Elizabeth of York

Elizabeth of York was born in 1466 at the Palace of Westminster. She was the eldest child of King Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville. When she was only 3, she was betrothed to George Neville, who was created the Duke of Bedford especially for the occasion. However, when both George and his father supported the Earl of Warwick’s rebellion against King Edward, the betrothal was called off. Her second betrothal came in 1475, when King Louis XI agreed to terms to marry her to his son, the Dauphin Charles. King Louis later changed his mind, and once again the betrothal fell through.

After the death of her father and the removal of her brother Edward V, Elizabeth and her siblings were taken by their mother into sanctuary at Westminster Abbey. A few months later, her parents’ marriage was declared invalid due to her father’s previous betrothal, and she and all her siblings were made illegitimate and excluded from the line of succession.

In 1484, Elizabeth Woodville was reconciled with Richard III, so Elizabeth and her sisters were brought to the court of their uncle. When Richard’s wife Anne died, leaving no living heir, a rumour was started that King Richard planned on marrying his niece. To dispel this unsavoury rumour, Richard had Elizabeth sent away to the castle of Sheriff Hutton and opened negotiations with the King of Portugal to marry his sister, Joan, and to have Elizabeth marry their cousin, the future King Manuel I of Portugal.

Henry Tudor had pledged to marry Elizabeth in 1483, and when he came to the throne as Henry VII in 1485, having defeated King Richard on the battle field, he honoured it. One of his first acts was to repeal the Act of Titulus Regius and legitimise the children of Edward IV. A dispensation from the Pope was also needed before Henry and Elizabeth could marry for reasons of affinity. Some claim he refused to marry her straight away as he wanted to assert his right that he had won his crown by conquest and not by marriage to Elizabeth. Though the marriage at first was politically motivated, it seems that in due time the couple came to love each other, and it was a happy marriage. Despite his later reputation for being miserly, records show he was very generous when it came to his wife and her financial needs.

King Henry had not lived in England since he was 14, and the customs and pageantry were alien to him, so it was Elizabeth and her mother who oversaw all the court affairs and shaped the court’s outward appearance. Elizabeth did not exercise much political influence as queen, but she was reported to be gentle, kind, and generous to her relations, servants, and benefactors. She had a love of books, music, dancing, and gambling; the last of these was a pastime she shared with her husband.

The marriage produced seven children, four of whom survived childhood: Arthur, Margaret, Henry, and Mary. The other three children were Elizabeth, who died at 3 years old; Edmund, who died at 1, and Catherine, who was a few days old.

Elizabeth died of a post-partum infection on February 11, which was her 37th birthday, and was buried at Westminster Abbey.

The wooden funeral effigy of Elizabeth

Portrait of Elizabeth of York

Sources:

Elizabeth of York: Forgotten Tudor Queen, Amy Licence

Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World, Alison Weir