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Blood Sisters: The Hidden Lives of the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses
Blood Sisters: The Hidden Lives of the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses
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Blood Sisters: The Hidden Lives of the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses

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Blood Sisters: The Hidden Lives of the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses
Sarah Gristwood

A fiery and largely unexplored history of queens and the perils of power and of how the Wars of the Roses were ended – not only by knights in battle, but the political and dynastic skills of women.The events of the Wars of the Roses are usually described in terms of the men involved; Richard, Duke of York, Henry VI, Edward IV, Richard III and Henry VII. The reality though, argues Sarah Gristwood, was quite different. These years were also packed with women's drama and – in the tales of conflicted maternity and monstrous births – alive with female energy.In this completely original book, acclaimed author Sarah Gristwood sheds light on a neglected dimension of English history: the impact of Tudor women on the Wars of the Roses. She examines Cecily Neville, the wife of Richard Duke of York, who was deprived of being queen when her husband died at the Battle of Wakefield; Elizabeth Woodville, a widow with several children who married Edward IV in secret and was crowned queen consort; Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, whose ambitions centred on her son and whose persuasions are likely to have lead her husband Lord Stanley, previously allied with the Yorkists, to play his part in Henry's victory.Until now, the lives of these women have remained little known to the general public. In ‘Blood Sisters’, Sarah Gristwood tells their stories in detail for the first time. Captivating and original, this is historical writing of the most important kind.

SARAH GRISTWOOD

Blood Sisters

The Hidden Lives of the Women

Behind the Wars of the Roses

Copyright

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)

Published by HarperPress in 2012

Copyright © Sarah Gristwood 2012

Sarah Gristwood asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed from this ebook in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007309306

Ebook Edition © 2013 ISBN: 9780007309320

Version: 2017-03-29

CONTENTS

Title Page (#u425d463e-15b0-5b02-b28a-adbd78a4466f)

Copyright (#uc37d0300-324f-5403-a998-055393478877)

List of Illustrations (#u5c6a1004-f849-5dc0-b57c-1dd027c4d6ed)

Map (#u04fc43ea-2c07-5a38-a28b-1a74bacdfdb4)

Simplified Family Tree (#ud9b28fb0-a337-50b8-8604-c9e4639c7a86)

Glossary of Names (#u1478da7a-f9e0-5f88-9813-937cdb43283b)

Reigns (#u8155c8f4-3507-5c3a-b4a3-03aa2bcd3f1c)

Prologue (#uf3e50bf6-2cf1-5daa-9609-89bcae4c2a4b)

PART ONE: 1445–1461 (#u43cb1ea7-b148-5c06-b86d-b9bc6c084445)

1. Fatal Marriage (#udcb91199-80d5-5fbd-aa28-c24bbd3caeb8)

2. The Red Rose and the White (#u9b9cf0d3-910e-55d8-adf7-d185cb60f487)

3. A Woman’s Fear (#u86109376-b660-51b2-b88b-e3642df61a47)

4. No Women’s Matters (#u62546761-6894-51a5-8b43-b11a583011b6)

5. Captain Margaret (#u8e3b827e-a33e-5b32-8315-ae9c07b21880)

6. Mightiness Meets Misery (#u3510a7c3-ccde-5c92-a5f6-265b64523633)

PART TWO: 1461–1471 (#ue064a675-910f-50a9-a9bf-4a914fafef42)

7. To Love a King (#u695e8231-bbac-5007-b05a-e6e1d7bfaa47)

8. Fortune’s Pageant (#u50151f64-fd1b-5e5d-971f-2e840cf84ac2)

9. Domestic Broils (#ua6b92997-de1a-51f7-a2a8-b72a093aa463)

10. That Was a Queen (#u48aabd89-9454-541e-8583-d1dabf6f0e57)

PART THREE: 1471–1483 (#u8fd27871-4eb6-5e03-8d1a-539e83066f33)

11. My Lovely Queen (#u13f7404f-6abc-5aae-81aa-b883e77d81c3)

12. Fortune’s Womb (#ube5acfea-3981-55c5-8b1c-62535af568c4)

13. Mother of Griefs (#uc654929e-4aa0-50e1-9f33-068d1137e25e)

14. A Golden Sorrow (#u60bfdf9a-65c2-5e81-b387-290bfabd24fa)

PART FOUR: 1483–1485 (#u3038e0cd-c3e3-5742-adfa-98e055d59e8f)

15. Weeping Queens (#u31d8523f-d6ba-5b27-86ab-4f903a52b94a)

16. Innocent Blood (#u413c5630-a2a5-52d9-889b-6d13b1db4f9e)

17. Letters to Richmond (#ube59838a-c4f1-5fb0-9a43-56085a999f35)

18. Anne My Wife (#ucca130e6-a734-5a3f-a7eb-fe96fb2b918b)

19. In Bosworth Field (#u2cab5ecb-ef23-5b3f-8716-c5bed070764f)

PART FIVE: 1485–1509 (#u0645b376-bcd6-5e99-89c3-df583b4e5339)

20. True Succeeders (#ua5ac5fda-6c60-5222-a92c-64edf00c6634)

21. Golden Sovereignty (#u8e24f313-8a1f-54be-a6aa-faa81dcd7858)

22. The Edge of Traitors (#ue79463a1-9cd3-53cf-b9ea-8f19c29925b9)

23. Civil Wounds (#u08a13b4d-2a76-5eff-8d13-ed388fc21a47)

24. Like a Queen Inter Me (#ucc4c0d19-c8ac-5e67-875b-b46a5bdb1200)

25. Our Noble Mother (#ua1963fa0-cef5-59ee-9cee-eef760bdb5c2)

Epilogue (#u1481cd2f-0b52-52ae-9ff8-235a150afbff)

Keep Reading (#u8051441f-cfe3-576a-97df-2ebe6668c24c)

Footnotes (#u973fd9c1-7a1e-5393-b954-59c8c387a78b)

Notes (#ub5cb3320-d201-5a32-9d4b-df97548dd5d3)

Picture Section (#uffc59167-3682-5462-b50f-bec1038be2d6)

Select Bibliography (#u8132c490-c45f-51ad-9567-5babc87681a1)

Index (#u9285314e-6e67-5a3b-91ab-358a4cf391b0)

Acknowledgements (#u923a3eb8-61bf-5e83-b2a7-42f65c1e6246)

About the Publisher (#ua3a3c7d8-3f30-51a2-b463-fca76fd292df)

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Marguerite of Anjou with Henry VI and John Talbot in the ‘Shrewsbury Talbot Book of Romances’, c.1445. British Library, Royal 15 E. VI, f.2v (© The British Library Board)

2. The stained-glass Royal Window in Canterbury Cathedral (© Crown Copyright. English Heritage)

3. Margaret Beaufort by Rowland Lockey, late 16th century (By permission of the Master and Fellows of St John’s College, Cambridge)

4. Margaret Beaufort’s emblems (© Neil Holmes/The Bridgeman Art Library)

5. Cecily Neville’s father, the Earl of Westmoreland, with the children of his second marriage (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris/Flammarion/The Bridgeman Art Library)

6. Portrait of Elizabeth Woodville from 1463 (© The Print Collector/Corbis)

7. Anne Neville depicted in the Rous Roll, 1483–85. British Library Add 48976 (© The British Library Board)

8. King Richard III by unknown artist, oil on panel, late 16th century; after unknown artist late 15th century (© National Portrait Gallery, London)

9. The risen Christ appearing to Margaret of Burgundy by the Master of Girard de Rousillon, from Le dyalogue de la ducesse de bourgogne a Ihesu Crist by Nicolas Finet, c.1470. British Library Add.7970, f.1v (© The British Library Board)

10. Elizabeth of York by unknown artist, oil on panel, late 16th century; after unknown artist c. 1500 (© National Portrait Gallery, London)

11. The birth of Caesar from Le fait des Romains, Bruges, 1479. British Library Royal 17 F.ii, f.9 (© The British Library Board)

12. The Devonshire Hunting Tapestry – Southern Netherlands (possibly Arras), 1430–40 (© Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

13. Procession at the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth, 1502 (© The Trustees of the British Museum)

14. The preparations for a tournament. Illustration for René of Anjou’s Livre des Tournois, 1488–89? Bibliothèque nationale de France, Francais 2692, f.62v–f.63 (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

15. Margaret of Burgundy’s crown, Aachen Cathedral Treasury (© Domkapitel Aachen (photo: Pit Siebigs))

16. Song ‘Zentil madona’: from Chansonnier de Jean de Montchenu, 1475?, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Rothschild 2973, f.3v–f.4 (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

17. The Tower of London from the Poems of Charles of Orleans, c.1500. British Library, Royal 16 F. II f.73 (© The British Library Board)

18. Elizabeth of York’s signature on a page of ‘The Hours of Elizabeth the Queen’, c.1415–20. British Library Add 50001, f.22 (© The British Library Board)

19. Wheel of Fortune illumination from the Troy Book, c.1455–1462. British Library Royal 18 D.II, f.30v (© The British Library Board)

MAP

SIMPLIFIED FAMILY TREE

GLOSSARY OF NAMES

ANNE: the name borne by Anne Neville (1456–85); daughter to the Earl of Warwick, wife first to Edward of Lancaster and then to Richard III. Her mother was another Anne, the heiress Anne Beauchamp, Countess of Warwick (1426–90). Anne was also the name given to the Duchess of Exeter (1439–76), eldest daughter of Richard, Duke of York and Cecily Neville and sister to Edward IV and Richard III. Other English noblewomen bearing the name include one of Cecily’s sisters, who became Duchess of Buckingham; one of Edward IV’s daughters; and Anne Mowbray who was married in childhood to Edward’s youngest son.

BEAUFORT: the family name of Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509), mother to Henry VII, and of the Dukes of Somerset, one of whom was Margaret’s father. The Beaufort family also included Cardinal Beaufort, advisor to Henry VI.

BUTLER, ELEANOR (?–1468): born Eleanor Talbot; the woman who was later said to have been secretly married to Edward IV.

CECILY NEVILLE (or Cicely, 1415–95): matriarch of the York dynasty; wife to Richard, Duke of York; mother to Edward IV and Richard III. The name was also shared by Cecily’s granddaughter (Edward IV’s daughter, 1469–1507).

CLARENCE, GEORGE, DUKE OF (1449–78): son to Cecily Neville and Richard Duke of York. The second of their sons to survive into maturity, Clarence was famously executed on the orders of his brother Edward IV.

DORSET, MARQUIS OF (1455–1501): the title bestowed on Thomas Grey, the eldest son of Elizabeth Woodville by her first husband, John Grey.

EDMUND, EARL OF RUTLAND (1443–60): second son to Richard, Duke of York and Cecily Neville, killed young in battle.

EDWARD: this name was borne most importantly by Edward IV (1442–83), eldest son to Richard, Duke of York and Cecily Neville; and by his own eldest son (1470–83?), the elder of the ‘Princes in the Tower’, who would have reigned as Edward V. The name Edward was also bestowed, however, on the eldest sons both of Henry VI (‘Edward of Lancaster’, 1453–71) and of Richard III (‘Edward of Middleham’, 1476?–84). Both were, in their time, also Prince of Wales. The name Edward may have been considered particularly suitable for kings or prospective kings, perhaps because the last undisputed king of England had been the mighty Edward III. Henry VIII, in the next century, would also call his son ‘Edward’.