August 22nd, 1485, Bosworth Field. Richard III is dead, face down in a marsh, and the crown

has literally rolled under a hawthorn bush. The man who picks it up, Henry Tudor, has a claim to the

throne so thin it would embarrass a genealogist. He knows it. Everybody knows it.

Cut to Westminster. Five daughters of Edward IV are waiting to find out what happens next.

Their father was a king, their brother was a king, very briefly, their uncle was a king disastrously.

And now, a Welshman with a Lancaster grandmother, is about to become the king, and they are either his greatest political asset or his greatest threat, depending on how the next few weeks go.

Their names are Elizabeth, Cecily, Anne, Catherine, and Bridget.

You know one of them, Elizabeth.

This video is about the other four and what it actually costs to be a York princess after the York's lost. So get comfortable, my friend. Settle in. Today we are going to chat about the four York princesses.

Hey friend, welcome back to the Renaissance English History Podcast. I am your host, Heather. I've been podcasting on Tudor England since 2009 with my show, which makes it the original Tudor History podcast. I am, as always, delighted, just thrilled that you are here with me to talk about the four other York sisters. Let's start with who they were. So who were these York women?

Well, under Edward IV, these women had everything. They were royal daughters in the most

literal sense. Their father held the throne securely.

The York dynasty appeared settled, and their value as diplomatic marriage pieces was real and significant.

Cecily, the second oldest, had been betrothed to the future James III of Scotland.

That is how high their stock was. Then Edward dies in 1483, and

everything unravels in about six months. Richard III's parliament passes the Titulus Regius, a document

that declared Edward IV's marriage to their mother, Elizabeth Woodville, invalid. The grounds were a pre-contract,

the claim that Edward had been secretly betrothed to another woman before the marriage.

If that pre-contract existed, the marriage was void. And if the marriage was void, then the daughters

of the marriage were illegitimate.

Overnight, five royal daughters became five royal bastard daughters.

Henry the seventh repealed the Titulus Regius after Bosworth.

...