Biographical note
Dr Joanna Laynesmith FRHistS is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Reading. Her first book, The Last Medieval Queens, was a joint winner of the Longman-History Today Book of the Year and her more recent biography, Cecily Duchess of York, won the Royal Studies Book Prize. She has taught medieval history at the Universities of York, Oxford and Huddersfield and is currently researching the politics of royal adultery in medieval Britain.
Event details
Elizabeth Woodville is one of the most controversial queens of the Middle Ages. To some she was an ambitious commoner who used her sex appeal, witchcraft and even murder to promote her family's fortunes. To others, she was a virtuous gentlewoman trapped in the tragic and bloody schemes of reckless princes. This talk will examine these conflicting views as it explores Elizabeth Woodville's role in the politics of the Wars of the Roses and her everyday life as a medieval queen.