Arlene Naylor Okerlund's fine biography Elizabeth of York sheds important light on a largely forgotten figure who stood at the center of one of the most turbulent periods in English history: the thirty-year dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the Roses. The publication of this sympathetic and well-rounded study was fortuitously timed, given the recent fascination with the search for Richard III's final resting place. At the time of this writing, DNA testing is being performed on human remains found under a car park in Leicester to determine whether or not they belong to the much-maligned king who died in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth. During her lifetime, Elizabeth was the daughter of a king (Edward IV), the sister of a king (Edward V—one of the two notorious “Princes in the Tower”), the niece of a king (Richard III), and the wife of a king (Henry VII). In fact, she is best remembered as England's first Tudor queen, whose marriage to Henry VII united the warring houses of York and Lancaster and effectively ended the Wars of the Roses.
Okerlund's captivating study is arranged chronologically into nineteen chapters, each on average ten pages in length. Her work, however, is much more than a straightforward biography, for the author's vivid prose combined with her critical assessment of the historiography permit her to deal with many of the issues historians have grappled with for centuries. For instance, the allegation made by Richard III and his supporters that Edward IV had been precontracted to wed another woman before his marriage to Elizabeth Wydeville (thus rendering the royal children illegitimate) is discounted as lacking credibility, as are the rumors of Edward IV's own illegitimacy. As to the claim that Richard III planned to marry his niece, Okerlund convincingly argues that “Elizabeth's feelings toward Richard III and their rumored marriage must remain purely speculative” (39). Okerlund exonerates queen dowager Elizabeth Wydeville from any involvement in the Lambert Simnel rebellion because no evidence exists that links the two. Elizabeth's relationship with Margaret Beaufort, the ubiquitous “my lady the king's mother,” too, is given full consideration. Although “the ever-present force of Margaret's powerful personality may have grated against the queen's soul at times,” Okerlund determines, “Elizabeth was no doormat” (89, 145).
Other themes explored include whether or not Prince Arthur's marriage to Princess Katherine of Aragon had been ever consummated, about which the author concludes: “[T]he actual fact of a physical union cannot be absolutely verified” (168). And what of Elizabeth's husband, Henry VII, and his reputation for parsimony? The author presents unassailable proof that throughout his seventeen-year marriage, the king “spent freely and generously on his family's needs and pleasures . . . [and was] not at all the penurious penny-pincher for which he became infamous” (113). The Henry who emerges here was thoughtful, loving, and generous and only after the death of his son Arthur and wife, Elizabeth, within the space of a year did he become “increasingly acquisitive” (220).
While carefully situating her subject within the broader historical context, Okerlund never loses sight of Elizabeth's character and what makes her a figure worthy of a biography. In the end, the portrait Okerlund paints is that of a queen who was well educated, highly cultured, much beloved by her husband and subjects, and exceedingly generous; a queen whose “manners and actions charmed everyone—from foreign ambassadors to English commoners” (75). Capturing this image was not easy, in light of the paucity of sources written by the queen, and at times the author's frustration by the lack of sources leaps off the page. This is particularly evident when Okerlund discusses the meeting between Elizabeth and Lady Katherine Gordon, the wife of the man who claimed to be Richard, the Duke of York—the younger son of Edward IV: “The historical records are silent—they say nothing!—about the response, the reaction, or the emotions of Queen Elizabeth in this curious encounter” (130).
Written in an engaging, almost fictionlike style, this biography will have a broad appeal and will be of value to scholars, students, and anyone interested in the Wars of the Roses or the founding of the Tudor regime. Elizabeth of York has left a remarkable and enduring legacy. Her very presence and high visibility gave much-needed legitimacy to the nascent Tudor dynasty; furthermore, in addition to her son, who would reign as Henry VIII, the marriage of her daughter Margaret to James IV of Scotland would result—a century later—in a Scottish king inheriting the throne of England. It is unfortunate, however, that Elizabeth is so little remembered in her own right, but Arlene Naylor Okerlund's well-researched biography goes a long way toward remedying this historical shortcoming.
