She was born at Westminster, the eldest child of King Edward IV and his own Queen Consort Elizabeth Woodville (who both had children from earlier relationships). Following her father's death and the accession to the throne of his brother Richard III, scurrilous rumours circulated that Richard intended to marry her as soon as his wife, the ailing Anne Neville, was dead. There is no surviving evidence for such a plan, although Sir George Buck later claimed to have uncovered a letter from Elizabeth (now lost) which showed she was party to it. It has been suggested that the rumours were started by Elizabeth's mother Elizabeth Woodville as part of her campaign to put her daughter on the throne; if Richard had been able to obtain a dispensation from the church to marry his niece, it would have prevented her marrying the chief threat to his throne, Henry Tudor.

Elizabeth Woodville arranged to marry her daughter to Henry Tudor, and Henry kept putting the marriage off, and it finally took Parliament itself, on behalf of the people, to petitioned Henry Tudor to carry out his promise, and on January 18, 1486, the marriage took place. It was not until November 25, 1487, more than a year after their first child, Arthur, was born on September 20, 1486, that Elizabeth was crowned queen.

It was a relatively successful marriage, all things considered. They had seven (or possibly eight, but only seven are shown in the commemorative picture painted in about 1509) children:

Arthur, Prince of Wales (September 20, 1486 – April 2, 1502).

Margaret Tudor (November 28, 1489 – October 18, 1541).

Henry VIII of England (June 28, 1491 – January 28, 1547).

Elizabeth Tudor (July 2, 1492 – September 14, 1495).

Mary Tudor (March 18, 1496 – June 25, 1533)
(Maternal Grandmother of Lady Jane Grey)

Edmund Tudor, Duke of Somerset (February 21, 1499 – June 19, 1500).

Edward Tudor. Unknown dates of birth and death. Suspected to be a mistaken name for Edmund Tudor, Duke of Somerset.

Katherine Tudor (February 2, 1503 – February 2, 1503).

The eldest son and heir to the throne, Arthur, Prince of Wales, died after marrying Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. This seems to have been the motive for Elizabeth to become pregnant the last time, in order to strengthen the succession. Elizabeth died, on her 37th birthday, a few days after giving birth to her last child, Katherine Tudor, who also died. Although Henry VII was known to be a very thrifty person, he threw his wife a splendid funeral. She is buried in Westminster Abbey in the Lady Chapel. Later, her husband Henry was buried beside her.

Elizabeth of York is the only English Queen to have been a wife, daughter, sister, niece and mother to an English King. Elizabeth is also the basis for the picture of queens in a deck of cards.

Her second son Henry followed his father as king, her eldest daughter Margaret married James IV of Scotland, and her youngest child Mary married Louis XII of France.

Her maternal grandparents were Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Mary Tudor, former Queen consort of France. Mary being a daughter of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York. She was also a younger sister of Henry VIII of England.

Mary Grey was described as "four foot tall and hunchbacked". Assuming this foot is equivalent to the modern measurement, Mary would have been approximately 1,22 metres tall. Her reported deformity would be described as kyphosis

Her oldest sister Jane was the designated heir of Edward VI of England, son of Henry VIII by his third Queen consort Jane Seymour. Edward VI died on July 6, 1553 and Jane was proclaimed Queen regnant on July 10. However Edward VI had removed his older half-sisters Mary I of England , daughter of Henry VIII by his first Queen consort Catherine of Aragon, and Elizabeth I of England, daughter of Henry VIII by his second Queen consort Anne Boleyn, from the line of succession.

Jane was deposed in favor of Mary on July 19, 1553. The deposed Queen was executed on February 12, 1554. Mary continued to reign until her natural death on November 17, 1558. She was also the first Queen consort of Philip II of Spain. Mary died childless and was succeeded by her younger half-sister Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was herself unwed and childless. Lady Catherine Grey was considered a likely heir to the throne until her own death in 1568. This would bring Lady Mary Grey to relative prominence. Mary served the courts of her cousins Mary I of England and Elizabeth I of England as a maid of honor.

As the last surviving granddaughter of Mary Tudor, Mary was considered by some to be heiress presumptive to the English throne. Mary Grey was already living under house arrest at that time, having been imprisoned in 1565 for marrying royal gatekeeper Thomas Keyes without the permission of Queen Elizabeth. She was released following his death in 1572 and was permitted to attend Court occasionally. In spite of the intrigues involving her sisters, Mary Grey does not appear ever to have made a serious claim to the throne. She died childless at age 33.

Elizabeth I survived her and would reign until her own death on March 24, 1603.