The Commoner Who Became A Queen | Elizabeth Woodville | The Real White Queen | Wars of the Roses

the walls of the Roses known in the 15th century as the cousins war was defined as being a fight between two Noble houses of nobility who believed they should be royalty all except for one woman who would have an impact not only on the wars themselves but on ending them Elizabeth Woodville a commoner who dared to become a queen Elizabeth's birth even caused a scandal her mother was a ketter of Luxembourg a noble woman from an old Luxembourg family and the daughter of account she was first married when she was just 17 to John of Lancaster Duke of Bedford not so common you say but John died just two years later leaving jacquetta a 19 year old Widow with a small fortune now her own he died in wuon but the English King Henry VI ordered her to come to England the man chosen to escort the young Duchess from Normandy was one so Richard Woodville who had been bedford's Chamberlain hi guys sorry to interrupt but I'm just showing my face to say thank you to the sponsor of today's video myheritage my Heritage are the leading global Service for family history research and after seeing how many of you guys were related to people from history I thought it was time to pick up my family tree research again now I already had a tree started but it's really easy to start a new one just put in the names of your parents and grandparents and my Heritage does the rest with over 19 billion records my Heritage is a great place to find exciting historical discoveries about your ancestors and this is made even easier with instant discoveries you use this feature to see new records or photographs about your ancestors I actually found an amazing photo of my great great Granddad and great great NaNa which I had never seen before and you guys know I love AI pictures for bringing history to life so my Heritage is features for repairing colorizing and even adding AI facial movements made my photo Discovery even better sign up today from the link in my description and you'll get a 14-day trial to try out all these features completely free and if you continue to use your subscription you'll get a 50 discount so now back to Elizabeth woodville's story and who knows maybe one of you are related to her on the journey over and probably afterwards jacquetta and Richard fell in love the problem was that jacquetta was a duchess and as the Widow of the king's uncle still honored as the king's Aunt Richard Woodville was well below her social rank as a night from a Gentry family in northamptonshire jacquetta was also not allowed to get married without permission from the King but none of this prevented them from secretly getting married some time before March 1437 and when their secret came out at this time at court it was explosive the couple will find a thousand pounds but this was canceled later that same year on the 24th of October sometime after 1437 although the exact date is lost their first child was born a girl they named Elizabeth it is suspected that the date of the 24th of October for their pardon may possibly be her birth date or possibly the birth date of their first child even if that wasn't Elizabeth the family moved to Grafton Manor in Northampton and it was around this time they began to become more prominent Henry VI had become king before he was even one year old in 1422 and by 1430 his mother Catherine evalua had retired from her son's household and secretly married Owen Judah this meant until 1445 when Henry VI married Margaret of Anjou there was no main female Presence at court as soon as the new Queen was settled in jacquetta was able to rise to prominence at her kinsmen's Court her husband Richard did well too becoming a baron and later a knight of the Garter the woodvilles were on the air but the coming years would prove difficult in July 1453 Henry VI fell into a stupor from which he would not awaken for a year and a half only coming back to life on Christmas Day 1454 during this period of semi-consciousness the King was unable to acknowledge the son Margaret of anju gave birth to or take any part in ruling his kingdom Margaret of Anjou put in a bid to hold power while her husband was unable but the idea of a female Regent was still Unthinkable in England and instead the protectorate of the kingdom was handed to Richard Duke of York the Duke of York held a claim to the English Throne through both of his parents and he was politically ambitious the tension between the houses of Lancaster and York grew and this was the background against which the Woodville family would grow up Elizabeth's childhood is mostly a mystery but her intelligence and political decisions in later life would suggest she was at least given a grounding in the basics of Reading Writing something of political ideas and the womanly Pursuits a dancing music and needlework like most Daughters of the Gentry there is some suggestion that she may have been a lady in waiting to Margaret of anzu as Isabel Lady Gray Isabelle being a short form of Elizabeth however she was unlikely to have been old enough for this position and there were other ladies of the same name while she was still only a teenager Elizabeth married her first husband Sir John Gray again little is known about their marriage except that Jon was likely just a few years older than his bride and their first son Thomas Gray was probably born around 1455. another son his birth date unknown followed Richard Gray but by 1461 Elizabeth became a young Widow with two sons to look after when her husband John died at the Second Battle of Saint Albans her mother-in-law lady pharaohs of groby had remarried and disliked the idea of allowing Elizabeth to have her jointer of a hundred marks after Jon's death Elizabeth and her father fought this taking the matter to court and winning it's the first hint we have in records of Elizabeth's willingness to fight for her survival 1461 was also the year in which Henry VI was deposed for the first time from the English throne but not by Richard Duke of York successive Wars and York's Ambitions for the throne would be realized not through himself but through his son Edward Earl of March he was now crowned as Edward IV of England and so began the first rule from the house of York it's not known unsurprisingly so far of course exactly when Elizabeth and Edward met some sources suggest it was during social occasions at court before he became king others claimed they'd dined together so often that Edward fell in love with her The Burgundian chronicler wore in claimed Edward fancied Elizabeth so much it was the reason he pardoned her father and brother for fighting for the House of Lancaster the traditional story is that Elizabeth found out when Edward would be hunting in whittlebury Forest she stayed under an oak tree with her two sons to beseech the King to restore their inheritance and when Edward saw the lovely Widow with her two sons he apparently fell instantly in love which leads to Elizabeth's reported Beauty she was called the most beautiful woman in England but we don't really know much about what she actually looked like Contemporary Images suggest she had blonde hair and heavy lidded eyes others spoke of her charm and wisdom as well as her beauty but how much of this is normal flowery descriptions of queens and how much his reality is difficult to know but there are plenty of Chronicles confirming she was very attractive for Elizabeth's part Edward himself was over six foot tall with light brown hair and known as very handsome at the peak of medieval youth at 22 years old of course Edward used his charms on the female population and he was known already for having Mistresses but rather like the famous Anne Berlin over a century later Elizabeth set a trend and refused to share Edward's bed unless they were married some stories had her threatening to kill herself rather than give up her virtue so easily but these seem concocted for dramatic effect on a date commonly presented as the 1st of May 1464 the couple were married in a quiet ceremony only attended by the priest the man who helped the priest and sang Elizabeth's mother jacquetta and two unknown gentle women it's past possible the date was wrong as well and is simply a romantic later Edition the wedding could easily have been as late as September which makes sense in light of Edward not revealing his wedding until late September 1464. even if it was only a small break between his wedding and breaking the news Edward must have known his marriage would cause controversy and it did he announced his marriage only when his Council pushed for him to marry a French princess Borna of Savoy Elizabeth was not a foreign princess so could bring no alliances or lands to the table and worse than this she was a widowed woman of two existing children it was not what was expected of a king and the people of England were apparently not in favor of his choice in truth while it was a shock for the nobility it's actually like the most of Edward's subjects might have favored an English Queen after their dislike of Margaret of Anjou and most of the sources claiming everyone's horror including that of Edward's mother were written after his relationship with many of his courtiers had gone South but Richard Neville the Earl of Warwick was openly disappointed that as a close advisor of Edward the marriage hadn't even been discussed with him and that the chance for a strategic marriage was now gone although Elizabeth didn't bring any lands with her as one of 12 surviving children she brought a slew of relatives to integrate with Edward's new Reign her unmarried sisters were all given advantageous marriages to courtes in the new King's favor but the most scandalous marriage was that of her only unmarried brother John Woodville who in his twenties married the twice widowed Catherine Neville Duchess of Norfolk who was in her 60s Elizabeth's eldest son Thomas Gray also married lady Anne a niece of the new king Warwick was further angered by this as his nephew George had originally been placed to become her new husband only one of these new spouses were apparently unhappy with this Arrangement and this was Henry Stafford the Duke of Buckingham many years later when Richard III took the throne Buckingham would claim he was unhappy with his marriage to Catherine Woodville the sister of the queen because she was a commoner in other words the Woodville family made sure they were firmly in the new yorkist regime through Elizabeth's marriage this wasn't any different to any other family that grew close to the throne but there were Nobles who disliked it purely because the woodvilles were seen as commoners and they reacted the way nobility has always behaved when their position was threatened on the 26th of May 1465 Elizabeth was crowned Queen at Westminster Abbey traveling from the Tower of London in white cloth of gold with her hair loose down her back in the traditional manner it wasn't long after this that Elizabeth also fulfilled her Duty as Queen by discuss covering she was pregnant the first child born to the royal couple was a girl also named Elizabeth on the 11th of February 1466 she was just the first of 10 children Elizabeth would go on to have nine of them surviving Beyond infancy after her first child was born Elizabeth was noted by a Bohemian nobleman named Gabriel tetzel from Nuremberg to have taken part in a grand silent Feast after returning from her churching ceremony he described how it took three hours each meal more Grand than the rest and that even the Queen's mother and King's sister had to kneel before Elizabeth until she had eaten tetzel never once mentions that he was repulsed by this Behavior but this was used by later writers to suggest the anxiety and vanity of the new Queen in reality this was just a really over-the-top ceremony to celebrate the safe birth of Edward's first healthy child not an everyday occurrence there is plenty of evidence that Elizabeth and her ladies in Waiting in fact ate together quite normally most of the time and that she was happy to dance and talk with them but no matter whether the Queen's reputation was good or bad one man was still determined to push the Woodville family back under the rock they'd come out of conspiring with his future son-in-law the Earl of Warwick this time tried to use one of the oldest tricks in the book to slander a woman he accused jacquetta of Luxembourg and by extension of his claim Elizabeth Woodville the queen of Witchcraft he claimed that the only way a marriage between Edward and a commoner could possibly have taken place was it a spell had made him do it there was no evidence except for some dodgily made figurines that a man named Thomas wake a follower of Warwick claimed jacquetta made to represent the King's family and then just left them lying around contrary to what some popular fiction writers would have you believe most people saw the claims as complete bunk and the charges were thrown out by the king's great Council on the 21st of January 1470 Richard III would later try to revive these charges in 1484 but with absolutely no proof either in 1467 Edward IV dismissed his Chancellor George Neville the Archbishop of York who just happened to be the brother of Richard Neville Warwick responded to this by going behind Edward's back and striking up an alliance with Edward's brother George Duke of Clarence knowing something was going on Edward tried to prevent a marriage between Warwick's daughter Isabel and George but George decided to go ahead with the wedding anyway becoming Warwick's son-in-law obviously tensions were running High looking elsewhere for support Warwick went behind Edward's back again and knelt at the feet of Margaret of Anjou promising to restore Henry VI to the throne he and George led a rebellion against Edward and forced the king to abandon his throne and flee to Flanders in September 1470. luckily for Edward when he arrived in burgundy it was ruled by his brother-in-law Charles the Bold who was married to his sister Margaret of York eventually the pair persuaded The Burgundian Duke to help by providing men and ships and Edward prepared to return to England while he was away Elizabeth did not stand still to see what would happen but instead took herself and her children to Westminster Abbey claiming Sanctuary there it was a smart move on her part as Elizabeth knew the tide had turned and neither side wasted any time in removing those that stood in their way it was here that she would give birth to her first son with Edward a boy also named Edward after his father and the new Heir for the crown of England Henry VI's second rule sadly was not a return to good form but a continuation of a chaotic government he still remained plagued by a mysterious mental illness that rendered him unable to carry out his duties and Warwick and Clarence found themselves unsurprisingly pushed out by the reinstatement of the lancastrian regime with Elizabeth didn't have to wait long for events to overturn the Elder Edward returned in March 1471 starting in Hull and taking the city of York before moving south to the city of London reminded of what rule under Henry VI was like the city Gates were open to him and he was reinstated as Edward IV hen Henry VI was sent to the Tower of London for the second time and died under suspicious circumstances in which one chronicler claimed he died of melancholy but it was more like Suffocation with a pillow Elizabeth was returned to her status as Queen consort and she left the Abbey with her children and life intact but it was bittersweet as she had also lost her brother John and her father now Earl Rivers when they were taken prisoner after the battle of edgecoat and beheaded at Kenilworth on the plus side for the orchests the Earl of Warwick was killed at the Battle of Barnet in April 1471 and the remaining lancastrians who didn't see the benefit of changing sides were finished off at Tewkesbury along with Henry VI's only child Edward of Westminster Elizabeth slipped comfortably back into her role as Queen consort visit is to the English court now praised not only her beauty but her intelligence and piety as well she made several pilgrimages founded the chapel of Saint Erasmus in Westminster and became a patroness of Queen's College Cambridge the college founded by Margaret of Anjou in a time of relative peace Elizabeth obviously wanted to create a new memory of the royal family as good examples of Pious people leading their country with dignity but tragedy was just around the corner in 1483 Edward IV's Health began to fail and on the 9th of April 1483 he died at the age of 40. Elizabeth was a widow for the second time Edward had named his brother Richard Duke of Gloucester as the protector of England and Regent until his son Edward then only 12 years old came of majority age the woodvilles had never got on well with Richard and they were well aware that their rise to power would be quickly reversed if Gloster got hold of the young prince they moved quickly to bring Edward v as he was now known to London in order to give them time to act Elizabeth chose not to tell Richard about the death of his brother while these actions may have been Elizabeth trying to maintain her own position her son's position and that of her family it was interpreted by some as the actions of a family ready to get rid of Gloucester but Richard was tipped off by a close friend of Edward IV's Lord Hastings Richard promptly wrote to meet up with his nephew Edward and arrested the relatives traveling with him these were the New King's half-brother Richard Gray and his Uncle Anthony Woodville and they were summarily held without a trial and executed at pontifract on the 25th of June Richard wasn't messing around as soon as Elizabeth heard her son had been intercepted she once again fled to the safety of Westminster Abbey with her remaining children Richard managed to convince her to give up her younger son Richard of Shrewsbury to be with his elder brother in the Tower of London where Gloucester claimed he was getting ready for his coronation it would never come in events that are well documented elsewhere including in two of my other videos the princes would disappear into the Tower of London and never come out in public again then Richard went further by claiming Elizabeth and Edward IV had never legally been married in the dramatic theater show of the century Richard III and the Duke of Buckingham claimed to have evidence that Edward IV had actually been promised in marriage to one Eleanor Butler before he married Elizabeth Woodville and therefore their marriage was invalid coincidentally Eleanor Butler was also dead and so was unable to refute or corroborate the claims with a lot of fear tactics and strong arming the king's Council agreed that the marriage was invalid thus making all Edward's children illegitimate and unable to take the throne thankfully it was pointed out that Richard was luckily able to become king and he put on a good public show of resistance but not too hard since he became Richard III Elizabeth was now referred to Simply as Dame Elizabeth gray and stripped of all her entitlements and lands it was around this time it became clear that something very wrong had happened to her two young sons and while their bodies were never found it was assumed Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury were dead they were 12 and 9 years old respectively while some hope always remained over the coming decades that they were alive on the continent somewhere it seemed more likely in the bloody aftermath of the cousins Wars that they had been disposed of Elizabeth never recorded her feelings on the matter but other sources state that when she was told it broke the poor woman she fell to the floor screaming and tearing at her hair cursing herself for ever letting her younger son go to his brother it fueled her next steps Elizabeth Woodville was not the sort of woman to step down in the face of defeat and she now started to conspire with the Duke of Buckingham Buckingham had fallen out with his best mate Richard III over an unknown matter and now he wanted him off the throne as much as Elizabeth they both Allied themselves with Margaret Beaufort the Countess of Richmond who was secretly working to return her son Henry Tudor to England while Margaret had originally intended only to get Henry home and restored to his father's titles of Earl of Richmond it quickly became clear that through Conquest in a tenuous link to John of gaunt Henry Tudor had a chance at taking the throne Elizabeth Woodville now played her trump card she suggested that if Henry returned to England and took the crown he could marry her eldest daughter Elizabeth of York Elizabeth of York technically had the stronger claim to the throne but the fact that had never yet been an uncontested female Revenant meant her claim could be joined to Henry's to make his own stronger Elizabeth Woodville used all of her contacts and allies to raise funds and men to Aid Henry Tudor in exchange for this promise publicly on the 1st of March 1484 Elizabeth finally left her daughters after Richard III also publicly promised they would be unharmed and that the daughters would have good marriages to gentlemen the girls had been raised as princesses but in the circumstances any marriage looked good over an uncertain future Elizabeth agreed in public but secretly continued to raise men in cash for Henry's return to England when in April 1485 Richard's wife and Neville died rumors had to be squashed that the King was planning on marrying his niece Elizabeth of York it was enough to Spur Henry tudoron and he came to England Shores that summer on the 22nd of August 1485 he met Richard's forces at the Battle of Bosworth a bloody battle ensued but aided by his stepfather Thomas Stanley Earl of Derby and his men Henry Tudor was Victorious killing Richard on the battlefield the young man was proclaimed Henry VII of England as soon as he was firmly established at court Henry revoked the title as Regis destroying all copies of it and proclaiming the children of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville once again legitimate this also allowed him to marry Elizabeth of York and add her claim to the crown to his own as it was largely agreed that her brothers were no longer around to take that claim themselves Elizabeth was once again reinstated and now became Queen dowager however there were two women at court to contend with now for first place the first was Margaret Beaufort who after a long fight to get her son home placed herself uniquely as his right-hand woman as the King's mother the second was her own daughter Elizabeth of York many of Elizabeth woodville's lands and properties were taken away from her and this has sometimes been read as proof Henry did not trust her but is far more likely these were traditional lands meant for the queen consort of England in other words the torch was merely being passed over Elizabeth Woodville was Now 50 years old elderly in medieval terms while there is debate over how much of the decision was hers Elizabeth decided to retire to Burman SI Abbey on the 12th of February 1487. it's possible Elizabeth had always had plans to retire there one of her ancestors was connected with the Abbey and previous Regal inhabitants meant there was already a lovely set of Royal Apartments for her use but it's equally possible that she was given a nudge to retire perhaps a little earlier probably by Henry VII or Margaret Beaufort but the popular idea of Margaret Beaufort being the alpha woman pushing the former Queen who outranked her from Court seems highly unlikely given Elizabeth of York wasn't afraid of Confrontation and would definitely have protested against such treatment of her mother if The Dowager Queen didn't want to go not only that but during her years at the Abbey Not only was Elizabeth Woodville given a pension of 400 pounds a year but Henry VII would often send his mother-in-law gifts Elizabeth was treated with all due respect during her comfortable stay at burmancy but she often came to court to visit as well in November 1489 Elizabeth was present to see the birth of her granddaughter Margaret and in 1486 and 1491 were the births of her grandsons Arthur and Henry respectively on the 24th of September 1486 Elizabeth was the Godmother for her grandson Arthur and so was part of his christening ceremony the new Queen Elizabeth would come visit her mother as would her sister Cecily of your in other words even in retirement Elizabeth Woodville didn't lose her relevance to the Royal Court this was confirmed when Henry VII briefly considered marrying his mother-in-law to James III of Scotland to create a union between the two countries only broken off when James III died in battle in 1488. Elizabeth Woodville wouldn't be long for the world herself on the 8th of June 1492 the queen Dowager died in her will she said that she only wanted a simple funeral but the lack of pomp would later be attributed to Henry VII as he became ever more careful with finances over the years some pointing to the funeral as proof he didn't really like her in reality everyone was happy to go with her wishes apart from Elizabeth of York who was expecting her fourth child all of Elizabeth woodville's daughters were present Elizabeth was laid to rest beside her husband Edward IV in Saint George's Chapel in Windsor Castle in the centuries after her death Elizabeth woodville's character would be subject to a strange nebulous version of her that was often contradictory at times she could be shown as an intelligent political woman who Moved quickly to protect her children other times she was portrayed as a calculating manipulative Queen who used her feminine charms to rise too far above her station she was even Betrayed at times as a witch but the truth is that Elizabeth Woodville was a fighter brazenly ignoring the insults of the court she married for love and no doubt saw an opportunity to raise herself to the status of a queen from a knight's daughter but who wouldn't her family were no more opportunists than the other noble families they were only looked down upon due to their social status Elizabeth was a clever woman who knew to surround herself with allies and when those allies were in short supply she used the position of others such as Margaret Beaufort needing to return her son home to her advantage and despite the uncertainty and loss in her life especially surrounding her two sons in the tower she still ensured her daughters would survive Elizabeth Woodville wasn't merely a commoner Who Rose to be a queen she was a woman who thrived as a queen and became one of the pivotal women in the wars of the Roses [Music] if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like And subscribe so you don't miss any new documentaries [Music]

Channel: History's Forgotten People

Views: 147,473

Keywords: elizabeth woodville, wars of the roses, white queen, the real white queen, edward iv, wars of the roses history

Id: H4Inj_CY-Po

Length: 34min 6sec (2046 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 29 2023