Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower. . - Reviews - book review

Contemporary Review, March, 2003

Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower. David Baldwin. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]20.00. 238 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2774-7. Elizabeth Woodville, consort to Edward IV, mother of the two Princes who died in the Tower, sister-in-law to the Richard III who succeeded her husband, and mother-in-law to the first Tudor monarch, has had a somewhat mixed press for the past 500 years.

In this biography, the first for fifty years, Mr Baldwin attempts to disentangle fact from myth. Even when confined to fact he describes a life that fascinated contemporaries and continues to fascinate. An obscure girl who was secretly married to the King and whose family were appointed to high offices naturally became the basis for wild rumours including witchcraft. As Queen she led a wildly fluctuating life and lived to endure a form of house-arrest and to see her father, two brothers, a son from her first marriage and her two famous sons by Edward IV all die tragically. The author gives his readers 'enough background information to make Elizabeth's career intelligible to readers'. She emerges here as a 'fascinating but neglected character' in a biography that eschews wild speculation for solid research. (M.F.)