History’s Most Infamous Mistress D
as mistress to King Henry VII and the only one to give him a healthy son Bessie Blount influenced the most powerful man in the world but her end was truly disgraceful Elizabeth Bessie Blount was built for her dubious Destiny from the start born around 1498 in the Sleepy County of shopshire her father Sir John Blount was very close with King Henry VII and even accompanied him on campaign in France but as Bessie grew up she started to gain Royal Intimacy in a very different way as a young girl one thing was clear to everyone who knew her Bessie was a looker she had a reputation around town as a great Beauty and although no contemporary portraits survived of her today she is often depicted with a pale Lively complexion and a full mouth regardless her parents intended to use her good looks for all they were worth Bessie and Her Mother Catherine were likely tight-knit for a pretty unlikely reason they were very close in age
Catherine had married when she was just 10 years old and gave birth to her daughter Bessie when she was around 16 not exactly a mature role model for Bessie which could explain why her life turned out so scandalously when little Bessie was just 12 years old her fate came knocking on her front door her ambitious parents carted her off to become a maid of honor to the Spanish Queen Catherine of Aragon King Henry VII’s first wife it was an incredibly competitive and desirable position so you might think Bessie would be grateful for the opportunity that’s not what happened very few people know just how grueling the process was to become a royal lady in waiting desie had to pass tests in Beauty Grace and good manners to sank the rule but she blew all the quarters out of the water with her new girl energy she was especially renowned for her skill in music and dancing so it didn’t take long before she caught King Henry’s eye according to one historian Bessie was as close to King Henry’s
ideal woman as you could get she was young beautiful and intelligent as well as Lively and physically fit Queen Catherine of Aragon however was nearly a decade older than Bessie she was also practical and extremely Pious as it turned out this was a recipe for trouble we know almost exactly when and where King Henry first became smitten with Bessie at a court mask in 1514 during Henry’s Reign these costume masks were sights of carinal frenzy and Bessie’s sensual skills on the Dance Floor attracted the strapping King however there was one big problem but it might not be what you think yes Bessie was under the employ of Henry’s Royal wife but that’s actually not even the most awkward part about their diance according to historian Filipa Jones the real problem was that Henry was head over heels for Bessie and his passion threatened to spill out for all the courts to see you see Kings Were Meant to keep their Affairs discreet so he had
to resort to Desperate Measures Henry kept his relationship with Bessie under lock and key and he’ gotten very good over the years at keeping his bedroom robs secret there was however one clue to the truth in July of 1514 Henry sent Bessie’s father a tidy sum of 146 lb equivalent to over $200,000 today this sugar daddy move sounds a little gross but it gets a lot worse than that according to some historians estimations when the 23-year-old King King Henry met and romanced Bessie she was actually 13 years old in fact when you consider that tutor diets weren’t the healthiest and many women had late onset puberty it’s very likely that Bessie was basically a child when she met the king however Henry’s courtship at the time was dialed up to 11 and he did not hold back on his new Teenage Crush playing the role of chivalrous Knight he likely sent the young girl poetic love letters and gave her expensive gifts and treats for her
pleasure how could any tween resist too bad it all eventually went sour besides Henry’s undying passion for Bessie there was another reason their relationship was remarkable generally Kings took mistresses who were already married so that if she happens to get pregnant they could always pass the baby off as her husband’s child Bessie had no such protection and it would all come back to haunt her now Bessie kind of lucked out with King Henry VII at least when it came to the looks Department although the king infamously grew obese and sickly in his old age Bessie had him for his hot years when he was athletic Lively and intelligent with flaming auburn hair and a twinkle in his eyes because Bessie was so close to Catherine of Aragon she had a front row seat to the disaster that was the royal marriage King Henry was desperate for a son yet Catherine kept having miscarriages then when Catherine finally had a healthy baby in 1516 it was a girl the future Queen Mary of England Henry began to worry he’d never have a son and you can
bet Bessie used this to her advantage while Catherine of Aragon was going through Purgatory trying to please Henry Bessie was living the High Life their Affair continued for years more than any of his other Dianes so while Henry was disappointed in his newborn daughter Mary he went crying about it in Bessie’s bedroom and then things got even more scandalous in late 1518 Bessie received an enormous shock she was pregnant and the father was none other than the king of England on a weirder note Bessie conceived with Henry around the same time that Katherine of Aragon was pregnant again with what would be yet another stillborn daughter Bessie’s fate however was much different as Catherine grieved her stillborn girl Bessie’s belly swelled happily in fact it was such a tense unseemly situation that Henry in a rare moment of good judgment had Bessie moved to a remote religious Cloister far away from the Royal Palace this was so that she could prepare for the birth in some semblance of decorum
but she wouldn’t be able to hide forever Bessie went into labor in June 1519 where Henry had his AIDS watch his mistress like a hawk and her baby shocked all in attendance it was everything Henry had been longing for a healthy baby boy and from that moment on Bessie’s life was never the same when Bessie gave birth to little Henry Fitzroy it wasn’t just a personal Triumph it was much darker than that after Henry’s years alongside Katherine of Aragon without a male Heir Bessie proved to the king that he could have sons and that the problem must have been with Catherine herself it was the beginning of the end for Catherine and Bessie was right in the middle when Henry VII heard about his newborn son even though illegitimate he was over the moon he even named the child Henry Fitzroy a name that has multiple meanings first Henry was officially acknowledging Bessie’s child as his own secondly Fitzroy was a not so subtle way of saying son of the king just in case Katherine of Aragon missed it but
Henry’s pettiness didn’t end there Henry VII was nothing if not tacky and the way he decided to announce little Henry’s birth to the world gives new meaning to the word insensitive likely when Katherine of argon was away giving a banquet to her private Friends Henry took the opportunity to parade around his illegitimate son for all the court to see real classy but Bessie ended up getting some attention of her own because Bessie had given King Henry his long- awaited son illegitimate or not a popular saying about her persisted from the tutor period onward quote blessie Bessie Blount quote you know you’ve officially made it into the anals of history when the tavern regulars are using your name in their toasts very quickly after Bessie went through the trouble of Labor the king dealt his favorite mistress a shocking blow Henry suddenly ended their relationship the reasons behind their split are still mysterious but it might have had something to do with the fact that since Bessie had proven he could have sons
Henry no longer needed her however some historians point to even cruler reason according to one historian Bessie’s childbirth may have suddenly made Henry feel repulsed by his mistress see to the King quote babies were for wives and not for mistresses who should inhabit a more ethereal realm of chivalric fantasy quote but there may have been another Factor driving the breakup and this one is a real doozy right after King Henry pushed poor Bessie out of his revolving door of woman Mary Bolin walked in that’s right and bolin’s sister became Henry’s mistress next with Henry phasing Bessie out because of his infatuation with this other bin girl now that doesn’t mean that Bessie was done with Henry though she just had a very Twisted route back to him today we know that an Bolin became King Henry VIII’s ill-fated second wife not Bessie yet Henry’s Nobles might have been puzzled at his choosing an over Bessie an was
reportedly bewitching but according to one quser who knew both women Bessie B Blount was even more beautiful than Anne Bolin herself Henry wanted to get Bessie married off fast after their relationship cooled and set about finding her a mate but he couldn’t have picked a worse husband Bessie wed Gilbert tailboys the baron of Keem in an arranged ceremony in 1522 yet there was a chilling side to her special day Gilbert’s family had a history of insanity Bessie must have felt another cruelty when she married Gilbert it meant she had to distance herself even further from her son after all Henry Fitzroy was the acknowledged son of the king and Palace officials immediately took over his education and rearing in truth Bessie saw very little of him in the coming years and given her son’s dark end it was an absence she came to regret despite the fact that she wasn’t allowed to see much of her son Bessie definitely made every minute count she made Regular if sparse visits to Henry
Fitzroy often bringing him extravagant gifts like a dublet of White Satin and at one point two whole horses apparently Bessie’s son had inherited his parents’ love of horseback riding Bessie was supposed to settle down with Gilbert and his literally insane family and she tried her best at least At first she had three children with Gilbert and attempted to make a good go of it but tutor times were unspeakably cruel in 1530 Gilbert passed away leaving Bessie alone once more except that’s when the Wolves came knocking when she was a widow men still fell over themselves for the beautiful Bess particularly the powerful Lord Leonard gray Ray was an old man 20 years Bessie’s senior but his family was very influential and most people considered him a good match so when he came to Bessie’s door with a proposal he was shocked at her answer Bessie had been the Mistress of the king of England she was the mother of a royal child and she sure as heck knew her worth although Lord gray was stunned to
no end she welcomed him into her home only to coldly refuse his ring and his money bags instead Bessie went in a completely different direction in her Lov life the widowed Bessie had the privilege to marry for love and what a love it was she chose her second husband Baron Edward fans not for his money because he didn’t even have much but for his looks although get this Edward was at least 12 years younger than Bessie now in July 1536 fate heaped yet another devastating tragedy at Bessie’s door her son with the King Henry Fitzroy perished suddenly of a mysterious illness the king had actually been grooming the 17-year-old boy as his next possible air and now the grieving Bessie had nothing to tie her to Henry anymore but there was actually something even more tragic about her child’s demise though historians commonly believe that Henry Fitzroy perished from tuberculosis his burial hints at a more chilling
possibility King Henry VII ordered a speedy barebones Affair and even barred Bessie from attending her own son’s funeral why the secrecy some believe that Fitzroy actually succumbed to the very contagious pneumonic plague either way Bessie sadly never saw her son into the next life throughout her years away from King Henry VII’s Court Bessie watched as her former lover made an enormous fool of himself divorcing Catherine of Aragon and then marrying his shiny new mistress and Bin before beheading her in 1536 Bessie probably felt relieved she wasn’t in that hot mess anymore but that didn’t explain her next actions in 1539 Henry VII was on to wife number four and he had chosen an of cleaves for the dubious honor well our Bessie apparently just couldn’t keep her nose out of it any longer and she made a strange decision she made a triumphant return to
court as an of cleaves lady in waiting it’s never really a good idea to befriend your ex’s New Flame and this one went particularly badly Bessie Blount might have been the most cursed mistress in history Not only was she and her baby boy the death Nowell for Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon her presence didn’t do great things for Anne of cleaves either no sooner did Anne enter Henry’s Court than he was trying to divorce her and even though Henry used her and then discarded her Bessie Blount apparently Had a Heart of Gold historical records indicate that even long after their relationship ended and the King had carded her off to marry a lunatic Henry and the The Good Mistress Bess exchanged New Year’s gifts with each other around the time that she was an of cleaves lady in waiting Bessie started suffering from a mysterious ailment that was so severe it cut her employment short Bessie went back to her husband to recover and never got the chance to serve Henry’s next Queen Catherine Howard her sick leave would
prove to be fatal and mysterious by 1539 or 1540 Henry’s most important mistress Bessie Blount was dead to many historians today the best guess is that when Bessie left the Queen’s employ she was tragically suffering from the same illness that failed her own son to burcul losis or as people knew it then consumption however when Bessie passed her demise happened shortly after she gave birth to her third daughter Margaret which has led some historians to believe her end may have been even darker than tuberculosis poor Bessie may have passed either in childbirth or from complications after child birth now although Bessie plount likely made it to the relatively old Tudor age of 40 or 41 and though she had influenced one of the most powerful men in history her end was utterly disgraceful she was so shunted aside by history that even now we do not know where she’s buried now what was most interesting to you about the Bessie
story was it her mistress times with King Henry was it her insane marriage or was it the fact that she decided to come back to King Henry after he had discarded her let us know down in the comments and if you enjoyed this video make sure to hit the like button
