This week I have a guest episode from James Boulton of the Queens of England Podcast (http://www.queensofenglandpodcast.com) on Bessie Blount, Henry VIII’s most famous mistress. James’s podcast is my new favorite, and I suggest that you all go over and subscribe to him asap. But listen to this episode first.
This is a good article on Bessie Blount as well:
https://conorbyrnex.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/a-portrait-of-bessie-blount-c-1500-1539/
Also, you can check out the minicast I did on Henry Fitzroy, Bessie’s son.
https://soundcloud.com/heather-buettner-teysko/henry-fitzroy-minicast
Very Rough Transcript of Episode 56: James Boulton on Bessie Blount
Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hey, it’s Heather. And I want to remind you about our very special tours to the UK. In 2017, we’ll be doing tours focusing on the even song experience. The evensong service comes from Kramarz book of common prayer from the mid 16th century. It’s been dubbed the atheists favorite service because it requires so little and it gives so much it’s simply divine choral music sung in some of the most historic chapels, abbeys and cathedrals in England. We’ll be spending 10 days visiting places like Cambridge, Oxford bath, the Cotswolds, Winchester, and Windsor with walking tours, free time to explore and then gathering back each afternoon for the even song service. If you choose to attend, it will be 10 days of beautiful countryside, historic cities and villages. And so, so much music invite you to go to England cast.com/tours for full itinerary and pricing information. Again, England cast E N G L a N D C a S T England cast.com/tours. Thanks so much. And now to the show
Speaker 2: (01:10)
[inaudible]
Speaker 1: (01:20)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Renaissance English history podcast. This is your host, Heather Tesco, but actually I’m not your host today because today episode number 56 is a guest episode on Bessie Blount by James Bolton. James is the author and host of the Queens of England podcast, which is undoubtedly my new favorite podcast. So please check it out before I introduce James though, let me remind you to pop on over to the Renaissance English history podcast website at www dot England cast, E N G L a N D England cast.com for full archives of the show. And you can also sign up for my mailing list, their mailing list subscribers receive an extra mini cast every month, as well as book giveaways, news and other fun things. So do go on and check that out. So now on to James, let me introduce his podcast too often.
Speaker 1: (02:18)
When we think about the history of a country, we think of the Kings and Lords castles and battles. Even when we consider Queens, we think of rulers like Elizabeth, the first in Victoria, but what about the Queens who sat beside their husbands? The Queens consorts, the generations of women who held no formal power, but still woven important strand in the tapestry of England, the Queens of England podcast is an alternative history of England told through the lives of the women behind the throne. And you can check it out@queensofenglandpodcast.com. I also have a link up on the England cast site. So now I will turn it over to James and thank you, James. Hello, I’m
Speaker 3: (03:00)
James Felton writer, producer and host of the Queens of England podcast. My show examines the lives of the many women throughout English history that have married Kings and become Queen’s consort throughout. I’ve tried to show that it’s not only the ruling Queens like Elizabeth or Victoria, that deserves to be remembered, but the ones who were not Queens in their own right as well, you can find my show in all the usual places, as well as at my website, Queens of England podcast.com for the past year and a bit, I’ve been planning to the middle ages, but I about to emerge from the water, the roses period, and enter into the terrifying world of the tutors. Otherwise known as Heather’s world. Instead of sending me off, Heather has generously allowed me to come on her podcast while she moves back to the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Speaker 3: (03:43)
Now, for those of you who listened to David Crowder’s history of England podcast may know me as the person who did a guest episode on Jane Shaw, Royal mistresses are fascinating to me as they are such graphic examples of the notion that medieval marriages were far more like business partnerships than trevalla Rick love matches. They exposed the limitations of female power and often the reactions to them on the past and the ability and clergy exposed the deeply patriarchal nature of society. Therefore, when Heather asked me to contribute to the show, my first thought was to cover one of Henry the eighth mistresses. But which one to say, Henry, you got around is to understate the point dramatically. But in terms of longterm mistresses, there are only a few to choose from, but in the end I chose Bessie Blount. Before I start talking about Bessie though, I think it’s worth talking a little bit about Henry himself.
Speaker 3: (04:34)
There are few people in history who have been more studied, more psychoanalyzed and more romanticized than England. Second shooter King. I got what I think amounts to a fairly typical English education when I was at school. And that meant that I studied the reign of Henry. I believe at least five times from when I was seven to 18, he looms large in British history, like very few others. And while it is, for many reasons, it is women that probably have elevated him to historical rock star status. Every professor school child is told the rhinos, remember the fates of his wives, divorced, beheaded died, the force beheaded survived. And if you stopped a person in the street and asked them to name one fact about the rain, I would bet you 10 quid that the answer it would be that he had six wives. So that number in perspective, the next highest number of spouses for a British Monarch is half that at three for Mary, the first Scotland matter of his mistresses though, is surprisingly a matter of some debate in the French court.
Speaker 3: (05:32)
There was an official position known as many tests on teeth, which was for the official mysteries of the King. This woman will be given her own apartments in the palace and was recognized and accepted even by the Queens of France. England had no such official equivalent, but the idea of King sticking mistresses was very common. Most famous medieval mistresses were Jane show and Alice Perez, but there were undoubtedly more that have not made it into the historical record. Now some revisionist historians just stated that Henry D only had a very small number of mistresses in his life. And some have even suggested that he had only to Bessie Blount and Mary Berlin. And that shows that Henry was not quite the sex maniac. This number previously suggested for the Jones in her book. The other tutors takes the position that really Henry was just a classic romantic and Kelly Hart in the mistresses of Henry.
Speaker 3: (06:20)
The eighth argues that Henry was a one woman man though. I think she means to him a man, as he was married while having these affairs to say the least this position has quite a few problems. The first is that people just did not write about Royal mistresses appears to have been some sort of a taboo in contemporary historical writing. Indeed. The only reasons that we know about Betsy and Mary are for two very specific reasons for Mary is because Henry ended up marrying her sister for Bessie. Well, I’ll get to that later. But the point is is that if it were not for these facts, then we may not have known for sure about any dalliances that Henry got up to. Therefore Henry could only have had these two affairs and we’re just lucky, lucky, lucky that they both had such unusual features as to survive to us or as things more likely to me, he had many affairs.
Speaker 3: (07:11)
It’s just that we don’t know about them. This squares also with what we know about Henry’s courtship around Berlin, we know that he offered her the chance to become his mistress, but that she refused him when can easily and further than that, it was quite normal for women to accept the message of the King. What was unusual in Ann’s case was saying no, in her book, the six wives and many mistresses of Henry, the eighth Emmy license says that quote, there is no question that Henry was very good at covering tracks. So good. In fact that he continues to throw us off the scent five centuries later, what happened late at night when the King was a guest in the properties of friends or in Royal progress or abroad would not necessarily have become common knowledge. The modern argument that something would have been whispered at the time of Henry had slept with more women runs counter to the many occasions of Tudor scandal known to scholars today, for which no contemporary rumors survived and underestimates the nature of the surviving source material.
Speaker 3: (08:08)
It also underestimates the King and the weld he inhabited. What has been suggested is that Henry was a one mistress man that he only ever kept one at a time before the scanning them. And beginning of the next one, these were usually quite temporary and often very little in the web advantage. The lady in question, this is a very pervasive argument, but again, there is so little evidence about for Henry’s mistresses, but I find it hard to work out how a lot of writers will come to this conclusion. Why is it not possible that while Henry had a number of mistresses whom he kept around for a long time, they did not also have short term flings as well. This concessed attempt to reverse the idea of disgusting letters, Henry of the oldest stroke and model. It seems to me to have gone far too far when it suggests that he was just a gooey, romantic of sorts, a great piece of evidence from this actually from Henry’s own pen, when he makes an offer to Amber Lynn to make his own he mistress quote, casting off all others, besides you out of my thoughts and affections and serve you only, why make this very clear promise if he was chased to his mistresses, he must’ve had a reputation as a serial womanizer and not monogamous even to those women who may had affairs with.
Speaker 3: (09:17)
Okay. So I think I’ve made my point. Henry almost certainly had lots of feelings around the Tudor cause, but we only know about two for sure. So let’s move away from the abstract and look in a bit more detail at the early years of Henry’s reign and how he came to meet and become intimately acquainted with a daughter of disruption night, the year is 15, 14, and Henry had been King of England for five years. For almost all of that time. He had been married to Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of the then King and queen of Spain and his brother’s widow in that period. She had been pregnant three times and was currently bearing her forth so far. All of her pregnancies have been unsuccessful in producing a live child and then deed her current attempt was also doomed to end in stillbirth pregnancy in this period, it was a highly ritualized occasion and then felt abstention from any sex while the woman was bearing a child.
Speaker 3: (10:09)
This meant that Henry had multiple opportunities to sleep around the court. And indeed he had things with a number of women, including lady and Hastings, the daughter of one of Elizabeth Woodville sisters at unit Dilla bound and made in the household of the powerful Margaret of Savoy and Jane Punko a French porn lady of the English court who had been teaching Henry sisters, French. Let’s not forget that Henry was by now a 23 year old King who, while not having absolute power, had something approaching it. The French ambassador described Henry and 15 and nine as being a quote young Ling. He cares for nothing but girls and hunting. It is hardly surprising that he slept around a lot, but all of these things were fairly temporary while you’ve been unsuccessful so far in fathering a child with this way of Catherine, it was not unusual for it to take some time.
Speaker 3: (10:56)
Margaret Anji, for example, was a queen familiar nine years before giving birth to her first child is sleeping around, had far more to do with him being a full red-blooded, sexually active man bailing out of his teens than any dissatisfaction with his wife. And it’s not altogether unclear that Catherine would have minded much either. It was a normal unexpected fact of life for a worldwide to be one of many women with whom the King shared a bed is not necessarily represented direct challenge to her nor indicate that the King did not favor her. And it was not just the fact that he was a King that made him so irresistible to women in its early days. There are lots of glowing descriptions of England’s heartthrob King of a nation visitor to the court described and thusly quote. His majesty is the handsomest Putin tape. I ever set eyes on above the usual height with an extremely fine calf to his leg, his complexion, very fair and bright with Auburn hair comb, straight and short and the French fashion and the round face.
Speaker 3: (11:52)
So very beautiful that it would become a pretty woman. He was also a fine musician and an accomplished composer of poetry and indeed music, which I will come back to in a little bit. What I am saying is that Henry was a bit of a babe. And even though he was married, this would not have stopped all the ladies at court from swooning over him. Okay. So that’s the stage set. Let’s now put back a few years and talk about the subject to this episode, Elizabeth, or as I will call her Bessie Blount. Now a continual issue that we will come across for Betsy is that there is so, so much that we don’t know much of. What we do know is gleaned from the edges of her life, from documents about her family or brief mentions of her and other sources. There is no life of Bessie, Blount, no early modern version of a biography.
Speaker 3: (12:39)
No one spent much time waxing lyrical about her. And since she was by comparison to far lesser, controversial mistress, and some of her predecessors such as Jane Shaw and Alice Perez, there are no attacks on her. In the Chronicles. Basically, there will be a lots of me saying probably, or maybe, or around in this episode. So apologies for all of that in advance lame, the tutors Bessie was born in about, see, I’ve already started 1498, seven years after her future lover, Henry, her parents jump Lance and Katherine partial were members of the Gentry whose families had lived in kin Latin rupture since the Norman conquest, they have been from the Yorkist, but it’s the kid that position after buzzworth thanks to the influence of Henry the seventh queen Elizabeth of York as a Blount had once been her father’s guardian. They’d been married when about the age of 10 and their marriage was the union of two very prominent, structured Gentry families.
Speaker 3: (13:35)
They grew up together as boy and wife and later then as man and wife. And it seems that they would not have consummated their marriage until the very end of the 1490s. About the time that we believe Bessie was born. Bessie was the eldest child of John and Katherine and the first of 11 children within a few days, she was christened as one would expect and was named after her great grandmother, damn Elizabeth Blount. And this is possible that she gained the nickname. Bessie now serves to be differentiated from the aging for metal matriarch of the family. She would have grown up mostly around her sisters and her mother would have supervised her upbringing and education. Catherine was an impressive woman, a dominating figure, and she was keen to pass on the fruits of the education given to her, by her parents, onto her children.
Speaker 3: (14:18)
An example of the doctrines set out by the families, the upbringing of their daughters comes in the book of the nice, the tower, a kind of medieval self help book that was printed by Caxton in 1483. It warns the dangers of strength and chastity of giving into lustful desires. It required women to regularly fast and demanded that women be demure and quiet. Most of all, women were supposed to be raised to become good pious and beautiful wives. I’m going to quote a little bit quote, all gentlemen of all conditions ought to be of retiring manners, self respectful, unassuming, small talkers. They should rejoin with diffidence nor should they be too ready to understand, or yet anxious or allow their eyes to be seen about four to end the matter. No good comes of it. Many have lost their chances through too much readiness and of whom one would have expected.
Speaker 3: (15:11)
Very other things. Clearly Bessie was not listening too hard when she was taught that last bit a female education at the time would be heavy on singing needle, working, dancing, and above all praying. We have no reason to doubt that her family good Catholics untainted by the sinews of reformation coming from the continent and indeed throughout her life, there was nothing to suggest that Betty deviated from the faith of the King, that is to say Catholic just without the Pope from the 1530s, she would have spent most of her life in and around the manner. But her family connections been that she may well have Vista court as an infant. Her grandmother was Isabelle Stanley. And this relation to the famous Lord Stanley who played such a vital part at Bosworth and her husband, Thomas clowns had connections in the early teacher cord. Her parents were present at the marriage of Prince Arthur eldest son of Henry, the seventh Elizabeth of York to Catherine of Aragon and Tofino one.
Speaker 3: (16:05)
And when the Royal couple moved to nearby Ludlow in structure, they became a fixture in their life best his great grandfather. So Richard Craft became one of the young princess key advisors. And so grandfather Thomas Blawnde was also prominent in his household. Clearly this is all about ingratiating oneself with a peach King, but sadly, all that buttering up did no good as Arthur died. Only a few months after arriving at Ludlow, the Blount family were prominent in the princess funeral and it seems the best seat would have witnessed the very solemn occasion as a very young girl. Bessie’s mother was likely one of Catherine of arrogance attendance. And so it would have played a role in consoling the farm princess. When she returned to London, Catherine partial returned to her family. This will happen in 1502 and we don’t know anything was certainty about Betty’s life until she pops up at court.
Speaker 3: (16:55)
10 years later, her parents were present at the funeral of Henry the seventh and eighth of 2009. And the new King liked her father so much that he appointed him to be one of his Spears, a kind of ceremonial buddy, God requires to be around the King of pretty much constantly given that you would continue to have children with his wife. And it’s likely that she would have been brought along and Bessie would have come along as well as at the age of 12, she was approaching the age where she could be introduced society. It seems that they were keen to win her an appointment as a maid of honor, the queen who was, of course at this time, Catherine of Aragon now to become a maid of honor, there were a few requirements you had to be well born and well connected, but also you had to be pretty, no one wants ugly people around the queen.
Speaker 3: (17:41)
It just doesn’t make for a good visual. And by that, I mean, Henry the eighth, like to be surrounded by attractive women for, you know, reasons, no portrait of Bessie survives, but she was renowned as a beauty, which means that she probably conformed the English standard of beauty at the time, which had not really change for some centuries while the standard varied in different kingdoms throughout Europe, English ladies were supposed to be pale fair haired, blue eyed and slim. The only two likenesses of her that survive are from an image by her parents tomb and her own funeral bras from that she has presented as being demure modest and with a very friendly face, especially when contrasted with her rather fierce looking sister, she was a fashionable lady wearing the rather daring French heard rather than the more conservative English one, aside from that we know very little, but this is enough so that she was pretty enough to merit an appointments for Queen’s household to do so she would have needed to patron.
Speaker 3: (18:40)
And although her father’s position is one of the Kings Spears was prestigious. She needed more than that. As there are plenty of higher born fancier girls who also wanted the job her way in was through a distant relative, the delightfully named Lord Mount joy, who was probably the man who had introduced her father to Henry the eighth, then got to him his position in the Spears by 15, 12 Bessie was the future of her family. Her brothers had died young. And so she would be the NRS for families or States that it was likely it will be split up at least a bit between her sisters as well. This men, that she was decent prospects than domestic marriage market. And this would have encouraged her relatives to get in her corner and promote her up. The patronage food chain, Mount joy was well acquainted with the queen.
Speaker 3: (19:24)
His wife was Spanish herself and has attended her ever since she had arrived in England. And he was her Chamberlain as well as master of the Royal mint. She also hadn’t her corner. Another distant relation set, Edward Darrell, who as the Queen’s face Chamberlain, which until I did the research, this I had no idea was a thing. It was also one of the King’s notes. The buddy and spear like Betty’s father getting Bessie into the Royal court was good for her, good for the family, but also good for mountain joy and Darrel personally, a small blanche. They could squeeze into the Queen’s household. The more influence they would have over a woman who at the time was a fairly significant presence in the Tudor court. Bessie achieved her aim and became a lady in waiting to queen Catherine in 1513 at the age of 14, this men that she was of marriage age and in the shop window, as it were now, of course, this new position meant that she would have to get a whole new wardrobe.
Speaker 3: (20:17)
As the King and queen were known to have very exacting standards. Address women were supposed to wear tight fitting garments on the other body and arms with the early modern equivalent of a pushup bra and spanks over that a sleeve gown and careful what we want and a full skirt, probably with a train, how would be covered with a hurt to complete this ensemble, which would have cost a pretty penny. Catherine had a lot of ladies in waiting and they were divided into four grades. They were in descending order of importance. The great ladies that ladies of the privy chamber maids of honor, and chambers now Betsy, as a woman from the Gentry and a married will be classified in the third year as a maid of honor. And this meant that she was in a totally different league from ladies like the council of Salisbury or council of Oxford who occupied the first rains.
Speaker 3: (21:03)
These ladies had their own apartments in the palace with their own households, but they also had a state store at home. And so were rarely with the queen on a day to day basis. They would turn up for the big ticket events, but not much else. The second tier ladies would be with the queen far more. And they served as her companions. Betsy was the stage below that and her tasks were far more menial, should have done a lot of fetching and carrying menial stuff really. But these positions were very much sought after, as they allowed for personal contact with the queen, when it comes to real jobs, it’s all about intimate contact. It doesn’t really matter what the job was. It was his literal proximity’s the person or the King and queen that counted. Betsy would have been one of the lowest born ladies in her rank.
Speaker 3: (21:46)
She only managed to get in because of lobbying from a powerful relatives. So now Bessie was at court and everything was appearing to be swell. And her family’s plan secure for her, a good husband, but then disaster struck, at least for her, her mother gave birth to a healthy son and then went on to give birth. The two more in succession. This meant that her main selling point is the wife that she was an heiress was swept away as that brothers, but now inherit everything. I imagine that would make for some pretty awkward family meals that said Bessie was still very attractive, educated, and the complex lady of course, and good looks and charm had been proven in the past to attract high status. Single men. Elizabeth Woodville is a great example of this. She managed to back at King for her husband, despite being of low rank.
Speaker 3: (22:33)
And even on the wrong side of the Wars of the roses Henry school at this time was a magnificent place. One farm visited. The court said about it, quote the wealth and civilization of the welder here. And those are called the English barbarians appeared to me to rent themselves such. I had perceived very elegant manners, extreme decorum, and great politeness. And amongst other things, there is this invincible King whose acquirements and UN and qualities are so many and so excellent. But I consider him to XL all. Whoever wore a crown to music I’m currently playing over this past. The episode is actually written by the cane. It’s a song called pastime with good company and is a rather jelly song about the joys of leisure and spending time with friends, the joys of youth and all that, that you did call. It was in fact full of music and Bessie would have fitted in spindly here as there is ample evidence that she was an accomplished musician as well with much the business of government left to his ministers.
Speaker 3: (23:33)
Henry undertook her life in Flesher since Duran hunting, jazz thing, feasting and dancing. And there’s a lady at the court Bessie would have attended the sporting events and participated in the feasts and dances. Most particularly the masks of which Henry it was a big fan. This was a court full of courtly. Love one where men and women would engage in highly flirtatious encounters, making promises, exchanging gifts and whispering sweet nothings to each other without necessarily a sexual relationship going on. The man was always the person to initiate these sorts of encounters. And we’ll begin by paying compliments and giving gifts. At this point, the woman is supposed to play hard, get, but not reject or refuse. The man will possess. And the woman will begin to acquiesce. The talk will become more flirtatious and eventually either things that Peter out or something more sexual would occur, who was far more common to be the former, rather than the latter.
Speaker 3: (24:28)
It was a game of subtlety and discretion. You definitely danced around issue as well, dancing around each other. And of course, all of this was intensified when it was the King with whom you were dallying, you could not give him the cold shoulder. You had to return his messages and play along with his game. It is likely that Bessie would have engaged in all of this before catching the eye of the King was in escapable. She would also spend lots of time caring for the queen during her many pregnancies and would have seen the strain that constant Feld childbearing had on the health, both physical and emotional of Catherine. She would also seen firsthand the King’s philandering, which mostly seemed to have taken place while the queen was pregnant. As sexual intercourse with the pregnant lady was seen as being bad for the health of the child.
Speaker 3: (25:12)
And eventually it was Betty’s turn to become the object. The King’s affections. Now the hugely frustrating thing about base is a failure with the King is that there is almost nothing in the sources about it. We don’t know when it started. We don’t know for sure how long it lasted. And we don’t know the nature of it is the first time that we know that the King was aware of Bessie is in a letter written by Charles brand’s. And in 1514, where he asked the King to let her know that he wants to touch right to him. In 1515, we knew that she danced so the King of new year. So whether this was the first time that this happened is entirely unknown. Later that year, he made a significant financial gift. Her father possibly signified in their favor with which he held Bessy. As other members of the space were getting the cold shoulder at this point.
Speaker 3: (25:58)
At this point, though, he already had a mistress that sort of carer and set of proponents. The one mistress Henry theory suggest that it was not until 15, 17 or so. When the gifts given to Elizabeth carers stopped marking the end of their relationship. But the problem is that at no point in Henry’s affair with Blount, is she ever given significant gifts? Like I said, this is for the moment, a very under the radar affair, whenever it started, it doesn’t really matter. The beautiful Betty blouse became the King’s mistress, the Apple of his eye. So how did this mr. Singh work? Well, what one needed was a go between someone who could add a measure of subtlety. The chief candidate for this is to William Compton, where previous, in this regard, the King’s chambers in his palaces were of course separate from that. There’s a wife who slept in separate beds and only shared them for the purpose of having sex.
Speaker 3: (26:49)
This made having an affair somewhat easier. Henry was known as a man who likes his privacy. And so he had secret staircases in his chambers, allowing Bessie to enter his rooms that people noticing and then leave when all was done. But like I said, we know almost nothing about the substance of the affair. And this is likely that we never would have heard anything about this at all. If it were not for momentous events that took place in the latter part of 15, 18, Betsy discovered that she was pregnant with the King’s child. This one, then the child would have been conceived in the autumn of that year, which was at a time when the queen Betsy is mistress. Let’s not forget let’s pregnant herself. This timeline was suggest that conception would have occurred at Greenwich palace. I felt that I present in lieu of any other juicy details about the affair.
Speaker 3: (27:34)
The history has failed to include for us. Now, of course, this was not the done thing, right? And married women were not supposed to have being, having sex with anyone, let alone caring about the child. Therefore Betsy had to leave the course, no doubt giving the queen some excuse for why she had to leave her surface for about nine months. It’s had insult to injury. The child that Catherine was carrying, it turned out to be a stillborn daughter. She would not carry another child. Again, there’s likely the Bessie went to st. Lawrence primary and assets. While she carried her child to term a stay arranged by Cardinal Woolsey, the power behind Henry’s throne. It was a quiet place away from prying eyes and gossipy mouths that I’m sure Betty’s absence from court cannot have gone unnoticed. This thing was just not that unusual. That said it was not far from the Royal residence, new hole and Henry frequently called in the future mother of his child.
Speaker 3: (28:26)
According to the Chronicle, Edward Hall, Henry servants were told quote, not to inquire where the King go with. Be it early or late in the spring of 15, 19 Bessie. Gaper to wait for it. Sorry. Yay. I’m more than that. A healthy one. The child was named after his father on his request slash demand and had amongst his godparents Thomas Woolsey. He was given the surname Fitzroy, a common one given to BAS sons of Kings. And first the birth of Henry. It was a fairly low key affair. The King would have been overjoyed about the birth of a healthy son proof at last, in his eyes that it was not his fault that his wife could not bear a healthy son, but equally he knew the value of patience. The other years of infancy were fraught with danger in this period, and there was no guarantee the child would survive.
Speaker 3: (29:16)
This is also not to forget. The boy was legitimate. So not necessarily some Indigo shouting from the rooftops about FitzWay would have been taken by a nursing team who would take care of him while Betsy remained at Blackmore to recuperate still away from the eyes of the court. The Orthodox tomb has been the after the birth of the son, the affair ended, but there is a fascinating question though, about a second child born to Bessie quite after Fitzroy as birth 1542 document talks of a daughter named Elizabeth, who was 22 at the time, meaning that she had been born in around the late spring of 1520. This would fit in with the birth of Fitzroy, just and suggest that Henry May have continued. I knew the affair with Bessie longer than previously thought. Now it is possible that she may have been approached to have a different affair that Bessie had, or even her upcoming marriage may have been taken place earlier than previously thought.
Speaker 3: (30:09)
But that seems unlikely as all the gifts and favors ground STEM started in 1522. It was also the evidence that Henry took quite a close interest in Elizabeth later in life, helping her out when she had legal trouble, granting her land and property. See, and generally paying her far more attention than one would spending to King to gift the daughter of his for a mistress. It seems to me very likely then that Henry did father a second illegitimate child, but Bessie probably on one of his visits to Blackmore, which would later gain a reputation as being a place of sinful, extramarital sex, a dumping ground for the Kings busters and mistresses. This would go against many historians. He claimed to the idea that Henry only had one bus, a child in Henry Fitzroy. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that he had actually quite a lot.
Speaker 3: (30:54)
There is considerable doubt, for example, that Mary Berlin’s two children were fathered by her husband and were instead the King’s bastards. The definite end date though for Henry ambassador’s affair is 1622. When two things happened, first, Henry began his infamous affair with Mary, but then, and second Henry audibles, he defined Bessie. Her husband, man, what was chosen was Gilbert. Tell boys, tell boys. Yes. Another hilarious surname was around the same age as Bessie and have a higher social class. His lands are based in Lincoln shirt and there are plenty of them. These were added to in an act of parliament in 1523, which announced their marriage as well as granting Gilbert quote, not only great sums of money, but also many benefits, right? Much comfort. It then says, quote, that says Elizabeth meaning Betsy of course may have hold and enjoy in terms of her life, natural, that impeachment of any waste, the lordships manners lands tenements and heredity thereafter in shearing, which be of inheritance of the said George tail boys, or Gilbert, and then goes on and on and a bit in the legal ease quotes in the city of Lincoln and the manners of Skelding thought and Bambra [inaudible] and folding worth in the County of Lincoln.
Speaker 3: (32:09)
These equipments were only so her life and would not pass to anyone else, but it was a fairly significant gift and provide a good income for Betsy for the rest of her life. Moreover, Henry continued to give land to the Capitol throughout the 1520s and Gilbert was given a variety of titles, including the position of high sheriff of Lincolnshire. In 1526. This marriage then was highly beneficial to everyone. It kept Bessie happy, which is important for Henry the eight, who didn’t want to disgruntle mistresses mouthing off it’s the best. It was a respectful marriage to a respectable man with a noble history. And for Gilbert, it was basically the Jack kept on giving. Sometimes it pays to marry the King sloppy seconds, if you’ll excuse the vulgar expression, although there were no longer having a central relationship, things remain warm between Bessie and Henry. They are known to have continued to exchange gifts at new year’s Henry’s in particular was a far more expensive one than would be expected to be given to a woman of Bessie’s position.
Speaker 3: (33:08)
But of course there is an elephant in the room that I have not been talking about for a while, and that is the child they brought into the world. And although this is a show about Betsy, I’m not Fitzroy. I will talk about him briefly. There was not much to tell for the first six years of his life, childhood was a dangerous time, but there is evidence that the King provided for him richly. He was raised in the house sort of Thomas Woolsey, but the biggest moments of his young life took place in 1525. The boy had already lived far longer than any of the Kings other sons and the King had given up on trying to have further proximity with Katherine of Aragon. At this point, it was not Henry could legitimize the boy and make him his air. Let’s not forget the entire Tudor claimed the throne was based off the legitimize bus.
Speaker 3: (33:51)
The children of John have gone with this was at the fore of Henry’s mind or not. It’s not clear, but in 1525, he elevated his son, Henry to the parish, making him Duke of Richmond. And he would like to be given a huge number of titles, including load leftenants of Ireland, water of the same ports of Nottingham and Jake of summer says this was a massive flood of titles to be given to anyone, let alone a bastard child. It had the effect of legitimizing him, and he was the only one of Henry’s bosses to be legitimized. Now these titles would normally be reserved to the King’s air. And this is possible. This was all about punishing his wife, the actions of our nephew, emperor, Charles, the fifth who have backed out of marrying his daughter, Mary Fitzroy was now the highest ranking person that she had a court exception, the King and queen.
Speaker 3: (34:38)
And it seems clear to me that he was preparing for perhaps nominating him as successor over his daughter. Mary is rich landholdings provided for a huge household and everything was going swimmingly. A high status marriage was in mind for him. The while there was still the chance that Henry might have another son. The crown because of Europe were low, take a punt on Fitzroy. It was moved to apartments, close to the King and accompanied him on foreign trips and eventually married Mary Howard, which one, not being a foreign marriage was still a pretty good match. Henry though never did officially recognize Fitzroy as his heir, especially as after his divorce. He had high hopes of siring children with Amber Lynn, but it was very likely that he was the King’s banker, his backup option. Unfortunately in 1536, he used to come to an infection and died throughout his short life.
Speaker 3: (35:28)
It seems that Betsy had little contact with her son from the moment that she had given him up to Woolsey. And later the King Fitzroy became very much a warden of the state and no humble. The son that said Bessie is known to have had contacts within his household. There are no records of them spending time together, but it is possible. They retain the correspondence. Is there a letter surviving between her as his tutor, which suggested Bessie had two further children with Gilbert, George and Robert, both of whom were born near the beginning of their marriage. And it seems that they shed a happy time as man and wife Gilbert died in 1513, leaving Bessie as a wealthy widow. And it was not long before she remarried at this time to another wealthy Lincoln to landowner Edward Kenton with him, she would have three daughters.
Speaker 3: (36:14)
What has been suggested that she became a lady in waiting to Anne of Cleves. It appears more likely that it was in fact, her mother-in-law that did that. And not her in 1539, after a few years of Duchy health Bessie died at the age of 42. While the cause of death has not known, it’s quite likely that it was in childbirth and keeping with the theme of the show. We have no idea why she died, where her funeral was or where she was buried. And that really is the end of her story. So what to make of Bessie Blount, she has gone down in history as Henry’s most important mistress, but that really is purely down to the fact that she was the first woman to bet him the son, indeed, if it were not for that, we never would have known that they had an affair.
Speaker 3: (36:57)
The paucity of the number of gifts made to her during their affair compared to Amber Lynn family suggests that she was just one woman amongst many for the King. But all that changed when Henry Fitz Ray was born, his birth was a huge moment in the life of the kingdom. And indeed one could argue the history of Europe, as it proved to Henry that he could have a son. It proved in his eyes, if he could only choose a better candidate to be the mother of his children, then he could produce the heir to the throne that he had always wanted. There are many, many, many other factors that led to Henry’s divorce, some Katherine of arrogant and the break with Rome. But Fitzroy was a piece of the puzzle. Indeed. If things had turned out differently, best he could have ended up being a queen mother, as Henry seems reviewed fits Royce as backup air, who was treated with far greater distinction, generosity and kindness, the Mary aura, this birth where, and if it were not for his untimely death.
Speaker 3: (37:49)
And of course the later birth of Prince Edward, the future Edward, the sex, then we could have had a Henry of the ninth. Of course, this is all if buts and maybes, but really that is the story of Bessie. In a nutshell, she was probably her mediates, longest lasting mistress, a great achievement in of itself, given Henry’s one for fungi. But again, we don’t know for sure, we have to reconstruct a line through fragments and make a ton of educated assumptions to piece together a life for her. But I think there is no doubt that she was a fairly remarkable woman. The life that she led was no doubt, strongly influenced by men first by half father, then by load Mount join, enter Darrell who got her into Queensland sold. And then by the King, it, after that, she became her own woman. We did not last long in the Tudor court, unless you had something about you. Henry did not just chase after pretty Scouts, especially not in his younger years. He was attracted to beautiful women. Yes, but also intelligent and refined women. People who could engage with him intellectually for Bessie to last so long in its affections. And to have two children with him shows her caliber. She was one of many mistresses, but perhaps she was the first amongst these equals. And although she suffice in the record, thanks to flicker biology, she deserves to be remembered.
Speaker 1: (39:05)
Thank you so much, James, for putting together such an interesting and thorough episode, I really learned a lot and I enjoyed it and I appreciate it. So for links to James, his site, and to subscribe to the Queens of England podcast, everything like that, remember to go to England, caste.com and I will hook you up next week. We’re going to have another guest episode. This one, it’s from the guise of the reconsidered podcast, the gentlemen of the reconsidered podcast. And it’s going to be on Richard the third and how he has been portrayed throughout the Tudor period and beyond Shakespeare fun, things like that. Then after that, we’re going to have the tutor times person of the month interview. And then I’ll be back on my regular schedule in October. Thanks so much for listening everybody. I will speak with you soon. Bye. Bye
Speaker 3: (40:00)
[inaudible].
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop.
She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 30 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history (how exciting when she got to interview Alison for the first time!). In addition to history, she is passionate about travel, and has lived in 3 countries and 4 states (not counting her perpetual state of confusion), and her family (who help her host her YouTube channel occasionally).
