LOCAL HISTORY
I
t sounds like a fairy tale, but this is a true story of how a Northamptonshire girl met and fell in love with a king hunting in the forest, married him in secret, and became the Queen of England, and grandmother to our most infamous monarch, Henry VIII. So who was this Northamptonshire girl, and how did she attract the attention of the king? Although Elizabeth’s father was a relatively humble knight, her mother was anything but. Jacquetta of Luxembourg was the daughter of European aristocracy, and claimed descendance from both Charlemagne the Great, and Mélusine, a mermaidlike shape-shifting water spirit with magical powers. Jacquetta first marriage in 1433 was to Prince John of Lancaster, son of Henry IV. It was short-lived as John died whilst they were in Rouen, France. The wealthy widow was obliged to seek permission from King Henry VI before remarriage, but unbeknown to the King, Jacquetta had fallen in love with her late husband’s chamberlain, a Northamptonshire gentleman named Sir Richard Woodville. Henry VI threw them together when he asked Sir Richard Woodville to escort the widow back to England. They married in secret on the way home and were only forgiven after paying a hefty fine
The marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville from Ancienne Chronique d’Angleterre Jean de Wavrin
Elizabeth ~ England’s Northamptonshire Queen Richard and Jacquetta were in a powerful position. Jacquetta outranked all ladies at court except for the Queen, and Richard was created Baron Rivers, perhaps a tribute to his wife’s ancestor Mélusine. At the start of the Wars of the Roses, they were firm supporters of the House of Lancaster, and made their home at Richard’s manor in Grafton, Northamptonshire. 18
Their first child was born around 1437 in Grafton. Elizabeth Woodville grew up to be exceptionally beautiful, with all the most fashionable features in medieval society, tall, slender, with long fair hair, a pale complexion and a high forehead. Additionally, her eyes were considered beautiful, being heavy lidded, ‘like a dragon’. She was happily married at fifteen to Sir John Grey of Groby in
Leicestershire and gave him two sons. Sadly, her husband was killed fighting for the Lancastrians during the Wars of the Roses. She was left a widow, her lands seized by the Yorkists, and with no alternative but to return home to her parents at Grafton. The political tide was turning, and after the decisive Battle of Towton in 1461
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