Elizabeth of York
Elizabeth of York was the eldest daughter of Edward IV, the sister of the princes who vanished in the Tower, the niece whom Richard III was rumoured to want to marry, and the wife Henry VII took to join the red rose to the white; every English monarch since is descended from her, and her face is the queen on the playing cards. She was born at Westminster in February 1466 and was promised as a child to the dauphin of France, a match Louis XI dropped in 1482, which is said to have hastened her father's death. When Edward died in April 1483 her uncle Richard took her brother the king into custody, had the children of Edward's marriage declared illegitimate by an act of parliament in June, and was crowned in July; she and her mother and sisters were in sanctuary at Westminster Abbey until March 1484. Then Richard swore publicly to protect them and they came out. Her mother and Margaret Beaufort had already agreed that she should marry Henry Tudor, the Lancastrian exile, if he could win, and in Rennes cathedral at Christmas 1483 he swore to do it. When Richard's queen died in March 1485 the court talked of the king marrying his niece, and he denied it in public. Henry won at Bosworth in August, had the act of illegitimacy repealed so that she could be a king's daughter again, was crowned first so that no one could say he reigned by her right, and married her in January 1486. The Tudor rose, red inside white, was the emblem of the match. She was crowned in 1487 and bore seven children, of whom Arthur, Margaret, Henry and Mary lived: the prince who married Catherine of Aragon and died, the queen of Scotland from whom the Stuarts came, Henry VIII, and the queen of France. Arthur's death in April 1502 sent her back to childbed for the succession, and she died of the birth at the Tower on her thirty-seventh birthday in February 1503. Henry shut himself away and did not remarry.
- Lived: 1466 CE – 1503 CE
- Nationality: English
- Roles: queen, consort
