Elizabeth Woodville

Elizabeth Woodville was born around 1437 in Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire. She was the eldest daughter of Richard Woodville, a wealthy landowner and knight, and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, a noblewoman who had been married to John, Duke of Bedford, the uncle of King Henry VI. Elizabeth was known for her beauty and her ,heavy-lidded eyes like those of a dragon, Elizabeth's first marriage was to Sir John Grey, a supporter of the Lancastrian cause in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars between the rival houses of Lancaster and York for the throne of England. They had two sons, Thomas and Richard. John Grey was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461, leaving Elizabeth a widow with little inheritance. Elizabeth's second marriage was to King Edward IV, the leader of the Yorkist faction, who had deposed Henry VI in 1461. The marriage was a secret and took place at her family home in Northamptonshire on 1 May 1464. Edward was the first king of England since the Norman Conquest to marry one of his subjects, and Elizabeth was the first such consort to be crowned queen. The marriage caused a scandal among the nobility, who resented Elizabeth's lowly origins and her large family, who benefited from royal patronage and marriages. Elizabeth's most formidable enemy was Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known as ,the Kingmaker, who had helped Edward to the throne but later turned against him. Elizabeth had ten children by Edward IV, including two sons who became known as the in the Tower, Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, and a daughter who became Queen Elizabeth of York, the wife of Henry VII and the mother of Henry VIII. Elizabeth also had three daughters from her first marriage who survived to adulthood: Anne Holland, Countess of Surrey; Mary Grey; and Catherine Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. After Edward IV's death in 1483, Elizabeth's brother-in-law Richard, Duke of Gloucester, usurped the throne as Richard III and declared Elizabeth's children illegitimate. Elizabeth took sanctuary at Westminster Abbey with her daughters and her youngest son Richard. Her eldest son Edward V was taken by Richard to the Tower of London, where he was joined by his brother Richard. The fate of the two princes remains a mystery, but they are widely believed to have been murdered on Richard's orders. Elizabeth then conspired with Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry Tudor, a Lancastrian claimant to the throne, to arrange a marriage between Henry and Elizabeth's daughter Elizabeth of York. This alliance helped Henry to defeat Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and become King Henry VII, thus ending the Wars of the Roses and founding the Tudor dynasty. Elizabeth Woodville retired to Bermondsey Abbey in London after Henry VII's coronation. She died there on 8 June 1492, possibly of plague. [4] She was buried with her husband Edward IV at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, but without much ceremony due to the fear of contagion. [4] She was the grandmother of Henry VIII and the great-grandmother of Elizabeth I. She was also the ancestor of many other monarchs, including Mary, Queen of Scots, James I, Charles I, George III, Victoria, and Elizabeth II.