We know the 80s are back but now we have royal proof and I'm loving it. Princess Marie-Caroline of Liechtenstein, who was born in the mid 90s, got married in Vaduz in a dress that might have come straight from a Kate Bush video.
The women who have worn the crown: their lives, their loves, their stories. England and elsewhere, princesses sometimes too with dashes of all kinds of royal.
Showing posts with label princess. Show all posts
Showing posts with label princess. Show all posts
Sunday, 31 August 2025
Monday, 14 April 2025
Princess Ines of Sweden to be christened on her mum and dad's wedding anniversary
It's a rather special wedding anniversary this year for one royal couple and for more than one reason. Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia are celebrating ten years of marriage and to really put the cherry on top of their anniversary cake, they are having their youngest child baptised on the same day.
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Pick and mix Queens of England
Baby Cambridge is imminent - mid July is here and about to turn into the later half of the month so we can confidently expect a third in line to the throne any moment now. And that leaves just enough time to have a quick look at the names only ever used by one queen consort of England, a kind of pick and mix of royal peculiarities. And several of them were very peculiar.
House of Norman - Adeliza
Adeliza of Louvain - no babies with her elderly king but a whole castle full with hubby number two
Adeliza of Louvain - another Adela/ Adelaide/ Adelheid type name that crops up far more than imagined in royal history. This one was wife number two of Henry number one and the first proper royal baby making machine. Henry married her in 1121 just after the death of his only male legitimate heir, William, in the White Ship disaster. The great king only had a daughter to leave his crown to so within months of William's loss, he had married young, pretty, healthy Adeliza. And for the next fourteen years they tried to provide England with another heir. But although Henry had had at least three children with his first wife and dozens of illegitimate children, no royal babies arrived.
He died in 1135 and had that been the end of the story everyone could have blamed Adeliza and that would have been that. But Adeliza claimed another first. She was the first queen consort of England to remarry and in 1138 she married William d'Aubigny, one of Henry's main advisers. The couple had seven children, the last born when the queen dowager was in her early forties. She died in a convent in 1151.
House of Lancaster - Joanna of Navarre
Joanna of Navarre married Henry IV when they were both middle aged and he had three adult sons to inherit his crown. She was the first queen of England to have absolutely no pressure on her to produce children.
Joanna of Navarre is unique in English royal history. By the time she married her king both of them had been married before and both had provided a long line of heirs for their respective titles. So Joanna had no pressure to produce babies, no worries about giving her king a son to wear his crown. Hers was a second marriage made in royal heaven and she seems to have thoroughly
enjoyed it.
She met the man who would make her a queen when he was still trying to be a king and she was married to someone else. Henry Bolingbroke was in exile in France and ended up at the court of the Duke of Brittany where Joanna was in charge as the ducal consort. In 1399 Henry returned to England to battle for the crown and by September he had won it. Joanna's husband died two months later, leaving her regent for their ten year old son. But in 1402 the new king and the dowager duchess married by proxy and a year later Joanna left her now fourteen year old son as Duke of Brittany and headed across the Channel to become Queen of England.
There she found a court with four princes in their early teens ready to inherit their father's throne and Joanna, now 37, set about enjoying being queen. She also enjoyed a good relationship with the four boys so it must have been a surprise to say the least when, after Henry IV's death in 1413, the eldest of them had her arrested on suspicion of witchcraft. Joanna ended up being locked away in Pevensey Castle and deprived of the rich lands which were hers by right as queen dowager. She was finally released and died in 1437 in Essex.
House of Stuart - Henrietta Maria
Henrietta Maria of France was daughter of a king, sister of a king, wife of a king, mother of two kings and grandmother of two queen regnants and another king
Henrietta Maria had one of the most unusual names in British royal history but was always known as Mary, one of the most ordinary in the land. And yet her life story is anything but ordinary. She had royal pedigree and royal progeny that remains unmatched and yet her reign was unhappy and her life as dowager perhaps even sadder. And despite counting five monarchs among her children and grandchildren, her line lost the crown of England within fifty years of her death.
Henrietta Maria was the daughter of Henri IV of France and his wife Marie - one of the Medicis. But she was only about one when her father was assassinated and her brother became Louis XIII. Marie de Medici was regent of France for the next seven years but by then she was deeply unpopular and Louis was deeply unhappy with her and she was banned from court. Two years later Henrietta's elder sister married leaving her as the top woman in the French court. And within a few years Louis' little sister had nabbed a crown of her own when she married England's new king, Charles I.
But Henrietta was never popular at her new court. Xenophobia led to this French queen beginning her reign on a sticky wicket and her cold personality and devotion to her Catholic faith only made her more unpopular. Charles' reign descended into civil war and in 1649 Henrietta lost her husband when he was executed. She was said to be devastated despite a frosty and difficult relationship with her king.
She had gone into exile in France years before Charles' death and from there she witnessed her eldest son, Charles II, become king when the monarchy was restored in 1660. She returned to England and played an unhappy part in the marriage of another son, the future James II, to his first wife, Anne. She didn't live to see James become king, dying in France in 1669.
House of Hanover - Sophia Dorothea
Sophia Dorothea of Celle, married to a king but never queen and kept in a tower throughout his reign
Sophia Dorothea was the wife of a king of England but was never queen and was kept in a tower hundreds of miles away while her husband ruled his kingdom. Whether we can even count her as a consort is still up for debate but she is as fascinating as any woman who has worn the queen's crown.
Sophia Dorothea of Celle married George of Hanover in 1682 when she was just 18 and after she had come close to marrying the future king of Denmark and a German duke who was dumped by her family as a prospective bridegroom on the day the engagement was due to be announced. Sophia Dorothea didn't want to marry George any more than he wanted to marry her and the bride to be had a series of fainting fits including a swoon of non romantic origin when she first met her future husband. But marry they did, he encouraged by her gigantic dowry and she forced into it by her family.
They were miserable together, rowed constantly and only stopped shouting long enough to have a son and a daughter. Soon after the birth of their youngest child George began a new affair and reveled in showing off his mistress to such an extent his family told him to reign in his bad behavior but he refused. Sophia then formed a friendship with Philip Christoph von Konigsmarck, a Swedish count, which intensified into a romantic relationship which led to him being barred from Hanover. She attempted to escape her husband's country in 1694 and the count died soon afterwards, presumed murdered.
But poor old Sophia Dorothea had worse to come. Hubby was not happy despite his own infidelities and divorced her before locking her up in the Castle of Ahlden where she lived for the rest of her days. When he became king of England in 1714, Sophia Dorothea stayed put in her tower and there she remained. She died in 1726, a year before her husband. Their son became George II.
So there we are - a real pick and mix of one use only names for queen consorts of England. None of them are likely to be chose by the Cambridges if they do have a girl but for romance, intrigue and a bit of individuality these four queens take some beating.
Saturday, 29 June 2013
Queenly inspiration for a royal baby
Less than two weeks to go until the due date for baby Cambridge and while reports state that the Duke and Duchess don't know the sex of the child, there seems to be a general leaning towards a little girl. Maybe it was the disputed comment from Kate a few months ago - is this for my d.....? Maybe it was the baby pink outfit she wore on her last official outing before baby arrives at the Trooping of the Colour two weeks ago. Either way, a quick scan of most bookies' websites have lots of odds for girls' names and not so many for little boys.
And while the royal couple are modern and forward thinking, let's face it, the Royals do like a bit of an historical connection when it comes to naming their children. There aren't too many surprises, especially with the first born of an heir to the throne. The bookies might have tipped George as the name of Charles and Diana's first born but William was hardly a bolt from the blue. It's not like they called him Monty or Mark and expected us all to get used to it. They went for a name that kings had used before.
And that's why the past queens of England are probably the best place to look for the name that a princess of Cambridge would take. And as most of those are consorts, it's an ideal guessing game to start playing here.
First, let's get the names also used by Queen Regnants out of the way.
The name of the first woman to rule England in her own right, Mary I, and of the woman who dumped her own father off the throne to gain power, Mary II. Both were hugely popular at the beginning of their reigns, with Mary I cheered into London when she came to claim her crown from the cabal that had put the tragic Lady Jane Grey on the throne. Mary II was also the people's choice when she became Queen in 1688.
But Mary I's reign quickly degenerated into disaster. Her obsession with her cousin, Philip II of Spain, and their marriage damaged her reputation as she seemed to cede more and more power to her husband. Her phantom pregnancy in 1555 led to public humiliation from which she never really recovered. And her devotion to the Catholic faith led to the burning of over 280 Protestants in her reign. The woman who had ridden to the throne on a wave of public happiness died just over five years later a sad, broken and unpopular woman who has gone down in history as Bloody Mary.
Mary II never lost the public acclaim that greeted her ascension to the English throne in 1688. Again, religion played a large part in her reign. Mary was a Protestant but her father, James II, had become a Catholic and had lost the throne when his second wife, Maria of Modena, gave birth to a healthy son who could succeed his father. Mary II and her Protestant husband, William III, ruled jointly but while William took to the field to defeat James in battle in Ireland, Mary stayed at home and became a real people's queen. While some historians criticize her for her submission to her husband (whose claim to the throne was far more tenuous than hers) others see her as an able administrator and social reformer. She died of small pox in 1694 with thousands lining the streets of London at her funeral to express their grief.
Mary is also the name of just one Queen Consort - Mary of Teck, wife of George V and grandmother to Elizabeth II. Destined to be queen, she was first engaged to Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and the eldest son of Victoria's eldest son. On his death, and after a suitable period of mourning, she married his brother and became his Queen Consort in 1910. She is said to be a major influence on the Queen and her mother was a Princess of Cambridge.
And while the royal couple are modern and forward thinking, let's face it, the Royals do like a bit of an historical connection when it comes to naming their children. There aren't too many surprises, especially with the first born of an heir to the throne. The bookies might have tipped George as the name of Charles and Diana's first born but William was hardly a bolt from the blue. It's not like they called him Monty or Mark and expected us all to get used to it. They went for a name that kings had used before.
And that's why the past queens of England are probably the best place to look for the name that a princess of Cambridge would take. And as most of those are consorts, it's an ideal guessing game to start playing here.
First, let's get the names also used by Queen Regnants out of the way.
Mary
The name of the first woman to rule England in her own right, Mary I, and of the woman who dumped her own father off the throne to gain power, Mary II. Both were hugely popular at the beginning of their reigns, with Mary I cheered into London when she came to claim her crown from the cabal that had put the tragic Lady Jane Grey on the throne. Mary II was also the people's choice when she became Queen in 1688.
But Mary I's reign quickly degenerated into disaster. Her obsession with her cousin, Philip II of Spain, and their marriage damaged her reputation as she seemed to cede more and more power to her husband. Her phantom pregnancy in 1555 led to public humiliation from which she never really recovered. And her devotion to the Catholic faith led to the burning of over 280 Protestants in her reign. The woman who had ridden to the throne on a wave of public happiness died just over five years later a sad, broken and unpopular woman who has gone down in history as Bloody Mary.
Mary I, the first woman to rule England in her own right
Mary II never lost the public acclaim that greeted her ascension to the English throne in 1688. Again, religion played a large part in her reign. Mary was a Protestant but her father, James II, had become a Catholic and had lost the throne when his second wife, Maria of Modena, gave birth to a healthy son who could succeed his father. Mary II and her Protestant husband, William III, ruled jointly but while William took to the field to defeat James in battle in Ireland, Mary stayed at home and became a real people's queen. While some historians criticize her for her submission to her husband (whose claim to the throne was far more tenuous than hers) others see her as an able administrator and social reformer. She died of small pox in 1694 with thousands lining the streets of London at her funeral to express their grief.
Mary II, popular in her day but forgotten by history
Mary is also the name of just one Queen Consort - Mary of Teck, wife of George V and grandmother to Elizabeth II. Destined to be queen, she was first engaged to Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and the eldest son of Victoria's eldest son. On his death, and after a suitable period of mourning, she married his brother and became his Queen Consort in 1910. She is said to be a major influence on the Queen and her mother was a Princess of Cambridge.
Mary of Teck, Queen Consort of England 1910 - 1936 and descendant of the House of Cambridge
So there we have it. A quick upsum of Mary gives us.....
For
- Name of the first woman to rule England in her own right - so appropriate for the first girl guaranteed to be Queen of England no matter what
- Name of the Queen's beloved grandmother
- And just a little bit retro chic....once the most popular name in England by a long way, it doesn't even hit the Top 50 these days
Against
- Mary I ended up as one of the most unpopular monarchs England has ever had and history hasn't been much kinder
- Mary II is largely forgotten by history and was seen by some as being a weak queen as she ceded a lot of her power to her husband
- There will be a Queen Mary in Europe as the Crown Princess of Denmark bears the name
That's the case for Mary...tomorrow, Elizabeth....
Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, future Queen of Denmark (photo Holger Motzkau)
Thursday, 27 June 2013
Naming future queens
According to the poll results so far, picking a name for a future Queen of England is harder than choosing for a king. For the boys, bookies' favourite George is taking an early lead but all the ballots so far for a girl's name are for something other than the favourites, Elizabeth and Diana. So I've started a message board for more discussion on which names the Cambridges might go for if they have a little princess.
Looking back, other Queen Consorts of England haven't had the same dilemma as future queen Kate. After all, she's the first woman in British royal history to know that a daughter will definitely inherit the throne so choosing a name for a little girl has perhaps more weight than ever before.
Past queens of England named girls knowing they probably wouldn't be queen. And there were protocols - set by the royal family they had married into. It usually meant selecting an already royal name. All our past queens, except two, had daughters named after their mothers in law. Only Eleanor of Provence and Caroline of Ansbach bucked that trend.
Eleanor had three daughters but none of them bore the name of the mother of her husband, Henry III. Instead she named one girl after her own mother - Beatrice - and picked different names for the other two. The royal couple ended up with a Margaret and a Katherine, the first time either name had been used for an English royal baby.
Caroline had five daughters but she and her husband, the future George II, didn't name any of them after his mother. Sophia Dorothea of Celle is a strange figure in British royal history. She married the man who would become George I in 1682, had two children with him and then found herself displaced by mistresses. Her own close friendship with a man called Philip Christoph von Konigsmarck led to her husband accusing her of adultery and imprisoning her in a tower for the last 33 years of her life. As Caroline and George were forming their family while the old king, George I, was still alive it's perhaps not surprising that they chose not to name a baby after Sophia Dorothea.
Once the mothers in law were honoured, past queens very often used the names of other family relatives for their girls meaning that once a name joined the royal merry go round it took a long time for it to fall off again. Hence the first three queens of England having Matildas while five of the seven Plantagenet queens who had daughters called one of them Eleanor. In fact, one of the queens - Marguerite of France - used it even though it had been the name of her husband's beloved first wife, a move that made her even more popular than before.
So perhaps a quick scan of the close family will provide the name - but that brings us back to Diana and Elizabeth and thoughts seem to be turning elsewhere.
Here's the link for the board - it will be interesting to see what takes the lead!
Queens of England group
PS I did wonder whether the Cambridges might go for Eleanor but the future Queen of Spain is Leonor....what about two monarchs in Europe with the same name?
Looking back, other Queen Consorts of England haven't had the same dilemma as future queen Kate. After all, she's the first woman in British royal history to know that a daughter will definitely inherit the throne so choosing a name for a little girl has perhaps more weight than ever before.
Past queens of England named girls knowing they probably wouldn't be queen. And there were protocols - set by the royal family they had married into. It usually meant selecting an already royal name. All our past queens, except two, had daughters named after their mothers in law. Only Eleanor of Provence and Caroline of Ansbach bucked that trend.
Eleanor had three daughters but none of them bore the name of the mother of her husband, Henry III. Instead she named one girl after her own mother - Beatrice - and picked different names for the other two. The royal couple ended up with a Margaret and a Katherine, the first time either name had been used for an English royal baby.
Caroline had five daughters but she and her husband, the future George II, didn't name any of them after his mother. Sophia Dorothea of Celle is a strange figure in British royal history. She married the man who would become George I in 1682, had two children with him and then found herself displaced by mistresses. Her own close friendship with a man called Philip Christoph von Konigsmarck led to her husband accusing her of adultery and imprisoning her in a tower for the last 33 years of her life. As Caroline and George were forming their family while the old king, George I, was still alive it's perhaps not surprising that they chose not to name a baby after Sophia Dorothea.
Once the mothers in law were honoured, past queens very often used the names of other family relatives for their girls meaning that once a name joined the royal merry go round it took a long time for it to fall off again. Hence the first three queens of England having Matildas while five of the seven Plantagenet queens who had daughters called one of them Eleanor. In fact, one of the queens - Marguerite of France - used it even though it had been the name of her husband's beloved first wife, a move that made her even more popular than before.
So perhaps a quick scan of the close family will provide the name - but that brings us back to Diana and Elizabeth and thoughts seem to be turning elsewhere.
Here's the link for the board - it will be interesting to see what takes the lead!
Queens of England group
PS I did wonder whether the Cambridges might go for Eleanor but the future Queen of Spain is Leonor....what about two monarchs in Europe with the same name?
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
More power as a queen than as a mother?
Today marks the anniversary of the death of George IV, at one time Prince Regent, and best known for his love of extravagant clothes and his hatred of his extravagant wife, Queen Caroline. Caroline is a marvellous Queen of England. On paper, she had nothing going for her at all. But she ended up far more popular than her husband and she's one of the most recognizable of all the English consorts.
Caroline was hardly romantic queen material. She wasn't a looker and let's face it, the pretty princesses always seem to be more popular than their uglier royal sisters. She was reported to have a distant relationship with her bathroom and rarely changed her clothes. Not keen on education or culture, she had little conversation. And just like her husband, she seemed to prefer the charms of people she wasn't married to.
The Prince got married because Parliament wouldn't give him any more money unless he found a wife. And nabbing the heir to the throne of England was a pretty good deal for a princess from the remote German principality of Brunswick. It was all going so well until they actually met and got married.
From that moment, they hated one another. Some estimates put their total time together as man and wife at three days. However long it was, it was enough to produce a little girl called Charlotte who became heiress to the throne. When the little princess was around nine her parents indulged in a proper marital ding dong, played out in the courts, as the future king had his wife investigated after rumours emerged she had had a son with another man. Desperate for a divorce, he dragged his wife's name and reputation through the mud but not enough of it stuck to prove she had produced an illegitimate child and his poor treatment of her only added to her growing popularity. By the time he became king in 1820 his spending had taken any gloss off the gorgeous George of his youth while his wife's down to earth nature and humiliation at the hands of her royal husband made her an unlikely heroine for many.
Caroline faced the problem that many queens had encountered - once the heir was in the nursery, what should the mother's influence be? The crown nearly always went to a man because of primogeniture meaning, unlike most other families, a royal baby's mother and her relatives weren't as important in the child's upbringing. Queens like Eleanor of Aquitaine retained control because they were important politically. But women like Caroline or her predecessor as Hanoverian consort, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, were excised from their children's lives when their marriages broke down even if their husbands were as keen on extramarital affairs as the royal women involved.
Even today, there is much debate about the influence the family of the future Queen of England should have on the royal baby due in July. The Duchess of Cambridge is reported to want her mother and sister in the delivery room with her leading to heated discussion about whether the Middleton family should have such a major role at the beginning of a new monarch's life. While other women in their early thirties are almost expected to have a gaggle of family members supporting them during labour and birth, Kate Middleton is criticized by some for doing what comes naturally for thousands of others.
Nearly every other Queen of England found that royal babies, from the very beginning, were state matters with rules and regulations beyond her control and little room for her influence when it came to their upbringing. In any other modern marriage, we'd be horrified if the wife was expected to take a backseat and only allow her family in when it suited the inlaws. I hope that this future Queen of England gets a fairer deal in that regard than her predecessors.
Caroline was hardly romantic queen material. She wasn't a looker and let's face it, the pretty princesses always seem to be more popular than their uglier royal sisters. She was reported to have a distant relationship with her bathroom and rarely changed her clothes. Not keen on education or culture, she had little conversation. And just like her husband, she seemed to prefer the charms of people she wasn't married to.
The Prince got married because Parliament wouldn't give him any more money unless he found a wife. And nabbing the heir to the throne of England was a pretty good deal for a princess from the remote German principality of Brunswick. It was all going so well until they actually met and got married.
From that moment, they hated one another. Some estimates put their total time together as man and wife at three days. However long it was, it was enough to produce a little girl called Charlotte who became heiress to the throne. When the little princess was around nine her parents indulged in a proper marital ding dong, played out in the courts, as the future king had his wife investigated after rumours emerged she had had a son with another man. Desperate for a divorce, he dragged his wife's name and reputation through the mud but not enough of it stuck to prove she had produced an illegitimate child and his poor treatment of her only added to her growing popularity. By the time he became king in 1820 his spending had taken any gloss off the gorgeous George of his youth while his wife's down to earth nature and humiliation at the hands of her royal husband made her an unlikely heroine for many.
Caroline faced the problem that many queens had encountered - once the heir was in the nursery, what should the mother's influence be? The crown nearly always went to a man because of primogeniture meaning, unlike most other families, a royal baby's mother and her relatives weren't as important in the child's upbringing. Queens like Eleanor of Aquitaine retained control because they were important politically. But women like Caroline or her predecessor as Hanoverian consort, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, were excised from their children's lives when their marriages broke down even if their husbands were as keen on extramarital affairs as the royal women involved.
No wonder Caroline looked so annoyed in this portrait from the end of her life, her time as princess and queen had been pretty hard going
Even today, there is much debate about the influence the family of the future Queen of England should have on the royal baby due in July. The Duchess of Cambridge is reported to want her mother and sister in the delivery room with her leading to heated discussion about whether the Middleton family should have such a major role at the beginning of a new monarch's life. While other women in their early thirties are almost expected to have a gaggle of family members supporting them during labour and birth, Kate Middleton is criticized by some for doing what comes naturally for thousands of others.
Nearly every other Queen of England found that royal babies, from the very beginning, were state matters with rules and regulations beyond her control and little room for her influence when it came to their upbringing. In any other modern marriage, we'd be horrified if the wife was expected to take a backseat and only allow her family in when it suited the inlaws. I hope that this future Queen of England gets a fairer deal in that regard than her predecessors.
Tuesday, 25 June 2013
A nursery full of princesses
The next episode of The White Queen should see the arrival of a son for Elizabeth and Edward. But although the royal couple did produce three boys in the end, their royal nursery was dominated by girls. It was an age old problem for queens consort - what to do with a gaggle of girls needing wealthy husbands and good marriages?
One of the main duties of being a queen was to have babies and as many boys as possible. Girls were a bit of a problem but did provide currency in the big trade off between royal houses - the marriage game. Need a foothold in a foreign country? Find a daughter to marry one of their sons and heirs. Got a problem with a pesky rival king or lord? Marry a child off to one of theirs and they have to stay friendly for the honeymoon period at least. Elizabeth, like all the queen consorts of England before her, expected pretty big royal weddings for her girls. Unlike the others, she had to fight for them.
Using daughters as power tools was an established routine across the continent for nearly 1000 years by the time Elizabeth Woodville became Queen of England. Even before her husband, William, conquered the country the first modern queen, Matilda of Flanders, had seen two of her daughters offered in marriage to William's great rival for the English throne, Harold II. Neither Adeliza nor Agatha became Queen of England - their mother got that title a few years later when William won the throne by force. But their two of their sisters gained important husbands in Europe as their parents sought to consolidate their power by marrying them into the houses of Brittany and Blois.
And that was the pattern for every subsequent Queen of England who had girls. While Matilda and Eleanor of Aquitaine concentrated on shoring up European alliances through their daughters' marriages, later queens including Eleanor of Provence and Isabella of France both provided girls to marry Scottish kings and so help form uneasy alliances with one of the biggest threats to their husbands' power. Younger daughters might get an important English lord - hence Eleanor of Castile witnessing two of her many girls marry the earls of Hereford and of Hertford and Gloucester.
So when Elizabeth came to marry off her girls she expected great things. And it was lucky for her that a king's daughter could land a foreign prince or lord as she'd snapped up pretty much all the best home grown talent for her sisters. After the final battle with Lancaster in 1471, Edward's reign seemed settled and within a few years Elizabeth's eldest daughter, also Elizabeth, was betrothed to the son of the king of France, daughter number three, Cecily, was in line to be Queen of Scotland while another girl, Anne, was promised to the heir of the house of Burgundy. In 1482 the second youngest of royal baby of Elizabeth, Princes Kate, was betrothed to the heir to the Spanish throne. Alliances were being forged across Europe. Edward IV's unexpected death, in 1483, changed everything.
Suddenly Elizabeth found the choice of husband for her daughters taken away from her. Richard III, the girls' uncle, stepped in to make use of them as he saw fit. Anne was promised to an ally called Thomas Howard while Cecily found herself married to another of Richard's supporters, Ralph Scrope of Upsall. But that was after something far more damaging to the girls' marriage prospects had happened. Rumours swept the court that Richard III would replace his dying wife, Anne, with one of his own nieces - either Cecily or Elizabeth. In the end he was forced to deny, publicly, that he would marry one of his brothers' daughters.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth was plotting behind the scenes to make the most lucrative marriage of all. She promised her eldest girl, who had a great claim to the throne herself, to Henry Tudor who claimed the crown for the House of Lancaster. Their marriage in 1486 brought the houses together, ended the Wars of the Roses, and established the Tudor dynasty on the throne. Her other girls married English nobility and prospered while the youngest followed that other traditional route for princesses - Bridget became a nun.
One of the main duties of being a queen was to have babies and as many boys as possible. Girls were a bit of a problem but did provide currency in the big trade off between royal houses - the marriage game. Need a foothold in a foreign country? Find a daughter to marry one of their sons and heirs. Got a problem with a pesky rival king or lord? Marry a child off to one of theirs and they have to stay friendly for the honeymoon period at least. Elizabeth, like all the queen consorts of England before her, expected pretty big royal weddings for her girls. Unlike the others, she had to fight for them.
Using daughters as power tools was an established routine across the continent for nearly 1000 years by the time Elizabeth Woodville became Queen of England. Even before her husband, William, conquered the country the first modern queen, Matilda of Flanders, had seen two of her daughters offered in marriage to William's great rival for the English throne, Harold II. Neither Adeliza nor Agatha became Queen of England - their mother got that title a few years later when William won the throne by force. But their two of their sisters gained important husbands in Europe as their parents sought to consolidate their power by marrying them into the houses of Brittany and Blois.
And that was the pattern for every subsequent Queen of England who had girls. While Matilda and Eleanor of Aquitaine concentrated on shoring up European alliances through their daughters' marriages, later queens including Eleanor of Provence and Isabella of France both provided girls to marry Scottish kings and so help form uneasy alliances with one of the biggest threats to their husbands' power. Younger daughters might get an important English lord - hence Eleanor of Castile witnessing two of her many girls marry the earls of Hereford and of Hertford and Gloucester.
So when Elizabeth came to marry off her girls she expected great things. And it was lucky for her that a king's daughter could land a foreign prince or lord as she'd snapped up pretty much all the best home grown talent for her sisters. After the final battle with Lancaster in 1471, Edward's reign seemed settled and within a few years Elizabeth's eldest daughter, also Elizabeth, was betrothed to the son of the king of France, daughter number three, Cecily, was in line to be Queen of Scotland while another girl, Anne, was promised to the heir of the house of Burgundy. In 1482 the second youngest of royal baby of Elizabeth, Princes Kate, was betrothed to the heir to the Spanish throne. Alliances were being forged across Europe. Edward IV's unexpected death, in 1483, changed everything.
Suddenly Elizabeth found the choice of husband for her daughters taken away from her. Richard III, the girls' uncle, stepped in to make use of them as he saw fit. Anne was promised to an ally called Thomas Howard while Cecily found herself married to another of Richard's supporters, Ralph Scrope of Upsall. But that was after something far more damaging to the girls' marriage prospects had happened. Rumours swept the court that Richard III would replace his dying wife, Anne, with one of his own nieces - either Cecily or Elizabeth. In the end he was forced to deny, publicly, that he would marry one of his brothers' daughters.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth was plotting behind the scenes to make the most lucrative marriage of all. She promised her eldest girl, who had a great claim to the throne herself, to Henry Tudor who claimed the crown for the House of Lancaster. Their marriage in 1486 brought the houses together, ended the Wars of the Roses, and established the Tudor dynasty on the throne. Her other girls married English nobility and prospered while the youngest followed that other traditional route for princesses - Bridget became a nun.
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