This past week, we marked the 529th anniversary of the death and burial of Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of England as the wife of Edward IV from 1464-1483, and a member of the last generation of Plantagenet rulers.
Elizabeth was born circa 1437 to Sir Richard Woodville (alternately spelled Wydville, Widvile or Wydeville) and Jacquetta of Luxembourg*, Dowager Duchess of Bedford, probably at Grafton Manor in Northamptonshire. Her first marriage to Sir John Grey of Groby Hall produced two sons, Thomas and Richard, before John was killed fighting for the Lancastrian side at the Second Battle of St. Albans, part of the Wars of the Roses.
Elizabeth’s glamorous second marriage to Edward IV, the victorious Yorkist claimant to the English throne, raised eyebrows amongst nobility and commoners alike, as it had been expected that Edward would marry a princess from France or elsewhere on the Continent. Despite the resulting public shock and Edward’s frequent infidelity, the couple had 10 children, including future English queen Elizabeth of York, and the two ill-fated Princes in the Tower, Edvard V and Richard of York. She was also the grandmother of that most notorious English king, Henry VIII.
After her daughter Elizabeth of York married the Lancastrian heir Henry VII, Elizabeth Woodville retired to Bermondsey Abbey in London, where she remained until her death on June 8th, 1492. She is buried with her second husband, Edward IV, in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
Elizabeth chose as her emblem the gillyflower, which was the predecessor of the pink (referring to its pinked edges, not its color) or clove pink and carnation. Symbolizing virtuous love and marriage, and perhaps reminding viewers of the Virgin Mary’s chastity and motherhood, it is pictured surrounding Elizabeth in her coronation robes in the Worshipful Company of Skinners’ Fraternity Book (pictured below).
The gillyflower had medicinal value in addition to its symbolic uses, as recorded by two noted early modern herbalists. Nicholas Culpeper wrote that the gillyflower is “good to remove all difficulty of breathing, and helps the cough; they also provoke the courses and urine, and by bathing or sitting over the decoction it causes perspiration.”
John Gerard distinguished between the Clove Gillofloures and Pinks, or wilde Gillofloures. The former, he said, when made into a conserve with sugar, will “comfort the heart” when occasionally eaten. The latter have no medical purpose in Gerard’s estimation, but they are to be enjoyed as part of floral arrangements.
*Jacquetta should in no way be overlooked; an influential and fascinating figure in her own right, she is the subject of my independent research project, and I can’t wait to share the story of this remarkable woman with the world! Watch this space for further updates.
Sources and further reading:
Sutton, Anne F. and Livia Visser-Fuchs (1997). The Device of Queen Elizabeth Woodville: A Gillyflower or Pink. The Ricardian. Vol. 11. (Issue no.136). Pp 17-24. http://www.thericardian.online/downloads/Ricardian/11-136/04.pdf
Culpeper, Nicholas. Culpeper’s English Physician And Complete Herbal. London, UK: Forgotten Books (2015).
Gerard, John and Marcus Woodward (1927). The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. London, UK: Gerald Howe.