BESSIE BLOUNT

BESSIE BLOUNT

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Elizabeth Blount, commonly known as Bessie, was a mistress of Henry VIII of England.

Little is known of Bessie's early years, we don't know the date of her birth, we don't know the date of her death, and we can't even be sure what she looked like ~ except for her reputation as a beauty ~ and for her famous affair with King Henry VIII.

As a young girl, she came to the King's Court as a maid-of-honour to the King's wife, Katharine of Aragon.

It was there that the young woman caught the eye of the King and became his mistress.

Bessie was Henry's ideal woman ~ young, beautiful, intelligent, acquiescent, well raised, musical, an enthusiastic rider and a graceful dancer.

While Katharine remained his wife, Henry was no longer deeply in love with her, and tired of her failings to give him a male heir.

In a very short time, Bessie Blount came to mean everything to him.

Their relationship continued for about eight years.

On 15th June 1519, she bore the King an illegitimate son, who was named Henry FitzRoy, later created Duke of Richmond and Somerset, and Earl of Nottingham.

He was the only illegitimate son of Henry VIII whom the King acknowledged as his own.

After the child's birth, the affair ended.

Soon after the birth of his son, the King began an affair with Mary Boleyn.

Like Bessie, Mary was never formally recognised as the King's mistress, and the position of Kings Official Mistress was never offered by Henry to anyone but Anne Boleyn, who rejected it!

In 1522, Bessie entered an arranged marriage with Gilbert Tailboys, 1st Baron Tailboys of Kyme, and did not figure much in the Tudor Court after that.

Lord Tailboys died in 1530, and left her a widow of comfortable means.

By her marriage to Tailboys, she had three further children, two sons, George and Robert, and one daughter, Elizabeth.

Next she married Edward Clinton or Fiennes, 9th Baron Clinton, thus becoming Elizabeth Fiennes.

They were married some time between 1533 and 1535, and this union produced three daughters.

On 23 July 1536, Bessie and King Henry's son, Henry FitzRoy died, probably of tuberculosis, he was just seventeen.

Bessie then became a lady-in-waiting to Henry's fourth wife, Anna of Cleves, but due to her own health problems she left the Queen's service around the time the royal marriage was dissolved, and did not serve Anne's successor, Catherine Howard.

Bessie returned to her husband's estates, where she died shortly afterwards, sometime in 1539.

It has traditionally been asserted, that the cause of her death was consumption.

Being the mother of the Kings recognised illegitimate Son, Bessie was certainly more important than any other mistress the king had.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Blount

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https://ko-fi.com/thetudorintruders

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Ruta Gedmintas as Bessie in 'The Tudors'