Tag: Elizabeth Woodville

Part Seventeen: Lambert Simnel & the Battle of Stoke Field

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Lambert Simnel

Aaand, we’re back at it. To note, this will be my last historical post before the New Year due to travel, but we’ll reconvene the second week of January. (In the meantime, of course, if you follow the modern stuff , there will the traditional end-of-year wrap-ups next week.) Anyway. The Princes in the Tower. Henry VII. Rebellions. Before we start, if you missed the last post on evidence for the Princes’ potential survival, you can catch up here. I recommend making sure that you’ve read it since I’ve written the below on the assumption you’re clear on those events.

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Part Sixteen: Francis Lovell, Colchester & Gipping Hall

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princes-in-the-tower

Ok! Part Sixteen! If you missed the most recent post in our Richard III series, then you can catch up here. Today we’re going to discuss evidence that the “Princes in the Tower” may well have survived. I feel fairly confident that the evidence for why they didn’t has been well-covered, and frankly the most glaring piece of it is that they disappeared during Richard III’s reign, so…let’s just go ahead and wade into the murkier territory.

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Part Fifteen: Richard III & the Elizabeths

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Richard of York

Better late than never? Let’s hope so. In the late summer and early autumn, there were 14 blog posts dedicated to Richard III, and then…time got away from me. Apologies. But, we’re back at it, and today we’re going to pick up with the fifteenth, covering what Elizabeth Woodville and Elizabeth of York can tell us about Richard III’s reign and the fate of the “Princes in the Tower” – Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York.

As a catch up, the first 11 posts in the series covered Richard’s life from birth until 1483, and then there were two timeline posts that laid out the events of 1483-1485 without commentary. We’re now zooming in on specific people and events, with today’s post starting to really dig into the question of the “Princes.” So, if you want to catch up, here’s a link to the first post in the series, and if you’re good to go, then here’s a link to the timeline of 1484-1485, to which I’ll be referring throughout.

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Part Fourteen: Buckingham’s Rebellion

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Buckingham

The rebellion of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham in the autumn of 1483 is perplexing because it’s impossible to nail down a motivation for it. Arguably no one was better rewarded by Richard’s assumption of power and Buckingham positioned himself as an Earl of Warwick-type figure in the second and third quarters of 1483 – in other words, a kingmaker. His fall from grace was remarkably self-inflicted and a confusing wrinkle in the study of Richard III. So, let’s dig in, but first, if you missed Part Thirteen, you can catch up here and I recommend reading through this timeline of 1483 for some context if you haven’t already.

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Part Thirteen: William Hastings & Eleanor Butler

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Hastings

Happy Saturday! For those following along in this series, today we’re going to delve into Richard’s claim to the throne, specifically focusing on William, Lord Hastings’s execution in June 1483 and the legitimacy of Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. If you missed Part Twelve, you can catch up here, and it might be useful to have read this timeline of 1483 as I’ll be referencing events from it.

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Part Twelve: Regent or Lord Protector?

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richard-iii-9457120-1-402

Oookay, our timelines are behind us and we can now delve into Richard III’s reign. If you missed the last two posts, I highly recommend taking a look (here and here), and it may be helpful to have the rundown on 1483 handy as you read through the below. Today we’re going to focus on the first wave of Richard’s assumption of power.

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Part Nine: Richard III as ‘Lord of the North’

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Rous Roll

If you missed Part Eight covering George of Clarence’s death, you can catch up here.

In the weeks leading up to George’s execution, the House of York gathered in London for a happier matter – the marriage of the four-year-old Prince Richard, Duke of York and the five-year-old Anne Mowbray, daughter of the deceased John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. The event gathered nearly the entire family for one of the last times. The seven-year-old Prince of Wales joined his three elder sisters, Princesses Elizabeth, Mary, and Cecily. Edward IV’s mother, Cecily Neville, Duchess of York was given a place of honor, while the bride was escorted by the Earl of Lincoln (Edward IV’s nephew via his sister, Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk). Richard, too, was there, however it’s unclear if he was joined by his wife, Anne Neville.

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Margaret Beaufort & Her Four Husbands

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BeaufortLadyM_CU_SJ_170sm

Margaret Beaufort is arguably the great winner of the Wars of the Roses. Certainly she is one of the few to have lived through the war in its entirety and, as such, became the matriarch of the House of the Tudor. Mother to Henry VII, she is an ancestor to every English/British monarch since Henry VIII (as well as Scotland’s James V and Mary Stuart). But though she existed in the same world as Marguerite of Anjou, Elizabeth Woodville and Anne Neville, she is rarely seen as exciting as them – she never wore a crown and by the time she held substantial power, she was a woman in 50s. Instead, she is usually depicted as the mother-in-law from hell, a meddler and a jarring mix of pious and power-hungry.

To some, she is even a contender as the true killer of the Princes of the Tower.

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