Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World

This is written by an excellent scholar, meticulously researched, and laid out in a good chronological order. It can be a bit dry at times with reading about Elizabeth's accounts and charity work, but then again this is the evidence left to us about a wonderful queen 500 years ago. The real interest is in her personal notes and letters to her family, friends and acquaintances. Here is where we see the real woman. One has to wonder how different the reign of her son, Henry VIII, would have been if Elizabeth had lived longer. Not only was she an excellent queen, she was essentially a good person who was devoted to her family and lived a moral and religious life. She would have been outraged at her son's treatment of Katherine of Aragon.When one reads about Henry VII, Elizabeth's husband, who obviously suffered from paranoia, one is even more impressed by Elizabeth. An outstanding administrator, he still must have been difficult to live with. He was a Lancastrian raised from birth to hate anything Yorkist and the first years of their marriage must have been hair-raising to say the least. Once they learned to trust each other, their marriage became an example of true wedded harmony. Surely this couple was simply a gift from God to an England who had been torn asunder by decades if civil war. Both were determined to give England domestic peace and raise her status as a formidable country of Europe. Both played their parts to perfection because when Henry died, England was a wealthy and prosperous nation. One has to be happy that they obviously came to love one another and to find some marital bliss in an era when that was exceedingly rare. There is no evidence that either ever forsaken their marital vows. Although Henry made have looked in appreciation of some beautiful women at court, it seems he never touched. When one compares that to the rampart sexuality practiced in his son's era, the marriage between Henry and Elizabeth becomes even more astonishing. Good for them, they deserved it.The reigns of their son and granddaughter have clearly overshadowed them, but they truly have rights to claim that Henry VII and Elizabeth of York were the greatest Tudors of all.This book is an excellent study of a great queen who fulfilled her role and did her duty to the utmost for her time. For those interested in Tudor history this is a must-read, but if your looking for an exciting historical novel, you are not going to find it here. This is a well-researched work by a good scholar.

Elizabeth of York was like a hinge between the Plantagenets and the Tudors. Henry VII married her to strengthen his claim to the throne of England by conquest and yet he delayed both their wedding and her coronation in the attempt to assert it was his claim on the throne that mattered, not hers. (But it was really hers that mattered.)Haunting both Elizabeth's "reign" as Queen and Henry's rule as King were her little brothers, Edward V and Richard, the Duke of York. Richard III had bastardized all of Edward IV's children, including Elizabeth, in Parliament--claiming that Edward had a pre-existing marital contract--and had held Edward and Richard in the Tower of London. They were reportedly killed there by orders of Richard III, yet their remains had never been found. Henry VII tried to find them; Elizabeth, as Weir notes, must have always wondered what happened to her brothers, who came before, as males, in the line of succession.Weir introduces various other mysteries along the way through this biography: would Elizabeth really have wanted to marry Richard III? did Henry VII dislike Elizabeth's mother, Elizabeth Woodville? did Elizabeth and Margaret Beaufort, Henry's mother, get along or not? why did Queen Elizabeth of York go to Wales while pregnant and ill?, etc. She presents various pieces of evidence, analyzes their sources, presents her opinion, but ultimately leaves it to the reader to decide unless she is certain of the answer. At first--and she followed that process in another of her books I've read, "The Lady in the Tower", about the fall of Anne Boleyn--this process frustrated me because it seemed to interrupt the flow of the narrative. But I have grown to accept and appreciate her letting me in on the process of thinking about the past, disputed information, and sources.I recommend "Elizabeth of York: The First Tudor Queen" to those who want to know more about the world of the Tudors as well as those who want to know more about Elizabeth. Alison Weir describes the structures and finances of the Tudor Court with vivid detail. Well illustrated. No index in the Kindle edition; I don't like not having an index!

The book provides an in depth, well researched and always interesting story of a woman who had a hugely important role in English history. For readers who are looking for a biography with lots of history to be learned, this is a very enjoyable book about a lesser known English queen whose legacy survives into the present. I recommend this book.

I love Alison Weir's historical biographies, and with this one, Elizabeth of York, she has given us an in-depth look at a beloved queen consort about whom much is known. Elizabeth was the daughter of Edward IV, wife of Henry VII and mother of Henry VIII and grandmother of Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I.Weir has brought forth the gentle, kind and generous spirit of Elizabeth by researching excellent primary sources, especially the accounts that show what she spent money on to whom it went. Some of the information that the author writes about that are her own ideas is pure speculation, and she says it's just theory, but it does make one wonder.Why Elizabeth made the journey to Wales during her last pregnancy when she wasn't well to begin with is most likely something that will remain a mystery. She and Henry were rarely apart, and her solitary trip may hint that something was amiss between the two.Certain stretches of the book can make for slow or tedious reading, but overall I loved it and have enjoyed and learned from several of her other books. A wonderful biography of a Queen who was much loved by her people, but who is often overlooked.

This is a detailed and easy to read biography of Elizabeth of York. 1st born child of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, she was brought up as a Princess. Then between 1483-85 her life was plunged into turmoil after her father's death, her brother Edward V's deposition (and murder?), the accession of her uncle, Richard III and then Richard III's own death at Bosworth and the accession of the exiled Henry Tudor as Henry VII. Key to Henry's hold on the throne was his promise to marry Elizabeth, who was considered the heir to the throne, and Elizabeth became his Queen but was very much pushed into the background, as Henry needed to be considered King in his own right. Elizabeth performed well the traditional duties of a Queen consort and provided for the succession, her most famous child being Henry VIII. Yet it would be her eldest daughter, Margaret, through whom the succession would ultimately run as her great grandson became James I of England and VI of Scotland. Sadly, Elizabeth was to suffer much tragedy in her life, with the disappearance of her brothers, the Princes in the Tower, and the deaths of some of her own children, and she herself was to die aged only 37. It is a very good and well researched bio.

Having read several Alison Weir biographies, she can be trusted to provide a well research and highly readable approach to her subject and this book is no exception. Certainly tackling a subject like Elizabeth of York provides challenges as little written information exists on the specifics of her life, but the author does an admirable job in projecting a believable persona for Elizabeth from the traumatic events that both influenced her as a child and surrounded her as an adult. Her very insecure childhood matched with the decisions made by her husband Henry VII and the influence of relatives like her mother Elizabeth Wydeville and her mother-in-law Margaret Beaufort helps to provide the reader with a window into Elizabeth's likely thoughts and emotions. There are as always dealing with this era, "elephants in the castle" that cannot easily be dispensed with. Elizabeth's relationship to her uncle Richard III being first and foremost whom she described "as being her only joy and maker in the world", followed by her how she felt about the fate of her 2 brothers imprisoned, or possibly murdered in the tower, supposedly under the orders of "her only joy" Richard III. Ms. Weir is definitely not a "Richardian", but she avoids getting to caught up in the controversy in this book which I personally appreciated.Ms. Weir provides copious shopping list of the fabrics & items Elizabeth bought, plus the donations to servants and religious institutions in order to illustrate her generosity, as well as the court of Henry's love of opulence and grandeur. While I found these lengthy shopping lists a bit tedious reading at times, but I appreciated why they were included and the element I really appreciated was that the value of the expenditures were translated into modern currency rates giving a sense of how much things cost in medieval times.A great book that I would recommend to anyone interested in the early Tudor period.

Yet another wonderful read from Alison Weir. The life of Elizabeth of York, grandmother of Elizabeth 1st, mother of Henry V111.A remarkable woman brought to life by a remarkable writer.

This book is fantastic, it gives such a visual feel of the times I could picture it all. The tragedy's & triumphs of the time are explained so well it practically leaps of the page. Alison Weir is a master historian.

El libro me ha gustado, no tanto como otros de la autora, quizá porque no se puede rascar demasiado de esta historia. Elizabeth de York tuvo una vida fascinante, pero la emoción se terminó cuando se casó con el rey Enrique VII, y a partir de ahí, el libro empieza a decaer por razones obvias. No me ha gustado que la propia autora se contradiga con otro de sus libros ("The princes in the Tower"), donde describe a Enrique VII como un hombre tacaño que siempre tuvo a su esposa corta de dinero y con remiendos en la ropa y que Elizabeth nunca obtuvo mucha felicidad de esa boda. En este libro, parece olvidar sus propias palabras y dice todo lo contrario.