Another well-researched and intelligently speculative biography by best-selling historical author Alison Weir, resurrects the story of Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV, heiress of the House of York, whose marriage to Henry Tudor, the last heir of the House of Lancaster, ended the internecine struggles of the War of the Roses and set the stage for the rise of English power and influence under the Tudors.
Weir shows that Elizabeth was not just a hostage propping up the legitimacy of her ambitious husband's hold on power. She demonstrates that theirs was a marriage that may have begun out of political necessity on both sides, but evolved over the years into a partnership based on mutual affection and trust, with both Elizabeth and Henry faithfully fulfilling the roles expected of them in their time and place.
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| Alison Weir |
Elizabeth died untimely, bearing her last child at the age of 37, in 1502. She and Henry had hoped for another son, but the child --- a daughter named Katherine --- died a week after her mother. Of Elizabeth and Henry's seven children, three boys and four girls, only three survived their parents: Henry, Margaret, and Mary. Weir demonstrates that Elizabeth was deeply mourned by her husband, children, relations, friends, and the common people who had always loved her.
Henry never recovered from the twin blows of losing his heir and his wife within just ten months. His health suffered, and he died nine years later of tuberculosis.
Click HERE to read a recent interview with Alison Weir discussing Elizabeth of York.
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