Elizabeth Woodville

Did Elizabeth Woodville die of the plague?

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When Elizabeth Woodville died on 8th June 1492, she was buried with little of the pomp and circumstance befitting a woman of her rank.

Despite the fact that she was Edward IV's queen consort, mother of the missing princes in the tower, and grandmother of Henry VIII, just five attendants transported her casket down the Thames River to Windsor Castle.

Here, Elizabeth's arrival was met with silence rather than the typical tolling of bells.

Soon after, the “White Queen” of England, so-called for her links with the royal House of York, as represented by the emblem of the white rose, was buried without receiving any of the traditional funerary rites.

A 500-year-old letter recently unearthed in England’s National Archives, may hold the key to understanding the quiet funeral.

Written by Andrea Badoer, the Venetian ambassador to London, in 1511, the missive states,

“The Queen-Widow, mother of King Edward, has died of plague, and the King is disturbed.”

The letter would account for not only the dowager queen’s simple funeral (given fear of contagion, plague victims were often buried quickly and without ceremony), but also her grandson, Henry VIII's exaggerated, lifelong fear of plague and other deadly illnesses.

Previously, most historians had attributed the modest burial ceremony, to the queen’s own wishes, as she reportedly requested a funeral “without pompes entring or costlie expensis donne thereabout.”

This explanation makes sense in light of the fact that Elizabeth spent the last years of her life in relative isolation at Bermondsey Abbey.

It also provides a reason for why she was buried immediately upon her arrival at Windsor, instead of being laid out in the chapel for several days.

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Source~ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/.../did-elizabeth.../

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