Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World by Alison Weir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
When dealing with historical figures, an author will often come up against the problem on there just not being enough information about the figure to clearly depict him or her. This is the case in ELIZABETH OF YORK. Queen of England in a time when women were essentially just walking wombs, little is known about her life. The author Alison Weir does a good job of extrapolating from existing evidence, but often that evidence consists of inventories and payroll. This means the reader is treated to paragraphs of “this person was paid this much, and this many bolts of fabric were purchased from this vendor,” etc. Unfortunately, this queen Elizabeth was very much under the control of others who outshone her in the history books, so we have to see her through their eyes.
Another issue with a biography like this is that so many characters share the same name. Queen Elizabeth’s mother was named Elizabeth. Her father was Edward, as was one of her brothers. Often, people are called by their title, then by a first name, and sometimes it’s difficult to keep track of just which Elizabeth or Margaret or Richard or Henry the text is referring to. I had to keep in my head that Elizabeth of York was the mother of Henry VIII, and grandmother of Elizabeth I.
Despite the confusion and sometimes overly-descriptive passages, there is much of interest here. Elizabeth of York lived alongside Richard III, her brothers were the infamous Princes in the Tower, and of course she was mother of perhaps the most famous serially married man in Western history. Much happened around her during her life, and perhaps quite a bit of these events were influenced by her. As much as Weir makes a case for this, though, it’s hard to determine exactly what her role was. But as mother of the Tudor dynasty, Elizabeth of York deserves to have her story told, and fans of the Tudors will enjoy the detail presented here.
Received as a free digital ARC via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.