Elizabeth of York by Alison Weir

Elizabeth of York

by Alison Weir

‘Weir perfectly combines the dramatic colour and timing of an historical novelist with the truth to fact of a scrupulous historian’ The Times

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.

Elizabeth of York would have ruled England, but for the fact that she was a woman. Heiress to the royal House of York, she schemed to marry Richard III, the man who had deposed and probably killed her brothers, and it is possible that she then conspired to put Henry Tudor on the throne.

Yet after marriage to Henry VII, which united the royal houses of Lancaster and York, a picture emerges of a model consort - mild, pious, generous and fruitful. It has been said that Elizabeth was distrusted by Henry VII and her formidable mother-in-law, Margaret Beaufort, but contemporary evidence shows that Elizabeth was, in fact, influential.

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.

Reviewed by Lianne on

4 of 5 stars

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Once again Alison Weir has compiled a book that goes into great detail about the life of Elizabeth of York and the world in which she lived in. The reader gains a very in-depth sense of the challenges she had to face, both late into the War of the Roses, and later as Queen. What’s also interesting about this volume is how this book isn’t just about Elizabeth but also about the people around her. There’s quite a bit of extrapolation going on as there’s not a lot of material to go on concerning what’s really going on in her head at the time.

Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World is an interesting and informative non-fiction title that not only sheds light on the life of the mother of Henry VIII but also reinforces a lot of details about the War of the Roses. It can be a bit dense for some readers not entirely familiar with the period or of titles with plenty of names and dates but it is a very rich volume that will be of great interest for students and researchers of the period as well as readers of history.

You can read this review in its entirety over at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2013/11/26/review-elizabeth-of-york/

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  • Started reading
  • 25 November, 2013: Finished reading
  • 25 November, 2013: Reviewed