Elizabeth Woodville

Elizabeth Woodville
Portrait of Elizabeth Woodville as Queen of England c.1472
Queen consort of England
Tenure	1 May 1464 – 3 October 1470 11 April 1471 – 9 April 1483
Coronation	26 May 1465
Born	c. 1437 Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire
Died	(1492-06-08)8 June 1492 (aged 55) Bermondsey, London
Burial	St. George's Chapel, Windsor
Spouse	Sir John Grey (m. c. 1452–61; his death) Edward IV of England (m. 1464–83; his death)
Issue	Thomas Grey, Marquess of Dorset Richard Grey Elizabeth, Queen of England Mary of York Cecily, Viscountess Welles Edward V, King of England Margaret of York Richard, Duke of York Anne, Lady Howard George, Duke of Bedford Catherine, Countess of Devon Bridget of York
Father	Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers
Mother	Jacquetta of Luxembourg
Religion	Roman Catholic

Elizabeth Woodville (also spelled Wydville, Wydeville, or Widvile; c. 1437 – 8 June 1492) was Queen consort of England as the spouse of King Edward IV from 1464 until his death in 1483. At the time of her birth, her family was mid-ranked in the English aristocracy. Her first marriage was to a minor supporter of the House of Lancaster, Sir John Grey of Groby; he died at the Second Battle of St Albans, leaving Elizabeth a widowed mother of two sons. Her second marriage, to Edward IV, was a cause célèbre of the day, thanks to Elizabeth's great beauty and lack of great estates. Edward was only the second king of England since the Norman Conquest to have married one of his subjects, and Elizabeth was the first such consort to be crowned queen. Her marriage greatly enriched her 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 switching allegiance to the Lancastrian cause. Elizabeth remained politically influential even after her son, briefly proclaimed King Edward V of England, was deposed by her brother-in-law, Richard III, and she would play an important role in securing the accession of Henry VII to the throne in 1485, which ended the Wars of the Roses. After 1485, however, she was forced to yield pre-eminence to Henry's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, and her influence on events in these years, and her eventual departure from court into retirement, remains obscure.

Woodville's twelve children included the Princes in the Tower and Elizabeth of York; by the latter she was maternal grandmother of Henry VIII and great-grandmother of King Edward VI and Queens Mary I and Elizabeth I of England, and the great-great-grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots. Through her daughter, Elizabeth of York, she is an ancestor of every English monarch since Henry VIII and every Scottish monarch since James V of Scotland.

Early life and first marriage

Elizabeth of Woodville - illustration by Percy Anderson for Costume Fanciful, Historical and Theatrical, 1906

Elizabeth Woodville was born about 1437, possibly in October, at Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire. She was the first-born child of a socially unequal marriage that had briefly scandalised the English court. Her father, Sir Richard Woodville, was merely a knight at the time of her birth. The Woodvilles, though an old and respectable family, were genteel 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. Sir Richard's own father had made a good career in royal service, rising to become chamberlain to the Duke of Bedford. Sir Richard followed his father into service with the duke, and so first met his wife Jacquetta of Luxembourg. The daughter of Peter of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, and Margaret de Baux, she had been married to the Duke of Bedford in 1433 at the age of 17. The duke was significantly older than Jacquetta of Luxembourg, his second wife, and he was in ill health. He died in 1435, leaving Jacquetta of Luxembourg a childless, wealthy widow. She was required to seek permission from King Henry VI before she could remarry. But in March 1437, it was revealed that she had secretly married Sir Richard Woodville, who was far below her in rank and not considered a suitable husband for the lady still honoured as the king's aunt. The couple was fined £1000, but this was remitted in October of the same year.

Despite this inauspicious start, the married couple soon prospered, thanks mainly to Jacquetta's continuing prominence within the royal family. She retained her rank and dower as Duchess of Bedford, the latter initially providing an income of between £7000 and £8000 per year. Over the years, this income would diminish due to territorial losses in France and collapsing royal finances in England. Sir Richard was honoured with military ranks, in which he proved himself a capable soldier. Further honours for both came when Henry VI married Margaret of Anjou, whose uncle was Jacquetta's brother-in-law (Jacquetta's sister Isabelle married Margaret of Anjou's paternal uncle Charles du Maine). The Woodvilles were among those chosen to escort the bride to England, and the family benefited further through this double connection to the royal family. Sir Richard was raised to the rank of Baron Rivers in 1448. Their children therefore would grow up enjoying considerable privilege and material comfort.

In about 1452, Elizabeth Woodville married Sir 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 (later Marquess of Dorset) and Richard.

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

Queen consort

Elizabeth as queen, with Edward and her oldest son

Edward IV had many mistresses, the best known of them Jane Shore, and he did not have a reputation for fidelity. His marriage to the widowed Elizabeth Woodville took place secretly and, though the date is not accepted as exactly accurate, 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. Elizabeth Woodville was crowned queen on 26 May 1465, the Sunday 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, 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 Woodville, 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 IV never recovered. 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 a host of siblings who soon married into some of 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. Her 20-year-old brother John married Katherine, Duchess of Norfolk. The Duchess had been widowed three times and was probably in her sixties, which created a scandal at court.

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; 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, argent a fess and a canton conjoined gules (Woodville))

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 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 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. 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, in April 1483, Elizabeth Woodville became Queen Dowager for 63 days as her young son, Edward V became king, with his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, acting as Lord Protector. Fearing the Woodvilles would attempt to monopolise power, Gloucester quickly moved to take control of the young king and had Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, and Richard Grey, brother and son to Elizabeth Woodville, arrested. The young king was transferred to the Tower of London to await the coronation. With her younger son and daughters, Elizabeth Woodville 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.

Gloucester now moved to take the throne himself and on 25 June 1483 he had Elizabeth Woodville's son and brother executed in Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire. In an act of Parliament, the Titulus Regius (1 Ric. III), he declared his elder brother's children with Elizabeth Woodville illegitimate on the grounds that his brother 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, claimed to have carried out an engagement ceremony between Edward IV and Lady Eleanor. The act also contained charges of witchcraft against Elizabeth Woodville, but gave no details and had no further repercussions. As a consequence, the Duke of Gloucester and Lord Protector became King Richard III. Edward V, who was no longer king, and his brother Richard, Duke of York, remained in the Tower of London. They were never seen again after mid-1483.

Life under Richard III

Now referred to as Dame Elizabeth Grey, she and the Duke of Buckingham (a former close ally of Richard III) now allied themselves with Lady Margaret Beaufort and espoused the cause of Margaret Beaufort'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, France. A month earlier, an uprising in his favour, led by Buckingham, had been crushed.

Richard III's first Parliament of January 1484 stripped Elizabeth Woodville of all the lands given her during Edward IV's reign. On 1 March 1484, Elizabeth Woodville 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". The family returned to Court, outwardly reconciled to Richard III. After the death of Richard III's wife Anne Neville in March 1485, rumours arose that the now-widowed king was going to marry his beautiful and young niece Elizabeth of York. Richard III 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.

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. 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 Woodville 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 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 Queen Elizabeth 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 off to King James III of Scotland, when James III's wife, Margaret of Denmark, died in 1486. However, James III was killed in battle in 1488, rendering these plans moot.

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 sister at Dartford Priory). Elizabeth Woodville'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 seen fit to arrange a more queenly funeral for his mother-in-law", despite the fact that the simplicity was the queen dowager's own wish. Elizabeth was laid to rest in the same chantry as her husband King Edward IV in St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle.

Ancestry

Family of Elizabeth Woodville

16. Richard de Wydeville 8. John Wydeville 4. Sir Richard Wydeville of Grafton 9. Isabel Gobion 2. Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers 20. John Bittlesgate 10. Thomas Bittlesgate 5. Joan Bittlesgate 22. Sir John de Beauchamp 11. Joan de Beauchamp 23. Joan de Bridport 1. Elizabeth Woodville 24. Guy of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny 12. John of Luxembourg, Lord of Beauvoir 25. Mahaut of Châtillon, Countess of Saint-Pol 6. Peter of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol 26. Louis of Enghien 13. Marguerite of Enghien 27. Giovanna of Sanseverino 3. Jacquetta of Luxembourg 28. Bertrand III of Baux, Count of Andria and Squillace 14. Francis of Baux 29. Marguerite d'Aulnay 7. Margaret of Baux 31. Nicola Orsini, Count of Nola 15. Sueva Orsini 31. Jeanne de Sabran

Issue of Elizabeth Woodville

By Sir John Grey

• Thomas Grey, Earl of Huntingdon, Marquess of Dorset and Lord Ferrers de Groby (1455 – 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. The disputed queen Lady Jane Grey is a direct descendant from this line.
• Richard Grey (1457 – 25 June 1483)

By King Edward IV

• Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 – 11 February 1503), Queen consort of England
• Mary of York (11 August 1467 – 23 May 1482), buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
• Cecily of York (20 March 1469 – 24 August 1507), Viscountess Welles
• Edward V of England (2 November 1470 – c. 1483), one of the Princes in the Tower
• Margaret of York (10 April 1472 – 11 December 1472), buried in Westminster Abbey
• Richard, Duke of York (17 August 1473 – c. 1483), one of the Princes in the Tower
• Anne of York (2 November 1475 – 23 November 1511), Lady Howard
• George, Duke of Bedford (March 1477 – March 1479), buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
• Catherine of York (14 August 1479 – 15 November 1527), Countess of Devon
• Bridget of York (10 November 1480 – 1517), nun at Dartford Priory, Kent

In literature

Non-fiction

• Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower (2002) by David Baldwin
• Elizabeth Wydeville: The Slandered Queen (2005) by Arlene Okerlund
• Elizabeth Woodville (2013) by David MacGibbon

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 is a character in Shakespeare's Henry VI Part 3 (written by 1592) and Richard III. (written approx. 1592)

Portraits of Elizabeth Woodville in novels include:

• The Last of the Barons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton Available online.
• Dickon (1929) by Marjorie Bowen, which paints her as a schemer at the very heart of the various conspiracies against Richard III.
• The Daughter of Time (1951), Josephine Tey's classic mystery, which shows her as less evil than self-centered and overly ambitious for her family.
• The White Rose (1969) by Jan Westcott, the story of Edward IV from the death of his father (the Duke of York) until his own death in 1483, a sympathetic portrayal of Elizabeth Woodville and Woodville clan.
• The King's Grey Mare (1972) by Rosemary Hawley Jarman, a fictionalised biography of Elizabeth Woodville which deftly incorporates several supernatural themes, among them the sinister legend of the European water spirit Melusine, from whom Elizabeth Woodville's family claim descent, and Elizabeth Woodville's mother's historical ties to witchcraft and devil worship.
• The Woodville Wench (published in US as The Queen Who Never Was) (1972) by Maureen Peters which tracks Elizabeth Woodville's life since her teenage years to the times of The War of the Roses.
• The Four Queens (1977) (also known as The Royal Consorts (1978) or Queen's Ransom (1986)) by Anne Powers, the story of the Wars of the Roses from the point of view of the four queens from the period – Margaret of Anjou, Elizabeth Woodville, Anne Neville and Elizabeth of York.
• The Sunne in Splendour (1982) by Sharon Kay Penman, a biographical novel about Richard III.
• The Sun in Splendour (1982) by Jean Plaidy, an historical novel about the War of the Roses centred on the reigns of Edward IV and Richard III.
• Lady of the Roses (2008) by Sandra Worth, another less than sympathetic portrayal of Elizabeth Woodville.
• A Secret Alchemy (2009) by Emma Darwin.
• The White Queen (2009) by Philippa Gregory, which borrows Rosemary Hawley Jarman's supernatural elements from The King's Grey Mare. Elizabeth Woodville also appears in other novels in Gregory's Cousins' War series.
• Queen of Trial and Sorrow (2015), an ebook by Susan Appleyard, a sympathetic portrait.
• minor character in the German historical novel Das Spiel der Könige by Rebecca Gablé.

Screen portrayals

Film

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

Television

• An Age of Kings (1960): Woodville was portrayed by Jane Wenham.
• Wars of the Roses (1965): Woodville was played by Susan Engel.
• The Shadow of the Tower (1972): Woodville was played by Stephanie Bidmead
• The Third Part of Henry the Sixth and The Tragedy of Richard III (1983): Woodville was played by Rowena Cooper.
• The White Queen (2013): Woodville was portrayed by Rebecca Ferguson.

Schools named after Elizabeth Woodville

• Elizabeth Woodville Primary School, Groby, Leicestershire (1971).
• Elizabeth Woodville Secondary School, Northamptonshire (2011).

Further reading

• David Baldwin, Elizabeth Woodville (Stroud, 2002) [2]
• Christine Carpenter, The Wars of the Roses (Cambridge, 1997) [3]
• Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, Michael Jones, The Women of the Cousins' War (Simon & Schuster, 2011)
• Michael Hicks, Edward V (Stroud, 2003) [4]
• Rosemary Horrox, Richard III: A Study of Service (Cambridge, 1989) [5]
• J.L. Laynesmith, The Last Medieval Queens (Oxford, 2004) [6]
• 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) [7]
• Charles Ross, Edward IV (Berkeley, 1974) [8]
• 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

• Brief notes, the portrait and the coat of arms (Queens' College Cambridge)