Character Analysis
Queen Elizabeth
The wife of Edward IV is from the first a woman who finds no peace. Only briefly does she find a degree of comfort when her dying husband requires members of the quarreling factions to take the vow of amity. But no sooner does she become a widow than her troubles multiply: the news of the executions of her "proud kindred"; the necessity of urging Dorset to flee; the cruel murder of her two young sons. And then there is Queen Margaret to inform her that all this is the working out of divine justice. Aware that the author of her chief woes is Richard III, she still appears to be won over by his facile argument and to agree to the marriage of her daughter to the king. But the subsequent action, wherein it is revealed that the young lady will marry the virtuous Richmond, exonerates her from the charge that she is a "relenting fool, and shallow changing woman."