Henry VIII is best known for being a King who had six wives, two of whom were executed
inside the walls of the Tower of London.
But despite his turbulent love life, he also had a number of mistresses who he would sleep
with.
Anne Boleyn’s sister even was the King’s mistress before she married him, but much
of Henry’s failings in his married life came from his desire to have a son and a male
heir.
He was obsessed with the need for a male heir to succeed him, but what is less known is
the fact he actually had a son before Jane Seymour his third wife gave birth to Edward
VI.
Henry Fitzroy was the King’s illegitimate son who many historians believe was being
groomed to possibly be the King’s successor and he could one day have been King Henry
IX.
(9th) However he would die at a young age, but who was his mother and who was the woman
who slept with the notorious Tudor King?
Bessie Blount was the daughter of Sir John Blount, who was a loyal servant to he royal
family and he was part of Henry VIII’s entourage when he went to France to wage war against
King Louis XII.
The Blount family were wealthy, but they did not hold too much power across Tudor society,
and little is known about Bessie’s early years.
She was known though for being a woman of great beauty and of good looks, and she was
mostly known for her affair with the King.
Henry VIII was 7 years older than her, and she came to the royal court as a maid of honour
to Catherine of Aragon.
Henry’s eye was always caught by the ladies in waiting of his wives, and this was a hunting
ground for royal mistresses for the Tudor King.
She became the King’s mistress around 1514, and she would sleep with the King for a number
of years.
Many father’s and husbands even encouraged their wives to try and sleep with the King
as it was believed that they would get reward for this, and Bessie Blount’s father would
be given more prestige from her antics with the King.
Her relationship lasted a long while when compared to other royal mistresses, showing
that Henry VIII must have not become tired and bored of her.
He was known for discarding his mistresses after short lived flings, but Bessie Blount
stood the test of time.
But on the 15th June 1519, she gave birth to the King’s illegitimate son who was named
Henry Fitzroy.
She had been sent to a convent to give birth away from the eyes of the Queen, but Henry
then recognised Fitzroy.
The child had been conceived whilst the Queen was approaching her last confinement, and
to avoid scandal she was taken to a priory where Bessie gave birth.
But Henry VIII was shockingly greatly proud of this illegitimate son.
Throughout the centuries Kings often did not accept them, but Henry had the newborn son
christened Henry Fitzroy, or son of the King.
Henry VIII would bring his son to the court and would show him off and proudly parade
him, and the boy’s upbringing was rather interesting.
Despite being illegitimate, he grew up in a number of royal households, and he was raised
alongside his half siblings.
At the time of his birth the only surviving legitimate child of Henry VIII was Mary, the
latter Bloody Mary I, and it’s believed that Fitzroy was given some education in the
royal nurses.
He was described as ‘My Lord Henry,’ suffusing he was close to the King and was of very noble
birth.
Bessie Blount Fitzroy’s mother would later marry Gilbert Tailboys, the 1st Baron Tailboys
of Kyme, and he may have been raised further north at some point.
But despite being on the throne for 16 years, Henry VIII had not produced a legitimate male
heir, so he began to force Henry Fitzroy into a position of power.
In 1525, the boy was given his own residence in London, and was brought up in comfort and
in style in royal palaces.
He was then part of a huge ceremony in which he was bestowed a number of honours and titles,
and he was made the Duke of Richmond and Somerset.
These titles had previously been held by Henry VII, the father of the King showing that Henry
VIII was trying to legitimise his illegitimate son, to possibly one day make him the King.
The ceremony to bestow the honours upon him were huge, and Bessie Blount was present there
it’s believed.
Henry Fitzroy would later be made the Lord leftenant of Ireland, and there were plans
drawn up to crown him the King of Ireland.
But Fitzroy travelled with the King even to France, and there were plans to marry him
to his own half sister Mary to strengthen his claims to the throne.
But later he married Lady Mary Howard, the daughter of the 3rd Duke of Norfolk and this
was negotiated by Anne Boleyn.
But Fitzroy would witness her execution, but in July 1536 he was ill from consumption of
tuberculosis.
He died inside of St James Palace on the 23rd July 1536, which it’s believed devastated
Henry VIII.
Plans for his funeral were drawn up, and today he is laid to rest in a huge ornate tomb in
Framingham Church in Suffolk.
But Bessie Blount would outlive her son.
As mentioned she had entered an arranged marriage with Gilbert Tailboys.
His family were believed to have had a history of mental instability, but following the marriage
she seemed to have a reduced role inside of the royal court.
She was not involved in the day to day running of the monarchy, and there was a comment made
about her in 1529 when a palace priest said she was better looking than Anne Boleyn.
But Bessies’ husband died also in 1530 leaving her a comfortable widow, and she helped to
support her three other children, her two sons named George and Robert and her daughter
Elizabeth.
Bessie Blount following her husband’s death was considered a catch as Leonard Gray attempted
to marry her, but then she married a younger man whose lands bordered hers.
But she returned to the Tudor court and she was a lady in waiting to Anne of Cleves, the
disastrous fourth wife of Henry VIII her former lover.
She was not by this time a royal mistress, but as she was not very well she left the
service of the Queen when the marriage was dissolved, and she did not serve Catherine
Howard, Henry’s fifth wife.
But shortly after July 1540, Bessie Blount died.
It’s believed that she died from tuberculosis, but she was around 40 when she died.
She had led an interesting life in which she was close to the royal court, and she did
something that only one of the King’s other wives would manage to do.
She gave the King a son, and Henry it’s believed was very impressed with Bessie Blount.
She was the longest standing royal mistress, and she was the mother of the King’s only
acknowledged illegitimate child.
Bessie’s son could have been the successor and legal heir to the notorious Tudor Monarch,
but Bessie had very little to do with her son’s upbringing as she was the mother of
such an important child.
But she was a woman who was very important to the notorious Tudor King Henry VIII, and
she was the mother of the possible King Henry IX.
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