Yorkist Princesses

[Prince_Lieven]

The 'catch all' term for youthful illness back then. 

I wonder if Elizabeth Woodville resented that her daughters' chances of foreign marriages were greatly decreased by Henry's accession . . . was she alive when Cecily had to marry Welles?

[Kimberly]

Elizabeth would have been alive, Cecily married him in 1488-1489 and Elizabeth died in 1492. Wasn't Welles related to Henry VII?

[Prince_Lieven]

He was Margaret Beaufort's half brother, through the marriage of her mother, Margaret Beauchamp with Leo (or sometimes Lionel) Welles. Interestingly, Margaret Beaufort was also the aunt of Richard Pole, Margaret Salisbury's husband.

[Prince_Lieven]

Hey, Alianore found some online extracts from a book called 'Lives of the Princesses of England' by Mary Anne Everett Green, published in Victorians times. I dug out some stuff from it about Anne, Edward IV's daughter:

About her prospective enagement to Philip the Handsome . . .
The portion of the bride was settled at 100,000 crowns; Duke Maximilian agreed to oay 6,000 a year for her support after she should attain the age of 12 years; and in case the princess, when she arrived at years of discretion, consented to ratify the agreement and marry Prince Philip, lands to the value of 8,000 livres Artois were to be assigned to her in Flanders. Should she refuse her consent, the King enaged that he or his successor would pay to Maximilian a fine of 60,000 livres, in consideration of the sums already advanced. The duke, on his part, promised to compensate King Edward for any loss he might incur by the breach of his treaty with France which the Austrian alliance would involve.

The projected union with Austria was looked upon as rather uncertain of accomplishment, even before the death of King Edward. A chronicler, writing in 1482, mentions the arrival of embassies, and the conclusion of conventions for the marriages of the King's daughters; and adds that 'at present it is not believed that any of them will stand, such are the vacillations in the affairs of France, Scotland, Burgundy and Spain.

The book looks very good, but VERY expensive. 

[Prince_Lieven]

It goes on to say . . .

The immature age of the princess prevented her from sharing the weight of sorry brought upon other members of the royal house by the usurpation of Richard III. She had only just entered upon her twelfth year when the marriage of her eldest sister to Henry VII placed her in a position of comparitive comfort and honour in the royal circle.

Elizabeth of York watched with an almost maternal tenderness over her younger sisters, which were left with no protector other than herself. We find the little Lady Anne officiating as one of the attendants at the christening of her infant nephew, Prince Arthur. She walked in state in the procession, attended on the right hand by Sir Richard Guilford, knight constable, and on the left by Sir John Turbeville, knight marshal; and bore, pinned on her right breast and hanging over her left arm, a rich chrisome, to be placed on the anointed head of the Prince after his baptism. A similar office was allotted to Anne, two years subsequently, at the christening of Princess Margaret.

In the year 1486, the King became desirous, on political grounds, to form an alliance with Scotland; he proposed that his mother-in-law, the Queen Dowager of Edward IV, should marry the widowed king, James III; whilst James, Prince of Scotland, should be united to one of the daughters of the late king. The Princess Cecilia [i.e Cecily], formerly plighted to Prince James, was already the bride of Lord Welles; the hand of the Princess Catherine was destined for the second son of King James; the choice, therefore, rested between the Ladies Anne and Briget, the two remaining daughters. The death of the Scottish king soon afterwards put a stop to these multifarious negotiations.

[Prince_Lieven]

On St George's Day 1488, the Princess Anne appeared attired in a robe of crimson velvet, mounted on a snow white palfrey, whose saddle was of cloth of gold, embroidered with white roses, and took her place with twenty other ladies in the suite of the Queen her sister. The next recorded mention of Lady Anne is as attending the dying bed of her mother, Queen Elizabeth Woodville, who expired at the convent of Bermondsey in June 1492. The princess officiated as chief mourner at the funeral, in place of the Queen her sister, whose approaching confinement precluded her attendance. Anne and her sister went by water from Bermondsey to Windsor.
 . . . . .

As the Princess advanced in years her sister was wishful to obtain and suitable alliance. Elizabeth's attention was turned to the English nobility, and she made or accepted overtures for a marriage between Lady Anne and Lord Thomas Howard, eldest son of Thomas, Earl of Surrey, later Duke of Norfolk.

 . . . . .
Queen Elizabeth decided, and her fair younger sister acquiesed in the decision, that even the royal blood of a Plantagenet would not be dishonoured by mingling with that of the noble race of the Howards. The marriage of Lord Thomas Howard and the Lady Anne Plantagenet was solemnised on the 4th of February 1495. The royal family attended the nuptials, and the King presented the offering at the subsequent mass; he did not, however, extend his cordiality so far as to bestow on the princess the bridal portion of 10,000 marks, bequeathed to her by her father.

. . . . .
From the time of her marriage, Lady Anne sinks into obscurity. She appears to have been little at Court, as her name is not again mentioned among the visitors at the palace of Henry VII. Delicacy of healthy might be one cause of her absence from those festive scenes which require physical as well as mental buoyancy to render their exhilaration congenial.,

[Prince_Lieven]

The privy purse expenses of her sister, Queen Elizabeth, for the year 1502-03, record a payment of seven yards of green satin of Bruges, at 2s, 8d a yard 'for a kirtle for my Lady Anne'; also a yearly allowance of ten marks from the queen, for pocket money . . .

The death of the Queen, the following year, put an end to her kindly offices of love towards her sister. Anne was present at the funeral, but only as a spectatress; the intensity of her sorrows precluded her from taking a prominent part in the ceremonial.

 . . . .

The health of the royal mother was never strong; she possessed the inherent delicacy of constitution which brought almost all the children of Edward IV to the tomb before they had attained or passed the prime of their existence; in her case the premature decline was accelerated by maternal trials. The only remaining records of her are, that on the 23 of March 1510, her nephew King Henry VIII, granted to her and her husband the messuage and garden in Stephenhithe; that on the 22 of November following several manors were bestowed on Lord Howard and his wife; and that the castle and manor of Wingfield, with many other manors in Norfolk, Suffolk, York, Lincoln and Oxford were settled on Lady Anne for life, with a reversionary clause in favour of her heirs.


 . . . .
The remains of Lady Anne were interred in the priory of Thetford. At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, this house was doomed to destruction. Lord Howard, then Duke of Norfolk, interceded with the King for it's rescue; his first petition was for leave to erect into a college of secular priests; this being denied, he begged permission to be allowed convert it into 'a very honest parish church'. One of his arguements was that, within the priory were interred the remains of the Duke of Richmond, his son-in-law and Henry VIII's natural son; of his own late wife, Anne Plantagenet, the King's aunt; of his father and of divers other members of his noble house.

It goes on to say (my fingers are too tired to quote it all ) that Henry VIII refused Norfolk's request, so Norfolk had to remove the tomb of his father to Lambeth, and that of the Duke of Richmond and Anne to Framlingham. In the monument to Norfolk and Anne, she is on his right, not his left, in recognition of her noble birth.

[Kimberly]

Interesting and very like Agnes Strickland,  another famous historical biographer of the time

[Prince_Lieven]

Here's the link to the section about Catherine (I'm currently too lazy to write it ).

http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC20348788&id=OXhOJzvgvqIC&pg=RA3-PA15&lpg=RA3-PR17&dq=Lives+of+the+Princesses+of+England

And Bridget:
http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC20348788&id=OXhOJzvgvqIC&pg=RA3-PA44&lpg=RA3-PR17&dq=Lives+of+the+Princesses+of+England

[ilyala]

wow! amazing book! any other simmilar books found online?

[Alianore]

Ilya, I don't know which kind of books you'd like, but if you go to Google Books (Google.com, then click on 'more'), they have a search function for either 'All books' or 'Full view books'.  Searching for Henry VIII in full view, for example, brought up a book called 'Letters of the King of England' from 1846.  There's also several volumes of 'Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain: From the Commencement of the 12th century to the close of the reign of Queen Mary'.

I've been spending hours reading stuff!  Especially the one Kim mentions, Agnes Strickland's 'Lives of the Queens of England' which is full of information (not all of it correct, though,at least for the Middle Ages!)

[Kimberly]

I recently saw (and touched, picked up and had a good old look at) the complete set of Agnes Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of England".  They cost more than a month's salary so needless to say, I didn't buy them

[Prince_Lieven]

It's such a shame these old books are so expensive - I'd give an arm and a leg for the 'Lives of the Princesses of England' one. 

[Kimberly]

The problem with these old books is that a bit of moralising goes on in them IMO.

[Prince_Lieven]

Well, they were written in the days were even the legs of pianos were covered up for the sake of propriety.