14 OCTOBER 1938, Page 36

EDWARD THE FOURTH'S CONSORT

MR. MACGIBBON errs in saying that no biography of Edward IV's Queen has been written for many years as Miss Katharine Davies published one in May, 1937. But his own book is certainly the best life yet produced ; he has made good use of the record material and of such sources as the still imprinted Great Chronicle of London as well as of the abundant literature. Mr. MacGibbon's exuberant footnotes may deter the average reader, but it is fair to say that in elucidating the relationships of the Woodvilles and other families these footnotes will be valuable to the student of a period in which family connexions were of prime importance.

It is not the author's fault that our first Queen Elizabeth remains a shadowy figure except in that great crisis of 1483 when the usuper Richard, having secured her elder son, con- strained her to give up the younger boy to join his brother in the Tower. Whether she was so greedy of wealth and rank for her family as the record suggests must remain doubtful. Edward IV had the strongest reasons for uplifting the Wood- vines, who after all had a long lineage, to counterbalance the Nevilles and other houses of doubtful loyalty. Elizabeth must have had charm and tact to win and retain the affection of a

husband five years younger than herself and notorious for his gallantrie's ; and the author shows that she kept on good terms with her son-in-law Henry VII till her death in 1492. The recently discovered portrait which fixes the date of her birth 2s 1437 is reproduced in colours as a frontispiece.