(Cover image – © Pinterest)
The list of Royal mistresses throughout British history is a large one; there is a reason that there were so many conflicts occurring because of illegitimate children fathered by Kings and this is because Kings (and men in general) were basically encouraged to have affairs outside of the marital bed since sleeping with one’s wife was considered more of a duty than a pleasure.
And King Henry VIII most definitely took this encouragement to heart through the estimated twenty potential mistresses with only a few confirmed to have taken place. And still, this was little when judged against his maternal grandfather, Edward IV, who was known throughout his kingdom for being a womanizer and flaunting his mistresses at court.
In comparison to the King’s first marriage to Catherine of Aragon which lasted twenty-four years, there are only a couple of women who allegedly became a mistress to the King during his three year marriage to his second wife, Anne Boleyn. The severe contrast between the number of mistresses for his first two marriages is partially because of the difference in the lengths of the marriages but also the difference in the King’s age.
When the King first married Catherine of Aragon, he was eighteen. A young boy who had just reached manhood; with glorious looks, an appealing physique and full of charm and sexual energy. This would have been the first time that he could have had sexual freedom since his older brother’s death made him the new heir to the throne. Towards the end of his marriage to Catherine and the start of his marriage to Anne, he was in his early forties and his body and health were beginning to decline rapidly.
Yet despite Anne Boleyn being the most popular of his six wives—with her being featured in countless major movies and successful television series—there is so little seen of the mistresses he supposedly took during their marriage.
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).
In this second part of the Representation of the Mistresses of Henry VIII, we will be exploring the representation of the mistresses who were either confirmed or alleged to have had an affair with the King during his second marriage to Queen Anne Boleyn.
Just to note, this is not a complete list so if any are missed out, let us know in the comments below!
Also—Jane Seymour is not included in this list because she would become his wife so she will be featured as a wife and not a mistress.
Regardless of this—please enjoy!
Margaret Shelton
As explained in our previous post—Mistress Shelton; two sisters, one who might have been the King’s mistress?—there is a possibility that Mistress Shelton was rather Mary than the assumed Margaret who was the mistress of Henry VIII but there is little argument against one of the sisters having engaged in an affair with the King. Whichever sister it was, it would have hit hard with Anne as not only might have this had been the first affair Henry had during their marriage but the Shelton sisters were cousins to Anne so the betrayal would have hurt all the more.
Unfortunately, there are not a lot of representations for Margaret ‘Madge’ Shelton but she does at least have some in comparison to ‘a very handsome young lady’ who has never been represented on screen—to my recollection, Madge has only appeared on our screens one time!
‘Anne Boleyn’ by Jean Bruller or Vercors (1985)
In this novel originally written in French, Margaret Shelton is the narrator who takes us through her life at court, her relationships with members of the Henrician Court including Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I as well as the ‘truth’ behind Anne Boleyn’s political ambitions.
Her depiction in this novel is one of kindness, loyalty and devotion to those close to her, especially her cousin, Queen Anne Boleyn and her daughter Elizabeth I. Her loyalty to Anne is shown in their shared vision for England in which the far-sighted English patriot in Anne is striving to end England’s dependence on the Catholic Church by building up its navy and showing England is an independent power capable of defending itself against the world. Margaret and Anne’s relationship is a main focus in this novel and Margaret shows the reader, as well as those around her, time and time again that she is willing to do anything to secure Anne’s vision and place as the new Queen of England.
This isn’t a well-known book but I most definitely recommend giving it a try as it shines a different light on Anne Boleyn and those closest to her.
‘The Lady in the Tower’ by Jean Plaidy (2003)
Jean Plaidy’s novels are well-known for bringing underappreciated women of the Henrician Court into the limelight, as Margaret Shelton acts as one of the main characters in her novel ‘The Lady in the Tower’, a novel about Anne Boleyn’s imprisonment in the Tower and the politics that hold her fate in their hands.
The novel is told from Anne’s perspective as she reflects on the events of her life prior and during her marriage to the King and how her relationships with those closest to her in the court had impacted her current fate without her even much realising it. Part of her reflection offers the reader a glimpse into her close female relationships such as with her sister Mary and her cousin Margaret Shelton, both of which are extremely contrasting relationships. Anne’s relationship with her sister, Mary, has an underlying sense of jealousy and competition as the two always seem to be competing, even after Anne ‘defeats’ her sister in the battle to secure the King’s affection. Whilst her relationship with Margaret is a fond and secure one; there is never a point where Anne lacks any trust in Margaret’s loyalty to her nor worries about the King’s potential lust for her, hence why she confides so much in her.
I have always been a sucker for Jean Plaidy books so I highly recommend you all give this book a try, but it is the fourth book in a series so you might wanna try the first book first as it might contain the same characters who go through a character arc.
Laura Jane Laughlin in The Tudors (2007-10)
Out of all of the representations of Henry VIII’s mistresses thus far, Laura Jane Laughlin’s portrayal of Lady Margaret ‘Madge’ Shelton is my absolute favourite—because we see so little of her, there is not a lot of negativity they can cast upon her.
What is clear in her limited screentime is how loyal and loving Madge is towards her cousin and Queen. In this depiction, it is Anne’s idea to place Madge in front of the King to control whom he beds—despite the fact that Madge knows this upsets her Queen, her loyalty compels her to agree to attempt to engage in an affair with the King. Whilst the King entertains Madge as a lover, he sees right through the plan and it is pretty obvious that Queen Anne’s plan fails.
Laura Jane Laughlin portrays Madge as shy yet kind; there is never any hatred or negativity towards another character nor does she appear comfortable partaking in the games of the Tudor court. Unfortunately for her, she is not seen on our screens enough but she certainly is a breath of fresh air in comparison to the other scheming, manipulative and cruel members of the Henrician court.
Madge Shelton - © The Tudors Fandom
‘A Very Handsome Young Lady’
As you might expect, there has never been an official representation of ‘a very handsome young lady’ on our screens. This could be for a multitude of reasons; a show like The Tudors preferred to just showcase random ladies within the court or—in later seasons—outside of the court as the King’s love interests and this saves them the need to formally introduce the character to the audience, especially if they are only present for an episode or just one season.
There was a time where authors wished to propose it was Jane Seymour who was this mysterious mistress, however, there is many arguments to dispute this, mainly being that this was still very early on into Anne’s queenship and the Seymours had yet to believe there was a chance to dethrone her and replace her with Jane. Both Eric Ives and Antonia Fraser have stated that Jane’s name is probably the only one that can be ruled out. The only reason the Seymours pushed for Jane to become a love interest of the King’s was that Anne’s fall from grace had become pretty clear not only to the Seymours but the entire court. The King’s love for Anne could easily be shifted into a love for Jane and therefore to suggest Jane was catching the King’s eye this early on or that her family supported it is not really viable; Jane was still open for an arranged marriage in her family’s eyes at this time. This is also supported by how when Eustace Chapuys—the very one who introduced us to ‘a very handsome young lady’ in his letters—first mentions Jane Seymour or “Mistress Semel” in his letter dated February 1536, he makes no indication that she had had any previous affair or connection to the King, further proving that Jane could not have been ‘a very handsome young lady’ since Chapuys himself never once suggested her as this mysterious mistress.
Another reason is the lack of evidence for who this mystery woman might have been and there is the possibility that writers do not feel confident in bringing her onto the screen without the risk of historians criticising their portrayal. Either way, ‘a very handsome young lady’ remains a mysterious figure in Tudor history and whilst she hasn’t featured on our screens, many authors have seen fit to include her in their works.
Here are just a handful of the mentions she has received over the years in literary works:
Interestingly, in several of the earliest mentions of ‘a very handsome young lady’, the writers have attempted to decode the potential identity of this mistress, each suggesting a different lady of the court who might have sparked a brief love affair with the womanizing Henry VIII.
‘Queen Anne Boleyn’ by Francis Hackett (1939)
In his novel, Francis Hackett offers a lady named Joan Guildford as the possible identity behind this mysterious mistress. He describes Joan as a partisan of Princess Mary, the King’s only surviving child, who was “fresh at court, a dark thing with laughing white teeth, adroit and beautiful, who could easily amuse Henry. That warm resistance he found enticing.”
While there was indeed a Joan Guildford present at the Henrician court at this time, there is no evidence to suggest she was a partisan of Princess Mary and there is evidence to show she was much older than the King, somewhere between twenty and twenty-five years older, which I doubt would have appealed much to Henry VIII. We do know that for a time in his reign, he preferred older experienced women but I very much doubt that Henry, a man in his thirties, would wish to sleep with a woman in her fifties, nearly sixties.
It might be purely coincidence that the author chose this name for his suggestion for the identity of ‘a very handsome young lady’ or whether he was playing a joke to suggest an elder woman’s name for a mistress known for her youth and beauty, it is unclear. However, Francis Hackett’s novel acts as one of the earliest recorded instances of ‘a very handsome young lady being mentioned or a name suggested for her possible identity.
‘The Queen’s Confession’ by Philip Lindsay (1947)
Interestingly, a woman whose name has been suggested, though not taken seriously, as ‘a very handsome young lady’ has also been used by writers to have discovered, known or hidden the identity of who they believed was the true identity of this mistress. Her name—Lady Jane Rochford, the wife of George Boleyn and the sister-in-law to Queen Anne Boleyn, the very woman being cheated on by the King and this unknown mistress.
However, in his novel, Philip Lindsay prefers to have Lady Rochford act as a loyal confidant to the Queen, rather than the one betraying her. In a scene where Anne is discussing the potential identity of her husband’s new mistress, she replies angrily:
“there was a lady — I’ll not recall the strumpet’s name! …. One of my ladies she was and I’d have dismissed her had I dared, the insolent jill to play her whore’s game in my chambers, ogling the fool of a king, pampering his vanity, making him think himself wise, strong, handsome … what fools are men!”
Instead of Anne ‘shaming’ this mistress by revealing her name, Anne refuses to name her which is an interesting move. In showing that she knows the identity of her husband’s mistress yet refusing to confront her, Anne shows her strategy in laying low and watching everything that happens around her and in the court. Anne was known for her intelligence, wit and political savvy, and this shows clearly in Philip Lindsay’s 1947 novel.
‘Murder Most Royal’ or ‘The King’s Pleasure’ by Jean Plaidy (1949)
Unlike Philip Lindsay, famous historical writer Jean Plaidy chooses to incorporate Lady Rochford into the mystery of who this mistress was. BUT this time—this mistress is not as clueless as the others and her intelligence pays off as she is able to blend into the background and remain nameless so that even the ever-suspicious Lady Rochford cannot identify her. In a scene where Lady Rochford is speaking with another regarding this mistress, she confesses:
“I forget her name,” says Lady Rochford, “She is so quiet, one scarcely notices her. She is a friend of Chapuys; she is of those who would very gladly see the Queen displaced from the throne …”
What I find particularly interesting about this scene is that it is one of the few portrayals of Lady Rochford as an ally to the Queen, rather than the traitor she has been made out to be. The fact that this mistress has managed to avoid Lady Rochford’s suspicions shows not only that she is crafty and practically invisible but it shows just how much Lady Rochford’s loyalty to the Queen shows to other women of the court. Not only does Jean Plaidy mention Chapuys but aligns the mistress herself to him; if this were true, it would make sense why Chapuys never makes any suggestions towards the identity of this mistress as he either truly does not know or he is protecting someone who shares his political views and opinions of the Queen.
‘The Wives of Henry VIII’ by Lady Antonia Fraser (1992)
In Lady Antonia Fraser’s non-fiction novel on the six wives of Henry VIII, she claims “there had been a “very handsome young lady” in the autumn of 1534, according to Chapuys. She had displayed an attachment towards “the Princess” — by which Chapuys of course meant Mary not Elizabeth — at which point the fickle court began to treat Mary with more reverence too. Then there was Madge [Shelton] whose enjoyment of the royal favours seems to have lasted for about six months” [p.217].
‘The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn’ by Eric Ives (2004)
In Eric Ives’ famous biography of Anne Boleyn, he discusses how “George Boleyn’s wife had been forbidden the court because she had plotted with Anne to pick a quarrel with Henry’s new fancy and force her to withdraw … The affair was still going on in December, when the king was again annoyed at Anne’s complaints, but by the end of February [1535] it was finished” [p.194].
Other books:
In ‘The Uncommon Marriage’, published in 1960 by Peter Albery, he creates a completely fictional woman to become this mysterious mistress. His created woman is Sara Hogden who encounters the King on a hunt who becomes instantly besotted, leading to her being “brought, bathed, perfumed, hair brushed and combed – a white rose atop and golden earrings aside — sheathed and protuberant in ivory sendal, to a wall-eyed entrance of the Royal chambers by Jane Rochford.”
However, in Carolly Erickson’s ‘Mistress Anne’, the identity of the mistress is never revealed. We are only told “The new favourite was so well hidden away in some castle of Sussex that we could never discover her name … The court naturally spent a great deal of time conjecturing; the queen and I likewise. People even asked if it might not be an incest: had Henry fallen for some bastard daughter of his father’s who had come to light? All that Anne was able to deduce from the king’s altered behavior to her was that the hidden influence of the lady was being exerted at her expense and in favour of Catherine and Mary.”
This is also the same in ‘A Lady Raised High: A Novel of Anne Boleyn’ by Laurien Gardner and ‘Brazen’ by Katherine Longshore where the former simply keeps the reader guessing whom the mistress might be;
“I never learned this lady’s name. She could not have been a woman of the court, because, were that the case, all of us would have known who she was … I speculated that the lady might have been a noblewoman Henry met on his progress during the summer, when he’d been without Anne. A smitten or ambitious woman would no doubt take full advantage of finding Henry alone.”
In the latter, narrated from the perspective of Mary Howard, we see Mary and Lady Margaret Shelton worried about how to inform the Queen of her husband’s infidelity before inevitably turning to Lady Rochford to deliver the unfortunate news.
On the other hand, some writers have chosen to just bypass this event in history completely, whether to focus on more dramatic events or simply because it does not help their plot. Both Philippa Gregory’s ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, published in 2001, and Judith Arnopp’s The Kiss of the Concubine, published in 2013, do not mention ‘a very handsome lady’ and instead focus on other women who posed a threat to Anne Boleyn. Whilst Anne’s own sister, Mary, continuously poses a threat to her sister in ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, Judith Arnopp’s novel focuses more on using Madge Shelton to distract the King so no other woman from a rival family can displace Anne in the King’s heart as Thomas Boleyn, Anne’s father, claims “she’ll keep him busy and she knows her place.”
. . .
As we can see, there has not been much said about the mistresses of Henry VIII during his marriage to Anne Boleyn in comparison to Catherine of Aragon despite there having been more drama in his marriage to Anne than his marriage to Catherine. Are authors just more interested in creating their own fictional mistresses or was Anne’s fall from grace more than enough to write a dramatic novel without introducing fictional women to seduce the King?
Who knows, but I hope there will be more to see of Madge Shelton and ‘a very handsome young lady’ in the future.
Until next time...
- Have a ‘Tudor-fic’ week!
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