Elizabeth of York
Encyclopedia : E : EL : ELI : Elizabeth of York
| |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
She was born at Westminster, the eldest child of King Edward IV and his Queen consort Elizabeth Woodville (who both had children from earlier relationships). Her younger siblings included Mary of York, Cecily of York, Edward V of England, Margaret of York, Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, Anne of York, George Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford, Catherine of York and Bridget of York.
She was named a Lady of the Garter in 1477, along with her mother and her paternal aunt Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk.
Following her father's death and the accession to the throne of his brother Richard III, scurrilous rumours circulated that Richard intended to marry her as soon as his wife, the ailing Anne Neville, was dead. There is no surviving evidence for such a plan, although Sir George Buck later claimed to have uncovered a letter from Elizabeth (now lost) which showed she was party to it. It has been suggested that the rumours were started by Elizabeth's mother, Elizabeth Woodville, as part of her campaign to put her daughter on the throne; if Richard had been able to obtain a dispensation from the church to marry his niece, it would have prevented her marrying the chief threat to his throne, Henry Tudor.
Elizabeth Woodville arranged to marry her daughter to Tudor if he could overthrow King Richard, which he did at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485, becoming King Henry VII. But he was in no hurry to marry Elizabeth of York, although he had publicly taken a sacred oath to do so before he had left France to invade England. On October 30, Henry was crowned, but still delayed his wedding. Finally Parliament itself, on behalf of the people, petitioned him to carry out his promise, and on January 18, 1486, the marriage took place. It was not until November 25, 1487, more than a year after their first child, Arthur, was born on September 20, 1486, that Elizabeth was crowned queen.
It was a relatively successful marriage, all things considered. They had seven (or possibly eight, but only seven are shown in the commemorative picture painted in about 1509) children:
- Arthur, Prince of Wales (September 20, 1486 – April 2, 1502).
- Margaret Tudor (November 28, 1489 – October 18, 1541).
- Henry VIII of England (June 28, 1491 – January 28, 1547).
- Elizabeth Tudor (July 2, 1492 – September 14, 1495).
- Mary Tudor (March 18, 1496 – June 25, 1533).
- Edmund Tudor, Duke of Somerset (February 21, 1499 – June 19, 1500).
- Edward Tudor. He may not have actually existed. Unknown dates of birth and death. Suspected to be a mistaken name for Edmund Tudor, Duke of Somerset. However, this name is listed in official records as a child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Edward is also mentioned in Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy by Alison Weir as having died young. She assumes the child to have been buried with his family in Westminster Abbey.
- Katherine Tudor (February 2, 1503 – February 2, 1503).
Although Henry VII was known to be a very thrifty person, he threw his wife a splendid funeral. She is buried in Westminster Abbey in the Lady Chapel. Later, her husband Henry was buried beside her.
Elizabeth of York is the only English Queen to have been a wife, daughter, sister, niece and mother to English Kings. Elizabeth is also the basis for the queen's picture found in a deck of cards.
Her second son Henry VIII of England followed his father as king, her eldest daughter Margaret married James IV of Scotland, and her youngest child Mary Tudor (queen consort of France) married Louis XII of France. Her daughter Margaret was the mother of James V of Scotland and the grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots. Margaret was also the great-grandmother of James VI of Scotland and I of England from whom all subesquent British monarchs are descended.
|- style="text-align: center;"
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.