Elizabeth Woodville

“ When one talks of Queens and their misfortunes, it may be remembered that few Queens have suffered more than Elizabeth Woodville. In misfortune she sits apart from other Queens, her only companions being Mary Queen of Scots and Marie Antoinette. Her record is full of woe. But in that long war it seems impossible to find one single character, man or woman—unless it is King Henry—who is true and loyal. All—all—are perjured, treacherous, cruel, self-seeking. All are as proud as Lucifer. Murder is the friend and companion of the noblest lord ”

“ Anne of Warwick’s whole reign with Richard III. was one of almost uninterrupted sickness, and she more often wore the garb of the invalid than the costume of a queen. The daughter of Elizabeth Woodville, the good Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII., was a lady who was never better dressed than at her coronation banquet in Westminster Hall, where the King was a spectator and not a guest. She sat in a kirtle of purple velvet, furred with ermine bands in front; and the Lady Katherine Gray and Mistress Ditton went under the table, and sat at the Queen’s feet ”

“ The queen's brothers, sisters, uncles, and cousins presently filled every great and lucrative office at Court; closely imitating the unpopular precedent of the relations of Elizabeth Woodville. Her eldest brother, Edward Seymour, was immediately made Lord Beauchamp and Earl of Hertford; and, in the joy of having an heir, Henry created Sir William Paulet Lord St. John and Sir John Russell Lord Russell. Sir William Fitzwilliam was made Earl of Southampton, and High-Admiral. Russell and Paulet were sworn of the Privy Council ”

“ ACQUELINE of Luxembourg, Duchess of Bedford, had, after her husband's death, so far sacrificed her ambition to love, that she espoused in second marriage Sir Richard Woodville, a private gentleman, to whom she bore several children, and among the rest Elizabeth, who was remarkable for the grace and beauty of her person, as well as for other amiable accomplishments. ”

“ The mother-in-law of John Wyldbore, son of Sir John Smith, afterwards 2nd Baronet, who married, in 1897, Elizabeth Ann, second daughter and co- heiress of the Rev. James Marriott, D.C.L., of Horsemonden, Co. Kent.
[37] Jacquetta of Luxemburg, widow of the Duke of Bedford, married, secondly, the brave and handsome knight, Sir Richard Woodville, when she came to England in 1435 to claim her dower. The birth of her eldest child Elizabeth probably occurred in 1436. The marriage caused great scandal and Sir Richard was imprisoned; but was subsequently released and they settled at Grafton Castle. ”

“ ELIZABETH, queen of Edward IV (1437?–1492) , was the daughter of Sir Richard Woodville or Wydeville, afterwards Earl Rivers, by his marriage with Jaquetta, duchess of Bedford, widow of that duke of Bedford who was regent of France during Henry VI's minority. Almost all the Woodville family seem to have combined ambition with a love of chivalry, and the first considerable step in their rise was this marriage of Sir Richard with a dowager duchess who was daughter of Peter de Luxembourg, late count of St. Pol. ”

“ I believe that I never saw him in such a state of fluster,—and, when one speaks of Woodville, that means something.
‘Atherton, I am in a devil of a stew.’ He looked it. ‘All of a heap!—I’ve had a blow which I shall never get over!’
‘Then get under.’
Woodville is one of those fellows who will insist on telling me their most private matters,—even to what they owe their washerwomen for the ruination of their shirts. Why, goodness alone can tell,—heaven knows I am not sympathetic. ”

“ Woodville (whose Christian name was Arabella) , wife of Harry Woodville, but previously betrothed to Roderick Penruddock. When reduced to destitution Penruddock restored to her the settlement which her husband had lost in play.
Captain Henry Woodville, son of the above; a noble soldier, brave and high-minded, in love with Emily Tempest, but, in the ruined condition of the family, unable to marry her. Penruddock makes over to him all the deeds, bonds and obligations which his father had lost in gambling.--Cumberland, The Wheel of Fortune (1779) .
Woodville (Lord) , a friend of General Brown. ”

“ It is but to tell me whither you go, and when, and how."
"That is easily said, my fair maiden," answered Woodville. "I go first to my own place at Meon; then to the Court of Burgundy, at the end of six days; and, as I would not cross through France, I go by sea from Dover to a town called Nieuport, on the coast of Flanders. But say, is there aught I can do for you before I send the man I told you of, to give you what little assistance I can?"
"Send him not, send him not," cried the girl; "I am now rich--almost too rich, thanks to your generous interference with our good King. ”

“ She will soon give it, when she knows that on it hangs Richard of Woodville's life. She has taught me herself, how to wring her hard heart."
"She shall give no such promise for me," replied Woodville, sternly. "I tell thee, pitiful scoundrel, that I would rather, with my bosom free of aught like guilt, lay my head upon the block, than force a grateful and high-hearted girl to wed herself to such a vile slave as thou art. If your insinuations should be true, and she has done for me all that you say, full well and generously has she repaid the little I ever did to serve her. ”

“ You have served me at my need; and I would fain serve you; but I must first know how."
"Faith, sir, that is not easy," answered Woodville, "for I do not know how myself."
"Well, then, I must think for you, Richard," rejoined Hal of Hadnock; "what stays your marriage?"
Woodville gazed at him with some surprise, and then smiled. "My marriage!--with whom?" he asked.
"Nay, nay," answered his new friend, "waste not time with idle concealments. I am a man who uses his eyes; and I can tell you, methinks, all about every one in the hall we have just left." ”

“ In the midst of a gay and martial household, always dignified, placid, and reserved, Lord Woodville seemed to him like some hero of romance, some knight-templar who had consecrated his life to God, and, unlike the common herd of monks, who withdrew from the world in timidity or selfish sloth, he remained in it to face the temptations, the pleasures, and the vices, and to face them not merely as an idle spectator, but as a splendid protest against the vanity of the world. ”

“ We are a poor order," he continued, with a sly smile, "but yet we live in a rich country, and the people are benevolent to us, so that our board is not ill supplied; and strangers who visit us always remember our poverty."
"That we will do most willingly," said Richard of Woodville, "to the best of our ability, good father. But you see we have a lady with us. ”

“ WOODVILLE or WYDVILLE, ANTHONY, Baron Scales and second Earl Rivers (1442?–1483) , eldest son of Richard Woodville, first earl Rivers [q. v.] , and his wife Jacquetta, duchess of Bedford, was born in or about 1442 (Baker, ii. 162) . Lionel Woodville [q. v.] was a younger brother. In January 1460 his father took him to Sandwich, where both were surprised and captured by a band of Yorkists and carried off to Calais to be severely ‘rated’ by the Yorkist leaders for upstart insolence in taking part in their recent attainder at Coventry (Will. Worc. p. 771; Paston Letters, i. 506) . ”

“ Katherine retreated into her own room, and Elizabeth ran down to the kitchen, where she found Mrs. Woodbourne ordering dinner.
Elizabeth stood by the fire, biting her lip and pinching her finger, and trembling all over with impatience, while Mrs. Woodbourne and the cook were busily consulting over some grouse which Rupert had brought from Scotland.
'Lizzie, my dear,' said Mrs. Woodbourne presently, 'would you just run to my room and fetch down the green receipt-book?'
Elizabeth obeyed: running was rather a relief to her, and she was down-stairs again in another instant. ”

“ I caught but a glimpse of her, indeed; but that bright face is not easily forgotten when once it has been seen."
"And yet I never thought of her!" murmured Richard of Woodville to himself: "poor girl, her deep gratitude would have merited better remembrance. Why smile you, boy? Every honourable man is bound to recollect all who trust him, and all who serve him."
"Nay, sir," replied the page, resuming a grave look, "I did but smile to think how often ladies remember knights and gentlemen, when they are themselves forgot."
"A sad comment on the baseness of man's nature," answered Woodville ”

“ An observer would also have noticed that his mouth and chin had something of the stern and sad look of fatalism that one sees in the pictures of Rossetti and Burne-Jones. He had the unmistakable public-school and University hall-mark, and if he had been fairly liked at Eton, at Oxford, where (as Mr. Max Beerbohm so rightly says) the nonsense knocked out of one at school is carefully and painlessly put back, Woodville was really popular, and considered remarkably clever, capable of enjoying, and even of conceiving, Ideas. ”

“ Elizabeth and I studied her little face and Elizabeth, too, marked the Harding resemblance.
Mrs. Belle Woodlock’s apartment was half a block from 61st Street, I think on Prairie Avenue, and Elizabeth lived at the corner of 61st Street and Woodlawn Avenue. So it was but a short street car ride for me. Mrs. Woodlock’s apartment was quite comfortable, like her good self. She was a fat, husky Irish girl, and quite pretty. She had a daughter about six, Ruth, and an old Aunt Emma who lived with her. I don’t know whether Belle Woodlock’s husband was dead or whether she had been divorced ”

“ Their souls were naturally led up to the contemplation of things above the earth; and while Richard of Woodville learned hope and confidence in Him who had spread the heaven with stars and clothed the earth in loveliness, Ella Brune took to her heart, from the same source, the lesson of firmness and resignation. ”

“ Bill met her gaze frankly.
'Done it before? Rather! Thousands of times. You see, I spent a year on a bee-farm once, learning the business.'
For a moment mortification was the only emotion of which Elizabeth was conscious. She felt supremely ridiculous. For this she had schemed and plotted—to give a practised expert the opportunity of doing what he had done a thousand times before!
And then her mood changed in a flash. Nature has decreed that there are certain things in life which shall act as hoops of steel, grappling the souls of the elect together. ”

“ We possess many particulars relative to the captivity of Elizabeth at Woodstock. In some of them we may recognise that spirit of exaggeration which the anxious sympathy excited by her sufferings at the time, and the unbounded adulation paid to her afterwards, were certain to produce; others bear all the characters of truth and nature. ”

“ Richard of Woodville raised not his eyes to look at those who hung between death and life; he turned not to gaze at his companions on the shore: he knew that every energy, every thought was wanted to accomplish the great object; and, if he suffered his mind to stray, for even a single instant to other things, it was but to think, "I will show those who have belied me that I can risk life, even for beings I do not know!" ”

“ But Ella saw them not--she was too deeply occupied with her own dark thoughts. She seemed alone in the wide world--more alone than ever, since Richard of Woodville had left the capital; and to be so is both sad and perilous. How strange, how lamentable it is, that society, that great wonderful confused institution, springing from man's necessity for mutual aid and support, provides no prop, no stay for those who are left alone in the midst of it; none to counsel, none to help, none to defend against the worst of all evils--temptation to vice. Of the body it takes some care ”

“ That is why the doctor named his farm after the stream—‘Wickeecheokee.’”
“I wish to goodness we girls could have been there with you,” sighed Anne Mason.
“‘According to the Constitution of Woodcraft, our purpose is to learn the out-door life for its worth in the building up of our bodies and the helping and strengthening of our souls; that we may go forth with the seeing eye, and the “thinking hand” to learn the pleasant ways of the woods and of life, that we may be made in all wise masters of ourselves ”

“ George rode up to Bilts’ Farm, made the inquiry, and returned, saying that Barrowclouch stuck to his expressed intention, and Ann was authorised to write to Elizabeth with the news. This was done; a prompt reply brought the joyful assurance that her father was delighted with the opportunity, and would in another week be at Woodburn Grange to see the Farm. [Pg 59] Great was the exultation in the Woodburn family. All rejoiced in the prospect of having Elizabeth so near, and Mr. Woodburn in the prospect of so accomplished an agriculturist coming amongst them. ”

“ Seating himself on a coffer of arms, Woodville ate sparingly, and drank a cup of wine, asking from time to time, "Where is Sir John Grey?--Where is my good uncle?--He will not be absent from an enterprise like this, I am right sure."
"Here, here; both here," answered Sir Henry Dacre; "and Mary and Isabel are even now at Calais,--but be advised, my friend. Do not show yourself to-night. The whole court is crowding round the King in the village down below. Let the battle be first over. You will do good service, I am sure. You can fight in armour not your own, and then--"
"Armour, Harry!" ”

“ Then I will have your knightly word, that a fair maiden whom you know, named Ella Brune, shall be mine."
"Where is she?" demanded Richard of Woodville. "I know not where she is; I have not seen her for months, nay years."
"Oh, she is not far off when Richard of Woodville is here," said the man, with a sneer. "I know all about it;--ay, Sir John Grey, the smooth-faced clerk, the corrupter of the men of Montl'herry. Can you not produce her?" ”