Elizabeth of York: The First Tudor Queen - Softcover

Weir, Alison

Softcover

ISBN 10: 022409775X ISBN 13: 9780224097758

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2013

Synopsis

Elizabeth of York would have ruled England, but for the fact that she was a woman. The eldest daughter of Edward IV, at seventeen she was relegated from pampered princess to bastard fugitive, but the probable murders of her brothers, the Princes in the Tower, left Elizabeth heiress to the royal House of York and, in 1486, Henry VII, first sovereign of the House of Tudor, married her, thus uniting the red and white roses of Lancaster and York. Elizabeth is an enigma. She had schemed to marry Richard III, the man who had deposed and probably killed her brothers, and it is likely that she then intrigued to put Henry Tudor on the throne. Yet after marriage, a picture emerges of a model consort, mild, pious, generous and fruitful. It has been said that Elizabeth was distrusted and kept in subjection by Henry VII and her formidable mother-in-law, Margaret Beaufort, but contemporary evidence shows that Elizabeth was, in fact, influential, and may have been involved at the highest level in one of the most controversial mysteries of the age. Alison Weir builds an intriguing portrait of this beloved queen, placing her in the context of the magnificent, ceremonious, often brutal, world she inhabited, and revealing the woman behind the myth, showing that differing historical perceptions of Elizabeth can be reconciled.

About this title

Review:

"The compelling drama of Elizabeth's life, the traumatic perils she faced as a young woman, the murder of her brothers by Richard III and the later mystery of Perkin Warbeck, are richly presented." -- Iain Finlayson The Times "A meticulous scholar... Weir sincerely admires her subject, doing honor to an almost forgotten queen" New York Times "The great asset of this book is the combination of the political and the personal. Weir is a fine writer with a wonderful gift for description." -- Linda Porter Literary Review "Weir has a shrewd sense of what will seize the imagination of the keen historical amateur." The Independent "Weir adheres to the conventional story without giving much weight to new theories, preferring instead to stick with the facts about daily life for a Plantagenet princess-turned-Tudor queen." -- Lesley McDowell Herald

Book Description:

Britain’s foremost female historian reveals the true story of this key figure in the Wars of the Roses and the Tudor dynasty who began life a princess, spent her youth as a bastard fugitive, but who finally married the first Tudor king and was the mother of Henry VIII.

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 022409775X
• ISBN 13: 9780224097758
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 576