England
The King Marries
In May 1464, King Edward married Elizabeth Woodville in a secret ceremony. He did not make his marriage public for nearly a year.
Why the secrecy? Because Elizabeth was from the lower nobility, not at all fit to be a queen. At twenty-four years old, Edward was a bachelor in his prime and his marriage should have been a matter for some sort of significant alliance, either with an English family or, more likely, some foreign power. But Edward had fallen in love.
The king had no business marrying for love. A royal marriage was a matter for statecraft, not romance, and by keeping it secret Edward demonstrated that he understood this. Worse yet, the Earl of Warwick had been negotiating with foreign powers along these lines, and the marriage behind his back humiliated him.
Elizabeth was twenty-eight and had two children by a previous marriage. More serious was the fact that she was of thirteen children—five brothers and seven sisters—and the marriage of all these now became a matter of royal decision. By marrying Elizabeth, Edward had elevated not just one insignificant noble to power, he had raised twelve others, plus their parents. This could not fail to have unfortunate consequences as one noble family after another found themselves obliged to forego any other prospects they might have had to marry a Woodville. By this one act, Edward alienated a whole swathe of nobility.
Moreover, the Woodvilles, once raised to power, were not content simply to enjoy it. They inteded to wield power, to participate in court life. So the affront could not be endured and then forgotten. Instead, the Woodvilles repeatedly gave cause for hard feelings. For example, in 1466, Elizabeth's father was made Lord Treasurer of England.