Episode two of the White Queen on Sunday - and we should be heading to the proper history part of the story.  Once Elizabeth landed at court her every move was documented and to keep something secret was a day's work in itself.  We had a hint of some of the controversy she caused at the end of episode one - she was a commoner queen after all.  But was she? 

The bare facts tell little.  Elizabeth was born in Grafton Regis in Northamptonshire around 1437.  Some historians place her birth in autumn that year, around October, but the exact date isn't known. She grew up in Grafton (I've spent an idyllic day there, it really is very lovely in a very English way with endless tufty green trees and rolling fields) and turned into a beautiful young woman, called by some the prettiest in England.  The history books tells a simple story after that.  At the age of 15 she married John Grey, a knight of about the same social standing as he father.  They had two sons but as the Wars of the Roses engulfed England, her husband was called on to fight for the Lancastrian side and in 1461 he was killed at the Battle of St Albans.  Elizabeth was a widow at 24 and had to go home to her parents with her children as her husband's small fortune now belonged to his enemies in the House of York.  Three years later, aged 27, she stopped the York king by the roadside to beg for her husband's wealth to be returned to her and soon afterwards found herself Queen of England.

But was it really such a simple fairytale?  The idea of a this simple country family living a well to do, middle class existence in the English countryside before their beautiful daughter elevates them to royalty is appealing but misleading. 

For a start, Elizabeth's mother had pretty blue blood herself and some of the best social connections in the country. She was Jacquetta of Luxembourg, daughter of the ruler of that country and descended from King John of England through her mother.  Jacquetta, at birth, was linked to nobility in pretty much ever corner of Europe.  And that was before her first marriage - at just17 she was wed to John, Duke of Bedford, the uncle of King Henry VI of England.  He died two years later leaving her a very wealthy widow and not quite twenty. She fell in love with one of the commoners sent to bring her back to England and married the knight, Richard Woodville, in secret despite a law that meant she was supposed to ask the king's permission to wed again.  A fine of  1000 pounds barely dented her fortune and they lived a rather nice life in lovely Grafton and had fourteen children.

And then we come to Elizabeth's status when she married the king.  It's true there was no royal title for her but by then her father had a title of his own - Baron Rivers - awarded to him in 1448 by King Henry VI.  Richard and his family were staunch Lancastrians and more power and titles followed.  In 1450 he became a Knight of the Garter, a great honour, and was made Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1459.  This last honour is telling because it was one of the most important appointments in the country - the Cinque Ports were required to provide military support to the king at short notice in return for tax exemptions and running them as warden was a responsible position.  So in 1464, the poor widow at the roadside was in fact the daughter of one of the best connected and most influential women in Europe and a very powerful and trusted man.

There is also some dispute as to Elizabeth's own connections.  Rather than being the unfortunate and abandoned widow of legend, some historians link her to an Isabel Grey who was a maid of honour at the court of Queen Margaret, wife of Henry VI.  That great writer of Tudor history, Thomas More, proposed the theory and as he told much of that dynasty's tale with a real insider viewpoint could it be that Elizabeth spent time at court before marrying the king?  Later historians point out that there were at least three other women with that name more likely to be the maid of honour and that Isabel Grey is recorded at court in 1445 when Elizabeth was just 8 and still a Woodville - her marriage to her first husband took place in 1452.

So Elizabeth was more than just a poor widow who got lucky when she fluttered her eyelashes at the King.  She may have been a commoner but she had far more opportunity to win the heart of a king than most women in the land.  But she took that chance - and got a crown out of it.  And it's easy to forget just how hard that was.  This was more than a case of Mills and Boon romance.  Marrying the king was a job and there was a pretty select and determined field of candidates.  Edward had been king for three years when he wed Elizabeth and was established enough for European royal houses to consider him a suitable match for their princesses.

So on Sunday we move from love beneath the branches of the English countryside to power politics at court.  Pretty hard for a woman who was pregnant for most of the first decade of her marriage?  Coming next - how marriage and motherhood made a powerhouse of Elizabeth Woodville.