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If you want to talk about a woman whose name was uttered with hushed tones and inspired gossip wherever she walked; this next mistress is the perfect fit for this.
Sadly enough, not all of Henry’s mistresses' names are known as well as this mistress and historians are one-hundred percent positive that there are numerous names of Henry’s mistresses that are kept off the lists. But that doesn’t mean that they still wouldn’t have competed to be famous alike this upcoming woman.
Not all of Henry’s mistresses would have had great success with their affair with Henry; some would have lasted a few weeks at the most before Henry eventually got bored and found another conquest to pursue or they lasted for years until they either married or another woman surpassed her in being Henry’s current *it* mistress.
But one mistress is famous for having written herself into the history books forever by doing something that Henry’s wife, Catherine of Aragon, could not do: providing him with a male heir.
And this woman—surprise, surprise—is the famous English noblewoman, Bessie Blount.
Disclaimer – as she is one of Henry’s most famous and ‘successful’ (if you could call her that) mistresses, her life before and after Henry has been an intriguing subject for historians to study, hence why there is some much known about her life in comparison to Henry’s mistresses. And we intend to go through all of it in one post, so you don’t have to miss anything!
So, sit back and get comfy because it’s going to be a long, bumpy ride!
. . .
Elizabeth (known as ‘Bessie’) Blount was born circa 1498 in the county of Shropshire as the sole child to Sir John Blount, an English politician, and his wife Catherine Pershall. Being an only child was not uncommon in Tudor times considering how infertility could be brought on by so many different factors such as age or underlying (and undiagnosed because it was the Tudor times, they didn’t have the same technology that we take for granted today) conditions. Bessie’s parents adored her and there is no evidence to suggest that her gender was ever an issue with her family. Seems pretty normal, right?
Uh no?—As an only child, her parents—specifically her mother—doted on her (which one would naturally expect from having only one child in a society where multiple children were sort of the norm), but what made the mother and daughter relationship ‘icky’ was that her mother Katherine was only ten years old when she married her father (who I believe was around seven-plus-years her senior) and was still at the tender age of sixteen when she gave birth to Bessie.
Eww—whoever in their right mind thought it was a perfectly good idea to marry a ten year old off to someone much older than them deserves a bloody slap. How they determined that she was in the right physical and mental frame to get married, I do not know.
It’s like sending your daughter off to her funeral, considering how common it was for young mothers to die after the overwhelming and painful process of giving birth before the age of eighteen—I believe that any pregnancies and births before the age of eighteen can be an overwhelming and traumatic experience, even in this day and age but that’s just my personal opinion so don’t judge me!
It might have been the reason for why she only had one child as giving birth at such a young age can be a very traumatic experience. But I digress.
Historians believe that her mother being Bessie’s role model might have been the reason for why Bessie was so young when the affair with Henry started and why she became a mother so young but we’re skipping ahead here!
. . .
Not much is known about her early childhood or early teenage years except one main thing; she was considered ‘unusually’ beautiful for her time. Her beauty was said to have been known to draw eyes and open mouths wherever she went as her parents intended to put her attractiveness to good use and milk it for all it was worth. Securing an advantageous marriage wouldn’t be a problem when your daughter is already attracting suitors as a teenager. And with competing suitors for your daughter’s hand, comes ambition. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Bessie’s parents encouraged her affair with the King as he would have already started affairs that were known to the public at this point.
And it was at this stage that John Blount decided to make a strategic move to make his daughter the *star* of the English court; by sending her right into the wolves den and placing her directly in front of the King’s eye. Not too difficult to secure your daughter a place in the King’s court when you’ve already smothered up to him during his war with France, right?
Getting in the King’s good graces served John well because when Bessie was around twelve-years-old, her parents secured her a place in the employment of the Queen of England, Catherine of Aragon herself, (whose household was known to be filled with many established Spanish beauties and a few Englishwomen at her husband’s request), as a lady-in-waiting. At this time, being a lady-in-waiting to the Queen of England was an incredibly competitive and desirable position as you would have been at the heart of the English court and families could take advantage of using their daughters to source out information about what was happening in members of the court’s lives.
Bessie was a shoo-in for successfully becoming a lady-in-waiting to the Queen.
However, this did not mean that the task before her was an easy ride. As it was by no means easy.
In fact, Bessie had to face a somewhat grueling test to prove that she was worthy of serving the Queen of England in such an intimate, prestigious manner; she had to pass tests focusing on her ‘beauty, grace and good manners’ in order to secure the role and it would have been very frightening for a twelve-year-old to do so. Luckily for her, Bessie left the courtiers in awe as many complimented her on her ‘renowned skill in music and dancing’.
Now, she was finally making a name for herself in court.
And this—is where all the troubles for Catherine of Aragon began.
. . .
Of course, it did not take long for the King to notice her.
In fact! —So much is known about the affair between Henry VIII and Bessie Blount that historians believe that they have the exact timeframe of when Bessie court Henry’s eye and their affair began. In 1514, the English court held a masque (a folk tradition where masked players would unexpectedly call on a nobleman in his hall, dancing and bringing gifts on certain nights of the year, or celebrating dynastic occasions) {1} and during Henry’s reign, these masques were sights of practically carnal frenzy, often a place for great beauties to entertain the men of the court and potentially snag a suitor or two.
Naturally, as she was known for her excellence in the theatrical arts, it was Bessie’s sensual skills during the masque that caught the wandering King’s eye and that was all it took for the King to become instantly hooked on the young beauty.
And Henry was quick to sink his teeth into his new prey, as his marriage to Catherine was souring and inevitably weakening due to Catherine’s inability to provide a living male heir (or in her case, a living heir at all since most of their offspring were either delivered as still-births or she suffered a miscarriage quite close to the end of her pregnancy).
Courtiers would have noticed this and, taking advantage of the poor Spanish Queen, would send their daughters and female relatives to court hoping to bask in the joy of gaining the King’s favour through him taking their female relative as his latest mistress.
You see, Kings were known for showering not just their mistresses but her family in expensive gifts, parcels of sought-after land and even sophisticated titles at court. Only fools would have discouraged their daughters from slipping into the King’s bed as they all hoped that tarnishing their daughter’s reputation for a temporary shower of glory from the King would be worth it.
And for Bessie’s parents, it surely was in their eyes as the rumour that the King had taken another mistress soon began to spread around the court. Only now, Henry had gotten smarter about concealing his affairs from both his wife and the rest of the court by keeping the identity of his mistresses hidden for as long as he possibly could.
Henry’s tactic for Bessie however? —A little insultingly, he gave her ‘hush’ money or more specifically, he gave her father ‘hush’ money of a tidy sum of 146 pounds (quite a lot of money in those days) to keep her from spilling the affair. Becoming a sugar daddy almost seems a little disturbing but Henry had to resort to desperate measures if he wanted to have fun without his beloved wife finding out about it.
But this wasn’t just some ‘oh there’s a new girl in my wife’s employ, let’s take her virginity and have some fun until I get bored’ affair, oh no. It was far from it. What’s even worst is that at the time of their apparent meeting in 1514, Bessie was only around fourteen-years-old whilst her lover, the King, was around twenty-three. Eww.
. . .
The turn in the relationship would come in 1518, just four and a bit years into the relationship with the sudden shocking realization on Bessie’s part; she was with child—and the father was none other than her lover, the King of England.
Shaking in her boots, Bessie would have instantaneously lost whatever secrecy she revelled in during the earlier years of the affair as Tudor women’s pregnancies were harder to conceal due to their restrictive clothing.
Meaning that as soon as Bessie started showing, the English court and Catherine of Aragon would have put two-and-two together, revealing the affair to the entire English court and ultimately the whole of England.
You would think that Bessie would have enjoyed her pregnancy at the hands of her loving suitor and would have experienced nothing but positivity, but this could be farther from the truth.
Her status as an unmarried lady of the court and the upcoming birth of an illegitimate child (or a ‘bastard’ as was the term of the day) of the King meant that her options were very limited and drastic changes would have needed to be put in place before she gave birth.
And as soon as Henry found out that his beloved mistress was expecting a child, he implemented swift changes to prevent her pregnancy from being discovered by members of his court. He had her relocated to a remote religious cloister, far from the suspecting eyes of the royal palace, so that she could spend the following months preparing to give birth to an illegitimate (albeit royal) child in some sense of decorum.
But even this wouldn’t hide the pregnancy forever.
For her, her life had changed dramatically over the course of a few months and life was uncertain.
For Henry, it was a lesson well learnt; to save himself from causing scandal should another of his mistresses fall pregnant, he would only sleep with married women so that they could pass off the child as their husband’s.
Sad contrast of priorities, am I right?
What’s even more sad is the fact that it is believed that during the time of Bessie’s conception of the child, Catherine had just fell pregnant with what would be another still-born daughter, meaning that both Henry’s wife and his mistress were expecting to deliver him a healthy baby. And this was not long after the successful delivery of a baby girl by Catherine, a girl who would later be known as Princess Mary, later Queen Mary I of England.
How disturbing is this—to know that your lover knocked up his wife at the same time as you?
Makes you rethink your actions a little bit, doesn’t it?
And Catherine’s reaction to the pregnancy was nothing short of furious, as she valued Bessie as a companion throughout her struggles with her marriage, she undoubtedly would have felt betrayed over the fact that whilst she was grieving the loss of another child, Henry went crying into Bessie’s bosom and planted a child in her. She was betrayed by two people she loved; her husband and her friend.
Bessie had lost all her friends in Catherine’s service from this, as all the other ladies would have been loyal to Catherine, even if they were sleeping with Henry themselves.
. . .
Despite all the embellished portrayals of the relationship between King Henry and Bessie Blount, the truth is both shocking and disturbing as Bessie was only sixteen or seventeen years old when she gave birth to her son, Henry Fitzroy (the surname of ‘Fitzroy’ had a not-so-subtle meaning ‘Son of King’) on the 15th of June 1519, when Henry himself was around twenty-eight years old.
The whole court was shocked by the news that Bessie had given birth to a baby boy—something that would work well in favour but not for Catherine. In providing Henry with a male heir, Bessie had done what the Queen could not and had in fact ruined the Queen. It might have been this that placed seeds of doubt about Catherine’s ability to provide him with a male heir, but divorcing Catherine was certainly not present in his mind until much, much later.
But what Henry would do next would prove detrimental to Catherine’s feelings and would shock (and possibly horrify) the entire nation—Henry acknowledged his illegitimate son.
The motives behind Henry’s acknowledgement and subsequent bestowing of the Dukedoms of Somerset and Richmond upon his new-born might have been born out of a fear that this might be his only male heir, albeit that Fitzroy was not a legitimate one but bestowing a title upon him meant that he was already showing his favour and doting on his ‘bastard’ son.
In Bessie’s mind, providing Henry with a son must have meant that she would keep his eye firmly fixed on her, as she could surely still pleasure him as well as provide him with more children, couldn’t she?
Sorry to say, Bessie, but your troubles were not yet over.
. . .
Shortly after Bessie birthed her healthy son for her royal lover, Henry delivered a devastating blow on Bessie; she was officially (and royally) dumped.
Whilst the reasons behind the termination of the affair on Henry’s behalf were unknown, it might have had something to do with the fact that mistresses were seen as a pleasurable toy, not a relationship for breeding and Henry saw his mistresses as lovers, not mothers. That’s what his wife was for; being a mother and his sexual relationship with her was his royal duty, not his personal preference.
Historians even went as far as to say that the changes to Bessie’s body following the birth of their son might have ‘repulsed’ Henry and that motherhood simply was not sexy to him, therefore he no longer needed or wanted Bessie. She simply had to go.
This does not mean that Henry was done making Bessie’s life miserable over the birth of their son; whilst Bessie was busy caring for their new-born son and recovering from a painful breakup, Henry was ready to implement another betraying act or two in her life; an arranged marriage and the removal of her son from her care.
Now that Bessie had proven that she was Henry’s (ex)mistress and given birth to a son, he had to marry her off to somewhat repair her tarnished reputation and he immediately found a suitable candidate in his eyes—yet he couldn’t have picked a worse husband for his ex-lover if he tried.
Henry selected Gilbert Tailboys, the Baron of Kyme, as her husband who he promptly had married off in a small ceremony in 1522 but when Bessie should have been celebrating her wedding night with her caring husband, she learnt something chilling about her husband’s family; they had a history of violence and insanity, leaving Bessie fearing for the sake of not just her marriage but her life as well as her son’s.
Fortunately (well—not very much) for her, she did not have to worry about her husband hurting her precious son as Henry quickly saw to that by tearing away her infant child and sending him far, far away to his own estate (he was a Duke, after all) where palace officials took pride in providing him with a princely education and rearing. Henry needed his son to be brought up like a prince, even if he wasn’t one by any means.
Henry’s cruel and narcissistic decision left Bessie heartbroken and alone as she rarely saw her son in his later years, but this did not stop her loving her son from far away. As often as she could (though very sparsely), she visited her son’s estate, bringing him extravagant gifts (there are records to suggest that she brought him a doublet of white satin and even two actual horses—since he would take a love of horseback riding just like both his parents) but even this would not rid her of the eventual guilt that would come when she was not present to witness her son’s tragic end, which we will go into detail in just a wee moment.
. . .
Nonetheless, Bessie was determined to make the most out of the circumstances dealt to her by her royal ex-lover.
In terms of her marriage, Bessie tried her very best to settle down with her insane husband Gilbert and show that she could be more than just the King’s ex-mistress.
Throughout her brief marriage to Gilbert of eight years, Bessie gave him three beautiful children (three boys, much to her husband’s joy, no doubt, since also provided her husband with the heirs to his estate) but the Tudor times were cruel and full of disease all around. It was in 1530 that Gilbert passed, leaving Bessie a widow at the age of thirty-two and with a title also.
And this is the brief period in her life where Bessie would re-live some happy moments of receiving dozens of marriage proposals from doting suitors.
Despite being in her thirties, Bessie was still an attractive woman and regardless of her past with the King, men still desired her for themselves.
Enter Lord Leonard Gray, a very important man in Bessie’s life.
Lord Leonard Gray, a very influential and powerful man in England at this time, was not a suitor that Bessie would have reasonably taken a fancy to; he was around twenty-years her senior and although his family and others in the country would have considered him a good match for a fallen mistress of the King, Bessie was not interested in any way.
So, imagine her surprise when he abruptly turned up at her door, suddenly asking her to become his wife.
Now, as a former mistress to the King and having borne him a royal child, Bessie surely knew her worth and her status as a woman, resulting in her immediate refusal of his proposal. Although strong-willed, she was not rude nor unkind, meaning that she politely asked him to leave her home after he gifted her a ring and moneybags (I mean, he practically desperately asking her to marry him for his money). And she took her life into her own hands for probably the first time in her life by selecting her second husband for not money or social standing but love.
Bessie’s choice for her second husband offered her much appeal and, if I may say so, she saw what she wanted and she went after it, go girl!
It was Baron Edward Fiennes, a man of not much financial worth but reportedly a total hunk since he was at least twelve-years her JUNIOR, that she chose and what a love it was. Over their 10 years of marriage from 1530 to 1540, the couple had three gorgeous girls who all went on to marry favourably. The couple were said to be very much in love and their marriage was successful, only ending with Bessie’s death in 1540.
Her eldest son, however, did not fare as well.
. . .
In 1536, at the almost-strapping age of seventeen, Henry Fitzroy, the only acknowledged one of Henry’s multiple illegitimate children, suffered a chilling death of some mysterious illness (which many believed might have been the deadly pneumonic plague but considering how protected he was, seems very unlikely).
Both Bessie and Henry VIII were devastated but for very contrasting reasons; for Bessie, she had lost her eldest son who had made her so famous, whilst for Henry, he had lost a potential heir to the throne as he had actually been grooming his son to one day become King if his current wife could not provide an heir of her own. There were even talks of Henry making Fitzroy legitimate in the 1530s but his death in 1536 put a stop to that and by that time, Henry had already secured an heir with Jane Seymour, even though it caused his third wife’s tragic death at the hands of a horrifying childbirth.
He was of course traumatised over his son’s death (and Bessie was traumatised over her loss of a link to the King through her son) but as tradition, he had a private ceremony for his son where Bessie (thankfully) attended but at this point, Henry was dealing with his own problems.
. . .
The rest of Bessie’s life was just as painful as the rest, I am afraid to say.
Despite his ill-treatment of her, there is a theory that her second child, a daughter called Elizabeth, born in 1520, shortly after her brother, was in fact the illegitimate daughter of Henry who had rebounded with her shortly after the birth of their son. This would certainly make sense as Bessie was still unmarried at this point and was not linked with any other man.
So, did Henry still love his ex-mistress enough to sleep with her once more?
Did Bessie still love him?
Who knows?
What we do know is that Bessie appeared to have forgiven Henry for his mistreatment of her in the past; historical records indicate that Henry and Bessie exchanged New Year’s gifts with one another for at least the first few years following the death of their son, showing that she was a better woman and had a heart of forgiveness, not much could be said for Henry’s wives or other mistresses.
And he even welcomed her back in his court, this time as a lady-in-waiting to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, although this employment was cut very short by her suffering of a mysterious illness that resulted in her going back to her husband’s arms to recover and this mysterious illness proved fatal—
By 1540, Henry’s most successful mistress, Elizabeth Blount had died of an assumed bout of tuberculosis or consumption as it was known then, the same illness that historians believe killed her son just four years earlier. If this was her cause of death, her death would have been slow and painful, even worse was that she had only just shortly given birth to her daughter Margaret. Others believe that it was Margaret’s birth that caused her sudden demise as it was common for women to suffer from complications from childbirth if they were quite close to their forties (which Bessie was).
And what came from her death was even more mystery that came from her life, as her final resting place (alike many of Henry’s mistresses and even two of his wives) remains a secret to this day, there is not even a clue to where she might have been buried.
What a woeful ending to a woeful life, really.
Shows you just what can happen to even the most successful or beloved of King’s mistresses.
Well, I certainly hope you enjoyed learning about Bessie’s life as I have of researching and writing it, I can only say that I hope the mistresses that followed her lived a somewhat better life than she.
Join us next time as we explore the life of Henry’s next mistress, Jane Poppincourt.
- Have a ‘Tudor-fic’ week!
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