His government didn’t like the idea and there was considerable public backlash. Perhaps she means only that she is desirous for Richard to negotiate her another marriage. The gossip about Elizabeth began probably when the privy council was told Richard had quit Anne’s bed. I think the most likely scenario is that it was Anne or Anne and Richard and the move was naive, not malicious. so what does everyone think of this, if anyone is reading this ? We have no idea what Elizabeth thought about it, or whether her mother supported it. The Tragedy of King Richard the Third is replete with demonstrable errors of fact, chronology and geography. I have to wonder if the wires got crossed and the two intended marriages were confused for him wanting to marry Elizabeth ?

Elizabeth, however, had no power beyond the raising of her children and the ordering of her household.

In Philippa Gregory’s The Cousins’ War series, Elizabeth of York falls in love with King Richard III while she is serving as a lady in waiting for Queen Anne Neville.

Such was the wave of unpopularity crashing over him that there were rumors circulating that he had killed Anne. It is very true for the aristocracy especially those individuals who rely upon the need to have a male heir and a spare. 6 myths about Richard III. A school crush maybe? She would not have hesitated to tell her daughter to charm Richard in order to gain a throne. So, what of Elizabeth? They had just spent months fearing for their lives in sanctuary. There is also the issue of obedience. Twelve doctors of divinity were also summoned by Parliament to put forward their objections and Richard then publicly denied the accusation. ( Log Out /  Henry Tudor felt he had to keep her in her place.

Bear in mind, too, that she had known Richard all her life and prior to her father’s death, he had never shown himself (publicly at least) to be anything other than loyal and capable. An artist’s rendition of his face with truly human features, not that doll they came up with, shows a very handsome man. If Edward IV could make a knight’s widow his queen, Richard III probably thought he could also make Elizabebeth of York a queen. He may have objected to “open adultery”, however, I don’t believe there is any historical documentation that speaks to his either loving his wife, or being a chaste faithful husband all his married life. The negotiations came to a sudden halt with the news of the Battle of Bosworth. The speculation of their incestuous relationship actually dates back a long way – to their very own time. All of this, therefore, is premised on interpretations of Buck’s note, but one version of it believed to be fairly reliable. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. A betrothal to the heir to the French throne, the Dauphin, had fallen through previously. Phillipa Gregory is not a true historian. We do have enough to say his judgment was deeply questionable. And I was dying to know if Richard did flaunted their courtship in order to weaken her family’s alliance with the House of Lancaster who were continuous threat to his throne. But either way, the rumors began to creep through Europe, most notably spreading to France where Henry Tudor was biding his time by the side of King Charles VIII. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Without Elizabeth, his chances of gaining the throne were much remoter. This letter was written in February.

Many of his subjects at the time certainly didn’t, given his infamous rise to power. Richard would lie like a rug to further his political ends but all evidence indicates he took a formal oath seriously.

So how much of this is a creation of a novellist, and how much of it is a fact? A historian by the name of George Buck wrote a summary of a note ostensibly from Elizabeth to a supporter of Richard’s, John Howard, Duke of Norfolk (his story and his connection to the House of York can be found here). View more posts. Personally,I doubt there is much to any of this. After meeting Iseult Tristan is treated for an illness by her – Richard comforted by EoY after EoM’s death.

Why is it so popular? If they were dead, then who killed them? Richard could have stopped all the speculation by arranging honorable marriages for his brothers’ daughters or placing them in convents.. Richard had long been in love with his wife, it was a well known fact that Richard hated “open adultery” and had remained faithful to his wife for the 10 years they married, one of the many reasons Richard doesn’t appears at his brothers court so often is because he disliked Edward IV open adultery, after there son’s death Richard takes Anne to her favorite castle and refuses to part from her side. He was the king of England and Elizabeth’s future – as well as that of her mother and sisters – was in complete limbo. Paul Murray Kendall, the greatest revisionist of them all,  in his landmark biography of Richard, posits that the King had “desperately or grimly” thrown the idea of marrying Elizabeth out there and “treacherous” councilors had betrayed him by carrying the snippet of conversation to enemy parties.

Now it seems to me a man accustomed to willing girls develops a real.liking for women. Richard’s advisers would have been against such a marriage because they would not wanted to see Elizabeth with her Woodville blood restored to power. We do not know if he was always faithful either. It also struck fear in Henry’s heart – or his brain, rather, since he likely didn’t have much emotion tied up in Elizabeth herself at this point. In actuality, Richard WAS planning a remarriage-and sent an envoy merely days after Queen Anne ‘s death of a lingering illness at the age of 28. In any event, she was warmly welcomed to court by Richard and Anne, perhaps too warmly. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Long story short Richard ended up taking the throne bc of this, an act of parliment declared the E4 brood Illegitimate and Richard the rightful king, and little Edward and his brother Richard who had joined him in the tower, mysteriously disappeared and people still don’t know what happened to them today. And to be honest I’m rather sick of the focus on Richard III and Elizabeth of York. The death of Edward of Middleton had been quite a blow to Anne’s already fragile health. Though people do not agree on the extent to which Elizabeth Woodville influenced Edward’s rule, few would say that their marriage wasn’t passionate. The likelihood of her expecting the act to be read that way even fainter. I’m not so sure about that. Etc…. There is nothing but this made up letter to suggest any feelings. So logically in the case of Elizabeth, he would have to act accordingly. You also make Elizabeth still think Richard would marry her even after he publicly denied her. On lawyering, history, raising boys and everything else I can think of Queen Elizabeth certainly believed he would when he swore she and her daughters would be safe – and she was right wasn’t she? It was a seriously stupid idea from his POV and he wasn’t stupid or completely desperate. ( Log Out /  I, therefore, think that the letter citing Elizabeth’s impatience with how long it was taking for Anne to die accurately reflects Elizabeth’s sentiments. That kind of reading is possible, particularly given discrepancies in grammar. He first had to have Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville marriage declared legal before he could marry Elizabeth of York. Elizabeth of York was given two books by her uncle, Richard III-Tristan and Iseult and Boethius Consolatio Philosophiae. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Richard was already wildly unpopular in the South. ELIZABETH OF YORK | modern aesthetics . The Croyland chronicle notes that Anne and Elizabeth were decked out in similar garments, which caused gossip about what it could all mean. The “why” of it actually isn’t that tricky, for all that it sounds horribly incestuous. It would be the last time they saw one another. It was such an out there idea that it never crossed his mind or Queen Anne’s when they decided to make a show of favor towards Elizabeth. At any given time, the queen was expected to be the most finely dressed woman in the room. Her marital prospects for much more grim now that she was illegitimate .So what happened with Uncle Dick? In Philippa Gregory’s The Cousins’ War series, Elizabeth of York falls in love with King Richard III while she is serving as a lady in waiting for Queen Anne Neville. Queen Elizabeth meanwhile took her five daughters, Elizabeth jr included, and her younger son Richard, and fled to sanctuary. (AmazingCat) At a distance of over 500 hundred years, about a man whom you did not personally know, and lacking the ability to read minds, how can you claim by any authority to know what were and were not the thoughts of Richard III? Remember Elizabeth was just a teenager at the time and she was probably self-centered and spoilt. I do find the arguments in favor of Richard rightfully taking the throne to the pre-contract to be compelling…i honestly have no real opinion on the missing boys. So, what is there to say about this?

Elizabeth interest did not lay with Richard but with Henry. We do not know Richard’s feelings about his wife. I see no reason to put any credence in a letter NOBODY else ever saw. I do not think Elizabeth regarded Richard as her brothers’ murderer because I think the princes were alive during this period. Did I mention that Richard III is her uncle who had declared his brother’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville invalid and made all their children (including Elizabeth of York) bastards? Speaking of the Tudor Myth, a fun little twist to exanining Richard III is seeing two wildly divergent schools of thought on him. He needed a son. Overly harsh analyses of the situation have posited that Anne would never have put her niece in that situation and welcomed the gossip that would follow – that the choice to dress Elizabeth in overt finery had to have come from Richard and was a sure sign of his desire to marry her. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. The timing of the Portugal issue, however, is that such a match wasn’t really on the table until March when Richard toyed with double marriage alliance between himself and a Portuguese princess, and Elizabeth with a Portuguese prince. Their ambassadors and spies helped weave the tale through the rest of Europe – Burgundy, Brittany, Rome, Spain and Portugal. It does tell us that Richard was not a particularly popular king, nor was he trusted. Walking around the Temple of Dawn, Wat Arun: Day 1 in Thailand.

So what? Richard III and Elizabeth of York. The matter was dropped and the girl removed from his court. There were strict rules about apparel at court – gold and purple, for example, were reserved for royalty . Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. In the meantime, Richard received information that Edward’s marriage to Elizabeth was bigamous due to a secret marriage prior to his secret marriage with Elizabeth. It’s interesting because while Elizabeth and Richard are often shown to be romantic in fiction, here the chronicler, mostly negative to Richard, is claiming he wanted to marry her only because his power as king was weak and he needed her due to her connection to her father, Edward IV, to establish his power. Anyone would realize after that moment he never could have even if he wanted to.

( Log Out /  I also believe Richard when he publicly swore on oath that he had not compassed his wife’s death or plotted to marry his niece.