Princess 👑 Daughter, sister and aunt of kings and queens. Wife to her beloved, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. Pet and darling of Plantagenet family (Parody) #WOTR#Tudors
OTD in 1191, King Richard I arrived in Acre to join the third Crusade.
He had an army of 8,000 men, with whom he had conquered Cyprus on the way.
The Crusaders were successful, and the Muslim garrison was taken into Christian captivity.
@HauntedWHunter "I love how green and lush everything is this spring," she smiled cordially. "A lovely day for enjoying some fresh air. I am sorry but I don't think we have met before. What is your name?"
@swornwarrior__ “There are enough queens in my family. I would happily accept the status as goddess,” she merrily replied as she looked at up at him and batted her blue eyes. “Tell me about the feasts at your table and your regional delicacies."
@swornwarrior__ “A stroll seems like a marvelous idea.”
When the arm was gestured, Anne had to take a small breath in order not to seem too eager. She accepted it, and then delicately wrapped her hand around his massive muscled arm.
And tried not to swoon. His masculine scent was heady. ~
#WarsoftheRoses
OTD in 1492 - Elizabeth Woodville, widow of #EdwardIV & mother of #EdwardV & Elizabeth of York, died at Bermondsey Abbey. Intriguingly, she had retired to the abbey in 1487 when her son-in-law #HenryVII was under threat from a Yorkist claimant (see linked post.)
Some historians argue that Elizabeth herself had made a long term plan to retire to Bermondsey & left court of her own free will due to deteriorating health. However, this is contradicted by the fact that she had recently taken out a lease on the Cheyneygates mansion in Westminster (where she had previously lived in sanctuary in 1470 & 1483) suggesting that she intended to remain at the political centre & continue influencing events as she had for the previous two decades. This adds weight to the assertion from the Tudor court historian Polydore Vergil that Henry himself sent his mother-in-law away & was punishing her for ‘her inconstancy.’
This suggests Henry believed Elizabeth was either involved or at the very least sympathetic to the 1487 rebellion against him. He also took the precaution of imprisoning her eldest son from her first marriage (& his own brother-in-law) Thomas Grey, Marquess of Dorset, in the Tower of London.
If the 1487 claimant was truly an imposter as Henry claimed, it makes little sense that Elizabeth Woodville & Dorset would risk their lives & positions to support him. As the mother & brother of Henry’s own Queen Consort & maternal relatives of Arthur, Prince of Wales (born in 1486) their futures looked bright. They would also have had little motivation to support the claim of Edward, Earl of Warwick either, as Warwick was the son of George, Duke of Clarence, one of Elizabeth’s greatest enemies.
However, if the 1487 claimant was Edward V then Henry feeling compelled to move against Elizabeth & Dorset makes perfect sense. The restoration of their son & half-brother would have been a tantalising prospect for them & offered a second opportunity to seize power for themselves as they had been attempting to do in the spring of 1483.
Tis a rainy morrow.
You may find her curled up with a good book by a window looking out occasionally at the gloomy grey skies as rain streaks the glass panes.
Crown of Margaret of York, a rare 15th-century silver-gilt Gothic coronet decorated with pearls, enamelled white Yorkist roses, and precious gemstones, currently preserved in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury.
Quite well, Your Highness. We are having a blessed spring, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I think tis my favorite season of them all. How are you faring?
@swornwarrior__ his commanding presence. She was mesmerized by his description of his homeland and the intimate connection that he clearly had with the area.
“I would rather like that, if you please, my lord.” Anne’s response was just as cheeky as Uthred's with a grin lighting up her face.
@swornwarrior__ As the handsome general spoke, Anne’s bright blue eyes moved to take in the full power of his long sword. “What a magnificent gem,” she gasped when she saw the great stone. “Caves you say? That must have been quite the undertaking.”
She fluttered prettily slightly flustered by ~
#OTD 1465: Coronation of Elizabeth Woodville. She and Edward IV had married secretly some months earlier. Her coronation marked her arrival on the public stage. But her queenship and marriage ended in tatters when, after his death in 1483, Edward was revealed to be a bigamist.
On this day May 26th 1465 Elizabeth Woodville was crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey a year after her clandestine marriage to King Edward IV. As was tradition, he did not attend the ceremony. It was followed by a lavish feast and tournament.
#WarsoftheRoses
OTD in 1465 - Elizabeth Woodville was crowned Queen of England. This followed her secret marriage to the Yorkist King #EdwardIV (traditionally said to have taken place on 1 May 1464) & its revelation to the King’s disapproving family & closest supporters in September 1464.
Elizabeth’s Lancastrian predecessor Margaret of Anjou had been crowned after only 37 days of marriage to #HenryVI. Although Margaret wasn’t universally popular at the time of her marriage, especially not with the faction who had wanted to continue the #HundredYearsWar, her status as a French princess ensured her marriage was acceptable to the King’s subjects & she didn’t face the level of disapproval which Elizabeth did. This disapproval likely explained the longer gap before Elizabeth’s own coronation. Her husband Edward IV was having to reconcile key players at his court to their marriage first.
Edward’s mother Cecily Neville, Dowager Duchess of York made no secret of her disapproval of her son’s choice of bride & Elizabeth’s unsuitability. These sentiments were shared by Edward’s mentor & cousin, the man who had helped to make him King in 1461, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (the Kingmaker.) Edward had also humiliated Warwick by keeping his marriage a secret from him & only revealing it when Warwick had in good faith brokered a betrothal for Edward to the French princess Bona of Savoy on the instructions of the King & the Privy Council.
It is often said that Elizabeth’s low social status as the widow of a knight, Sir John Grey, lay at the root of the disapproval she encountered from those closest to Edward. But this was only half the story. Elizabeth Woodville’s mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg was a European princess & had become part of the extended Lancastrian royal family through her first marriage to John, Duke of Bedford. As a widow, Jacquetta had gone on to marry Sir Richard Woodville, Elizabeth’s father, & a man far below her on the social scale.
For Warwick & other long term Yorkist supporters, Elizabeth’s Lancastrian connections were likely more problematic than her low birth. Jacquetta & Richard Woodville had been close to both Henry VI & his Queen Margaret of Anjou. In this capacity Richard Woodville had been one of Warwick’s opponents for control of the English Channel in 1458-60.
Understandably, those who had sacrificed so much in the service of the House of York during the difficult years from 1455 to 1461, were not best pleased by the prospect of Edward’s marriage diverting rewards & lands into the hands of former opponents once his kingship had finally started to be secure in 1464. These views were not restricted to Warwick alone with the chronicler Jean de Waurin recording how the Privy Council responded to the revelation of Edward’s marriage to Elizabeth by telling him that ‘he must know that she was no wife for a prince such as himself.’
As King, Edward’s choice of bride should have been a matter of state rather than personal preference, hence the angry response from the Privy Council. By marrying Elizabeth he had squandered the opportunity of making an advantageous foreign alliance with a French, Castilian or Scottish bride which could have enhanced his own & England’s security. (Assuming he was truly free to marry of course & not already secretly married to Eleanor Talbot, which seems likely.)
Nonetheless, by May 1465 Edward’s family & closest supporters had reconciled themselves to his marriage & accepted Elizabeth as Queen. The greater & more dangerous future problem would stem from the size of Elizabeth’s family & Edward allowing her to corner the marriage market for her sisters & other female relatives leaving a lack of eligible male heirs for Warwick’s daughters, but that’s a story for another post.