I was quite surprised to find there is not already a thread on this woman. I think she was a more interesting woman than she is generally given credit for.
When looking at later Plantagenet family trees, it is always interesting to note: 'Oh, so and so had Plantagenet blood' - see the 'Tracing the Plantagenets thread
). An easy to overlook fact is that Elizabeth herself, wife of the usurper Henry Tudor, was a Plantagent.
And she wasn't just a Plantagenet - she had Woodville blood, and her maternal grandmother had been a princess of Luxembourg. On her father's side, she also had the blood of the proud Neville family, a great 15th century English clan.
Elizabeth is often seen as a typical queen consort of this period - meek, quiet, submissive. And yet, she did, on occasion, display the indomitable spirit of her parents - particularly when her son Arthur died, and she 'bore up' very well, reminding King Henry that he too had been an only child, but through God's grace had survived to become king. She also reminded him 'we are both young enough' - i.e to have more children.
More than once during her life, Elizabeth displayed a kindness characteristic of neither the Plantagenets nor the Woodvilles - a good example is her conduct to the widowed Princess of Wales, Catherine of Aragon, after the death of Prince Arthur.
I am especially interested in discussing Elizabeth's relationships with her family. It is well know that she enjoyed an unusually happy marriage with King Henry. But what of her children? It seems a generally accepted fact that Henry VIII idolised his mother, but can anyone produce tangible proof of this? And her mother, Dowager Queen Elizabeth Woodville? How did Elizabeth get on with her, especially after 1483?
I hope this thread will provoke some interesting discussions!
