Tonight on The White Queen we'll see Elizabeth Woodville's family start to reap the rewards of having a sister on the throne of England. It was one of the reasons Elizabeth never really won the hearts of her people - they saw the whole family as making far too much out of the whole marriage.
She wasn't the first queen to face the accusation but it seemed to stick to her far more. Eleanor of Provence and Eleanor of Castile were both accused of bringing friends and relations to court in unreasonable numbers and rewarding them with things like titles, land and money that should have gone to other, older families.
But they both had the advantage of being royal - even if they were members of foreign ruling families. Elizabeth Woodville's family were seen as the ultimate leeches because they relied totally on their royal connections for their advancement. The same criticisms were leveled at the families of other commoner queens - the Boleyns, the Seymours and the Howards. Of Henry VIII's wives, only Catherine Parr's family escaped so much censure but they were very discreet in their self advancement and were happier to settle for more money and status rather than looking to control the kingdom itself.
It will be interesting to see how the programme handles the issue of the Woodvilles' epic social climbing....whether it will be seen as self made men and women doing well for themselves or a greedy landgrab that went too far.
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