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Elizabeth of York

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About this listen

Elizabeth of York would have ruled England, but for the fact that she was a woman. One of the key figures of the Wars of the Roses, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, she married Henry Tudor to bring peace to a war-torn England.

In Elizabeth of York: The First Tudor Queen, Alison Weir builds a portrait of this beloved queen, placing her in the context of the magnificent, ceremonious, often brutal world she inhabited.

©2013 Alison Weir (P)2013 W F Howes Ltd Europe Historical Military & War Politicians Politics & Activism

Critic reviews

Praise for the author:

"Weir provides immense satisfaction. She writes in a pacy, vivid style, engaging the heart as well as the mind." (Independent)
"Staggeringly useful...combines solid information with tantalising appetisers." (Mail on Sunday on Britain's Royal Families)
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There is very clearly little to write about Elizabeth of York - with the exceptions of maybes and perhaps(es). I'm guessing that Elizabeth Weir needed to write a book of more than 5 pages, which is probably all you would get from factual knowledge of her and so the book is made up of irritating guesses, maybes, would have, perhapses and merely conjectures. Even more irritating was the monetary valuation being recalculated into "being worth £(an obscene amount) today" at every mention of what was paid out to ladies, jesters, dress makers, and for fabrics, food, soap and just about anything to make up page numbers (it drove me potty!!!). The book was tediously long for very little information on Elizabeth of York, making it a pretty pointless book for me. A real shame, as I so thoroughly enjoyed The Wives of Henry the Eighth. I also got the impression that Maggie Marsh was probably just as fed up reading it by the dull set tones of her voice - but she did her best with the subject. Well, wouldn't recommend this book for the subject - but might be OK if you were looking for general information around that time and can suffer the tedium!!!

Hard work

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Elizabeth is an interesting life story but we don't need all the lists of her butchers, bakers and candlestick makers and how much she paid them. narrator's change of voice for quotes was bizarre. Can't recommend.

Too much information

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You can't fault Alison Weir's research which was meticulous, with a lot of detail about expenditure, clothing and ceremonial but given that this is a very very long book, I didn't feel I had learned much about Elizabeth herself beyond that she was obviously well loved and seemed like a kind and thoughtful person. There really isn't enough known about her beyond her recorded activities, children and donations etc to warrant the length of this book . You get a sense of the good relationship she had with Henry and probably the rest of her family, but there a LOT of assumptions made and "she must haves" without real foundation which i did find at times highly questionable. How do we know what her relationship with her mother was like? though the book assumes closeness (for example. ...) Also far too many details of costs incurred, then converted to modern value, which got unbelievably tedious and felt like padding. Well read though with some interesting material.

Very well researched but so drawn out

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The title should have been In the Court of Elizabeth of York. Elizabeth becomes more and more shadowy towards the end. Its like she has a bit part of coming on and off the the stage. Incredible amount of research and detail about court life but in the end shes hardly there. Im sure thats not Weirs fault as little information available I guess but padding with wont do!

Wrong title!

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I found it a bit confusing at times and am trying to work out why the narrator used a kind of Spanish accent when reading quotes. But I'm going to read it again to try and make more sense of what could be a good book.

The first Tudor queen.

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