Elizabeth of York

Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 – 11 February 1503) was Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until she died in 1503. She was the daughter of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, and her marriage to Henry VII followed his victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field, which marked the end of the civil war known as the Wars of the Roses.

Elizabeth's younger brothers, the "Princes in the Tower", mysteriously disappeared from the Tower of London shortly after their uncle Richard III seized the throne in 1483. Although the 1484 Act of Parliament Titulus Regius declared the marriage of her parents as invalid, Elizabeth and her sisters returned to court under Richard III, after spending ten months in sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. It was rumoured that Richard was plotting to marry Elizabeth. The final victory of the Lancastrian faction in the Wars of the Roses may have seemed a further disaster for the Yorkist princess. However, Henry Tudor knew the importance of Yorkist support for his invasion and promised to marry Elizabeth before he arrived in England. This may well have contributed to the haemorrhaging of Yorkist support for Richard, and her future husband had Titulus Regius repealed when he took the throne.