The Woodvilles were, to quote Wikipedia, "genteel rather than noble"; Elizabeth's father, Sir Richard Woodville, was "merely a knight at the time of her birth [in about 1437]". Elizabeth was described as "the most beautiful woman in the Island of Britain", with "heavy–lidded eyes like those of a dragon."
In about 1452, Elizabeth Woodville married Sir John Grey of Groby, the heir to the Barony Ferrers of Groby. He was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461, fighting for the Lancastrian cause. This would become a source of irony, since Elizabeth's future husband Edward IV was the Yorkist claimant to the throne. Elizabeth Woodville had two sons from this first marriage: Thomas (later Marquess of Dorset) and Richard.
Edward IV's marriage to the widowed Elizabeth Woodville took place secretly, probably at her family home in Northamptonshire; the date is not known, but is traditionally believed to have been 1 May 1464. Edward had assumed the English throne just over three years previously, in the wake of his overwhelming victory over the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton, which resulted in the displacement of King Henry VI. Elizabeth was crowned on 26 May 1465.
The marriage greatly enriched Elizabeth's family, but their advancement incurred the hostility of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick ('The Kingmaker'), and his various alliances with the most senior figures in the increasingly divided royal family. This hostility turned into open discord between King Edward and Warwick, resulting eventually in Warwick switching allegiance to the Lancastrian cause.
Following Edward's death in 1463, his eldest son was briefly proclaimed as King Edward V. But an Act of Parliament known as Titulus Regius (Title of the King) ratified Parliament's declaration of the year before, that the marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville had been invalid (as Edward had previously been betrothed to Lady Eleanor Butler). This meant that their children were illegitimate, and debarred them from the throne. This was the mechanism by which Richard III is considered to have usurped the throne.
Elizabeth nevertheless retained a considerable degree of political influence, and played an important role in securing the accession of Henry VII to the throne in 1485, which ended the Wars of the Roses. After 1485, however, she was forced to yield pre–eminence to Henry's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, and her influence on events in these years remains obscure – as does her eventual departure from court into retirement. She died in 1492, and after a simple funeral she was buried near her late husband in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.
Edward IV wasn't the first king (since the Conquest) to be married to one of his subjects. King John's marriage to Isabel of Gloucester was annulled shortly after his accession, and she was never crowned; Henry IV's first wife Mary de Bohun died before he became king.
© Haydn Thompson 2017