Sarah Gristwood - Blood Sisters - The Hidden Lives of the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Published by Harper Press in 2012

Copyright © Sarah Gristwood 2012

Sarah Gristwood asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed from this ebook in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007309306

Ebook Edition © 2013 ISBN: 9780007309320

Version: 2017-03-29

CONTENTS

Title Page SARAH GRISTWOOD Blood Sisters The Hidden Lives of the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses

Copyright Copyright William Collins An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk Published by Harper Press in 2012 Copyright © Sarah Gristwood 2012 Sarah Gristwood asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed from this ebook in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication Source ISBN: 9780007309306 Ebook Edition © 2013 ISBN: 9780007309320 Version: 2017-03-29

List of Illustrations

Map

Simplified Family Tree

Glossary of Names

Reigns

Prologue

PART ONE: 1445–1461

1. Fatal Marriage

2. The Red Rose and the White

3. A Woman’s Fear

4. No Women’s Matters

5. Captain Margaret

6. Mightiness Meets Misery

PART TWO: 1461–1471

7. To Love a King

8. Fortune’s Pageant

9. Domestic Broils

10. That Was a Queen

PART THREE: 1471–1483

11. My Lovely Queen

12. Fortune’s Womb

13. Mother of Griefs

14. A Golden Sorrow

PART FOUR: 1483–1485

15. Weeping Queens

16. Innocent Blood

17. Letters to Richmond

18. Anne My Wife

19. In Bosworth Field

PART FIVE: 1485–1509

20. True Succeeders

21. Golden Sovereignty

22. The Edge of Traitors

23. Civil Wounds

24. Like a Queen Inter Me

25. Our Noble Mother

Epilogue

Keep Reading

Footnotes

Notes

Picture Section

Select Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Publisher

1. Marguerite of Anjou with Henry VI and John Talbot in the ‘Shrewsbury Talbot Book of Romances’, c.1445. British Library, Royal 15 E. VI, f.2v (© The British Library Board)

2. The stained-glass Royal Window in Canterbury Cathedral (© Crown Copyright. English Heritage)

3. Margaret Beaufort by Rowland Lockey, late 16th century (By permission of the Master and Fellows of St John’s College, Cambridge)

4. Margaret Beaufort’s emblems (© Neil Holmes/The Bridgeman Art Library)

5. Cecily Neville’s father, the Earl of Westmoreland, with the children of his second marriage (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris/Flammarion/The Bridgeman Art Library)

6. Portrait of Elizabeth Woodville from 1463 (© The Print Collector/Corbis)

7. Anne Neville depicted in the Rous Roll, 1483–85. British Library Add 48976 (© The British Library Board)

8. King Richard III by unknown artist, oil on panel, late 16th century; after unknown artist late 15th century (© National Portrait Gallery, London)

9. The risen Christ appearing to Margaret of Burgundy by the Master of Girard de Rousillon, from Le dyalogue de la ducesse de bourgogne a Ihesu Crist by Nicolas Finet, c.1470. British Library Add.7970, f.1v (© The British Library Board)

10. Elizabeth of York by unknown artist, oil on panel, late 16th century; after unknown artist c. 1500 (© National Portrait Gallery, London)

11. The birth of Caesar from Le fait des Romains , Bruges, 1479. British Library Royal 17 F.ii, f.9 (© The British Library Board)

12. The Devonshire Hunting Tapestry – Southern Netherlands (possibly Arras), 1430–40 (© Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

13. Procession at the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth, 1502 (© The Trustees of the British Museum)

14. The preparations for a tournament. Illustration for René of Anjou’s Livre des Tournois , 1488–89? Bibliothèque nationale de France, Francais 2692, f.62v–f.63 (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

15. Margaret of Burgundy’s crown, Aachen Cathedral Treasury (© Domkapitel Aachen (photo: Pit Siebigs))

16. Song ‘Zentil madona’: from Chansonnier de Jean de Montchenu, 1475?, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Rothschild 2973, f.3v–f.4 (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

17. The Tower of London from the Poems of Charles of Orleans, c.1500. British Library, Royal 16 F. II f.73 (© The British Library Board)

18. Elizabeth of York’s signature on a page of ‘The Hours of Elizabeth the Queen’, c.1415–20. British Library Add 50001, f.22 (© The British Library Board)

19. Wheel of Fortune illumination from the Troy Book , c.1455–1462. British Library Royal 18 D.II, f.30v (© The British Library Board)

ANNE: the name borne by Anne Neville(1456–85); daughter to the Earl of Warwick, wife first to Edward of Lancaster and then to Richard III. Her mother was another Anne, the heiress Anne Beauchamp, Countess of Warwick (1426–90). Anne was also the name given to the Duchess of Exeter (1439–76), eldest daughter of Richard, Duke of York and Cecily Neville and sister to Edward IV and Richard III. Other English noblewomen bearing the name include one of Cecily’s sisters, who became Duchess of Buckingham; one of Edward IV’s daughters; and Anne Mowbray who was married in childhood to Edward’s youngest son.