Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World (5 page)

Not since the aggrandizement of the Savoyard relatives of Henry III’s unpopular consort, Eleanor of Provence, in the thirteenth century, had the English court witnessed such large-scale promotion of a queen’s relations.
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For the King was advancing his legion of in-laws by securing for them the best matches the aristocracy could offer. He built up the power of the Wydevilles by these marriages, and by bestowing on them titles and offices, while the Queen “attracted to her party many strangers, and introduced them to court, so that they alone should manage the public and private business of the crown” through their power to “give or sell offices, and rule the very King himself.”
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That power was steadily increasing, “to the exaltation of the Queen and the displeasure of the whole realm.”
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While some nobles were eager to mate with the new queen’s relations, seeing such marriages as a means to advancement and royal favor, others—especially Warwick—were scandalized and resentful, for they regarded the Wydevilles as too lowborn for such honors
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and influence, which was then considered the privilege of the nobility, not of upwardly mobile parvenus.

Naturally, the Queen was blamed for leading the King astray; she was seen as grasping and interfering, and responsible for the aggressive promotion of her relations and their undue influence with Edward. The Duke of Milan was informed that, “since her coronation, [the Queen] has always exerted herself to aggrandize her relations. She has five brothers and as many sisters, and has brought things to such a pass that they have the entire government of this realm, to such an extent that the rest of the lords about the government were one with the Earl of Warwick, who has always been great, and deservedly so.”
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Even though there may have been some exaggeration in foreign reports of the 1460s, twenty years later we find that the Wydevilles were still “detested by the nobles because they, who were ignoble or newly made,
were advanced beyond those who far excelled them in breeding and wisdom,”
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a viewpoint in keeping with the social and cultural sensibilities of the age.

The unpopularity of the Wydevilles centered chiefly upon the aggrandizement of the Queen’s father and elder brothers (and later her sons by her first marriage), which led to the whole family being vilified. Yet the Wydevilles were not without virtues or political strengths, even if they were rapacious. Of Elizabeth’s uncles, Anthony, the Lord Treasurer of England, was an erudite man of many talents, and Lionel, who became Bishop of Salisbury, was an Oxford-educated canon lawyer.

The power of the Wydevilles was everywhere acknowledged. Appearing one day in 1469 equipped with walking boots and a staff, King Edward’s fool jested to his master’s face, “Upon my faith, sir, I have passed through many countries of your realm, and in places that I have passed the Rivers have been so high that I could barely scape through them!”
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Yet the Wydeville men were loyal to Edward IV and served him well in the various capacities to which he appointed them; and they did not dominate in his counsels to the exclusion of all others, for Warwick, William, Lord Hastings, and John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, remained highly influential in Edward’s inner circle of advisers.

Elizabeth’s grandparents were an attractive couple. Lord Rivers had been “renowned for being the most handsome knight in England”
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and Jacquetta of Luxembourg was “an exceedingly handsome gentlewoman.”
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She had retained her title and rank, and remained first lady in the land until Henry VI married Margaret of Anjou in 1445. She had borne Wydeville sixteen children, of whom Queen Elizabeth was the eldest. During the first phase of the Wars of the Roses, the Wydevilles had naturally supported the House of Lancaster: Lord Rivers and his eldest son, Anthony, had fought for Henry VI at Towton. After Edward IV became King in 1461, they speedily changed sides, and Edward pardoned Rivers for “all manner of offenses and trespasses done against us.” Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, was frequently at court during Elizabeth’s childhood, so the princess must have come to know her grandmother well.

She probably grew up with only dim memories of her maternal
grandfather, Richard Wydeville, who died when she was three. He had been created Earl Rivers in the year of her birth, to “the displeasure of the whole kingdom.”
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Having distinguished himself fighting in France under Henry V and Bedford, he had since risen high on his own abilities. Yet his enemies never allowed this man whom Warwick’s father had sneeringly called “knave’s son” to forget his humble origins, and there were accusations that he had been “made by marriage.”
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His reputation was compounded by his being rapacious and vengeful, and he was not above using extortion to get what he wanted.

Elizabeth Wydeville was to bear the King ten children. On August 11, 1467, at Windsor Castle, she was delivered of the second, another daughter, Mary, fair-haired and blue-eyed.
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The Queen’s mother, the Duchess of Bedford, came to court to assist at the lying-in. The new princess was baptized at Westminster in the presence of the French ambassador, with Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, acting as one of the sponsors.

On October 9, 1467, at Westminster, the King granted “for life” to his twenty-month-old elder daughter, “the Princess Elizabeth, the manor of Great Linford, county of Buckingham, lately belonging to James [Butler], Earl of Wiltshire, and in the King’s hands.”
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Butler had been executed in 1461 and his titles confiscated to the crown. It is unlikely that Elizabeth ever visited Great Linford; the King would have assigned it to her so that the manor rents could maintain her during her childhood. She held it until 1474, when it was sold to Gerard Caniziani, a London merchant.
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The manor of Sheen, a royal palace in Surrey, had been granted to the Queen in 1467, for life, probably as a nursery for her children, and by October 9, 1468, the two little princesses, Elizabeth and Mary, were living at Sheen Palace in the care of Margery, Lady Berners, their lady mistress. On that date, the Queen was granted £400 per annum [£200,200] for their expenses until such time as they married.
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The Italian visitor was not the only foreigner struck by “the want of affection strongly manifested” by the English toward their children; “for everyone, however rich he be, sends his children into the houses of others … And on inquiring the reason for the severity, they answered that they did it in order that their children might learn better
manners.”
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There was some concept of the innocence of childhood, but fifteenth-century parents were more concerned about civilizing their children and preventing them from falling into sin and wantonness; they recognized that mothers might not be as strict as others less close to their children: “let not the feminine pity of your wives destroy your children, and pamper them not at home … Dandle them not too dearly lest folly fasten on them.”
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There were also, of course, many advantages to be gained from placing offspring in great establishments, even as apprentices.

Royal children were not sent into noble households, as aristocratic children were, but at an early age were assigned households of their own, away from the court, and their day-to-day upbringing was supervised, not by their parents, but by the lady mistress. Giving royal children separate establishments not only reflected the magnificence of a ruler, but protected his infant offspring from the health hazards they risked in London and the court. Nursery palaces were usually outside the City “because, the air [in the country] being somewhat at large, the place is healthy; and the noise not so much, and so consequently quiet.”
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Sheen Palace dated from the early fourteenth century, when the original manor house had been owned by Isabella of France, wife of Edward II. After her death in 1358, her son, Edward III, had spent a fortune converting it into a fabulous palace. It became his favorite residence, and he died there in 1377. Appropriately, the name “sheen” meant “beautiful” or “bright.” In 1395, after his beloved queen, Anne of Bohemia, had died there of plague the year before, Richard II had the palace “utterly destroyed.” In 1414, on an adjacent site, Henry V erected what his chronicler, Thomas of Elmham, described as a “delightful mansion, of skillful and costly architecture, becoming to the royal dignity.” Completed by Henry VI, and moated, it was built of Caen stone around two courts, with the royal Privy Lodgings overlooking the River Thames, and was decorated in brilliant hues with stained-glass windows in azure, red, and purple tones. Edward IV’s
rose-en-soleil
badge featured prominently in the ceiling moldings alongside “antelopes, swans, harts, hinds,” and lions.
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This was the house in which Elizabeth spent part of her childhood.

The daily regimen followed by Elizabeth and Mary was probably similar to that later laid down by the King for their brother, the future Edward V, when he was three years old, and the routine described in the household ordinances of their paternal uncle, George, Duke of Clarence, Edward IV’s younger brother.
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The children would have been roused around 6:00
A
.
M
., so that they could “get up at a convenient hour according to [their] age” in time to attend Matins in their bedchamber. Then the bell rang for them to go to Mass, which was sung by the household chaplain in their chapel or their closet. The regular observance of the liturgical services was seen as essential for the children of the King. Immediately after Mass they had breakfast, which might have consisted of bread, butter, ale, fish, meat, or eggs. Dinner was at 10:00 or 11:00
A
.
M
.; it was “honorably served” with dishes “borne by worshipful folks” and liveried esquires, and might have lasted for up to two hours. During mealtimes, edifying and noble tales would have been read out to the royal sisters. That the young princesses lived in some state is evidenced by the appointment of a knight of the trencher and a page of the chamber to be in continual attendance upon them.
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After dinner, the girls would have been expected to wash and perhaps have a nap. Later, drinks and bread were served before the bell summoned everyone to Evensong. Supper would be served at 4:00
P
.
M
. Evening was customarily a time of “honest disports,” recreation such as games and music, until bedtime, which for Elizabeth and Mary was probably at 8:00
P
.
M
., after a snack called “all night” (comprising bread, ale, or wine) had been served. Although their attendants were no doubt ordered to “enforce themselves” to make the children “merry and joyous toward bed,” household accounts of the period contain barely any references to toys.
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After the traverse—the door curtain—was drawn at 8:00
P
.
M
., no one but the princesses’ own attendants might enter their chamber. At night, a candle or cresset would be left burning there, and they slumbered safely, for the outer gates were barred at 9:00
P
.
M
. in winter and 10:00
P
.
M
. in summer, porters were on watch, and watchmen patrolled three or four times a night, checking every chamber. Their brother
would have someone watching over him all night, lest disease rob the King of his “precious son and gift,” and it follows that his older sisters’ attendants watched over them too.
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Religious instruction began at a very early age, and children were expected to know their psalter by the age of four.
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Feast days—notably Candlemas, Easter, St. George’s Day, Whitsun, All Hallows, and Christmas, as well as a crowded calendar of saints’ days—were marked by special services in chapel, sermons, and entertainments, and the children made offerings at Mass on holy days. On Maundy Thursday the girls would have given gifts to the poor; on Good Friday they would have been taught to creep to the Cross on their knees. During Lent and Advent they were expected to fast or abstain from meat. At New Year they would have received Yuletide gifts, as was customary; on Twelfth Night they would have been allowed to join the feasting and revelry; and no doubt they laughed at the antics of the Lord of Misrule on the Feast of the Epiphany. Such was the cycle of their year.

Religion played a major role in Elizabeth’s upbringing. The great houses in which she was reared had chapels, oratories, and closets with sumptuous furnishings and tapestries, brilliant stained glass, illuminated psalters, primers, missals, offices, and other devotional books, rich altar cloths, bejeweled crucifixes, statues of the Virgin and the saints, painted retables, gleaming vestments, gold and silver chalices and candlesticks, carpets, chairs for the King and Queen, and an organ. Often the royal pew was in a gallery above the body of the chapel where the household worshipped. Elizabeth’s day would have been punctuated by bells announcing Mass and the liturgical hours, her ears regularly assailed by the singing of antiphons and polyphony, her nose used to the smell of incense. Small wonder that she grew up to be deeply pious.

Sometimes the little princesses were brought to court, to be paraded at festivals and state visits. There they joined their mother’s retinue, learning by her example (and that of her ladies) manners, music, singing, dancing, embroidery, and anything else considered needful to prepare them for their future roles as royal wives and mothers and the ornaments of courts. They would have been dressed in miniature versions
of the luxurious attire worn by ladies of high rank, learning as they grew older to manage heavy fabrics, long court trains, and elaborate headdresses. Good deportment was taught from an early age.

To the young princesses, their parents—whom they did not see often—would have appeared as awe-inspiring figures, distant and worthy of the highest reverence, not only because they were royal, but also because children were brought up to revere, honor, and obey their parents, and be dutiful toward them all their lives. How much more daunting that would have been when your parents were the King and Queen! Each evening, whenever they were together, they would kneel before their father and mother and crave their blessing, which was given “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”
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