Customer Reviews

Elizabeth Wydeville: The Slandered Queen (England's Forgotten Queens)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yes, Elizabeth Wydeville is often portrayed as scheming, and haughty, and cruel. And yes, there is not enough information in the world (that we know of) to refute that point. But if that is true, then there is not enough information to prove it either.
Okerlund has gone out on a limb and said that perhaps Elizabeth wasn't a witch, a whore, or a social-climbing, dynasty-killing queen. For every point that she makes she backs it up with evidence. It's an argument, and like almost every other arugment out there about women in the 15th century, it can be debated.
As the author says, Margaret of Anjou has often been depicted as the she-wolf of France, a violent and rash woman who ended the House of Lancaster through her arrogance and forced York into treason. She has benefited from the hindsight of history as many biographers have taken another look and instead found her to be courageous and strong, worthy of our admiration and not derision. Doesn't Elizabeth Wydeville deserve the same?
I found this book to be thought provoking and insightful, representing a fairly good handle on the times and personalities. I don't necessarily embrace every argument, but hey, that's the great part about history. It's not dates and facts, it's debates and mystery and research.
This book is well-written and well-researched. Anyone with an interest in the Wars of the Roses, early Tudor history, or women throughout the eras should take a look at this biography.

What a studied and fascinating work this book is! We've heard many versions of the presumed accounts of the 2 missing princes who disappeared from London Tower...but what of their mother, the first Queen Elizabeth? Although we've heard much smattering of slander about her in the past, now we have a new story to consider in this lavishly researched, footnoted and indexed work reviewing the Queen's life. Although you will feel the good weight of research that the author poured into the book, you will be able to read the Queen's fascinating story without needing to be a Rhodes Scholar to delve into it.

We even get to sigh a romantic sigh as we imagine the meeting of (24 year old) Elizabeth when she met with the King (age 19) at the time he likely fell madly in love with her: "At Grafton, Elizabeth was on home territory. The Wydeville manor lay within a mile of Whittlewood Forest where the King was hunting. Having grown up here, Elizabeth knew the course that the hunters would take, the fields where the deer would be chased for the kill, the grassy spots ideal for picnics. Choosing a large oak tree, she stationed herself and her two small sons beneath it and waited. Hard in pursuit of prey, Edward saw the beautiful young mother with her children, pulled his horse up short, and marveled at the bucolic tableau." See what I mean? We really get a feel for the romance, the hardship, and the tragedy to follow.

The ancestor of Mary, Queen of Scots and of Lady Jane Grey, this slandered queen's grandson will be Henry VIII, her great-grandaughter will be Queen Elizabeth I. In her time, she will become a widowed mother of two children but then secretly marry the King of England (the younger Edward IV), thus being crowned Queen of England in 1465, her father will be beheaded, her husband the King will become exiled leaving her alone while pregnant with many young children in tow, she will give birth to the future King of England (Edward V), her brother will be executed, her son (Sir Richard Grey) will be murdered upon order of Richard III, her two sons (King Edward V and Prince Richard of York) will disappear from the Tower of London with tragically uncertain fate, her 19-year-long marriage will be declared adulterous and their 10 children will be declared illegitimate, and she will be accused of witchcraft and sorcery.

An amazing life, worth of the re-defining richly presented by this author.

An excellent history of Elizabeth Wydville. Sometimes a few too many details. Shows the love between Elizabeth and Henry. A great sadness at the end of the book showing how badly a queen can be treated after the king dies.

I have to agree with another review that it was interesting to read a different interpretation of Elizabeth Wydeville. Some of the arguments fell short, but I still thought it was well done. I'm also not sure we are at a point to be spurning historical reinterpretation just yet.
I enjoyed it and recommend that readers also read Baldwin's biography of Elizabeth

I thought this book had a great deal of conjecture in it. Regarding keeping this reader's interest, the book didn't come close to most of the historical books I've been reading lately, mostly by Alison Weir and Antonia Frasier. Additionally, the print was not dark enough for easy readability, and the print was rather small. Not easy on the eyes at all.

I bought this book because I love Alison Weir and her books about Henry's wives. Elizabeth by Arlene Okerlund and produced by Alison Weir is so one sided that Elizabeth looks like a saint. The Wydevilles are portrayed as victims of the Nevilles and Richard the Third. In reality the Wydevilles were opportunists just like the Nevilles and in the end both families lives ended in tragedy. Elizabeth's ansestor's scheming would go on to distroy another innosent life that of Jane Grey. Hopefully the next book about Elizabeth will be less of a fantasy.

Is anyone else tired of hardline feminists writing revisionist histories of every female personage whose reputation may have been exagerated by contempory chroniclers?

As contempory chroniclers are the only primary information sources, even assuming that they were all misogynistic and that they unjustly slandered every "liberated" woman, there are no better sources to prove otherwise. Portraying Elizabeth Wydeville as unculpable and virtuous is adding modern prejudice to her personage even more than her contemporaries possible misogyny.

Frankly, this type of revisionist history is insulting as a scholar and as a female, and I was highly disappointed to see Alison Wier's name associated with this farce.