Elizabeth Stafford, Countess of Sussex Elizabeth Stafford, Countess of Sussex Elizabeth Stafford (c. 1479 – 11 May 1532) was an English noblewoman. Elizabeth Stafford was the daughter of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Lady Katherine Woodville, the daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, by Jacquetta of Luxembourg, daughter of Pierre de Luxembourg, Count of St. Pol, and was thus a niece of Elizabeth Woodville, queen consort to King Edward IV. By her father's marriage to Katherine Woodville, Elizabeth Stafford had two brothers, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, and Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and a sister, Anne, who married firstly,
Elizabeth of York mother, Elizabeth Woodville, tried to deny Gloucester his right to be Lord Protector in order to keep power within her family, and so Gloucester opted to take steps to isolate his nephews from their Woodville relations. He intercepted Edward V while the latter was travelling from Ludlow, where he had been living as Prince of Wales, to London to be crowned king. Edward V was placed in the royal residence of the Tower of London, ostensibly for his protection. Elizabeth Woodville fled with her younger son Richard and her daughters, taking sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. Gloucester asked Archbishop Bourchier to