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ELIZABETH OF YORK,

SURNAMED THE GOOD,

QUEEN-CONSORT OF HENRY VII.

CHAPTER I.

Elizabeth, born heiress of England-Baptism-Fondness of her father Edward IV.-Mourner at her grandfather's obsequies-Promised in marriage-Reverses of fortune-Taken into sanctuary-Birth of her brother- Her father's will-Contracted to the dauphin-Education-Autograph-Marriage-contract broken-Death of her father-Takes sanctuary with her mother-Their calamities-Murder of her brothers-Again heiress of England-Betrothed to Henry Tudor-Elizabeth and her sisters declared illegitimate-Low-born suitor-His death-Kindness of queen Anne-Elizabeth received at courtNarrative of Brereton-Death of queen Anne-Addresses of Richard III.— Elizabeth is sent to Sheriff-Hutton - Biography of Henry Tudor-Engagement renewed with Elizabeth-Defeat and death of Richard III.-Progress of Elizabeth to London-Coronation of Henry-Marriage of Elizabeth and Henry-Rejoicings of the people.

THE birth of Elizabeth of York was far from reconciling the fierce baronage of England to the clandestine marriage of their young sovereign, Edward IV., with her mother,'—a marriage which shook his throne to the foundation. The prospect of female heirs to the royal line gave no satisfaction to a population requiring from an English monarch not only the talents of the statist, but the abilities of the military leader,-not only the wisdom of the legislator, but the peronal prowess of the gladiatorial champion. After three rincesses (the eldest of whom was our Elizabeth) had been successively produced by the queen of Edward IV., popular discontent against the house of York reached its climax. The princess Elizabeth was born at the palace of Westminster, See the life of Elizabeth Woodville, queen of Edward IV.

February 11th, 1466.' She was baptized in Westminster-abbey, with as much pomp as if she had been the heir-apparent of England; indeed, the attention Edward IV. bestowed upon her in her infancy was extraordinary. He was actuated by a strong presentiment that this beautiful and gracious child would ultimately prove the representative of his line.

The infant princess, at a very tender age, took her place and precedence, clothed in deep mourning, when the corpse of her grandfather, Richard duke of York, with that of his son, Edmund earl of Rutland, were re-interred at the church of Fotheringay. The bodies were exhumed from their ignole burial at Pontefract, and conveyed into Northamptonshire with regal state. Richard duke of Gloucester, a youth of fourteen, followed them as chief mourner. Edward IV. his queen, and their two infant daughters, Elizabeth and May met the hearses in Fotheringay churchyard, and attended the solemn rites of the re-interment clad in black weeds. The next day the king, the queen, and the royal infants offered at requiem. Margaret countess of Richmond offered with them Thus early in life was our Elizabeth connected with this illustrious lady, whose after-destiny was so closely interwoven with her own. There are some indications, faintly defined. that Margaret of Richmond had the charge of the young Elizabeth, since her name is mentioned immediately after hers as present and assisting at York's requiem. Wherefore should the heiress of the line of Somerset offer at the obsequies of the duke of York, the mortal enemy of her house, without some imperious court etiquette demanded her presence?

Some years passed before the important position of Elizabeth, as heiress of the realm, was altered by the birth of brothers. Her father settled on her for life the manor of Great-Lynford, in Buckinghamshire; he likewise authorized his exchequer

1 According to the inscription on her tomb in Westminster-abbey. ? Sandford, who is supposed to have been guided by a contemporary herald's journal, dates this event July 30th, 1466, and yet mentions the princess Mary assisting at this funeral. If the herald made no mistake in his date, it must be inferred that Elizabeth was born February 1465, instead of 1466; a date 2 unison with the many proofs of that fact adduced by sir Harris Nicolas, in hist valuable Memoir of Elizabeth of York.

3

Privy-purse Expenses, and Memoir of Elizabeth, by sir Harris Nicolas.

to pay his queen 4007. yearly, in liquidation of her expenses, incurred for her daughters Elizabeth and Mary; and this revenue was to be continued till their disposal in marriage. These royal children were nursed at the palace of Shene. The hand of his infant heiress was more than once deceitfully proffered by Edward IV. as a peace-offering to his enemies when fortune frowned upon him. He thus deluded the Nevilles, when he was their prisoner at Middleham. Next he endeavoured to interrupt the treaty of marriage between the Lancastrian prince of Wales and Anne of Warwick, by offering "my lady princess" to queen Margaret as a wife for her son. On the subsequent flight of Edward IV. from England, the young Elizabeth and her two little sisters were the companions of their distressed mother in Westminster Sanctuary. The birth of her eldest brother Edward, in that asylum, removed the princess Elizabeth, for some years, from her dangerous proximity to the disputed garland of the realm. When liberated from the Sanctuary by her victorious father, she was carried with the rest of his children, first to her grandmother's residence of Baynard's-Castle, on one of the city wharfs; and then to the Tower of London, and was sojourning there during the dangerous assault made on that fortress by Falconbridge from the river. The full restoration of Edward IV. succeeded these dangers, and peaceful festivals followed the re-establishment of the line of York. At a ball given in her mother's chamber at Windsor-castle, in honour of the visit of Louis of Bruges, 1472, the young Elizabeth danced with her royal father, she being then six or seven years old: she afterwards danced with the duke of Buckingham, the husband of her aunt, Katherine Woodville. The same year, her father offered her in marriage to the young exiled earl of Richmond, intending by that means to beguile him into his power.

When the princess was about nine years old, her father made an expedition to France, with the avowed purpose of reconquering the acquisitions of Henry V. Before he embarked

1 See biography of Margaret of Anjou.

Excerpta Historica, by sir Harris Nicolas; likewise his Memoir of Elizabeth of York

he made his will, dated at Sandwich, in which he thus mentions Elizabeth :

"Item. We will that our daughter Elizabeth have ten thousand marcs towards her marriage; and that our daughter Marie have also ten thousand mares, so that they be governed and ruled by our dearest wife the queen. . . . And if either of our said daughters do marry thaimself without such advice and assent, so as they be thereby disparaged, (as God forbid,) then she so marrying herself have no payment of her ten thousand marcs."

A French war was averted by the kingdom of France submitting to become tributary to Edward IV. In the articles of peace, Elizabeth was contracted to the dauphin Charles, eldest son of the astute monarch Louis XI.; thus was her hand for the fourth time tendered to her father's adversaries. Edward IV. surrendered to his son-in-law the titular right to the long-contested dukedom of Guienne, or Aquitaine, on condition that these territories were to be considered part of Elizabeth's dower. From the hour of her contract with the heir of France, Elizabeth was always addressed at the English court as madame la dauphine,' and a certain portion of the tribute that Louis XI. paid to her father was carried to account for her use as the daughter-in-law of the king. She was taught to speak and write French: she could likewise speak and write Spanish. She could, at an early age, read and write her own language; for her royal sire sent for a scrivener, "the very best in the city," who taught her and her sister Mary to write court-hand as well as himself, but not a very beautiful species of penmanship, according to the subjoined specimen, which Elizabeth inscribed in a book of devotion:"

po

the boke chases the king

долинерг

1 Comines; likewise Guthrie.

* Cottonian MSS. Vesp. f. xiii.

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