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So far on The Ill-Fated Wives of Henry VIII, we’ve taken a closer look into the lives of twelve women who are believed to be or have proven to have been the mistresses of a notorious womanizing King—who was notably considered quite a handsome man in his youth for his time—and today, we shall be looking at the final thirteenth (hardly the final one as how can we conclusively prove that she was the last or one of the last women that Henry slept with before he completely devoted himself to Anne Boleyn?) woman who is alleged to have joined a lustful King in bed behind his very much suspecting wife’s behind.
And her name—is Joanna ‘Joan’ Dingley (Dobson).
So, let us take a look at the last mistress on our list that supposedly took place during Henry’s first marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
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Despite our best efforts here at The Ill-Fated Wives of Henry VIII, we could not find any personal information documenting the birth or early life of Joan as it is more the birth of her daughter Etheldreda that historians wish to focus on.
However, do not be afraid, we do have some, although very minimal, information about who Joan was and how the affair might have taken place between her and Henry VIII.
As we do not know who Joan’s parents are, it can be safely assumed that she was not a woman of high rank, although some historians disagree with this assumption entirely and merely state that we cannot know about every member of high Tudor society because of the lack of birth, death or life records in general.
Very much true but I would still argue that she would have been of low birth considering the fact that she was raised by one of the cutters in the King’s wardrobe. To save you the time of looking up what a cutter is, here is a brief explanation; a cutter is someone who cut clothing patterns out of cloth for the King’s dressmakers.
No, not dresses like women wear, that’s just what clothing makers would have been called in those days.
Either way, Joan was raised by a member of the King’s household and therefore would have lived within the King’s court, most likely amongst the servants since historians believe that her role in the King’s court was as a royal laundress— a woman who is employed to launder clothes and linen, which also meant that the King would have had easy access to her since she was a member of his household and as a royal laundress, washed his and his wife’s clothes.
Now, the alleged affair is rumored to have taken place during the late 1520s, which makes sense since Anne Boleyn would have been introduced back into the English court at this time and promptly taken over Henry’s carnal ‘lustings’ as it can be so eloquently labelled. But there is no information about how this affair started or how long it lasted, in fact, the only piece of information that we are offered is the results of the affair; a supposedly illegitimate daughter fathered by the King.
Now, anyone can offer up a suggestion at how this affair, if we can even call it that, might have ignited. Some could say that perhaps her beauty equaled those of the noble women of Henry’s court and he could not resist in bringing her back to his bed or perhaps it was just a one-night stand where the King took advantage of her low status and seduced her. In my opinion, I’m more inclined to agree with the second version of how the affair ignited; that it was a one-night stand that Henry felt he could easily hide because she was a low-born woman who could be married off quickly if a child was conceived.
He was quite good at trying to predict unexpected pregnancies with his mistresses (all because of the famous Bessie Blount, naturally).
And he was absolutely correct to assume that a pregnancy might occur, as Joan would soon reveal the birth of a beautiful little girl…
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Born either Etheldreda or Audrey, depending on which history record or account you dive into as both might have been used to name the girl (as the latter would have been the socially accepted one and the former used by her closest relatives), her birth is an intriguing event for historians. Considering how her birth is used as the sole piece of evidence that an affair might have taken place between her mother and the King, it can be suggested that she had a King as a father as Joan was neither married nor looking for a potential marriage at the time of her birth nor could she be romantically linked to any men at that time, further suggesting that her birth was achieved by scandalous means.
Furthermore, historians believe that the fact that Henry VIII offered his royal tailor, a Mr John Malte, generous land and properties that were ex-monastic upon him recognising Etheldreda as his daughter, making one suspicious of Henry’s true intentions behind this. Had John Malte been persuaded by the King and Joan to claim her daughter as his own to save the King from having to suffer with the court suspecting that his illegitimate daughter was indeed his own and not his tailors?
We shall never know.
What we do know is that despite John Malte claiming Joan’s daughter as his own, and not being married himself, Henry promptly married her off to another man. Yep, not to the supposed father of her child but a complete stranger, a Mr Dobson shortly after her daughter’s birth.
Many believe this acts as proof that, not only did the King have an affair with a low-born woman but, the King conceived another illegitimate child outside of his marriage but… others believe that, since Etheldreda took the surname Malte out of her own free will before marrying a Mr John Harrington in 1547 and the fact that Malte left her all the generous gifts granted to him by the King upon his death (although, because of her marriage, her husband inherited them), author Kelly Hart believes that this ‘indicates she probably was his [Malte’s] child’ {1}.
I mean, there are arguments for and against this but I would definitely argue that she might have been Henry’s illegitimate daughter since she served his legitimate daughter Elizabeth Tudor during Queen Mary I’s reign whilst she was situated within the Tower of London at the Queen’s own request, meaning that both Mary and Elizabeth might have believed Etheldreda to be their illegitimate half-sister.
. . .
Well, it seems we started this journey through Henry’s mistresses in his first marriage with controversy and we ended it with it. Nothing more enjoyable than being able to say that we started it just like we finished it, eh?
Now that we’ve taken a look at all the women who are considered to have been Henry’s first ‘batch’ of mistresses during his early reign, shall we now take a look at how marriage with his wife was going?
Trust me, the controversy and the drama does not end here.
Join us next time when we resume our journey through the life of Henry’s first (and most miserable) wife; Catherine of Aragon!
- Have a ‘Tudor-fic’ week!
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