Elizabeth Tilney was born at Ashwellthorpe Hall sometime before 1445, the only child of Sir Frederick Tilney and Elizabeth Cheney, a union that would eventually weave her into the very fabric of English royal history. Her father died before 1447, leaving her as a sole heiress to significant estates, while her mother remarried Sir John Say, Speaker of the House of Commons, and bore him three sons and four daughters. This large blended family created a complex web of relationships that would later prove crucial, as Henry VIII's third queen, Jane Seymour, was a second cousin to Elizabeth's own grandchildren, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. Through her maternal line, Elizabeth descended from Welsh Prince Gruffydd II ap Madog, Lord of Dinas Bran, connecting the English nobility to ancient Welsh royalty through her grandmother Ida de Grey. Her inheritance included the manors of Fisherwick and Shelfield in Walsall, rights she held through her descent from Roger Hillary, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas who died in 1356. These properties and titles were not merely assets but the foundation of her power and influence in a world where land defined status.
The First Marriage and The Battle
In about 1466, Elizabeth married Sir Humphrey Bourchier, the son and heir of John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners, a match that produced a son, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, and two daughters. Following this marriage, Elizabeth entered the royal court where she served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen consort Elizabeth Woodville, the woman whose train she had carried at the coronation in May 1465 at Westminster Abbey. When King Edward IV was ousted from the throne, Elizabeth accompanied the queen and her children into sanctuary at Westminster Abbey, remaining present at the birth of the future King Edward V. She stayed with the queen until Edward IV was restored to power, a period of intense political instability that tested her loyalty and resilience. Sir Humphrey was killed at the Battle of Barnet on the 14th of April 1471 fighting on the Yorkist side, leaving Elizabeth a widow at a young age. The death of her first husband was a pivotal moment that forced her to navigate the treacherous waters of the Wars of the Roses alone, a struggle that would define her early adulthood and set the stage for her future alliances.The Second Union and The Tower
On the 30th of April 1472, Elizabeth married Thomas Howard, future Earl of Surrey, a marriage arranged by the King that would become the defining partnership of her life. Her second husband was a close friend and companion of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was crowned king in 1483, and Elizabeth served as one of Anne Neville's attendants at Richard's coronation while her husband bore the Sword of State. The political landscape shifted violently when Thomas's father, John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, was killed at the Battle of Bosworth on the 22nd of August 1485 while fighting for Richard III. Thomas Howard was wounded at Bosworth and imprisoned in the Tower for several years, and the dukedom of Norfolk was forfeited to the new regime. Elizabeth was fortunate that Thomas's attainder stipulated that she would not lose her own inheritance, a legal protection that saved her family from total ruin. On the 3rd of October 1485, she wrote to John Paston from the Isle of Sheppey, complaining that Lord FitzWalter, an adherent of the new king Henry VII, had dismissed all of her servants. She continued to live in London near St Katharine's by the Tower, placing her in the immediate vicinity of her incarcerated husband, a proximity that demonstrated her unwavering commitment to her family during their darkest hours.