Queen Elizabeth Woodville
FROM H. M. STATE PAPERS OFFICE.
THE facsimile of a document preserved among the Public Records, will be interesting to all Kentish men, to say nothing of the ladies of that county. It relates to one of the two women of Kent who had the honour to become Queens of England; being the receipt of Elizabeth, the widow of King Edward IV., for the sum of £30, the arrears of her half-year's pension.
The connexion of this illustrious lady with the county of Kent, through her father, Sir Richard Woodville, is too well known to need recapitulation; but her courtship and marriage with the King are so quaintly described in "The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke," as to excuse the introduction here of an extract from that old Chronicle.
"The King being on huntyng in the forest of Wychwood besyde Stonnystratforde, came for his recreacion to the mannor of Grafton, where the duches of Bedford soiorned, then wyfe to syr Richard Woduile, Lord Ryuers, on whom then was attendyng a doughter of hers, called dame Elizabeth Greye, wydow of syr Jhon Grey, Knight, slayn at the last battell of saincte Albon's, by the power of Kyng Edward. This wydow hauyng a suit to y° Kyng, either to be restored by hym to some thyng taken from her, or requyring hym, of pitie, to have some augmentacion to her liuyng, founde such grace in the Kynges eyes, that he not onely fauored her suyte, but muche more phantasied her person, for she was a woman more of formal countenaunce, then of excellent beautie, but yet of such beautie & fauor, that with her sober demeanure, louely lokyng, and femynyne smylyng (neither to wanton nor to humble) besyde her toungue so eloquent, and her wit so pregnant, she was able to rauishe the mynde of a meane person, when she allured and made subject to her y° hart of so great a King. After that Kyng Edward had well considered all the linyamentes of her body, and the wise and womanly demeanure that he saw in her, he determined first to attempt, if he might prouoke her to be his souereigne lady, promisyng her many gyftes and fayre rewardes, affirmyng farther, yt if she therunto condiscend, she might so fortune of his peramour and concubyne, to be chauuged to his wyfe and lawfull bedfelow; which demaunde she so wisely, and with so couert speache aunswered and repugned, affirmynge that as she was for his honor farre unable to be hys spouse and bedfelow; so for her awne poore honestie, she was to good to be either hys concubyne, or souereigne lady: that where he was a littell before heated with the darte of Cupido, he was nowe set all on a hote burnyng fyre, what for the confidence that he had in her perfyte constancy, and the trust that he had in her constant chastitie, & without any farther deliberacion, he determined with him selfe clerely to marye with her, after that askyng counsaill of them, whiche he knewe neither woulde nor once durst impugne his concluded purpose.
But the duches of Yorke hys mother letted it as much as in her lay, alledgyng a precontract made by hym with the lady Lucye, and diverse other lettes: all which doubtes were resolued, and all thinges made clere, and all cauillacions auoyed. And so, priuilie in a moruyng he maried her at Grafton, where he first phautasied her visage."
It is not our intention to trace the fortunes and misfortunes of this illustrious lady; it will be sufficient, for the purpose of this notice, to draw attention to the document before us. In addition to its interest for the inhabitants of Kent, it is a record of great historical importance (now for the first time brought forward), because it proves that her son-in-law, King Henry VII., has been misrepresented and unjustly blamed for his treatment of this Queen; it being alleged that he seized all her lands and possessions, and confined her in the Abbey of Bermondsey, in Southwark, where she shortly after died.
Now this receipt, in conjunction with the Letters Patent, dated 19th February, 5 Hen. VII., proves that (supposing even the King had seized her possessions, of which, however, there is no proof on record), Henry VII. granted her an annuity of £400 for life, equal to at least £4000 a year of the present money.
In addition to this document, two others, bearing the signature of the Queen, are extant in the Public Record Office: one, a letter in Latin, addressed to her husband, King Edward IV.; the other, addressed to Sir William Stoner, and dated from her manor of Greenwich, in Kent, is here given as a specimen of a royal letter of that period.
By the Qiwne.
"Trusty and welbeloved, We grete you wel. And where as we understand, by report made unto us at this tyme, that ye have taken upon yow now of late to make maistries withynne our Forest and Chace of Barnewod and Exsille, and there, in contempt of us, uncourteisly to hunt and slee our Deer withynne the same, to our grete mervaille and displeasir, We wol ye wite that we entend to sew suche remedy therynne as shall acorde with my Lordea lawes. And where as we ferthermore understand that ye purpose, under color of my Lordes Commissionne in that behalf graunted unto you, as ye sey hastly to take the vieu and reule of our game of Dere withynne our said Forest and Chace, We wol that ye shew unto us or our Oounselle, yor said Oommissionne, if any suche ye have, And in the mean season that ye spare of huntyng withynne our said Forest or Chace, as ye wol answere at your perille. Y even under our signet, at our Maner of Grenewiche, the first Day of August.
(Signed) ELYSABETH.
Addressed: To our trusty and welbeloved Sir William Stoner, Knight."