Elizabeth of York

Author/Guide: Alison Weir

Why a Booktrail?

1500s: A fascinating yet somewhat unknown figure in history and in the story of Henry VIII and the Tudors

ISBN: 978-0099546474
Genre: Biography/memoirs, Historical, Non-Fiction

Comment

What you need to know before your trail

Elizabeth was of course the mother of Henry VIII – she married Henry VII and thus helped bring to an end the War of the Roses between two sides of a warring family that had plagued England for many years.

She is perhaps not the most well known figure in history – did you know she planned to marry Richard III? Even though she suspected him of killing her brothers – the princes in the tower?

Locations

Reset

Travel Guide

Alison Weir calls her an enigma and reading this biography she certainly seems that way. She did what all women had to do at that time – stay in the background. And this meant that scheming and survival techniques were a key way of life.

Elizabethan London – The Palace of Westminster and Greenwich

From the Palace of Westminster,

Tower of London

Some of the city’s most iconic sites in the city are also some of the most historical and the most deadly. The things that happened at the Tower of London for example were truly horrendous and although in famous for the beheading of many including Henry VIII’s second wife Anne Boleyn, the tower walls could tell a very deadly secret or two as they have witnessed history like no one else.Where many were imprisoned and killed. Where at least one of her brothers – probably two were thought to have been held captive and then murdered by Richard III.

Bosworth Field, Leicestershire

To really see the most iconic site of the period, a trip to Leicestershire and Bosworth Field is paramount. Imagine standing on the exact spot where a King was killed and history was made.

Booktrailer Review

Clare: @thebooktrailer

The good thing about historical books of this nature is that it takes a book and a booktrail to really bring it to life! This book does tell us a lot about a woman’s lot in life, royal or not and sadly somethings still ring true even today –

“Elizabeth of York would have ruled England but for the fact that she was a woman” (sexism)

“It has been said that Elizabeth was distrusted and kept in subjection by Henry VII and her formidable mother-in -law Margaret Beaufort” (mother in law problems)

.”.thus uniting the red and white roses of Lancaster and York” (peacekeeper and mediator)

And all of this whilst living through the most restrictive period of history for a woman, royal or not. Even so Elizabeth of York was important. She was the daughter, sister, niece, wife , mother and grandmother of monarchs.