(Cover image – © Unknown Artist – The National Portrait Gallery)
People think of white roses as being symbols of purity, innocence and the fairest of all the flowers in existence, we treat them as fragile objects to be given away only for the specialist of occasions or to the most deserving of people. To us, white roses symbolize something special, a rare beauty in a deadly, dark world.
And for the people of the past, Elizabeth of York was the most perfect embodiment of the symbolism her ‘white rose’ family held. The perfect match for being united against the ‘red rose’ that was to be her husband; Henry Tudor, the future King.
Today, the 11th of February, celebrates the anniversary of what would have been her 557th birthday but sadly, it is also the 520th anniversary of her tragic death as Elizabeth of York was both born and died on this day in 1466 and the latter in 1503, though she was brave even when death came for her on her 37th birthday.
. . .
Pretty much from birth, Elizabeth of York’s life was full of scandal. Born on 11th February 1466 at Palace of Westminster and christened at Westminster Abbey at the sponsoring of both her maternal grandmother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg (the Duchess of Bedford), and her paternal grandmother, Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, Elizabeth of York was the firstborn child to King Edward IV and his beautiful (but very much disapproved of by the court) wife, Elizabeth Woodville.
Although her parents were thrilled at her birth, many were unsettled by the King having not only chosen a lower-born wife out of love rather than duty—and the fact that Elizabeth refused to be his mistress and even threatened to kill herself should he attempt to rape her is the reason behind their scandalous marriage—but now his wife had failed to give him a son right out of the gate.
Seriously, like she could predict whether her child would be a boy or girl or not.
Besides, after having successfully borne two sons to her previous husband, as she was a widow when she met the King, the Queen was assured that the time for a son would come soon. For now, she was basking in the joy of having birthed her first daughter and of course, she named her Elizabeth, as she was sure to have her mother’s beauty.
And what a beauty she would grow to become.
Naturally, as any royal child would have, Elizabeth must have received a fine education as, despite not being a male heir, she could be—to put it frankly—pawned off by her parents to foreign royals whose potential marriage to Elizabeth might bring them vast trading opportunities, more monies and alliances in other great kingdoms such as France, Spain or even closer to home in Scotland. Though there is no record to suggest the depth of Elizabeth’s education, it is said that she was proficient in reading and writing in both English and French (which was expected as France was either an ally or enemy to England at any given time), was able to keep household accounts as well as possessed elegant courtly skills such as playing music, dancing, riding, hawking and even hunting like her father!
These skills she would go on to help her younger siblings as Elizabeth was one of ten children by her mother (as her father had many illegitimate children from numerous mistresses) but only eight of those children would live into adulthood. Elizabeth was the elder sister to:
Mary of York (born in 1467 but died in 1482 at just fifteen years old), Cecily of York (born in 1469 who went on to marry twice and died in 1507), Edward V of England (born in 1470 and presumed to have died in 1483 as one of the Princes in the Tower), Margaret of York who sadly only lived for a few months in 1472, Richard, Duke of York (born in 1473 and presumed to have died in 1483 as one of the Princes in the Tower), Anne of York (born in 1475 who went onto marry Thomas Howard and died in 1511), George, Duke of Bedford who only lived for two years (1477-1479), Catherine of York (1479 who went onto become Countess of Devon and died in 1527) and finally Bridget of York (born in 1480 who was the only member of her family who became a nun at Dartford Priory in Kent and died in 1507).
As you can see, her parents were extremely busy trying to make as many heirs to utilise for the Crown’s protection as possible and it seems like they were provided with a lot of girls to make marriage alliances with.
It should come as no surprise then to hear that Elizabeth’s hand in marriage was highly sought after throughout England and even overseas but it will surprise you to know that it was not a prince or a future King who won the first chance at taking her hand but a George Neville, the nephew of Earl Warwick ‘The Kingmaker’ who was the cousin of the King which meant that George and Elizabeth were distant cousins. Although this seemed a good match, this infuriated Warwick which caused an uprising as most of the King’s men turned against him and he was forced into hiding (as was the Queen and the Crown heirs) until Warwick and his brother were killed at the Battle of Barnet, therefore terminating the betrothal.
What made Edward IV even more relieved was that his Queen had just given birth to their first son at this precise moment; the future Edward V of England. Now he no longer had to worry about whether he would get a male heir for England and his daughter could now be pawned off in a suitable foreign alliance for the good of England.
. . .
Not that Elizabeth would have had a choice, of course. It was her duty was the eldest daughter and Crown Princess to marry someone of her father’s choosing and she made her peace with it.
Elizabeth of York was blonde and blue-eyed, “the fairest of Edward’s offspring,” says historian Alison Weir in Elizabeth of York, a Tudor Queen and Her World. She was also praised for her fine character as a child, being “learned and wise,” with “an unbounded love for her brothers and sisters.” {1}
Imagine her family being like… “Cannot believe that’s our little Elizabeth, she’s so graceful, she is everything a young woman ought to be.”
“What about me, Mum?”
“Eh… you could learn a thing of two from our beloved Princess.”
She must have been praised to the point where compliments must have just nauseated her. I mean, yes being beautiful is a gift but to be constantly told so isn’t always a good thing. Some will let it go to their heads, others will only think their worth is through their beauty.
Who knows what Elizabeth might have felt?
Now that her father had eradicated the Lancastrian threat entirely (with the exception of Henry Tudor, the Earl of Richmond, who was living under the protection and ever-watchful eye of the Duke of Brittany), Edward IV began to turn his eye away from his Kingdom and to the Kingdom across the sea.
France.
Whilst England was constantly engaging in the famous War of the Roses, France had only prospered. It had become wealthier, centralised, united and altogether a more powerful state, making it a more of a worthy opponent against England. And not long after Edward began to make inquiries in France, the Treaty of Picquigny was signed in 1475. This treaty agreed that—if Edward were to withdraw from France (as he had invaded)—the King would receive 75,000 gold crowns as a down payment along with a pension of 50,000 gold crowns a year. This would only increase Edward’s vast wealth further, as he was known to be a man who valued money and power above all else, even his own honour. Additionally, to further deepen the alliance between England and France, Elizabeth would marry the Dauphin of France, Charles who was King Louis XI’s four year old son. Elizabeth herself was just nine years old, making her five years her future husband’s senior. Soon after, Elizabeth would become known at the English court as Madame la Dauphine, symbolising how, with this marriage, she would become the future Queen of France.
This would only benefit Edward as, when his son would come to succeed him, he knew that relations between England and France would be stabilised with his daughter being the Queen of France. And this meant that there would be no risk to countless innocent lives as there would be no wars or arguments over monies owed. Kings always wanted to ensure that their children, mainly daughters, married into other royal families to help ensure their allies remained their allies and to keep close tabs on their enemies in other kingdoms.
Without going into too much detail, a lot happened between this point and the time when Elizabeth was about to wed her French Dauphin. In January 1478, her second brother Richard, who was second in-line for the throne after Edward V, married Anne Mowbray, the Countess of Norfolk in her own right. Shockingly, Richard was only nine months younger than his FIVE-year-old bride. Yep, you read that right. Richard and Anne were barely six years old when they married, which I assume was by proxy as they had not reached the appropriate age for a binding marriage and therefore were not permitted to consummate the marriage until they reached their teens (as if anyone would willingly let tiny children sleep together, what a ridiculous thought). Sadly, Anne would die in 1481 and all of her lands and title (as Richard had already been created Duke of Norfolk despite the marriage not being properly valid) went to Richard and his heirs. Around about this time, Elizabeth was about to turn twelve years old and was approaching the ‘marriageable’ age where she would be preparing to meet her future husband, a dark time began to pass for her family.
Her uncle, George, the Duke of Clarence, was beginning to make trouble with her father and the rest of their family. George was jealous of his brother, the King. Not only did Edward marry for love, something that even he shouldn’t have been permitted to do, but he had two healthy sons and several daughters who were to be married off advantageously but he had multiple mistresses clinging to his feet, the love and support of the general populace and a Crown that George desperately wanted. And despite having been forgiven for once rising against his king, George was not yet done causing chaos and that would be his downfall…
As we have mentioned briefly with our Margaret Pole article, George hated Queen Elizabeth Woodville. He constantly undermined her and the King, even going as far as to arrange a marriage after the loss of his wife without the King’s permission but worst of all, he had suggested that Edward himself was illegitimate and that he was the true King. This led to him announcing that all of Edward’s children were in fact bastards—something that would actually become a reality later on—and this prompted Edward to have him arrested and executed in the Tower of London for treason, leaving a dark hole in Elizabeth’s life.
It is not said whether she was close with her uncle but she was close with her cousins, Margaret and Edward, and her uncle’s death would have made her all the more worried about what was to come.
And things didn’t get any easier with her own affairs either.
When the time came for Elizabeth’s marriage to take place and for her to travel to France, King Louis was not playing ball. He believed that his son was still too young to marry, as he was now eight, he could not marry for at least another six years and therefore, he would not settle the union that had been agreed upon with Edward until the wedding. What made things worst is that if Elizabeth went to France regardless, she would have been put at risk of poverty as she would have no independent income and be left financially dependent on the French King, who would have unlikely shown his future daughter-in-law any compassion.
It was then that Edward began to worry about his daughter’s future and question Louis’ motives; Elizabeth was not a ‘perfect’ match for the future King of France anymore, not after what George had done to the family’s reputation with his claim of ‘illegitimacy’. And this was confirmed when he seemed delighted by the interest of Maximilian, the Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife Mary, Duchess of Burgundy, wanting to marry their son Philip (literally a one year old) to Elizabeth and Louis said that even if the wedding to his son did not go ahead, he would make a compromise on the jointure.
Poor Elizabeth was pushed to the side once again with another failed potential marriage and her troubles seemed to only worsen when both her youngest sister Bridget became a nun and her younger sister Mary died in 1482 at just fifteen years old. Elizabeth is said to have been extremely close with all of her siblings and to have taken a motherly role as the eldest child, doting on all of her siblings equally although she was not as close with her brothers, especially Edward, as he spent most of his time at Ludlow being trained for kingship (just like her eldest son would be when she married Henry VII).
The news of losing two sisters, though in different ways, must have devastated Elizabeth. And in January 1483, the terrible news of the death of Duchess of Burgundy and the Holy Roman Emperor’s impromptu betrothal of their daughter Archduchess Marguerite to the Dauphin of France reached England. Maximilian ensured that this wedding took place immediately before England could have time to intervene as Marguerite was sent to France as soon as possible and this left Elizabeth heartbroken and Edward furious. Elizabeth had been publicly jilted and humiliated but this acted a positive for Edward.
As mentioned beforehand, there was no longer a Lancastrian threat to Edward’s reign, as the only remaining Lancastrian ‘heir’ was Henry Tudor. But over the last few years, Henry Tudor had become more of a nuisance and he was beginning to show that he was posing a threat to Edward’s reign. And his daughter’s unfortunate, humiliating failed betrothal would prove useful as soon after it became apparent Elizabeth was not to marry the Dauphin of France, Edward began conversing with Henry’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. An extremely religious (though over glamourized in the media) and intelligent woman in her own right, Margaret Beaufort would have known that this match might not have been made for the ‘right reasons’. She knew from the moment her son was born that he would always be in danger and to know who to trust and who not to trust.
Edward’s desire to have Elizabeth marry Henry was not as pure as it might have seemed; marrying his royal daughter to a mere Earl when she could have been Queen of France was not something a King would do, not unless he had an ace up his sleeve. She was worried that Edward was trying to lure Henry, who was in exile/hiding at this point, out so that he could finally eradicate the last Lancastrian heir and forever secure his claim to the throne, even after so many years on the throne.
Though, both of them seemed pleased with the match as Elizabeth then became betrothed to Henry, with a wedding soon to take place.
But then disaster struck…
Just mere months after this, Elizabeth’s hopes of finally getting married and not having to suffer any longer were broken as her father, King Edward IV, died suddenly at still young at forty-one. His death shocked the notion and whilst Elizabeth was grieving over the loss of her father and knowing that her still-too-young brother would soon ascend to the throne, she was having to deal with another matter.
Her other uncle, Richard.
You see, Edward V would never truly ascend to the English throne and Elizabeth would be made to suffer furthermore as her uncle Richard usurped her brother’s throne, imprisoning both of her brothers in the Tower of London, only for them to be proclaimed dead not long after, making Richard heir to the throne. Now King Richard III, he held the power over everyone and it was he who decided what Elizabeth’s future would be.
Now, there is a cruel myth still circulating to this day that Richard and Elizabeth were lovers, most likely as a result of Henry’s men wanting to damage both of their reputations and Philippa Gregory’s novels further cementing that this was the truth—but I refuse to believe this. This man had—though unproven still—murdered her brothers in cold blood to achieve his goal of becoming King and though he was her uncle, Elizabeth would have been smart enough to know that she could not afford to make any mistakes. Henry Tudor was amassing an army to challenge Richard’s rule and her betrothal to him still stood at this time. So why would she make the foolish decision to commit incest with her uncle when she had equal chances of survival on both ends?
If Richard won, she would be married off to someone with high status and power, most likely another royal. If Henry won, she would become Queen of England and ensure that the remainder of her family were safe and secure against any enemies that might do them harm.
We will be exploring this myth later on but for now, let us talk about what happened after Henry Tudor finally defeated Richard III and took his ‘rightful’—as this is still heavily debated to this day as he had a small (and illegitimate) claim to the throne—place as King of England, the first of the Tudor dynasty.
. . .
At first glance, it seemed that Elizabeth and Henry got on quite well. They had both know for quite some time that their marriage was out of their hands and that it was their duty to do what their parents had arranged for them to do. More than that, it was their duty to marry as it would prevent any more wars from happening; Elizabeth was a York Princess and Henry was the last Lancastrian heir. With their marriage, they would unite the two quarrelling houses together and their future offspring would possess the blood of them both, meaning that there would be no more ‘we deserve to rule’ or ‘they stole this from us’ or ‘lets have another fifty years of people constantly claiming they had a right to rule’.
No, both of them knew the importance of their marriage and it seems like neither one of them contested this. Reports claim that the couple, upon first meeting, were quite friendly and awkward around one another. Though Henry had not questioned why he should marry Elizabeth, he was determined to be proclaimed King in his own right, not because he was marrying Edward IV’s eldest child and heir (as her brothers had been killed and only his daughters had survived). This is why he arranged for his own coronation in October 1485 and why he waited so long before actually marrying Elizabeth on 18 January 1486. He wanted to have enough time to cement his rule as King before he actually went ahead with the marriage, though he did spend the time ensuring that she, her sisters and her mother Elizabeth Woodville were treated like the royalty they were—even going so far as to arrange marriages for her younger sisters as they had spent most of their time during Richard III’s reign and war with Henry in sanctuary for their own safety.
Elizabeth’s coronation was as fine as Henry’s, if not better. She was crowned before the masses wearing an elegant gown and with all the surviving members of her family there to support the union, showing that the war between the houses was truly over with the house of Tudor now uniting them. And Henry even went further to show that he truly meant he wanted peace between the houses as the Tudor rose combined the famous white rose of the York house and the red rose of the Lancastrians, showing his people that he was a man of his word.
Although we will not go into detail about their marriage in this particular article, it should be mentioned briefly that Elizabeth’s marriage to Henry was said to be a joyous and loving one as many men of the court report that Henry had come to love Elizabeth as their marriage went on and that Elizabeth returned this. If this is not to be believed, might the fact that Henry and Elizabeth ruled as equals, with neither acting as if they were above the other or challenging the other’s opinions in political or any other matters not prove that. Or even the fact that the couple would go on to have SEVEN children together?
Elizabeth had known the pain of her parents desperately trying to have a male heir and then seeing her mother lose both of her sons in an instant so she had no desire to suffer the same fate. And as luck would have it, Henry did not have to wait long to have the male heir that he desperately needed to prove that God blessed his rule and that his dynasty was secure. On 20th September 1486, little prince Arthur was born a little over eight months (or 35 weeks) later, almost conclusively proving that Elizabeth was already pregnant by the time she was married and crowned Queen. This should come as no surprise as historians believe that Henry might have chosen to consummate the marriage early in order to ensure that Elizabeth was fertile (as this was a common worry for young kings such as himself) and wanted to have an heir as soon as possible.
Elizabeth would go on to have six other children following Arthur although three of these children would go on to survive into adulthood. Following Arthur, her first daughter Margaret (the future Queen of Scotland) was born on 28th November 1489, then her second son and future King of England, Henry (or Harry as he was also known to his close friends) on 28th June 1491, sadly her daughter Elizabeth who was born in 1492 only lived three years, then came Mary Rose Tudor (the future Queen of France) in 1496, another unfortunate early death came for her sixth child Edmund who lived mere months, and her final child Katherine who died in 1503 and would be the cause of her mother’s tragic death only days earlier.
Yes, Elizabeth had grieved many times over for her children, though that did not stop her and her husband from conceiving time and time again. Even at the age of thirty-six, she was able to conceive their seventh child, whom they hoped would bring joy to their lives after suffering so endlessly after losing three children in a row, as their eldest son had died only mere months beforehand. Some historians believe it was her eldest son’s death coupled with the lingering impacts of giving birth at a ‘dangerous’ age (as nearly forty was seen to be a dangerous age for a woman to be giving birth as it meant higher chances of both the babe and the mother dying) that would cause Elizabeth to give birth early to her daughter and suffer for days until succumbing to childbed fever, with her daughter passing either on the same day or a few days later.
Her death would spread grief across the land as England had lost their fair and ever radiant Queen, a Queen who could do no wrong in their eyes and who was beloved by every single one of her subjects from the young to the old. But her death would prove to break her husband who lingered by her corpse unmoving for days, not uttering a single word, Henry Tudor neither eat or slept, overwhelmed by the grief of losing both his wife and his daughter at the same time. They had overcome so many hardships together and now Elizabeth was leaving this world just as miserably as she appeared to enter it, on her thirty-seventh birthday on 11th February 1503.
With her death, Elizabeth had taken the joy and the care of her husband, she had left her children motherless all at a tender age, she had left her kingdom without the fair, compassionate and generous Queen that it had always known and loved and the world without a perfect example of an obedient, quiet and content woman to be inspired by.
Her funeral was a grand affair—of course, by the order of her ever-loving husband—and many of his subjects came to London to show their support and share his grief over her death. Mourning lingered for weeks on end and it was only with his own death in 1509 that Henry Tudor would be reunited with the wife and children that he had lost.
A life filled with grief, despair, hardship and humiliation was the life that Elizabeth of York endured but not once did she allow that to defeat her. A woman of bravery, compassion and everlasting hope was our last white rose and she is remembered even today as a woman who, despite fitting the embodiment of a perfect wife and Queen though her obedience and humbleness, was ever bit as brave as the Queens and ancestors that came before her.
So, if you should see a white rose today, spare a moment for remembering Elizabeth of York and how she shone brightly even to her last day, never letting misfortune deter her from living life to the fullest, even if it should kill you...
“I will walk through my sorrow and I will smile through my pain.”
- Jodie Comer as Elizabeth of York in The White Princess.
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