Page:The Queens of England.djvu/286

2 4 6 • THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. this instance had not the goodness of Elizabeth won her esteem and regard. Whatever may have been the truth relative to the harshness which Henry the Seventh has been accused of prac- ticing toward his gentle wife, there is no proof extant of her having ever resented or exposed it, while the whole tenor of her wedded life testifies that she was a most affectionate and devoted wife, as well as a most tender mother. Her attach- ment to her own relations, too, was fond and steady, exempli- fied ±>y a thoughtful care for their comfort and independence, always exercised at the cost of no little self-sacrifice on her part, invariably borne without a murmur or attempt to sub- tract from what she deemed necessary for their wants. It was by this kind liberality to her sisters that Elizabeth sometimes found herself in debt, and compelled to have recourse to a sys- tem of personal economy that many a private gentlewoman would have thought it a hardship to endure. It is touching to read the proofs of this self-imposed frugality in a queen, and, moreover, in one so fair, who might be supposed to take pleas- ure in the adorning of a beauty for which Nature had done so much; and knowing the motives for her economy, every no- tice of her mended clothes invests her with a charm in our eyes that the richest garments could not bestow. The affection of Elizabeth of York for her relations, and the manner in which it was proved, differed materially from that of her mother, Elizabeth Woodville, towards hers. She used no undue influ- ence for their promotion, sought not to enrich them at the cost of others, or to match them with age or deformity, or to ele- vate them unduly. She relied solely on the sacrifice of her own luxuries, nay more, of her absolute necessaries, to furnish what she bestowed on her sisters, and by this prudent course made no enemies for herself or them. On the 28th of June, 1491, Elizabeth gave birth to Henry, her second son, in the palace at Greenwich ; and in the follow- ing year. her third daughter was born, and named Elizabeth, after her mother and herself. In this year the queen-dowager died, to the great regret of her daughter, who, though she sel- dom saw her, owing to her seclusion in a monastery, continued to entertain for her a lively affection. The next event that troubled the reign of Henry the Seventh was the invasion of Perkin Warbeck, which involved him and the kingdom in great difficulties. On the 8th of May, 1500, Henry, with his queen, sailed for