Elizabeth Woodville Sparknotes

Part 1: Character
Elizabeth Woodville
-Elizabeth meets Edward IV as he rides through her town.
- Elizabeth marries Edward IV in secret three days before he goes off to battle.
- Edward IV wins the battle and officially becomes King of England.
-Elizabeth’s marriage to Edward is formally announced, angering many of Edward’s advisors.
-Elizabeth has three daughters.
-Elizabeth’s father and brother are taken by Warwick’s army and are beheaded. Her mother is also accused of witchcraft.
-Elizabeth curses Lord Warwick and Duke George.
-Elizabeth enters sanctuary as Edward goes once again to battle.
-Elizabeth has a son named Edward.
-Elizabeth also has another son named Richard. Also a short while later another named George.
-Elizabeth
sends her son Edward to Wales with her brother Anthony.
-Her son George dies along with her mother.
-Elizabeth has her last two children Catherine and Bridget.
-Takes her children into sanctuary not trusting Richard to protect them.
- Richard captures Elizabeth’s brother Anthony, her son Edward, and her son Richard Grey.
-Elizabeth’s marriage to Edward is declared invalid.
-Elizabeth attempts to organize an uprising against Richard III.
-Elizabeth is told that Richard III has killed her sons Edward and Richard. She does not believe this.
-Elizabeth finally believes that her son Edward is dead.
-Elizabeth after agreeing that her daughter will marry Richard III she sends for her son Richard and he is restored to her.
The climax of Elizabeth’s character is when she finally believes that her son Edward is dead (489). This is because throughout the book her goal has been to make sure that one of her sons becomes the King of England. After this point she seems to come to terms with the fact that her family had its time in power and there is no more that she can do to further her family’s power.
Elizabeth’s character goes through many changes throughout the novel. She begins not wanting to further herself in the royal court simply to get her husband’s lands returned to her. But when she finds herself falling in love with the king she gets a taste of the power of the Queen of England and cannot seem to give it up even when she could have saved many people by surrendering the throne.

Edward IV
-While riding out to battle meets Elizabeth Woodville and her two
sons.
-Calls for troops to muster and in doing so sees Elizabeth again and asks her to marry him in secret.
-Edward wins the battle against King Henry VI, officially becoming King of England.
-The King announces his marriage to Elizabeth and calls her to court.
-His most trusted advisor the Earl of Warwick turns against him and puts his support behind Edward’s brother George Duke of Clarence.
-Edward is captured by Richard Neville the Earl of Warwick’s army.
- Edward is released by the Earl of Warwick.
-Edward is once again called to battle against Warwick, and Edward wins.
- Edward and his two brothers kill the old King Henry VI in the tower of London.
-Edward learns of George’s plot against him and has him executed for treason.
-Edward becomes ill.
-On his deathbed he makes his advisors and his wife promise to work to protect his son and work together.
-Edward dies leaving his brother Richard, as Royal protector. The climax for Edward’s character is when he becomes ill (341). His character in the story has been centered on him growing from a young naïve boy to a man of the world. He reverts back to his childish ways when he becomes sick. “As if he were still a boy and could take such risks with his health” (340). This is the climax because from this point on he tries to reconcile everything he can but ultimately fails in doing so before he dies. Edward’s character undergoes many changes throughout the portion of his life that is illustrated in this novel. He began as a young man who believed he was invincible and saw Elizabeth as the most beautiful lady in the country and felt that he had to have her. During his life in the novel he grows to understand that he is not invincible and he becomes very scared. This shows not that he was unintelligent at the beginning; he simply had not seen the terrors of the world yet. Then at the end of his life he returned to his childlike persona and tells Elizabeth “I am afraid again” (342). Shortly thereafter he dies.
Part 2: Plot * Edward and Elizabeth meet and are married in secret. * Edward wins a battle against the old King Henry IV and becomes the official King of England. * Edward tells his advisor Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick that he is already married when Warwick tries to make him marry someone else. * Edward and Elizabeth have three daughters named, Elizabeth, Cecily, and Anne. * Warwick creates an uprising in England to usurp Edward IV and make George the Duke of Clarence king of England. * Warwick kills Elizabeth’s father and her brother. Warwick also captures but eventually releases Edward IV. * Elizabeth has a son named Edward. He becomes Edward the Prince of Wales. * King Edward with his brothers defeats Warwick in another battle. * Together Edward and Elizabeth have four more children. Only three survive past the age of two. * King Edward IV dies, leaving as his heir Edward the Prince of Wales under the protection of his brother Richard. * Elizabeth takes what is left of her family and moves into Westminster Abbey claiming sanctuary. * Richard declares Elizabeth and Edward’s marriage invalid and therefore he is the rightful heir to the throne. * Elizabeth receives news that Richard III has killed her sons. But does not believe that it is true. * Elizabeth sends her daughters to court after she finally understands that her son Edward most likely not returning to her. * Elizabeth’s daughter Elizabeth falls in love with Richard III. * Elizabeth’s daughter gains Elizabeth the right to return to court with her son if he is in hiding. Which he is. * Elizabeth’s son Richard is returned to her.
The climax of the novel is when Elizabeth says “If Edward is alive, then pray God he will find his way to me. And there will always be a candle in the window to light his way home, and my door will never be locked, in case one day it is his hand on the latch.’ ‘But you don’t expect him anymore?’ ‘I don’t expect him’” (489). This is the climax because Elizabeth does not need her son to be King anymore she simply wants him to be alive. She seems to have given up her ambition to be mother of the heir to England.
Part III: Symbolism/Theme
Theme I: Loyalty is always changing; therefore do not expect anything from someone without giving them something in return.
Theme II: Ambition
Theme III: There can be no peace when fighting is within families. “These are hard times, and England is a country of sorrows. No mother can be sure that she will not bury her sons. When a country is at war, cousin against cousin, brother against brother, no boy is safe” (133). This is a theme of the novel because
Symbol I: The Tower of London represents false security. This symbol can be tied to the theme that no one is safe when fighting is between families.
Symbol II: The white rose represents loyalty to the House of York but it is also represents hidden loyalties because in this time Loyalties could be seemingly to the house of York but really to the House of Lancaster. The white rose represents the theme of changing Loyalties.
Symbol III: The River represents that even in Death life goes on.

Part IV: Figurative Language
1. “It is an enchantment? You are Melusina? A beautiful goddess bathing in the woods and he that just departed was a knight sworn to your service? This is Camelot now? An honorable love?” (58). The allusions to both Melusina and Camelot enhance this passage in showing Elizabeth’s brother Anthony’s point of view on the marriage of Elizabeth to Edward. He was against it and used the allusions to compare well known love stories of Guinevere and Lancelot to show Elizabeth that her marriage was not honorable and was not for love.
2. “No one knows better than she how to plow the furrow that is Royal England” (77). This metaphor enhances the novel by comparing the royal court to a narrow trench; it is like saying that there is only a small margin for error in anything small and tight. Thus, by comparing the Court to a furrow, the metaphor is characterizing the Court of England as a small tight group of people not likely to accept mistakes.
3. “It is as if there are ghosts here. Are my boys staying here tonight?” (97). This statement is foreshadowing because Elizabeth instantly dislike the Tower of London but cannot say entirely why, but as illustrated through her question about her children it is somehow connected to them and as the story goes on the reader learns that her son dies in the tower.
4. “At once she takes a pair of silver scissors from her pocket and cuts the other two threads so whatever was tied on is swept away into the dark waters. ‘What were they?’ ‘They are the things that will never happen; they are the future we will never know. They are the children who will not be born and the chances that we won’t take and the luck that we won’t have,’ she says. ‘They are gone. They are lost to you. See instead what you have chosen.’” (143). This exchange between Elizabeth and her mother is used as foreshadowing. It foreshadows the death of her two sons by the two threads that represent the future that they will never know. Just like they will never fully know what happened to Elizabeth’s sons.
5. “Let you be the last York who dies in the Tower of London. Let it end here” (333). This shows foreshadowing because as the reader learns her sons, Edward and the page boy she sent to pretend to be Richard, die in the Tower of London. This enhances the passage because it makes Elizabeth seem partially responsible for the deaths of her children.

Part V: I mostly agree with Philippa Gregory’s portrayal of Elizabeth Woodville in the White Queen, although there are a few things that I do not think were entirely historically accurate. Gregory’s use of magic throughout the novel as seen through the water goddess Melusina, did not appear in my research. Although she was accused of witchcraft once I doubt she practiced it as often as the novel suggests. I also do not agree with the plot point that Elizabeth sent a pageboy instead of her second son to the tower to be with her first, sending her second son away, because if she had done so the second son would have appeared in history. Therefore I think that Philippa Gregory took some liberties in writing the novel but most other aspects were accurate.

Essential Question Essay “To truly test a man’s character, give him power.” These wise words of Abraham Lincoln apply perfectly to Elizabeth Woodville. The White Queen by Philippa Gregory raises many points about humanity, but the character flaw constantly suggested is need for power. When do the costs of power and ambition become too much to outweigh the benefits? Elizabeth Woodville first learned of the costs that come from the need to expand power when she lost her first husband in the Battle of St. Albans (22). He was fighting for King Henry VI, who was being usurped by the House of York who were fighting to claim what they believed was their rightful place as the rulers of England. Elizabeth gained no benefits from the York’s ambition to become King. She had also lost her husband’s lands and had no way to gain them back. After marrying the King, Elizabeth had her first taste of power. She greatly influenced many marriages and placed her family in high positions of power. The costs for these great successes were also quite significant. In an attempt to place her family in even higher positions she alienated the Earl of Warwick, Richard Neville, who had not liked her from the time he met her. Warwick was not content to sit by and watch as his control was taken away. So in return he attacked the Kingdom and in doing so killed Elizabeth’s father and brother. To Elizabeth’s mother, the death of her husband and son began to weigh heavily on her, as much as she had wanted her family in power, she was not willing to sacrifice her entire family for the York cause, and died shortly thereafter. Elizabeth’s daughter, Elizabeth sees the many costs that her mother’s ambition has caused her family. The young Elizabeth recognized unlike her mother that by caring more for the crown than she did for her children, her mother caused more harm to come to the family. The young Elizabeth also believed that in sending an innocent boy in place of her son, who would be killed in the Tower of London, her mother overstepped the boundary between what was right and what was wrong.
Elizabeth never fully came to the understanding that her ambition was a significant part in the death of many of her kinsmen. Through her voice in the novel she never takes the blame for the death of her family but does continue to search for power. When Richard III had taken the throne he had left her with nothing to go on. She had thought her heirs were dead but then when her daughter is asked by Richard III to marry him, Elizabeth shows that, “despite my own caution, despite my own fears, I start to hope. I start to think that if King Richard marries Elizabeth and makes her his queen I will be welcome at court again, I will take my place as My Lady, the Queen’s Mother” (509). Elizabeth in saying this at the end of the novel shows that despite the deaths that her ambition has caused she was still willing to risk many more to further herself and her family in England’s royal court.
Gregory uses The White Queen to express an essential flaw in human nature: the spoils of pride. The addressing of when ambition is taken to far is not in what the characters feel and express it is in what they do not express where the answer is illustrated. At the commencement of the novel Elizabeth’s character is relatable but throughout the novel she becomes harder to relate to.