Duchess of Suffolk. Sister of King Edward V On 9 April 1483, Elizabeth's father, King Edward IV, unexpectedly died and her younger brother, Edward V, ascended to the throne; her uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was appointed regent and protector of his nephews. Gloucester opted to take steps to isolate his nephews from their Woodville relations, including their own mother. He intercepted Edward V while the latter was travelling from Ludlow, where he had been living as Prince of Wales, to London to be crowned king. Edward V was placed in the royal residence of the Tower of London, ostensibly for his protection, while his uncle Anthony Woodville, and half-brother Richard Grey, who had both been escorting him, were arrested and sent to Pontefract Castle. Elizabeth Woodville fled with her younger son Richard and her daughters, taking sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. Gloucester asked Archbishop Bourchier to take Richard with him, so that the boy could reside in the Tower and keep his brother Edward company. Elizabeth Woodville, under duress, eventually agreed. Two months later, on 22 June 1483, Edward IV's marriage was declared invalid. It was claimed that Edward IV had, at the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, already been betrothed to Lady Eleanor Butler. Parliament issued a bill, Titulus Regius ("Royal Title"), in support of this position. This measure legally bastardised the children of Edward IV, made them ineligible for the succession, and declared Gloucester the rightful king, with the right of succession reverting to children of George, 1st Duke of Clarence, another late brother of Gloucester, who had been attainted in 1478. Elizabeth's uncle Anthony Woodville, and her half-brother Richard Grey, were executed on Gloucester's orders on 25 June. Gloucester ascended to the throne as Richard III on 6 July 1483, and Edward and Richard disappeared soon afterwards. Rumours began to spread that they had been murdered, and these appear to have been increasingly widely credited, even though some undoubtedly emanated from overseas. Niece of King Richard III According to only a single much later Tudor source, Polydore Vergil, Elizabeth's mother made an alliance with Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, later King Henry VII, who presented himself as the closest claimant to the throne among the Lancastrian party. Although Henry Tudor was descended from King Edward III, his claim to the throne was weak, owing to an Act of Parliament of the reign of