Synopses & Reviews
This is the first new account of Elizabeth's life for over fifty years and David Baldwin sets out to reveal the true story of this complex and intriguing woman. Hers was certainly a dramatic life with dizzying reversals of fortune; from poverty in 1461 to queenship in 1464, followed by deposition, restoration, and conflicts with Richard III and Henry VII before spending her final years in religious seclusion. There is also the issue of her two sons, the infamous 'Princes in the Tower', and the controversy surrounding their disappearance.
Synopsis
A historical character whose life no novelist would ever have dared to write. A woman whose contemporaries portrayed her as a sorceress demands the attention of all who are interested in medieval and royal history.
Synopsis
Elizabeth Woodville is a historical character whose life no novelist would ever have dared invent. She has been portrayed as an enchantress, as an unprincipled advancer of her family's fortunes and a plucky but pitiful queen in Shakespeare's histories. She has been alternatively championed and vilified by her contemporaries and five centuries of historians, dramatists and novelists, but what was she really like? In this revealing account of Elizabeth's life David Baldwin sets out to tell the story of this complex and intriguing woman. Was she the malign influence many of her critics held her to be? Was she a sorceress who bewitched Edward IV? What was the fate of her two sons, the 'Princes in the Tower'? What did she, of all people, think had become of them, and why did Richard III mount a campaign of vilification against her? David Baldwin traces Elizabeth's career and her influence on the major events of her husband Edward IV's reign, and in doing so he brings to life the personal and domestic politics of Yorkist England and the elaborate ritual of court life.
About the Author
David Baldwin is a medieval historian who has taught at the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham for many years. His historical research has focused on the great medieval families in the Midlands and he has contributed articles to historical journals and lectured regularly to societies and conferences in this field. He is the author of six books, The Women of the Cousins' War: The Duchess, The Queen and the King's Mother, The Lost Prince: The Survival of Richard of York, Robin Hood: The English Outlaw Unmasked, Stoke Field: The Last Battle of the Wars of the Roses, and The Kingmaker's Sisters. He lives in Leicester.