Elizabeth Woodville most beautiful woman in the Island of Britain" with "heavy-lidded eyes like those of a dragon." Edward IV had many mistresses, the best known of them Jane Shore, and he did not have a reputation for fidelity. His marriage to the widowed Elizabeth Woodville took place secretly and, though the date is not known, it is traditionally said to have taken place at her family home in Northamptonshire on 1 May 1464. Only the bride's mother and two ladies were in attendance. Edward married her just over three years after he had assumed the English throne in the wake of
Anne Woodville an Act of Parliament known as "Titulus Regius" which declared King Edward V and his siblings illegitimate. Elizabeth, now styled as Dame Grey, was forced to seek sanctuary with her daughters, while her two sons, the "Princes in the Tower" were kept in the Tower of London by the orders of King Richard III. On 25 June 1483, King Richard also ordered the executions of Anne and Elizabeth's brother Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, and Richard Grey who was Elizabeth's younger son by her first marriage to Sir John Grey of Groby. Anne Woodville, Viscountess Bourchier, died on 30 July 1489,