ELIZABETH OF YORK,

QUEEN OF HENRY THE SEVENTH.

ELIZABETH OF YORK was the first offspring of Edward the Fourth and Elizabeth Woodville, whom his romantic passion elevated to a throne. She was born at the palace of Westminster, in 1466, and was as warmly welcomed by her parents as if a prince had been granted them. Their satisfaction was not, however, shared by their subjects, for in the troubled times in which she first saw the light a male successor to the throne was felt by the people to be necessary to the maintenance of its strength and dignity, both much endangered by the marriage of her parents and the evils it entailed. Two more daughters followed Elizabeth, to the great discontent of the people; nor was it until they had despaired of a male heir to the crown that one was granted. A year after the birth of Elizabeth her father had embroiled himself with the all-powerful Earl of Warwick, by the resumption of the manors of Penley and Widestone, formerly possessed by his brother George, archbishop of York; and by depriving him of the seals, which he bestowed on Robert Stillington, bishop of Bath, whom he made Chancellor of England. The grants conferred on Warwick and his brothers, and particularly these last, though of great importance, were well merited, and the resumption of them being considered as acts of ingratitude, indisposed many towards the king, who could ill afford the loss of any portion of his popularity at that crisis, when the exactions of the queen and the vast favour shown to her family caused such general dissatisfaction.

From the commencement of the acknowledgment of his marriage, Edward had been incited to ill-will against Warwick and his brothers by the Woodvilles, or Widevilles, as they were then called, the family of the queen, who, jealous of the influence of Warwick with the king, sought all means in their power to diminish it. In 1468, Warwick was accused, on the hearsay evidence of a mean person, of favouring

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