That Richard lost, even by his usurpation, a certain amount of popularity which he had enjoyed as protector, is distinctly stated by Fabyan, and from the words of another contemporary writer it is clear that apprehensions were immediately entertained for the safety of the princes. Plans were formed for getting some of their sisters out of sanctuary and conveying them secretly abroad, even before the murder was known or the rebellion of Buckingham had broken out. But Richard surrounded the sanctuary with a guard, and the total failure of Buckingham's rebellion in October extinguished for a time all hope of getting rid of the tyrant. His title, which was founded on the alleged invalidity of Edward IV's marriage, was confirmed by parliament in January 1484, and the queen dowager was officially recognised only as 'dame Elizabeth Grey.' Nevertheless Richard, on 1 March, thought it right to make her a very solemn promise, witnessed by the peers of the realm 'and the mayor and aldermen of London, that if she and her daughters would come out of sanctuary and submit to him he would make handsome provision for their living and find the young ladies husbands. His object clearly was to make her abandon hope of aid from abroad, for she had already consented to the project for marrying her eldest daughter to the Earl of Richmond, and it was in concert with her that a plan had been laid, which the stormy weather frustrated, for Richmond to invade England in aid of Buckingham. She now apparently had lost hope of Richmond's success, for she not only accepted the usurper's offer and came out of sanctuary with her daughters, but even wrote to her son, the Marquis of Dorset, at Paris, advising him also to desert the Earl of Richmond's cause.
The Earl of Richmond could not but feel this somewhat when, after Bosworth Field, he became king of England; but as he was clearly pledged to marry her daughter, he overlooked for a while what Elizabeth had done in the days of tyranny, and put her, for the first time, in full possession of her rights as queen dowager (Rolls of Parl. vi. 288). On 4 March 1486 she received a grant of the main portion of her dower lands which belonged to the duchy of Lancaster, and next day a separate grant for the remainder, under the great seal of England. But within a year what was then granted was again withdrawn from her, for in February 1487, on the breaking out of Simnel's rebellion, Henry VII held a council at Sheen, where it was determined, among other things, that she had forfeited her right to all her property by breaking promise to Henry in his exile and delivering her daughters into Richard's hands. She was, therefore, induced to withdraw into the abbey of Bermondsey, where, as King Edward's widow, she was entitled to apartments formerly reserved for the Earls of Gloucester, and to content herself with a pension of four hundred marks allowed her by the king, which was increased in February 1490 to 400l. The lands of her dower were given to her daughter, the queen consort (Campbell, Materials for a History of Henry VII, ii. 142, 148, 225, 319; Patent, 19 Feb. 5 Hen. VII, m. 16), and she herself sank into a retirement, from which she only emerged on special occasions, leading, as we are informed by a contemporary, 'a wretched and miserable life' (Hall, 431). A project, however, was entertained, not long after her disgrace in 1487, for marrying her to James III of Scotland, who had just become a widower (Rymer, xii. 328); and at the close of 1489 she was with her daughter, the queen, when, soon after the birth of the Princess Margaret, she received in her chamber an embassy from France, headed by their kinsman, Francis, sieur de Luxembourg (Leland, Collectanea, iv. 249).
In 1492 her last illness overtook her at Bermondsey, and on 10 April she dictated her will, in which she desired to be buried at Windsor beside her husband, and having, as she expressly says, no worldly goods to bequeath to the queen, her daughter, or her other children, she left them merely her blessing. She died on 8 June, the Friday before Whitsunday, and as it was her own request to have speedy burial with little pomp, her body was conveyed by water to Windsor on the Sunday, without any ringing of bells. There, on the Tuesday following, it was laid beside the body of King Edward in St.George's Chapel, in the presence of all her daughters except the queen, who was then about to be confined.
Such in brief is the story of Elizabeth Woodville, to which some highly romantic details have been added, on no apparent authority, by a learned but fantastic writer of the last century (Prévost) in a biography of Margaret of Anjou. Her marriage with Edward was a romance in itself, but we may safely dismiss the story of her fascinating the Earl of Warwick, and being used by Margaret as a lure to entrap him.
There is preserved in the Record Office a letter signed by Elizabeth when she was queen consort and addressed to Sir William Stonor, warning him against interfering with the game in her forests, even under colour of a commission from the king, her husband.
