Elizabeth Tudor (1492–1495)

Elizabeth Tudor (2 July 1492 – 14 September 1495) was the second daughter and fourth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York.

Life

Elizabeth was born on Saturday 2 July 1492 at Sheen Palace in Surrey (later rebuilt by her father as Richmond Palace, the remains of which are now part of Richmond-Upon-Thames, London).

Elizabeth spent much of her short life at the royal nursery of Eltham Palace, Kent, with her older siblings Margaret (later Queen of Scotland) and Henry (the future Henry VIII). Elizabeth's oldest brother, Arthur, was heir to the English throne and so lived separately in his own household. Just before Elizabeth's death, her father proposed a marriage alliance between Elizabeth and the French prince Francis, who later became king as Francis I of France.

Death

Elizabeth died on Monday 14 September 1495 at the age of three years and two months. She was brought from Eltham in state and buried on the north side of the Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey on Friday 27 September. Elizabeth was the first of four of Henry and Elizabeth's children to die prematurely and they were greatly affected. The large sum of £318 (£155,479.74 in today's money) was spent on her funeral, and Henry erected a small tomb to his daughter in the abbey made from Purbeck and black marble. On top of the monument is a finely polished slab of black Lydian, upon which were placed inscriptions to Elizabeth and her effigy of copper gilt, both of which are now lost.

The following year in 1496, Henry and Elizabeth had another daughter, Mary, who became the Queen of France. Their final two children, Edmund (who died in 1500 at the age of 15 months) and her younger sister Katherine (who died in 1503 shortly after birth) were laid to rest by young Elizabeth's side.

Ancestry