Who was BESSIE BLOUNT? Henry VIII’s mistress | Elizabeth Blount | Tudor history documentary

Henry VIII’s MOST SUCCESSFUL MISTRESS (in my view) was a teenage girl called Elizabeth Blount, also known as Bessie Blount. A lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon, she had a relationship with the King in 1518 which resulted in a pregnancy. In June 1519 she gave birth to their son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset. Henry did not resume his relationship with her and she was quickly married off to Gilbert Tailbois, Baron Tailbois, by whom she had three additional children. When he died in 1530, she was a sought-after bride but refused at least one suitor and ultimately married (between 1532 and early 1535) a much younger man named Edward Fiennes de Clinton, Baron Clinton and Saye, later Earl of Lincoln. She had another three daughters by him and died herself between 1539 and 1541, several years after the death of her illegitimate son, who had passed away in 1536.

Why do I think she was so successful as a mistress to Henry VIII? There are several reasons; because she gave him a son, because Henry didn’t marry her, because she remained on good terms with him for the rest of her life and because she escaped his clutches with her head on her shoulders, two favourable marriages of her own and a comfortable existence. As she saw how Henry VIII treated the other women in his life, she must surely have been grateful for that.

In this week’s Tudor history documentary I tell you all about the life of this elusive figure, from her background, to her time at the royal court, her relationship with her eldest son, her marriages, her interactions with Henry after their relationship had concluded and finally, her death. This is the story of the mistress who got away.

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LEARN MORE:
Elizabeth Norton, Bessie Blount: Mistress to Henry VIII (2013)
https://amzn.to/3xMQhXu
Beverley A. Murphy, B**stard Prince: Henry VIII's Lost Son (2004)
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Robert Hutchinson, Young Henry: The Rise of Henry VIII (W&N, 2012). https://amzn.to/3mu5liP
David Starkey, Henry: Virtuous Prince (Harper Press, 2008). https://amzn.to/39y2jVK
Giles Tremlett, Catherine of Aragon: Henry’s Spanish Queen (London, 2010)
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Eric Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005)
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[FREE] Norton, Elizabeth, ‘Elizabeth Blount of Kinley: an image of Henry VIII’s mistress identified’ in Shropshire History and Archaeology: Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society, lxxxiv (2011), pp 21-6.
This is an article on the tomb monument to Bessie’s parents and includes images of a likely statue of Bessie.
https://shropshirearchaeologyhistory.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/shropshire-transactions-vol.-84_sm.pdf

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The Tudors, season 4
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Henry VIII and his Six Wives (2016 docu-drama)
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THUMBNAIL: Ruta Gedmintas as Bessie Blount in The Tudors, season 1, ep. 2. Showtime (2007). Fair Use

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