28th April (Sort of but not really) Tudor fact of the day: 573 years ago today in 1442 Edward IV was born. Not a Tudor himself, but the Grandfather of Henry VIII, he is defo worth a mention, (plus he is possibly my fave king so there was no way he wasn’t going to be crow barred in).

Edward was boss for numerous reasons, my favourite being this: He married Elizabeth Woodville for love at the cost of his arranged engagement to a French royal. Elizabeth herself was the ultimate badass. She was a’commoner’, (in the sense that she want a royal, nor at court, she had been married to a knight and known money but since becoming widowed times were hard), who made it to queen and royally pissed off a boat load of people. Edward fought several times in the war of the roses for house York and kicked arse.

He was done over at one point and lost the crown, (I mean to another king not under the bed kind if lost it). Liz and Ed’s marriage was a pure love story (though he did shag about with a selection of mistresses…all kings did, it was all OK back then, he always maintained his one true love was Elizabeth). They had 10 kids together, (Elizabeth also had 2 older boys from her first marriage, she was the ultimate baby making machine), including the 2 princes in the tower and Elizabeth of York (Henry VIII’s ma ).

Edward was big bro to king Richard III (king of the car park), who was an utter prick to Elizabeth when Ed died. Being a total family man (executing his brother aside), a proper hardcore scrapper and reportedly hot as shit makes him my fave king.

not particularly ‘hot as shit’ in this pic, but he didn’t have pox scars or boils, so we can’t have it all.