ELIZABETH WOODVILLE was the wife of EDWARD IV, the mother of the PRINCES IN THE TOWER and has become known as the white Queen of England in reference to the white rose which was one of the symbols of her husband’s royal House of York. In this documentary from History Calling, we look at her early life and queenship. Elizabeth is a particularly fascinating subject because she was one of the women who fought the Wars of the Roses (also known as the Cousins’ War), a dynastic conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster which occurred over the course of several decades in the 15th century and which is so named because of the aforementioned white rose of York and the red rose symbolised by the House of Lancaster. This conflict cost her more than perhaps any other woman involved in it and was largely responsible for her having one of the most dramatic lives of any Queen of England. Join me to hear about her birth to the most scandalous couple of the day, Sir Richard Woodville and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, dowager Duchess of Bedford; her marriage as a teenager to Sir John Grey; how she came to be the York Queen despite her Lancastrian background; why her union with Edward was one of the most unpopular royal marriages of the era; her time as Queen and the threats to her and her children’s lives which led them to flee into sanctuary in Westminster Abbey and which mean that Elizabeth is one of the few women in history to be Queen of England twice.

This video is part of a larger series on the women of the Wars of the Roses which has/will also look at Cecily Neville, Duchess of York; Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England; Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII; Anne Neville, Queen of England and Elizabeth of York, Queen of England. Come back for the next video to learn about Elizabeth Woodville’s possible involvement in the execution of her brotherinlaw, George, Duke of Clarence, her reaction to the death of her husband, her relationship with her other brotherinlaw, Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III), her life after the throne and reaction to the mysterious disappearance of her young sons from the Tower of London and how she conspired with Margaret Beaufort to become the mother of the Queen instead of the king.

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BUY OR RENT:
Britain’s Bloody Crown Presented by Dan Jones (2016) [Documentary covering the Wars of the Roses. Historically accurate] https://amzn.to/2TPep8i
The White Queen (2013). [Depicts the story of the Wars of the Roses from Elizabeth Woodville’s point of view. Gets the broad strokes of history correct, but definitely not completely accurate] https://amzn.to/3dm7kBL (UK LINK) OR https://amzn.to/2VcbQO5 (US LINK)
The King in the Carpark (2013). Documentary about the discovery of Richard III’s skeleton in 2012. https://amzn.to/3C0loMF (UK LINK)

READ MORE:
David Baldwin, Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower (2002). https://amzn.to/3bdPAuO
Laynesmith, Joanna, The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship 14451503 (Oxford, 2004) https://amzn.to/3O3V8qq
Helen Castor, SheWolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth (2011) https://amzn.to/3HBfq8q
Dan Jones, The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors (2015) https://amzn.to/3N89uVF
Michael Hicks, The Wars of the Roses (Yale, 2012) https://amzn.to/3FZrZaV

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