Elizabeth Woodville (1437-1492) - Find a Grave Memorial

British Monarch, Queen consort of King Edward IV. The eldest daughter of Sir Richard Woodville and Jacquetta of Luxembourg. She married John Grey, a Lancastrian knight, in 1452. She had two sons by this marriage. Grey was killed at St. Albans in 1461. She secretly married Edward, the Yorkist claimant to the throne, on May 1, 1464. She was crowned on 26 May 1465, the first commoner (though well-blooded) to become Queen. Elizabeth was beautiful, but selfish and calculating, demanding favors, grand marriages, and titles for her family members. She bore 10 children, 2 sons and 5 daughters survived to adulthood. When Edward died suddenly in 1483, all of their children were declared illegitimate, their two sons were held in the Tower of London (the Princes in the Tower), and Richard III took the throne. Elizabeth then conspired with the Lancastrians, promising Henry Tudor her daughter Elizabeth of York in marriage if he could take the throne from Richard. When Henry VII became King, all of her children were legitimized once more. Now simply Dame Elizabeth Grey, she retired to Bermondsey Abbey, where she died at the age of 56.

Bio by: Kristen Conrad