In 1464 when Elizabeth Woodville, widow of a Baron’s heir, married Edward IV, king of England, it was a bit of a crazy match. She was way below his station. Woodville’s father was a mere knight. Woodville’s mother was the widow of a duke before her remarriage, and related to the royal line of Luxembourg, but in that day and age importance came through the male line, not the female line.
Elizabeth Woodville was also a non-virgin, with two sons from her previous marriage. Royal consort’s virginity was greatly prized at a time when there was no real way to check the paternity of a child. Although as Edward IV pointed out, her two sons did show that Woodville was fertile. That’s something you can’t know for certain with a virgin bride.
Their marriage was secret, and the ceremony announced only after the fact – after a couple months, too. That’s very different from the usual royal marriage ceremonies, involving lots of preparations and lots of tax money.
To make it even more scandalous, this was not necessarily Edward IV’s first secret marriage. He already had at least one child from a previous relationship, who may have been considered legitimate because the child was raised by Edward IV’s mother. Unfortunately, the child’s mother is unknown and there is no record of a marriage. But that previous secret marriage was widely believed to have happened. If it did, and the woman still lived, Edward IV could have been a bigamist. Making his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville invalid.
The icing on the cake, if the cake is anti-Woodville, was that Elizabeth Woodville was five years older than her husband! When they married the young king was 22, and Woodville was 27. Quel scandale!
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