A new princess challenges for headlines

The latest installment of Philippa Gregory's books on the women of the Wars of the Roses is out today.  It focuses on Elizabeth of York - the girl who could have been Queen Regnant of England but who let her own claim to the throne go to become Queen Consort.  But in so doing she seemingly wrote herself out of history.  She may have been the wife of Henry VII and the mother of Henry VIII but she very little is known about her.

Elizabeth of York was queen of England not that you'd know it without a good search - she was all but erased from history and a lot of the whitewashing came from her own family

The Tudors basically erased her from history.  They could do PR better than anyone and for some reason, Elizabeth didn't make the grade. She comes down to us from them as a pretty face, a perfect mother, a much loved wife but not much more.  There's little flesh on these historical bones and hardly anything to tell us what kind of person she was.  For the Tudors, her role was to provide the heirs who would take the dynasty into a new era.  And job done, she disappears.

 

The famous portrait by Remegius that shows the founders of the Tudor line.  Commissioned in his lifetime by Henry VIII, it represents the four pillars of what he hoped would be a dynasty.  Elizabeth of York is back right behind Jane Seymour while Henry VII stands behind his son, Henry VIII

But why?  Who was Elizabeth and what was it about her that made her fade from the scene faster than the white rose petals of her father's house?

1.  She was an unambitious woman thrust into the limelight against her will

Given her parentage, her grandparentage and the behavior of her children, it's hard to believe that this woman born to a king and queen of England had no drive at all.  Her dad was Edward IV, a man so ambitious he led armies, had his own brother executed and is rumoured to have smothered a king to death.  Then there was mum.  Elizabeth Woodville went from widowed commoner to queen of England in less than six months and she grabbed a host of wealthy husbands and wives for her siblings into the bargain. 

Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville - they liked power and they made sure they had it

On her father's side she was descended from Richard, Duke of York who fought tooth and nail for the crown of England and almost won it and Cecily Neville who was known for her pride, her temper and her determination.  Cecily was descended from John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford - he was the founder of the Lancastrian line of kings while she was a mistress who landed her man in the end and had her children legitimized in the process. 

On her mother's side there was Jacquetta of Luxembourg who landed a royal duke and then when she was widowed young and left wealthy in the process, married a commoner she fancied and held firm against her critics to get the rules around marriage changed.  And while that commoner, Sir Richard Woodville, gets less press you need a fair dose of ambition to risk everything by marrying against your king's wishes. 

So Elizabeth had ambition flowing through her veins on all sides.  And yet she shows none at all from 1485 onwards when her husband, Henry Tudor, wins the crown at the Battle of Bosworth.

2.  She was hiding the shame of her teenage years

Elizabeth of York was famous for one thing before she married Henry Tudor, by then King of England, in January 1486.  And that was being the centre of rumours that she was happy to marry his predecessor as king, Richard III.  Richard may have been her uncle and still married to Anne Neville when the gossip started but once it began, it took on a life of its own.

Anne Neville had to listen to gossip that her husband was planning to replace her with their niece as she became increasingly ill in the summer of 1484

 

In the summer of 1484 Elizabeth's brothers, Edward and Richard, had disappeared and uncle Richard had had them and all of the siblings declared illegitimate.  He was, according to himself and the laws he passed, the undoubted king of England.  And while his wife was queen, they had no heir and no chance of another as Queen Anne was ill and most likely dying.  And soon tongues were wagging that the uncle was paying a bit too much attention to his niece and that she didn't really mind at all.

There had always been rumours that Elizabeth's father was actually illegitimate.  While his father acknowledged him as his son, the whispers were that his mother had actually had an affair with an archer and Edward was the result.  Whether that influenced Elizabeth and made her think a marriage to Richard was a possibility isn't clear.  But the king was forced to issue strong denials that he had any plans to wed Elizabeth.  And when Anne died he opened very loud marriage negotiations for the hand of a Portuguese princess.

 

Did Richard III really make advances towards his niece?

So did Elizabeth keep a low profile to keep from gossips resurrecting what was an embarrassing teenage incident by all accounts? 

3.  She preferred to rule through her husband

She'd seen her mother do it and maybe getting Henry to do what she wanted while playing the loving wife was the easiest and best way to power.

Elizabeth Woodville may have been queen consort but there were enough people who believed she was in charge of her husband and his policies to make her dangerous enemies.  In fact, men waged war over her influence.  The Earl of Warwick switched back to Lancaster in part to counter Elizabeth and her family while Richard III cited the power of the Woodvilles as his reason for taking his nephew, Edward V, into custody soon after he succeeded Edward IV.

 

Paul Delaroche's famous painting of the Princes in the Tower.  Richard III took them into custody to stop the influence of their mother's family, the Woodvilles

Elizabeth of York's pattern of marriage was a strong woman influencing a strong man.  Perhaps Henry and Elizabeth had just learned from the past.  They may have helped each other far more than we know but for PR reasons, made it look as if Henry wore the trousers.

4.  She was overpowered by the King's Mother, Margaret Beaufort

Margaret had been waiting years for a taste of the top job and the idea that she would give way to anyone, let alone the daughter of Elizabeth Woodville, is not really viable.  She had worked hard to counter the remaining Yorkist threat by negotiating the marriage between Henry and Elizabeth and once the ring was on the York princess' finger, there was no way Margaret was letting her have a sniff of power. 

Margaret Beaufort was never Queen of England but she made her son the country's king and exercised considerable power as the monarch's mother

 

Margaret refused to walk too far behind the new queen and took to signing her name Margaret R. which could quite easily have represented 'Regina' or queen.  And she was given power by her son which only increased as his reign went on.

As mothers in law go, Margaret was hard going.  Maybe Elizabeth just wanted an easy life.

5.  She was the victim of a PR campaign by her son and grandchildren

Henry VII needed to rule in his own right.  He had won the Battle of Bosworth but while he was Lancastrian claimant to the throne, Elizabeth of York had just as good a claim - if not better.  Her son, Henry VIII, believed in men ruling and he needed to be seen to take his power from his father.  Any question that the Tudors were kings of England because they had inherited a crown through Elizabeth didn't suit the story.  And when Henry's strong willed daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, did become queen regnants they, too, kept the line that their line came from Henry VII alive.

Elizabeth I was named after her grandmother, Elizabeth of York.  Could a woman as seemingly unambitious as the queen consort produce a descendant with so much fire in her belly?

 

And that brings us back to ambition.  Elizabeth was the descendant of determined people and her own descendants showed ambition that remains unrivalled in royal history.  So why this one woman in the middle was so demure is a mystery that perhaps will never be solved.

The White Princess by Philippa Gregory is published on August 1st 2013 in the United Kingdom.  More on Philippa Gregory's website.