Bouchier, Archbishop of Canterbury persuaded Elizabeth to let her second son, Richard, Duke of York, leave sanctuary and join his brother, who was lonely, at the Tower of London. Richard joined his brother on June 16, 1483. The two boys were seen less and less until the end of the summer of 1483 when they disappeared from public view altogether. Their fate is unknown.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester was informed by an unknown clergyman, probably Robert Stillington, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, that Edward IV’s marriage was invalid because he had previously contracted to marry Lady Eleanor Butler, who was living when the marriage to Elizabeth took place. This made Edward IV and Elizabeth’s children illegitimate and upheld Richard’s claim to the throne. The citizens of London drew up a petition asking Richard to assume the throne, which he agreed to on June 26, 1483. On July 6, 1483, Richard and his wife Anne Neville were crowned in Westminster Abbey. The Titulus Regius, enacted by Parliament in 1484, officially declared Edward IV’s children illegitimate.

The Lancastrian heir, Henry Tudor had been in exile for 13 years. Lady Margaret Beaufort, Henry Tudor’s mother, despite being married to a Yorkist, Thomas Stanley, was actively promoting her son as an alternative to King Richard III. Elizabeth Woodville and Henry’s mother made a secret agreement that their children should marry. On Christmas Day in 1483, still in exile in France, Henry Tudor pledged to marry King Edward IV’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York, who was also Edward IV’s heir since the presumed deaths of her brothers, King Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York. In 1485, having gained the support of the Woodvilles, the in-laws of the late King Edward IV, Henry Tudor sailed to Wales with a small French and Scottish force. On August 7, 1485, they landed in Mill Bay, Pembrokeshire, Wales, close to Henry’s birthplace. Henry Tudor then marched towards England accompanied by his uncle Jasper Tudor and John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford.

On August 22, 1485, at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the last king of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty, 32-year-old King Richard III of England, lost his life and his crown. The battle was a decisive victory for the House of Lancaster, whose leader 28-year-old Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, became the first monarch of the House of Tudor. One of his first acts was to have the Titulus Regius repealed. King Henry VII married Elizabeth of York and reinstated his mother-in-law as Queen Dowager.

Double Portrait of Elizabeth of York and Henry VII; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1487, Elizabeth Woodville retired to Bermondsey Abbey in London, England where she lived for the rest of her life. She was present at the birth of her granddaughter Margaret Tudor at Westminster Palace in November 1489 and at the birth of her grandson, the future Henry VIII, King of England, at Greenwich Palace in June 1491. Elizabeth died at Bermondsey Abbey on June 8, 1492, at the age of 55. With the exception of her daughter Elizabeth, who was awaiting the birth of her fourth child, and her daughter Cecily, her other daughters, Anne, Catherine, and Bridget attended her funeral at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle where Elizabeth Woodville was buried with her husband King Edward IV of England.

Tomb of King Edward IV and his wife Elizabeth Woodville

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