Bridget (York) Plantagenet (1480 - bef. 1507)

Born 9 Nov 1480 in Eltham Palace, Kent, England

Ancestors

Died before 19 Dec 1507 before age 27 in Dartford, Kent, England

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Bridget (York) Plantagenet is a member of the House of York.

Biography

Bridget of York was the youngest daughter of King Edward IV and his queen Elizabeth Woodville. She became a nun at the Dominican priory of Dartford. ^[1]

Princess

Bridget of York was born on 10 November 1480 (St Martin's Eve) at Eltham Palace, Woolwich, Kent. Her baptism took place the next day at the chapel, with the Bishop of Chichester presiding. ^{[2] [3]} Her name was not a common one for the royal family of that day, but sources have suggested it was bestowed by her godmother, her paternal grandmother Cecily Neville , in honor of St Bridget of Sweden and her Bridgettine Abbey of Syon. ^[4]

On 9 April 1483, Bridget's father died, and her mother Elizabeth Woodville, out of fear of his brother Richard of Gloucester, who had seized custody of her twelve-year-old son Edward V and arrested the kinsmen who had been his guardians, fled to sanctuary at Westminster Abbey with her younger son and her daughters. She left it in March 1484, her sons dead and Richard III having made himself king, swearing solemn vows not to molest her daughters but to find them marriages. ^[5] Yet within 18 months Richard was dead, killed in battle with Henry Tudor, who took the throne for himself and married Bridget's eldest sister, Elizabeth of York, to seal the union. By 1490 the widowed Elizabeth Woodville had retired to the abbey at Bermondsey, leaving her younger daughters to the care of their sister Elizabeth of York, now queen to Henry Tudor - Henry VII. ^[6]

Nun

At about age ten, Bridget entered the priory of Dartford, where in due course she took the veil and remained for life, leaving only once to attend the funeral of her sister the queen. ^{[7] [8]} Sources seem convinced that this was of her own free will, following the example of her mother and the advice of her own grandmother Cecily Neville and Henry VII's pious mother Margaret Beaufort. Queen Elizabeth supported her sister at the convent, sending regular payments to her (66 shillings and eight pence has been recorded ^[2]).

Her life was not long; Condon ^[1] suggests that she died before 19 December 1507 when Henry VII paid for a stone to be laid over her resting place at Dartford.

Research Note: Death Date

Earlier sources (Weever) have suggested that Bridget's death took place about 1517, or perhaps earlier in 1513. But the contemporary chroniclers did not record the event, and her tombstone was destroyed following Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. Condon quotes Weever: (writing a century later) ^[9] "And in the said place lieth the Lady Bridget, daughter to king Edward the fourth, a religious woman in the same place." But she points out that Weever was in error about other details of Bridget's life, and is thus unreliable concerning the 1517 date. The account of Thomas More, who was a contemporary, was wrong about Bridget's age and thus also not reliable about the date.

Condon points out an entry in Henry VII's account book, which on Sunday 19 December reads: "Item for a Marbulstone bought to ley upon my lady Brygett within the quere (choir) of Dertford". (TNA E36/214 folio 111v - p. 222 - original foliation 108v) "The King's Book of Payments [by John Heron, Treasurer of the Chamber]" Accordingly, the death date has been adjusted.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Condon, Margaret M. "The Death and Burial of Bridget, Daughter of Edward IV: A Revised Chronology", The Ricardian, Vol. 30, 2020. Condon
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Routh, Pauline E. "Princess Bridget", The Ricardian, Vol. 49, June 1975. Routh
3. ↑ Walford, Edward. "Eltham, Lee and Lewisham." Old and New London: Volume 6. London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1878. 236-248. British History Online. Web. 16 February 2024. Eltham
4. ↑ Crawford, Anne. The Yorkists, p. 66. Continuum Books, 2007.
5. ↑ Everett Greene, Mary Anne. Lives of the Princesses of England, vol. 3, p. 415. Colburn, 1851. p. 415
6. ↑ Crawford, pp. 143-4.
7. ↑ "Friaries: The Dominican nuns of Dartford." A History of the County of Kent: Volume 2. Ed. William Page. London: Victoria County History, 1926. 181-190. British History Online. Web. 16 February 2024. Dartford
8. ↑ "Bridget of York: A Royal Nun". History Refreshed by Susan Higginbotham. 16 February 2013. Higginbotham
9. ↑ Weever, Antient Funeral Monuments, p. 128. London: W. Tooke, 1767. p. 128

See Also:

• Condon, Margaret M. (2022). "Princess and Nun: Bridget (1480-c. 1507), the youngest daughter of Edward IV". The Ricardian. 32: 89–126
• Everett Green, Mary Anne (1852). Lives of the Princesses of England. Vol. 4. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longman and Robers. pp. 44–48.
• ROYAL ANCESTRY by Douglas Richardson Vol. V, page 468
• Wikipedia: Bridget of York