This episode is all about the history of Elizabeth Woodville, the grandmother of Henry VIII (mother-in-law to Henry VII).
Book recommendation:
The Women of the Cousins’ War: The Duchess, the Queen, and the King’s Mother by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, and Michael Jones.
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Episode Transcript:
Hello, and welcome to the Renaissance English History Podcast. I’m your host Heather Teysko. Last time we met I talked about Margaret Beaufort, a woman who worked tirelessly to bring her son Henry Tudor to power as Henry VII. Today I’m going to talk about another formidable mother, Elizabeth Woodville, who had just as important of a role in the Wars of the Roses. And though she was a symbol for the Yorkist, ultimately worked with Margaret Beaufort to bring about the compromise that made the reign of the Tudors possible.
Elizabeth Woodville was born around 1437. And at the time of her birth, no one had any idea the turmoil that England would go through in later years. She was born into middle nobility. Her own parents’ marriage had caused quite a stir when her mother to Jacquetta of Luxembourg, who had been married to the Duke of Bedford married a mere knight when the Duke died, without waiting for a marriage to be arranged for her, which was quite a scandal. But eventually, all is forgiven, and Jacquetta and her husband Richard, were welcomed back at court after a period of exile, and Henry VI promoted Richard into the nobility.
Elizabeth was their oldest child, and she was 15 when she was married off to John Grey from another noble family. His family was firmly Lancastrian, and in fact, he had fought with Elizabeth’s father during one of the early rebellions against Henry VI. We don’t know much about her early life until she married King Edward, because she wouldn’t have been part of the historical record. But we can guess some things about her, that she was taught to read, and do some needlepoint, and manage an estate, and enjoy the comforts of being brought up in a noble family.
She lived a fairly uneventful life with her first husband having two sons, and then he died in the Second Battle of St Albans, again fighting for the Lancastrian side, which left Elizabeth a young widow. She was entitled to lands and rents from her husband’s family now that he had died, but they didn’t want to pay because she was still so young, and they were worried that they were going to need to support her for the rest of their lives, which they did not want to do.
So eventually, the Yorkist claimant Edward IV was crowned. And the legend goes that Elizabeth met him when she stood by the side of the road waiting for him to pass so that she could petition him about the land that she was owed. He was so smitten with her beauty. She was rumored to be “the most beautiful woman in the island of Britain” with “Heavy-lidded eyes like those of a dragon”, that he immediately asked her to be his mistress.
And supposedly she played a card that would inspire Anne Boleyn two generations later, when she responded that she would not be his mistress, but would only be his wife. The second part may actually be true, but the meeting on the side of the road probably never took place. Elizabeth may have petitioned Edward for her lands, but she probably did it through a normal avenue. Her family had been popular at court under Henry VI, and she’d probably met Edward before, or at least had fairly easy access to him. Apparently, he also had visited her family home of Grafton when she was back living with her parents.
However, they got to know each other, her charms did work on Edward, and he proposed to her when she refused to become another royal conquest. For Elizabeth, a young widow with two children already, and a gigantic family of brothers and sisters, this was an irresistible offer, and they were married in May of 1464. But Edward was in a bit of a spot, as his cousin, the Earl of Warwick was negotiating a marriage for him with a French Princess, which would be good foreign policy. No English monarch had married a commoner since the conquest, especially one who had already been married and had children already.
And Edward stressed to Elizabeth, they had to keep the marriage a secret until he worked everything out with his cousin Warwick. And had it had also been seen as even more important that Edward marry a foreign princess because his reign was still so young, and Henry VI still had such support, and a foreign princess would have brought the promise of aid in case of a rebellion, as well as a large dowry, and the legitimacy that would have been seen from being married to a foreign princess.
No one can tell exactly what Elizabeth was thinking during this time, but it must have been very difficult for her, especially if she truly loved Edward. Rumors of his liaisons and affairs were all over court. And there were even those who had said that Edward already had another secret marriage. With her own marriage only having been witnessed by just her mother, it would have been impossible to prove that they really were married if Edward did deny it. Eventually, five long months after the secret wedding, Edward came out and told everyone that he had married Elizabeth, much to the chagrin of his cousin Warwick, because suddenly Warwick had egg on his face when it came to the French princess.
They say that when you marry someone, you marry their family as well. And the sudden rise of Elizabeth’s slew of brothers and sisters, not to mention her two other sons from her first marriage was enough to piss off all the nobles. “Those Woodvilles! They’re taking all the best marriages. They’re getting all the best wardships, and they really aren’t even all that noble, anyway.” Edward’s mother Cecily never accepted the marriage and did her best to try to have Edward back out. She was the proverbial “mother-in-law from hell”, no doubt that had a little bit to do with the fact that she was no longer the first lady at court, and now had to play second fiddle to a mere knight’s daughter.
I mean, can you imagine? The court fool even mentioned that he had a hard time getting anywhere these days because the rivers (Elizabeth’s father had been made Earl Rivers) “The ‘rivers’ had risen so high”.
This is when the rumors of witchcraft started in earnest. Elizabeth is still seen in popular culture as having bewitched Edward. After all, why would he have risked throwing everything away in order to be with her? Her mother Jacquetta would eventually be arrested and put on trial as a witch although fortunately, the charges didn’t stick. Warwick “The Kingmaker” went off to pout and started playing politics of his own. He married his oldest daughter to the Duke of Clarence, who was Edward’s younger brother, and he then started to lead an uprising against Edward to replace him with his son-in-law. That’s one of the reasons why he has the nickname “The Kingmaker”. He then marries his other daughter Anne Neville to Margaret of Anjou and Henry VI’s son, and he helps Margaret lead an uprising, which was a Lancastrian uprising. So there’s more fighting going on.
Edward briefly loses the crown and has to flee, and his queen Elizabeth Woodville has to take sanctuary for protection. Sadly, during all of this, Warwick was able to capture Elizabeth’s father and kill him without a trial. And this was also in the witchcraft charges which were brought against Jacquetta. But eventually, Edward wins and he comes back for his queen, and the family happiness was restored. The Duke of Clarence, Edward’s brother was eventually executed for treason, though several years later. And the Christmas dinner would probably have been pretty awkward around this time.
So when this big soap opera wasn’t going on, Elizabeth had babies. Her mother Jacquetta had been ridiculously fertile, having up to 14 children, and Elizabeth seems to have inherited these genes. In addition to her two sons from her first marriage, she also had 10 children with Edward. Seven of whom live to adulthood, including two sons, who would become the future “Princes in the Tower”. Although that’s another story for another episode. She had her last child when she was 43 in 1480. Edward and Elizabeth seem to have a happy marriage despite Edward’s notorious infidelities and mistresses. He trusted Elizabeth by naming her the principal executor of his will. And by all accounts, they had a very warm relationship, until Edward’s sudden death in 1483 of pneumonia.
Elizabeth had to keep her head on and didn’t have a lot of time for grief during this time, because she knew that her enemies would be out for blood now that she didn’t have Edward’s production. Despite the fact that she had been a queen, she was now very much alone. Her one big card was that she was the new king’s mother.
But when his uncle, Richard, who would become Richard III, had him put in the Tower for his protection, she lost that card. She fled with her children, including her second son into sanctuary. She seemed to spend a large percentage of her life in sanctuary. But she was eventually persuaded that she should part with her second son so that he could join his brother. And these were the Princes in the Tower, who eventually just disappeared. And of course, everyone thinks that Richard III had them murdered. But again, that’s another story.
So back to Elizabeth. The saga continues as Richard decides that the marriage between Edward and Elizabeth was void, because he had supposedly been pre-contracted before he married her, and that would mean that their children were illegitimate, and Richard, the final brother of Edward, would be the next king. Richard manipulated and played politics until he was crowned, and soon afterwards, Elizabeth’s two sons were not seen in the Tower any longer. While she was in sanctuary, Elizabeth and Margaret Beaufort hatched a plan to lead a rebellion against Richard, and then have Elizabeth of York, her oldest daughter, marry Henry Tudor.
This rebellion failed, but Richard found out about it. And he realized that Elizabeth and Margaret were in contact with each other. He put Margaret under house arrest with her husband, Lord Stanley, who we talked about last time. And he tried to entice Elizabeth to come out of sanctuary, he swore an oath that she would not be harmed if she left, and that he would make sure that her daughters were all married well.
So at this point, one wonders what happened to change the relationship between Elizabeth and Richard. Later on, Elizabeth would also write to her other son from her first marriage, who had been with Henry Tudor, and urged him to come home and make his peace with Richard. And indeed, there were even rumors circulating that Richard was going to marry Elizabeth of York, her eldest daughter, promised to Henry Tudor.
If I believe that someone had murdered my two sons, the last thing I would do is allow them to marry my daughter, and then to write to my other son and urge him to come home and make peace. So had something happened that led to the thought in her relationship with Richard, or did she just realize that she had very few options, and needed to recognize that Richard was likely the last king that England would ever see in her lifetime, and she should get on his good side? This is one of the biggest mysteries about Elizabeth Woodville. Why did she let her children out into his protection? And why did she even have her son come back to join the court?
But of course, Richard wouldn’t be the last king that England saw when Henry Tudor beat Richard in the Battle of Bosworth Field, and married Elizabeth of York, uniting the lines of Lancaster and York. Elizabeth made it clear that she wanted to live a quiet life. But there are rumors that she was banished from court for taking part in some of the early Yorkist rebellions against Henry VII. She received a pension of 400 pounds a year, which was generally paid late. And when she died, her will lamented the fact that she had so few possessions to leave her children, instead leaving them only with God’s blessing. She died in 1492 and is buried in Windsor next to her husband Edward IV, and she had a very simple funeral.
So that’s it for this week, except the book recommendation, which is The Women of the Cousins’ War, which is actually three essays, one each about Jacquetta, Margaret Beaufort, and Elizabeth Woodville. One of the essays is by Philippa Gregory, and I’ll admit that I’m not a huge fan of her historical fiction, but I really enjoyed her essay on Jacquetta, as well as the introduction where she talked about her writing style, and how she creates her novels. The other two essays are written by prominent historians as well, David Baldwin and Michael Jones. I’ll put a link up to purchase it on the blog.
You can also visit the blog to send me comments, story ideas, or other general thoughts and I’m adding some portraits of Elizabeth Woodville there, the address is https://www.englandcast.com or you can also find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/Englandcast. Thanks so much for listening. And I’ll be back next time with a history of the Hampton Court Palace, which became Henry VIII’s most famous palace. So Happy New Year, and I’ll speak with you soon. Bye, bye!
[advertisement insert here: if you like this show, and you want to support me and my work, the best thing you can do (and it’s free!) is to leave us a rating on iTunes. It really helps others discover the podcast. Second best is to buy Tudor-themed gifts for all your loved ones at my shop, at TudorFair.com, like leggings with the Anne Boleyn portrait pattern on them, or boots with Elizabeth I portraits. Finally, you can also become a patron of this show for as little as $1/episode at Patreon.com/englandcast … And thank you!]