Shortly after the death of her father and the usurpation of the throne by Richard III, Bridget, who was not even three years old, was declared illegitimate among the other children of Edward IV by Elizabeth Woodville.

The girl's mother, fearing for the lives of the children, moved them to Westminster Abbey, where the family of the late king received asylum and spent about a year.

Bridget was born on 10 November 1480[1] at Eltham Palace[2] as the seventh daughter and youngest of ten children of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville.

[1][8][9][10] At the christening ceremony, the newborn princess was carried by Lady Margaret Beaufort, the wife of Lord Stanley, the steward of Edward IV's household.

[16] The king was moved to the Tower of London, where he was later joined by his only full-brother, Richard; during the night of 29–30 April, Elizabeth Woodville, with all her daughters (as well as much treasure and other possessions) fled to Westminster Abbey, where she asked for sanctuary,[a] for fear of the Duke of Gloucester.

[18][19] There are conflicting reports as to whether Bridget was at the sanctuary with her mother: Mary Anne Everett Green writes that there were accounts that indicated the princess was in poor health,[b] and thus she could have been left with one of the Queen Dowager's confidants; however, most of the medical bills came from the brief reign of her brother Edward V before the late king's family moved to Westminster Abbey, and was also recorded that for much of 1483 and the early months of 1484, Bridget was with her mother and older sisters in semi-confinement within the sanctuary.

[27][28] Tudor historian Edward Hall wrote that Richard III: "made all the daughters of his brother solemnly arrive at his palace; as if with him new – familiar and loving entertainment – they were supposed to forget...the trauma inflicted on them and the tyranny that preceded this".

Later, Henry VII began to make matrimonial plans for his wife's relatives, and initially Bridget (although not mentioned by name) was considered as one of the two possible brides of James, Duke of Rothesay and heir to the Scottish throne, the alternative option being her elder sister Anne, similarly unnamed.

[31] In her desire to enter a monastery, Bridget was supported by the mother of Henry VII, Lady Margaret Beaufort, known for its religiosity, which probably influenced the final decision of the king.

The monastery was founded by Edward III and developed under his grandson Richard II, and for some time was used by members of the nobility from all over England for both teaching and religious life.

The nuns were dedicated to a contemplative life, meaning that they spent their time in prayer and spiritual recreation, such as devotional reading;[41] indeed, when in 1495 Cecily Neville, Duchess of York (Bridget's grandmother and godmother) made her will, she left three books to the princess: two were lives of holy women, St Catherine of Siena and Hilda of Whitby,[42] and the third was a popular compendium of saints lives, the Legenda Aurea or Golden Legend, undoubtedly in the form of a translation.

[e] However, recent research proved that neither date is correct: Bridget was already dead by December 1507, when her brother-in-law King Henry VII paid for a stone to cover her grave.

The tombstone, a ledger stone laid on the floor of the choir, was probably destroyed or reused in 1541, when Dartford Priory, during the English Reformation, was largely demolished and remodelled as a royal manor house for her nephew King Henry VIII,[51] although the residence wasn't used for the next ten years.