Elizabeth of York

Elizabeth of York was born 11 February 1466, daughter of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. After her younger brothers disappeared from the Tower of London in 1483 and her uncle Richard III seized the throne, an Act of Parliament declared her parents' marriage invalid. She and her sisters spent ten months in sanctuary at Westminster Abbey before returning to court, where rumours swirled that Richard meant to marry her. Henry Tudor promised to marry Elizabeth before his invasion, a pledge that may have drained Yorkist loyalty from Richard; his victory at Bosworth Field ended the Wars of the Roses, and he took her as queen on 18 January 1486, repealing the act that had bastardised her. She stayed out of politics. The marriage seems to have been happy, though her eldest son Arthur died at fifteen in 1502 and three other children died young. Her surviving son became Henry VIII; her daughters Margaret and Mary became queens of Scotland and France. She died 11 February 1503, her forty-seventh birthday.