(Cover image – © Pinterest)
One of the benefits of Henry VIII having so many mistresses or women who were alleged to have been the mistress of the famous King is that they can be easily included in the media; be it that they act as a background character in a historical novel documenting Henry VIII’s disastrous marriages or star in one episode of a upcoming series or perhaps as a cameo in a high budget movie. So—as you’ve already guessed it—this week’s post will be documenting any and all known representations of Henry’s alleged and confirmed mistresses in chronological order (meaning the order of which they were supposedly meant to have been sleeping with the King).
Just to note, this is not a complete list so if any are missed out, let us know in the comments below!
Regardless of this—please enjoy!
Anne Stafford
First on our list is Anne Stafford, the woman whose affair with the King caused a huge scandal within the royal court and is considered the King’s first publicly known affair.
Unfortunately, there is not much representation of Anne Stafford in movies, television or literature for that fact as she is not considered one of Henry’s most popular mistresses amongst creators alike, who appear to favour Mary Boleyn or Bessie Blount for their longer and more scandalous affairs with the womanizing King. However, there are three examples of representations of Anne Stafford, with two being literature representations and the other being a television representation.
1. ‘The Constant Princess’ by Philippa Gregory (2005)
Starting off is one of Philippa Gregory’s historical female protagonist series following the Tudor women and Anne Stafford is mentioned in her book detailing a heavily fictionalised version of Catherine of Aragon’s marriage to Arthur Tudor and then to Henry VIII; ‘The Constant Princess’.
Considering the fact that the book details a fictionalised account of events, Henry VIII’s affair with Anne Stafford is also slightly exaggerated but it does not go into much detail as the plot mostly focuses on Catherine or Catalina in the book. Therefore, there is hardly anything to judge but you can always assume with Philippa Gregory that her representations of real-life figures will either be exaggerated in their personality to fit her motives for the characters or that the events in their life will be changed or not mentioned at all or the same reason.
2. Anna Brewster in ‘The Tudors’ (2007-2010)
This portrayal of Anne Stafford by the beautiful English actress and model Anna Brewster is a brief one and is riddled with historical inaccuracies. Although I love Anna’s portrayal of Anne being quite beautiful and possibly flirtatious, Anne was married at the point of which she was supposedly having an affair with the King whilst she is single and believed to have been a virgin by her ‘father’—this is another historical inaccuracy within the show, as the show portrays her as the 3rd Duke of Buckingham’s daughter whilst in reality, she was his sister. But one thing that the show does not represent truthfully who Anne Stafford was meant to be sleeping with; in the show, she is pursued and eventually seduced by a fictionalised version of Charles Brandon, the King’s best-friend and future brother-in-law, who claims that she was not a virgin when he seduced her. Again, the reality is that she was alleged to have been sleeping with the King, not his best friend, and, although she wouldn’t have been a virgin when the King bedded her because she was married and the King supposedly preferred experienced women at the start of his reign, she most certainly would not have been as promiscuous as the show showed her to be as her family allegedly had a stronger claim to the throne and thought themselves one of the most sophisticated families in England, so—would she have risked this?
As a result of the character only being featured in two episodes of the first season, we do not really learn much about Anne Stafford which, in a way, reflects the real Anne Stafford whose entire life is unknown to history so it is quite fitting but I do agree with the show’s creators only briefly including her since they did not make her historically accurate plus she was not as ‘important’, I guess, as the affair with Bessie Blount which the show focused heavily upon in the first season.
© The Tudors Wiki
3. ‘At the King’s Pleasure’ by Kate Emerson (2012)
What I love about this book is that it doesn’t mention Anne as a side character, she IS the main character! This is something I love about this author is that she doesn’t just write about Henry VIII’s more well-known or popular mistresses, she brings the stories of the more forgotten women to light and gives them a brighter story than the one they might have originally lived.
This book most certainly does give Anne a little more of a personality than ‘The Tudors’ did and a little more background to the reason Anne was suspected to have been sleeping with the King. Kate Emerson does a great job of not trying to overexaggerate or brush over any important facts and she makes Anne’s ‘scandalous’ love life, if we can call it that, a little more understanding for the reader to sympathise and relate with—not entirely, of course, unless you lived in the Tudor times yourself! Anne is presented as the respectable young woman of the King’s court that she was who just simply could not control whom she gave her heart to and how her end came to be. I would say that, considering we do not know much about Anne’s personality, Kate Emerson’s representation of her would be quite close to reality, since I doubt Anne would have been harsh or horrible, for some reason.
4. Tessa Bonham Jones in ‘The Spanish Princess’ (2019-2020)
What is surprising about this portrayal of Anne Stafford is that we see that it is not through Henry’s own desire to pursue Anne that the affair ignites but rather on the advice of his own advisor, Cardinal Wolsey. If that’s not surprising, I don’t know what is!
Of course, the King’s advisors would have encouraged him to live life as he wanted but I cannot see that Wolsey would have betrayed his Queen that easily or early on into the King’s marriage to Catherine to actually encourage him to take a mistress such as Anne. However, the show is based off Philippa Gregory’s overly fictionalised version of events and so it makes sense that there is a scene showing Wolsey’s encouragement of the King taking a mistress in order to drive a wedge between Henry and Catherine in order to secure his own power. Because of this, we see Anne very close to the King—in fact very close which allows the viewer to guess what is happening before we are officially told that she is not having an affair with the King but rather another woman we later find out to be another of the Queen’s ladies, Bessie Blount— serving the King privately instead of the Queen whom she is meant to be serving.
Both Anne (and Bessie) are depicted as a playful and an arguably quite ‘idealistic’ woman in Tudor times and certainly in the eye of the King—otherwise he wouldn’t have bedded her!
Sometimes its rather hard to see that the King had so many mistresses as our hearts go out to Catherine, poor woman, she suffered so miserably for so long. Thank God that Anne was only a brief affair and that the King learned to be a little more… subtle in his affairs and how public they were.
© Philippa Gregory Wiki
Étiennette de la Baume
No representations could be found for this mistress.
Bessie Blount
Now comes the most famous (besides the ill-fated Boleyn sisters, of course) of all Henry VIII’s mistresses and the woman who birthed his only recognised illegitimate child; Bessie Blount. It seems almost offensive if movie makers and authors alike chose not to offer their own representation of the King’s discarded mistress but luckily for us (and you, our dedicated readers), there are plenty of representations of Bessie Blount for us to give our opinion on so…
Let’s get started!
1. ‘The Constant Princess’ by Philippa Gregory (2005)
So, as you might notice, Bessie Blount is not the first of Henry’s mistresses during his marriage to Catherine of Aragon to feature in this book, as you would expect considering that a major plot point in this book focuses on how Henry has become unfaithful and had so many mistresses. However, I feel like Philippa Gregory’s representation of Bessie Blount is a little… dramatic, if you could say?
Feel free to disagree and this is purely my opinion but I feel like Bessie in this book was slightly snooty towards Catherine because she was Henry’s latest mistress and was taking Catherine’s husband’s romantic attention away from her but that might just be my interpretation of her. There wasn’t necessarily much to judge since, once again, the book focuses more on Catherine dealing with Anne Boleyn and how to keep her power like she promised the King’s dead brother and her first husband, Arthur.
But then again, Bessie might have been snooty towards the Queen in real life; I mean, if I had taken the King’s attention away from his Queen with my beauty, I would personally try and hide my pride for fear of further upsetting the Queen but Bessie might not have held the same respect and dignity that I might have if I had lived in the Tudor times.
Trust me, if I had, I wouldn’t have slept with the King if I were employed by the Queen, that’s for sure. Best way to upset a Queen, in my opinion.
2. Ruta Gedmintas in ‘The Tudors’ (2007-2010)
Possibly my favourite portrayal of Bessie Blount out of this list and this is not because she only features in a few episodes in the opening season of this show! It’s because the actress portrays her as someone who is clearly in love with a man that she cannot have and is enjoying her youth to the fullest who sadly, much to her inability to prevent a pregnancy because of the inefficient (or lack thereof) contraceptive methods of the time, could not prevent her pregnancy with her royal lover becoming public knowledge and losing her ‘friendship’ with the Queen.
I feel like Ruta, a British actress, really portrayed Bessie in the way that viewers would prefer a mistress of the King who is also in the service of the Queen to act; in the show, Catherine either doesn’t know or is ignoring the fact that Bessie is his mistress and Bessie is trying to be kind towards the Queen especially when she knows she’s pregnant and the Queen tearfully speaks about losing her new-born son. I feel like she could have been portrayed in a horrid way where she mocked the Queen, but I felt like she was depicted as a kind and, if anything, respectful woman—never once did she try to hurt the Queen but instead tries to make a better life for herself and her son.
Historical inaccuracies do come into play in Ruta’s portrayal; in the show, Ruta is clearly an adult woman whilst in reality, Bessie was only a teenager when she caught the King’s eye (gross, right?), also she is married in the show at the time of her pregnancy whilst Henry only married her off once she had given birth to their son as a way of discarding her since he viewed mistresses for fun, not baby-making, that was what his wife and Queen was for. Degrading, am I right?
Regardless, I still feel that Ruta did an amazing job of portraying Bessie and making the audience sympathise with her following her bad luck and her sorrowful fate in the short time that she was on our screens. Definitely worth watching by the way!
© The Tudors Wiki
3. Chloe Harris in ‘The Spanish Princess’ (2019-2020)
Righto, this is a portrayal of which I had serious issues with and before I say anything, this is nothing against the actress, Chloe Harris, I believe that she did a great job portraying her character and it is because of her amazing skills that I absolutely felt hatred towards Bessie Blount whilst watching this show.
Never before had I hated Bessie Blount and I tried to remember whilst watching this show that this show was based off Philippa Gregory’s heavily fictionalised version of what happened during Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, but I honestly hated the way that the affair between Henry and Bessie was portrayed. Not only was Bessie aware that Catherine had suffered numerous miscarriages before finally giving birth to a daughter which disappointed both her and the King, but she had intimate relations with him in public and then tried to make Catherine feel sorry for her when she was pregnant. I mean, egoistical much?
Of course, Chloe Harris is an amazing actress and she was a perfect fit for Bessie who was considered very beautiful for her time (as Chloe most certainly is herself, you go queen!) but I felt like they tried to make the viewers hate her and sympathise more with Catherine rather than have viewers like and sympathise with her like the did with the previous portrayal above.
Who can say?
All I can say is that I hope Bessie didn’t do the same thing that Bessie did in the show, naughty naughty!
© Philippa Gregory Wiki
Notable mention – Although I could not find any of the actress names or any footage to include in this post, I can confirm that Bessie Blount features in the unique and entertaining musical ‘SIX; the musical’ which stars the six wives of Henry VIII. Bessie features as one of the Ladies in Waiting and has very little screentime in the actual music but at least she is featured in it?
Sadly, as I have not seen the musical (as of yet, I’ll post an update if I finally get a chance to see it) and multiple women have played her, I am unable to give an opinion on how she is portrayed but I’m guessing that she is just a background character since I couldn’t find any footage of her in the musical?
Jane Poppincourt
Our next mistress does not have much of any representations to contribute to this list of mistresses’ representations, however, there is one that can be included in this list and that is another literary representation by the one and only Kate Emerson.
You can never have too many of one author’s work on your blog, can you?
Anyway…
Jane Poppincourt (or Jane Popyncourt, as Kate writes her) is the main character in Kate Emerson’s ‘The Pleasure Palace’ in her historical female-protagonist series; ‘Secrets of the Tudor court’. The book focuses less on Jane’s relationship with the King but with her ‘first’ official lover within the King’s court with a French prisoner of war (of which is spoken about a great deal in the Jane Poppincourt blog post which you can find from a while back) which I kind of like because… Yes, she was alleged to be sleeping with the King but I’m more interested in how she got tangled up with a French prisoner of war and how she must have felt to know that she could not marry him, as much as she or him or possibly both might have wanted to.
The amount of sympathy that I have for many of these mistresses is astounding, I feel like I’m betraying my homegirl Catherine of Aragon but—regardless of what they did, they were still human and still deserve some sympathy on our behalf. God, I sound so philosophical.
Moving on!
Elizabeth Carew
No representations could be found for this mistress.
Mistress Parker
No representations could be found for this mistress.
Jane Pollard
No representations could be found for this mistress.
Agnes Blewitt
No representations could be found for this mistress.
Elizabeth Amadas
No representations could be found for this mistress.
Mary Boleyn
This mistress needs no introduction, but she is certainly getting one, it is the mistress who gained a reputation for being one of the most promiscuous women of her time after sleeping with two handsome and powerful kings; the famous Mary Boleyn.
Now, it goes without saying that it would be just downright stupid for historians, authors or movie-makers alike to disregard the importance of representing Mistress Boleyn after the lasting affect that she left on Henry VIII and Tudor history itself so, thankfully, there is more than enough material to source for interpretations of the ill-reputed mistress for us to talk about so let’s not waste any more time with introductions and delve right in!
1. Valerie Gearson in ‘Anne of a thousand days’ (1969)
Valerie Gearson does a fantastic portrayal of the ill-reputed Mary Boleyn in this movie as she can be seen throughout the movie not holding herself all high and mighty for being the King’s former (emphasis on the former as her affair with Henry had already taken place by the time the movie begins) mistress and even tries to prevent her younger sister (Anne is presented as being the younger sister in this movie) from falling into the King’s tarnished arms and going down the same road as her.
There is even a scene in the movie where Mary tries to warn her sister about falling victim to the King’s charm as she had been tossed away by the King once she was ‘conquered’—symbolising how the King grew bored of Mary Boleyn once he had slept with her. Valerie helped highlight the important and sad fact about King’s mistresses—there is always someone else who can take your place and you will eventually be cast aside by your lover.
Sad but true in the case of Mary.
© Imdb
2. Natascha McElhone in ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ (2003)
Quick note – you will notice that there will be two portrayals of Mary in ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, this is not a mistake—this is a book by Philippa Gregory which has been adapted into a movie twice, each done many years apart. This is the first adaptation of the book which was made into a BBC television film in 2003, starring Natascha McElhone as Mary Boleyn or ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ as Philippa Gregory labels her.
What I have noticed is that there is no clear differentiation between the portrayal of Natacha and later Scarlet Johansson’s portrayal of Philippa Gregory’s interpretation of Mary Boleyn (which is not the best considering you want every actress to bring a bit of themselves to the role that they have taken on) but what disturbs me more is how much the film deviates from the original novel and further exaggerates or rewrites the events of history. In fact, there is an entire list that can be made about how the film changes ‘facts’ offered by Philippa Gregory in the book including; changing who is the elder sister, changing the names and circumstances of the birth of Mary’s children, changing how she reacted to her husband’s death etc.
What I hate about this portrayal is that Natascha portrays Mary to have suggested that Anne sleep with their brother George in order to present the King with a son. What?
This would have never happened—do you think Mary, a smart woman although sometimes a silly one, would have actually suggested to her sister, a Queen who is losing favour with both her husband and her people, to perform incest with her brother knowing that it could lead to her siblings being executed by the King if the affair was discovered?
Not to mention the moral question this raises—who would actually try and get their siblings to have an incestuous relationship?
Are you insane? Who would do that?
Anyway—this is one of the many problems that I have with this portrayal, and we will review the later adaptation of this same book and the portrayal by Scarlet Johansson and whether she also portrays Mary in this manner.
Let’s hope not.
© Imdb
3. Perdita Weeks in ‘The Tudors’ (2007-2010)
I can remember watching the exact first scene where we see Mary Boleyn for the first time on this show and how beautiful I thought she was; not that I’m saying that the only good thing abut this talented actress’ portrayal of Henry’s most famous mistress is her appearance, far from that, but I can remember thinking ‘wow—I’m so excited to see how this goes!’
And I was not disappointed, not in the slightest.
From accurately capturing Mary’s bubbly nature to embodying the description of a disgraced lady of the court to finally making the audience sympathise and pity her for her sister banishing her from court for simply falling in love, Perdita Weeks does it all! I truly felt as if I were watching the real-life Mary Boleyn on my screen and watching her life continuously go down a dark path, especially with her sister’s rise to power at her expense—I mean, would Henry have fallen for Anne if he had not gone through Mary first?
Accurately enough, with the fall of her family following her siblings’ execution and her banishment from court, it makes sense that we do not find out what happens to Mary after Henry marries Jane Seymour because Mary basically lives a life away from court and out of the public’s eye. Therefore, the show did a good job of ending her story in an accurate way, in my eyes at least.
© The Tudors Wiki
4. Scarlet Johansson in ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ (2008)
Scarlet Johansson’s portrayal in the second adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’ is now under scrutiny and I can say that at least there are some positive changes from the first portrayal by Natascha, but this doesn’t mean that there aren’t things that I don’t like.
What I do like: that Scarlet’s Mary tries to prevent her sister from having an affair with their brother in order to conceive a male child for the King (and thankfully the pair do not go through with their plan) and the fact that Mary showed her everlasting support towards her sister despite her sister betraying her and trying to ruin her for her own personal gain. Mary did always try to help her family, sadly they never wanted her input.
What I don’t like: that Mary was made to look innocent and forced into becoming the King’s mistress when, in reality, she had already willingly slept with the French King and was actually criticised by her family for sleeping with the English King. I understand that not everything Mary did was by her own choices, but she most certainly was not pressured into sleeping with the King, she had already tarnished her reputation and I doubt her family would have wanted her to do it again.
Scarlet was absolutely phenomenal in portraying the sister’s bond (despite it being very much historically inaccurate) and you felt sympathy for both sisters for completely different reasons. All and all, a job well done.
© Philippa Gregory Wiki
Notable mentions – Charity Wakefield in ‘Wolf Hall’ (2015) and Bessie Coates in ‘The Spanish Princess’ (2019-2020)
The reason why I have not done a review for each is that I feel like there is not enough content in both of these medias for me to make a full review; they either have one or two scenes or barely say more than a few words so I thought I would just mention that these two actresses have also taken a turn at playing the King’s famous mistress but sadly, the actresses playing Anne have taken over the spotlight.
© Imdb
© Philippa Gregory Wiki
Wow, I feel like I have said so much about Mary—but I’m not even close to done!
We still have to cover the literature representations of Mary, but sadly—there is just too much to cover to give a full review on each one, so I hope you guys don’t mind if I just provide you with a list of all the books (again, this is not a complete list but there is probably too many to put into one list so please forgive me!) that either feature Mary as the main character or as a side character so…
…Here you go!
· Brief Gaudy Hour: A Novel of Anne Boleyn by Margaret Campbell Barnes (1949)
· Anne Boleyn by Evelyn Anthony (1957)
· The Concubine: A Novel Based Upon the Life of Anne Boleyn by Norah Lofts (1963)
· Anne, the Rose of Hever by Maureen Peters (1969)
· Anne Boleyn by Norah Lofts (1979)
· Mistress Anne: The Exceptional Life of Anne Boleyn by Carolly Erickson (1984)
· The Lady in the Tower by Jean Plaidy (1986)
· I, Elizabeth: the Word of a Queen by Rosalind Miles (1994)
· The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell (1997)
· Dear Heart, How Like You This? by Wendy J. Dunn (2002)
· Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer (2002)
· Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009)
· Court Cadenza (later published under the title The Tudor Sisters) by British author Aileen Armitage (Aileen Quigley) (1974)
· The Last Boleyn by Karen Harper (1983)
· The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (2001)
· Mistress Boleyn – a Novel about Mary Boleyn by Charlotte St. George (2012)
Mary Berkeley
No representations could be found for this mistress.
Joanna Dingley (Dobson)
No representations could be found for this mistress, but Kate Emerson did write a book about her daughter Aubrey called ‘Royal Inheritance’ – go check it out!
. . .
And that concludes our list, wow, that was a long one!
Quick note—you will notice that Anne Boleyn is not included in this list and that is because she was one of Henry’s wives and I will do a post about her representations once we get to telling her story.
So, I hope that you found this list interesting and that you decide to take a look at these depictions and if you do, comment below on what your view is on the portrayals of Henry’s mistresses!
- Have a ‘Tudor-fic’ week!
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