Max Irons and Rebecca Ferguson as Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville in The White Queen (2013). © BBC
At the beginning of February 1466, there was high anticipation for the birth of an heir, with expectations that the Queen would eventually be delivering a son. Dominic de Sergio, who was the physician to Edward IV, had assurance towards the king that “the queen was conceived with a prince.” The court was then highly prepared for a christening of a prince, one who would bring stability, growth, and prosperity to England. However, by the 11th of February, the cries of a child brought to earth were from a baby girl.
Elizabeth Woodville had given birth to a healthy daughter, with the King being very pleasantly in awe and showed great humour of his child being born, regardless of the gender and thus, a christening was arranged for the arrival of a Yorkist princess.
(© Unknown Artist – The National Portrait Gallery)
She was named Elizabeth, after her mother’s namesake, and was christened in a ceremony done by the archbishop of York, George Neville at Westminster Abbey. In the Lady Princess’s baptism, her godmothers were Cecily Neville, the Duchess of York and Jacquetta, the Duchess of Bedford who were both her maternal and paternal grandmothers. Edward’s feast in honor of his daughter’s birth lasted until the next month, having staged a lively feast for his wife the Queen indicating the significance of the court to England and the rest of the world. An excerpt from a group of pilgrim’s traveling diaries who were visiting various shrines in Europe described the celebration of the time the princess was born:
The queen left her childbed that morning and went to church in stately order, accompanied by many priests bearing relics and by many scholars singing and carrying lights. There followed a great company of ladies and maidens from the country and from London, who had been summoned. Then came a great company of trumpeters, pipers, and players of stringed instruments. The king’s choir followed, forty-two of them, who sang excellently. Then came twenty-four heralds and pursuivants, followed by sixty counts and knights. At last came the queen escorted by two dukes. Above her was a canopy. Behind her were her mother and maidens and ladies to the number of sixty. Then the queen heard the singing of an Office, and, having left the church, she returned to her palace in procession as before. Then all who had joined the procession remained to eat. They sat down, women and men, ecclesiastical and lay, each according to rank, and filled four great rooms.
The little Princess Elizabeth would eventually grow up into a monarch who was most respected and beloved by her dearest subjects, citing her as “The Gracious Queen.” And as a young princess, she was very well taken care of, just as the rest of her siblings that followed. Elizabeth and her siblings lived with their mother, who frequently included them whilst carrying out duties as Edward IV’s consort. When she was three years old, her mother had taken her and her younger sister Mary to Norwich, three of them traveling alone since Edward had been fighting rebels in the north. They were welcomed there with lively and colourful pageantry, with a stage covered in red and green worsted fabric displaying figures of angels and giants whose crests glittered with gold and silver leaf and a pageant that included speeches, songs by clerks, and music from organs. This was something that had excited the young princesses the most and was what inspired Elizabeth’s fondness for pageantry in her lifetime.
The White Queen (2013). © BBC
In the early years of her upbringing, Princess Elizabeth read and spoke both English and French, which were essential skills for one to take delight in popular historical romances of that time period. Elizabeth and her sister, Cecily, had inscribed a French prose manuscript of the Romance of the Saint Graal on folio 1,with their names signed as “Elysabeth, the kyngys dowther” and “Cecyl the kyngys dowther.” The princess also learned the traditional feminine skills of needle-work, sewing, and crafts, which would be put into good use when many years later, as she would eventually make the Garter mantle of her future husband Henry VII. She was also fond of playing card games, dice, and backgammon. Music and dancing too was very influential in the princess’s youth, Elizabeth herself learned how to dance and play instruments, she had also loved the minstrels of music that were retained by her father for entertainment at court festivals. Having been fascinated by musicality, with the minstrel’s trumpets, shawms, and small pipes and strings, these became components to her early musical education that would remain vital to her life until adulthood. This too, would pass on to her children, with Henry VIII being renowned for singing, dancing, and composing.
With her emphasizing character, virtue, and morality, it is clear that Elizabeth of York’s early education and childhood experiences, along with the environment she was brought up in would benefit and shape her into the charming, accomplished lady she’d ultimately be remembered for, both in life and after death, and indeed she was, the “Good Gracious Queen.”
References:
Fabyan, R. The New Chronicles of England and France, ed. Henry Ellis (London: Rivington, 1811), 654.
Kipling, Triumph, 15 passim; Okerlund, 177–89.
Okerlund, A. (2009). Elizabeth of York. Springer.
Ross, C. Edward IV (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), 264–67.
The Travels of Leo of Rozmital through Germany, Flanders, England, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy 1465–1467, ed. Malcolm Letts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1957), 45–46.
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