#It's almost as though ... the idea of properly sympathizing with Elizabeth or understanding her complex and unprecedented position ... | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

wonder-worker · 20 days ago

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Friendly reminder:

Elizabeth Woodville did not bring any "assets and advantages" to her marriage and queenship. On the contrary, she was a disadvantageous and unsuitable choice in every way. Historians and commentators need to stop downplaying or softening this for the sake of "defending" Elizabeth because they're ... not defending her. What they're doing is erasing her historical context, downplaying the judgement/criticism she had to face during her life, and disregarding what it says about her own strength of character that she was able to successfully adapt to queenship despite these difficulties.

Like ... no wonder nobody discusses these aspects of Elizabeth's political career when they can't even grasp the bare basics. We're really stuck at level zero here.

#elizabeth woodville #David Baldwin and Arlene Okerlund's biographies of EW are very bad and very lackluster respectively #please stop quoting them or relying on them and use your common sense instead #“The consequences of the Wars of the Roses ... gave an English-born queen a distinct advantage over a foreign rival” This is not true.#It was literally the opposite - an English-born queen had a distinct *disadvantage*#I cannot stress this enough: THE YORKISTS WANTED AND SOUGHT A FOREIGN QUEEN AFTER THEY SEIZED THE THRONE #ALL OPTIONS THEY CONSIDERED WERE FOREIGN. EDWARD IV ALSO WANTED HIS HEIR TO HAVE A FOREIGN QUEEN.#Also regarding Elizabeth's alleged “links to Lancaster” ... firstly those links are very exaggerated and misguided #Second of all in the context of the Wars of the Roses and the Yorkists' political position - that would be another DISADVANTAGE #Ngl it's funny how historians look at the variety of reasons Elizabeth was an unsuitable choice for queen #and then decided to rewrite them into advantages for no conceivable reason #It's almost as though ... the idea of properly sympathizing with Elizabeth or understanding her complex and unprecedented position ...#is too much for them ... and so they try to simplify or reverse it to make their own jobs easier #my post

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