Elizabeth of York by Alison Weir

I pretty much love any historical non-fiction book by Alison Weir, so I was in my element here. Especially as we are talking about a biography of a Tudor woman!

I feel like Weir was slightly taking on a role of being an apologist for Elizabeth, which is understandable. Weir very much straddles that tightrope between reading the historical record and also offering reasons for why Elizabeth has been perceived in a certain way. Weir is also great at not being tempted at too much conjecture or interiority, focusing on fleshing out the narrative with court records. There’s a lot here about architecture, Tudor politics, court ceremonial, religion etc. Inevitably Elizabeth remains a slightly shadowy figure, but I think the details of her childhood definitely provided great new context. Her origin story and the intensity of the dynastic struggles of the Wars of the Roses help contextualise her conciliatory role a lot! It’s so fascinating to have a woman rescued from the historical record.

While reading the book, I was very much on the Tudor trail, visiting both Ludlow Castle and Raglan Castle.

• Ludlow was the site of her son’s death, a place she actively avoided after Arthur’s demise, but a place that also represented the Tudor dynasty’s view and dreams for themselves.
• Raglan Castle owned by @cadwcymruwales was somewhere she came to later in life, spending a week there on progress, potentially on the trail of what happened to her brothers. Raglan was a place where Henry VII was kept as a child and the Anglo-Welsh Herbert family were Elizabeth’s relatives.

I think visiting places like these castles goes a little way to help contextualise and clarify the complexities of the Yorkist/Lancastrian/Tudor mythology.

Of course there are loads of castles and palaces mentioned in this tome, but I felt super lucky to visit these two whilst reading this book.