Elizabeth Woodville is one of the most fascinating, if transient, inhabitants of Thorney Island. She was a queen in her own right (wife of Edward IV), mother of another king (Edward the V, albeit uncrowned) and her daughter married yet another king (Henry VII) which resulted in her being declared Dowager Queen. But it is for her stay on Thorney Island – where she twice took sanctuary to avoid prison during the Wars of the Roses – that she is chiefly remembered. After her husband Edward IV was forced to flee the country she escaped from the Tower of London at night and claimed sanctuary in the Abbey on October 1st, 1470.
Thorney Tales (13) - Elizabeth Woodville
Elizabeth Woodville is one of the most fascinating, if transient, inhabitants of Thorney Island. She was a queen in her own right (wife of Edward IV), mother of another king (Edward the V, albeit uncrowned) and her daughter married yet another king (Henry VII) which resulted in her being declared Dowager Queen. But it is for her stay on Thorney Island – where she twice took sanctuary to avoid prison during the Wars of the Roses – that she is chiefly remembered. After her husband Edward IV was forced to flee the country she escaped from the Tower of London at night and claimed sanctuary in the Abbey on October 1st, 1470.