15
Elizabeth Woodville is remembered today as the mother of the princes in the Tower. She is often viewed as a tragic figure. Accounts of her life generally bear out the suggestion that she somehow caused her misfortune through her actions – that it was her own greed and ambition which led to the destruction of her family. With the exception of King John’s first wife, the ineffectual Isabella of Gloucester, Elizabeth Woodville was the first English queen of the post-conquest period. Her marriage caused a huge stir in England and throughout her lifetime Elizabeth Woodville was dogged by scandal. To many of her contemporaries it was unthinkable that the king would have freely chosen to marry a woman so far beneath him and there were rumours of witchcraft and seduction which marred Elizabeth’s reputation both during her lifetime and afterwards. Elizabeth’s detractors were simply unable to believe that the couple could have been motivated only by love and this criticism of Elizabeth was something that her greatest enemy, Richard III, was happy to publicise during his reign. Elizabeth Woodville’s life was one of great extremes, punctuated by triumph and despair. Her contemporaries believed that she simply overreached herself, causing her position to topple once her protector was dead. In reality, however, as an English queen without a powerful foreign family, when her husband died she was left helpless, an easy target for her political rivals.
Elizabeth Woodville was born in 1437 and was the daughter of Sir John Woodville and his wife, Jacquetta de St Pol, Duchess of Bedford.1 The marriage of Elizabeth’s own parents had caused a great scandal across Europe. Jacquetta was the daughter of the Count of St Pol, one of the greatest noblemen in Luxembourg. She was a descendant of Charlemagne and was married in 1433 to John, Duke of Bedford, the younger brother of Henry V. However the Duke of Bedford did not long survive his wedding, leaving Jacquetta a widow two years later. No one would have seriously thought that the Duchess of Bedford would remain single for long but she stunned all her contemporaries when she married Sir John Woodville, a member of her husband’s household and a man vastly beneath her in status. In spite of this, her second marriage appears to have been happy and she bore John thirteen children, of whom Elizabeth Woodville was the eldest.
Little evidence survives pertaining to Elizabeth’s childhood, although Thomas Moore claimed that she had been in the service of Margaret of Anjou during her youth.2 By the mid 1450s, she was married to Sir John Grey. The couple probably lived at Grey’s manor at Astley in Warwickshire and had two children, Thomas born around 1455 and Richard in the late 1450s.3 Grey was an eldest son and a good match for Elizabeth and they may have been happy together. The marriage was destined to be short-lived however and on 17 February 1461, Sir John Grey was killed fighting for the Lancastrians at the second battle of St Albans.4
The death of her husband must have been a major blow for Elizabeth and she probably feared for the future. A further blow was dealt a few weeks later when her father and eldest brother were captured by the Yorkists fighting for the Lancastrians at Towton.5Following these disasters, Elizabeth returned to her mother at Grafton with her two young sons. The defeat of the Lancastrians at Towton also left Elizabeth in considerable financial straits due to the ensuing confiscation of her Lancastrian family’s estates. At some point, following her return home, she devised a way to present a petition to Edward IV whilst he was hunting in the area.6 According to some reports, she positioned herself under an oak tree with her sons. Elizabeth Woodville was very beautiful and Edward fell in love with her at first sight.
Elizabeth’s contemporary, Dominic Mancini wrote that marriage was not the first thing which Edward had on his mind when he fell for the young widow:
When the king first fell in love with her beauty of person and charm of manner, he could not corrupt her virtue by gifts or menaces. The story runs that when Edward placed a dagger at her throat, to make her submit to his passion, she remained unperturbed and determined to die rather than live unchastely with the king. Whereupon Edward coveted her much the more, and he judged the lady worthy to be a royal spouse, who could not be overcome in her constancy even by an infatuated king.7
When he first saw her, Edward wanted Elizabeth to be his mistress. This was a position of honour in medieval England and he must have been surprised at her refusal, perhaps even resorting to threatening rape with a dagger. Elizabeth, however, as the daughter of the Duchess of Bedford, considered the status of royal mistress beneath her own, apparently saying ‘that as she wist herself too simple to be his wife, so thought she herself too good to be his concubine’.8 It seems unlikely that Elizabeth considered marriage a possibility at the beginning of her relationship with Edward but she may have hoped to gain the return of her husband’s estates through his infatuation with her. She must have been surprised and flattered when it became clear that Edward wished to marry her.
The exact date and location of Elizabeth’s second marriage is unknown, although it may have been on 1 May 1464.9 It appears to have been an impulsive move and both were forced to keep it secret for some time. Elizabeth was the first English woman to marry the king since the Norman conquest and both Elizabeth and Edward must have realised that it would cause consternation in England. Edward may have not considered the consequences of the marriage properly. It was inappropriate and was later used to bolster accusations of witchcraft against Elizabeth and her mother. Edward had also not seen fit to inform his most powerful magnate, the Earl of Warwick, who was in France arranging a marriage between Edward and the sister-in-law of the King of France.10Following Warwick’s return, Edward was forced to admit at a council meeting that he was, in fact, already married and had been for some time.
When news of Elizabeth and Edward’s marriage was made public, there was universal disapproval. Edward’s mother, Cecily Neville, apparently objected that Elizabeth was not good enough for him.11 She is also supposed to have claimed that he was not the son of her husband, the Duke of York but instead the result of an adulterous affair.12 Whilst this appears merely to have been an impulsive statement made by the irate duchess, the comment sowed a seed that would bear fruit nearly twenty years later. Edward’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence also objected to the marriage, saying that Edward should have married a virgin, rather than a widow with children.13 By far the most serious opponent to the match was Warwick who was angered at the failure of his marriage negotiations in France. The secret marriage of Edward and Elizabeth caused a rift between Edward and Warwick which eventually resulted in open war between them.
Elizabeth is unlikely to have taken objections to her marriage too seriously. She was already Edward’s wife and must have felt that they had presented objectors with a fait accompli. Edward also fully supported his wife and made plans for a lavish coronation for her. Attempts were made to stress Elizabeth’s grand continental connections. In January 1465 Edward sent envoys to the Duke of Burgundy to arrange for Elizabeth’s uncle, Jacques of Luxembourg and a Burgundian entourage to attend Elizabeth’s coronation.14Elizabeth also adopted a coat of arms incorporating those of St Pol and other maternal connections. Elizabeth’s coronation was delayed in order to allow time for her foreign relatives to arrive and she was finally crowned in a glittering ceremony on 26 May 1465.15In spite of this, most considered the new queen an upstart. Elizabeth, however, must have felt triumphant and she quickly set about sharing some of her good fortune with her relatives.
Elizabeth has always had a reputation for greed and much of this stems from the series of marriages that she arranged for her siblings once she was queen. Elizabeth’s sisters were married in quick succession to the Earls of Essex and Kent, the wealthy Lord Strange and the heir of Lord Herbert. Her youngest sister Catherine also secured one of the most prestigious matches in England when she was married in her infancy to the young Duke of Buckingham.16 She also arranged rich marriages for her brothers and in February 1467 Elizabeth paid Edward’s sister, the Duchess of Exeter, for the marriage of her daughter and heiress to her eldest son Thomas Grey. These marriages were resented by many of the nobility in England as the sheer number of Elizabeth’s siblings effectively flooded the aristocratic marriage market. Warwick in particular was angered by Thomas Grey’s marriage as the king’s niece had previously been betrothed to his nephew, George Neville.17 Elizabeth’s activity on behalf of her siblings and sons severely damaged her reputation amongst the jealous nobility. However, she could not have arranged these marriages without the support of other members of the nobility; Edward’s sister, the Duchess of Exeter, could hardly have been forced into treating Elizabeth the way she did on the marriage of her daughter. Elizabeth was fond of her family and it is natural that she would want them to share in her good fortune. The sheer number of her siblings however and the fact that many more established families saw the Woodvilles as upstarts led to an underhand campaign against the queen across much of the nobility.
Elizabeth had already proved herself able to bear healthy children before her marriage to Edward and she quickly conceived by him. Her eldest child by Edward, Elizabeth of York, was born on 11 February 1465 and was quickly followed by two other daughters.18 The sex of these children must have been a disappointment to their parents but Edward does not seem to have blamed Elizabeth. She was a fond mother who liked to keep her family around her, appointing a number of her relatives to her household staff. Her brother John Woodville was her master of horse and her sister-in-law, Lady Scales was a lady-in-waiting.19 These appointments caused further resentment but Elizabeth ignored the illfeeling, perhaps believing that with Edward’s protection no ill could befall her. She would have been well aware of the hostility of much of the nobility towards her and it is therefore not surprising that she chose to surround herself with friendly figures, regardless of the fact that this caused further discontent.
Elizabeth quickly took to her role as queen and her marriage with Edward was happy. Nevertheless she must never have been able to forget that Edward was a usurping king and that there were always factions in England working against him. Warwick and Clarence had always opposed her marriage. By 1469 their latent hostility had developed into outright rebellion. Elizabeth was visiting Norwich with her daughters when Warwick and Clarence launched an attack on the king. Events moved quickly and Edward’s forces were heavily defeated at the Battle of Edgecote on 26 July.20 Warwick seized the initiative that this victory afforded and quickly captured Edward IV near Nottingham, taking him as a prisoner to his castle at Middleham. This must have been a blow for Elizabeth and she was probably terrified about what would befall her husband. An even greater blow was dealt when news reached Elizabeth at Norwich that her father and brother John Woodville had been captured by Warwick’s forces near Coventry and executed without trial. Elizabeth must have plunged into mourning and she would have despaired for the future.
There can have been no doubt in anyone that Warwick and Clarence’s attacks were aimed against the Woodvilles. Soon after Elizabeth’s return to London, her mother was publicly charged with witchcraft.21 As the fate of Jacquetta’s own sister-in-law Eleanor Cobham had shown, such a charge could be disastrous and Elizabeth would have been aware of the dissent around London against both her and her mother. Some of the claims were of enchantments that Jacquetta used to persuade the king to marry her daughter, again highlighting Elizabeth’s extreme unpopularity and the suggestion that she was unworthy to be a queen. Elizabeth and Jacquetta must have spent a tense time until, finally, they heard that Warwick had been forced to release Edward. Elizabeth must have been glad to be reunited with her husband and to have his protection again. Any sense of triumph would have been short-lived. Following a brief exile, Warwick and Clarence returned to England allied with the Lancastrians in September 1470, with an army, and intent on deposing Edward IV.
Edward quickly realised that the Lancastrians were too strong and fled to Burgundy from Kings Lynn, abandoning his family. Elizabeth was in London when news reached her of Warwick’s invasion and it must have been with a sinking heart that she realised that Edward was once again unable to protect her. Unwilling to simply surrender, Elizabeth began to provision the Tower to withstand a siege.22 Warwick was too strong and by early October Elizabeth, her mother and daughters had entered the sanctuary at Westminster Abbey.23 Soon afterwards, Warwick entered the city and removed Henry VI from the prison in the Tower to the rooms Elizabeth had prepared in the same fortress for her own confinement. From inside the sanctuary, Elizabeth and her mother must have heard the commotion that the restoration of Henry VI entailed with despair. Elizabeth probably feared that she would be forcibly removed from the sanctuary at any time and must have been relieved to discover that the new regime had decided to leave her untouched. As a queen without strong foreign connections, there was little Elizabeth could do but wait and see what direction events took.
Elizabeth had been in sanctuary for several weeks when she gave birth to her first son by Edward.24 A small christening was arranged for the infant in Westminster Abbey with the Abbot and Prior of the Abbey standing as godfathers and Lady Scrope as godmother. These sponsors were a far cry from the foreign royalty the eldest son of a king could usually expect for his godparents. Elizabeth and Jacquetta appear to have made the best of their time in sanctuary and it is likely that Elizabeth relied on her mother considerably. The sanctuary was small and it must have been uncomfortable for the women sharing a space with three young girls and a newborn baby. They would have pinned all their hopes on Edward obtaining sufficient support abroad to try to win back his crown, or at the very least rescue his family.
Edward had been working hard to gain support on the continent and eventually on 11 March 1471 he sailed for England with an army. He made swift progress through England. On 11 April, he was admitted to London by the townspeople.25 Henry VI was quickly returned to the Tower and Elizabeth, her mother and children emerged from sanctuary. The meeting between Edward and Elizabeth must have been emotional, with Elizabeth proud to show Edward their baby son. She was probably relieved to be able to move freely around London for the first time in months and to assume her role as queen again. Despite her optimism, however, Elizabeth would have been aware that Edward had not yet won the country back. After capturing Henry VI and releasing Elizabeth, he again marched out of London at the head of an army, this time to confront Warwick at Barnet. Elizabeth must have had an anxious wait for news on the day of the battle and must have been relieved to hear of Edward’s victory. This was followed on 4 May 1471 by the defeat of Margaret of Anjou at Tewkesbury, leaving Edward secure once more on his throne.
Elizabeth appears to have quickly settled back into her role as queen. As before, she played a major role in the upbringing of her children and in 1473 she accompanied her son Edward to Ludlow so that he could rule as Prince of Wales.26 Edward was still only two years old and it was Elizabeth who effectively ruled the principality. She also appointed the Prince’s council while she was there, filling the leading positions with her brother, Earl Rivers, and son, Richard Grey. Elizabeth was back with her son in London in summer 1475 when Edward IV assembled an army to invade France. It is a mark of his confidence in her abilities that he appointed her as the effective ruler of England in his absence by placing their son, the nominal regent, in her care. Edward’s campaign in France proved to be brief, but Elizabeth must have been glad of the trust Edward placed in her.
Edward IV was a notorious womaniser and took numerous mistresses throughout his marriage which Elizabeth deliberately ignored. Elizabeth was five years older than Edward and it is a mark of her personal qualities and attractions that she was able to retain his love until his death. Elizabeth bore her youngest child, Bridget, in November 1480, when she was 43, demonstrating that she and Edward still enjoyed a close and loving marriage. It is possible that Edward enjoyed the happy family atmosphere that Elizabeth brought him when his own brothers were often at odds. By Christmas 1482 Edward’s health was deteriorating and it is likely that Elizabeth quickly became concerned about him. He died on 9 April 1483, a death hastened by his overindulgence in food and drink.27
Elizabeth must have been grief-stricken at Edward’s death yet realising that there was a great deal to be done to ensure the smooth succession of her son. According to the Crowland Continuations, Edward IV’s council attended Elizabeth at Westminster soon after Edward’s death in order to arrange Edward V’s journey to London.28 The Woodvilles were still perceived with suspicion in England. The council feared that Edward V would be brought to London with a large force in order to enforce the Woodville’s rule. This was put to Elizabeth at the council meeting and she agreed to write to Edward to instruct him to bring no more than 2,000 men.29 Elizabeth probably later came to regret her willingness to allay the council’s fears, but in April 1483 she had nothing to fear. Edward V’s accession had been uncontested and Elizabeth was content to wait in London for her son to arrive.
Edward V set out for London soon after news of his father’s death reached him in Wales. He made steady progress and on arriving in Stony Stratford his escorts heard that his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Buckingham had arrived at Northampton.30 Elizabeth’s brother Earl Rivers with Elizabeth’s son Sir Richard Grey rode out to meet the two dukes and the four spent a pleasant evening together, feasting and drinking.31 They agreed to spend the night at the dukes’ camp and in the morning were horrified to find that they had been placed under arrest in the night. With Rivers and Grey imprisoned, Gloucester and Buckingham rode to intercept the king at Stony Stratford. They told the young king that they had arrested his uncle and half-brother because they and his elder half-brother, Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset had planned to rule the country through him.32 The young king protested their innocence but there was little the boy could do. Gloucester and Buckingham took control of his progress to London.33
Elizabeth Woodville heard the news of Gloucester’s coup just after midnight the following day.34 She and Dorset immediately:
Began collecting an army, to defend themselves and to set free the young king from the clutches of the dukes. But when they exhorted certain nobles who had come to the city, and others, to take up arms, they perceived that men’s minds were not only irresolute, but altogether hostile to themselves.35
It must have been a shock to Elizabeth to realise just how unpopular she had become and she may have realised, perhaps for the first time, just how vulnerable Edward’s death had left her. Certainly, without the support of the people of London, there was little Elizabeth could do except gather her children and flee into sanctuary at Westminster. Elizabeth must have been appalled to find herself once again in need of the church’s sanctuary and conditions, which this time with two sons and near-adult daughters, must have been very uncomfortable. She must have felt alone and her contemporaries seem to have believed she was acting unreasonably. The following day, for example, the Chancellor visited her in sanctuary and gave her the great seal, to demonstrate that there was no threat to her position.36 This may have been some comfort to her, but soon afterwards the Chancellor came to her again. He had been sent by Gloucester to obtain the surrender of her youngest son, Richard, Duke of York.37
The Chancellor tried to persuade Elizabeth to acquiesce by arguing that Edward V needed his brother’s company. She replied that it would be better for both boys to be with their mother then attacked Gloucester verbally for keeping her son away from her. The Chancellor, clearly believing that Richard meant the children no harm, offered Elizabeth a pledge for her youngest son’s safety. According to Thomas Moore, Elizabeth replied that ‘each of these children is the other’s defence while they be asunder, and each of their lives lie in the other’s body. Keep one safe and both be sure, and nothing for them both more perilous than to be both in one place’.38 Elizabeth feared that Gloucester meant to gain control over her sons and kill them. The sanctuary had already been surrounded by soldiers, however, and Elizabeth must have feared that Gloucester would forcibly enter the sanctuary to remove them all. She therefore kissed her youngest son and, weeping, handed him over to the Chancellor.39 For a fond mother like Elizabeth, this must have been the most traumatic event of her life.
Events moved quickly following the surrender of the Duke of York. Six days later on 22 June, a sermon was preached at Paul’s Cross calling Edward IV a bastard and claiming that he and Elizabeth had never actually been married.40 Gloucester claimed that Edward had been precontracted to Eleanor Butler before his marriage to Elizabeth and that his marriage had never been valid.41 This claim never seems to have been widely believed and Elizabeth is likely to have been incredulous at the suggestion. Most people in England seem to have seen it for the pretext it was, allowing Gloucester to remove his young nephew and claim the throne as Richard III. Soon after Richard III’s accession, Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York disappeared into the Tower and were never seen again. It was widely believed that Richard ordered their murders soon after his coronation and Elizabeth is also likely to have believed that he murdered her sons. It is very likely that he followed the precedent set by all other English usurping kings and murdered his predecessor.
Elizabeth must have been horrified at her predicament, having gone from being Queen of England to merely Dame Elizabeth Grey over the course of a few weeks. However she was not beaten but quickly began plotting against the new king. At a council meeting a few days before his accession, Richard III had accused Elizabeth of using sorcery against him together with Edward IV’s mistress, Jane Shore.42 This was not the first accusation of sorcery against Elizabeth and it would have further damaged her already poor reputation, something of which Richard III would have been very much aware. Whilst it seems unlikely that Elizabeth and Jane Shore were using witchcraft to injure Richard, she did begin plotting with Lady Margaret Beaufort soon after her son’s deposition. Lady Margaret Beaufort was a descendant of John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III. Her only child, Henry Tudor, was the leading Lancastrian claimant and had been in exile on the continent for a number of years. Elizabeth and Margaret shared a physician and he carried messages between the two women who both had good reason to despise Richard III.43 Margaret, with the consent of her son, promised that he would marry Elizabeth’s eldest daughter Elizabeth of York if Elizabeth Woodville would support Henry’s bid for the throne. Excited by the prospect of a throne for her daughter, Elizabeth agreed.
Elizabeth and her son, Dorset, were heavily involved in the rebellion which broke out in October 1483, aimed at deposing Richard III. The rebellion involved uprisings throughout England and an invasion by Henry Tudor from Brittany. Elizabeth must have been eager for news in her sanctuary and would have been distraught to learn of Richard’s decisive action to confront the rebels. Henry Tudor’s fleet was scattered by storms and returned, beaten, to Brittany. Elizabeth must have felt that her last hope of removing Richard from the throne had passed.
Elizabeth was more than ten years older than Richard and she must have considered it unlikely that she would live to see another king on the throne. At some point Elizabeth accepted that for her daughters’ future, as well as her own, she had to make terms with Richard III and leave sanctuary. After obtaining promises from Richard that he would do her and her daughters no harm, Elizabeth left sanctuary. Throughout her life, Elizabeth was very resourceful and it is likely that she accepted this situation as the best that she could hope for. At some point, she is known to have written to Dorset in France to recommend that he abandon Henry Tudor and return home to England.44 Elizabeth probably lived quietly, visiting court on state and family occasions. It seems likely that she knew and approved of Richard’s scheme to marry her daughter, Elizabeth of York. However, again, her hopes of a crown for her daughter were dashed and Elizabeth must have resigned herself to living out her life in obscurity.
Elizabeth Woodville’s fortunes changed again in August 1485. She was living in London when Henry Tudor launched a second invasion of England, having sworn before he left to marry Elizabeth of York. Elizabeth must have watched his progress with interest and, in spite of her reconciliation with Richard III, she must have been pleased to hear of his death in battle. Richard had been responsible for the deaths of three of her four sons, as well as her brother; even after making terms with him she cannot have been sorry to hear of his death. Soon after Henry VII’s accession, the Act invalidating Elizabeth’s marriage was repealed by parliament – a satisfying vindication for Elizabeth.
After the marriage of Elizabeth of York and Henry VII, Elizabeth Woodville appeared to settle down into life as queen dowager. As the mother of the queen and not the king, however, Elizabeth appears to have resented being given less prominence in Henry’s regime than his own mother, Margaret Beaufort and it has been suggested that she began to conspire against him. The early years of Henry’s reign were plagued by pretenders to his crown and one of the most dangerous was Lambert Simmnel. He was a boy who had been taught to impersonate first Richard, Duke of York and then Clarence’s son, the Earl of Warwick. He was a particularly convincing pretender and, according to Francis Bacon:
So that it cannot be, but that some great person that knew particularly and familiarly Edward Plantagenet [Warwick], had a hand in the business, from whom the priest might take his aim. That which is most probable, out of precedent and subsequent acts, is, that it was the Queen Dowager, from whom this action had the principle source and motion. For certain it is, she was a busy negotiating woman, and in her withdrawing-chamber had the fortunate conspiracy for the king against King Richard the third been hatched; which the king knew, and remembered perhaps but too well; and was at this time extremely discontent with the king, thinking her daughter, as the king handled the matter, not advanced but displeased: and none could hold the book so well to prompt and instruct this stageplay as she could.45
In this account, Elizabeth is portrayed as a conniving woman and there is no doubt that throughout her life Elizabeth was implicated in conspiracies and other underhand political dealings. As the facts of her life show, however, without the protection of a powerful foreign family she was forced to plot in order to ensure the security of herself and her family. There were rumours that Henry VII did not treat his wife, who had after all been the heiress of England, exactly as he should have. Elizabeth as a fond mother may well have been anxious to ensure her daughter’s position. Elizabeth Woodville herself had also suffered attacks on her position during Richard III’s reign and it is therefore not surprising that she was fearful of a loss of influence during the reign of his successor. Elizabeth Woodville never had enough political influence to enable her to change her situation openly and she was therefore forced into conspiracies throughout her widowhood.
As soon as the plot became known to Henry he seized Elizabeth’s property and sent her to the convent at Bermondsey, officially claiming it as punishment for her delivering her daughters into Richard III’s custody.46 The rebellion was soon destroyed by Henry but he does not seem to have forgiven Elizabeth and she lived quietly for the rest of her life, dying at Bermondsey on 8 June 1492 at the age of fifty-five.47 She was given a quiet funeral, attended by Dorset and some of her daughters, and was buried beside her second husband, Edward IV.
Elizabeth Woodville had one of the most eventful lives of any medieval queen, marked by great highs and lows. Certainly, much of this turmoil was caused by the era in which she lived and her contemporary, Margaret of Anjou, cannot be said to have been much happier. Elizabeth was attacked during her lifetime for her marriage; in this and the marriages that she arranged for her family she was seen as greedy and grasping. During the tumultuous events of 1483, Elizabeth appears as a wailing Cassandra, foreseeing all too clearly what would occur and unable to make herself believed. She was also criticised for her decision to make terms with Richard III and then for her plot against Henry VII. However, it is difficult to see how any of this was really Elizabeth’s fault and it appears almost as if Elizabeth’s contemporaries, in seeking to see her as the architect in her own ruin, were trying to distance themselves from their own parts in the acceptance of Richard III and deposition of Edward V. Elizabeth Woodville did not set out to marry Edward IV but it is hard to blame her for accepting such a glittering marriage when it was offered to her. She and Edward also appear to have been happy and mere ambition is unlikely to have driven Elizabeth’s actions. She was also envied and disparaged from the start of her queenship and it is therefore easy to see why she sought to raise her relatives to positions where they could keep her company. It is also clear that, for all the criticism of Elizabeth, there was a time during Edward IV’s reign when a Woodville marriage was desirable and it is hardly Elizabeth’s fault that, in a time of high infant mortality, so many of her siblings survived to adulthood. As an Englishwoman, Elizabeth was easy to attack. Her parents could not threaten an invasion or lobby the Pope in her support as the families of foreign-born queens could. Ultimately she was an easy target for bullying and neutralisation, as both Richard III and Henry VII discovered. That Elizabeth still sought to improve her position and that of her children in the face of this treatment is hardly unacceptable, even if she did sometimes employ underhand methods. No one could have predicted the life Elizabeth Woodville would lead at her birth. Edward IV’s marriage, as the first to an English commoner since the Norman conquest, set a precedent that would be followed enthusiastically by the couple’s grandson, Henry VIII.