Elizabeth Blount
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Elizabeth Blount (c. 1502 - 1540), who was better known by her nickname of "Bessie," best known as a royal mistress to Henry VIII of England, was the daughter of Sir John Blount of Shropshire, a knight living in the reign of Henry VII of England, the first Tudor King of England. John Blount was a loyal, if unremarkable, servant to the royal family and he accompanied Henry VIII to France in 1513 when the king waged war against Louis XII.
[edit] Notoriety
Little is known of Bessie, except for her having a reputation of being remarkably beautiful, and for her famous affair with Henry VIII. As a young girl, she came to the Royal court of Henry as a maid of honour to his wife, Catherine of Aragon. It was there that she caught the eye of the king and quickly became his mistress, sometime around 1517, at age 15.
Their relationship lasted for some length of time, compared to Henry's other affairs which were generally short-lived. On June 15, 1519, Bessie bore the king an illegitimate son who was named Henry Fitzroy, later created a duke. After that, the affair was basically ended for reasons unknown. Soon after, the king's attentions fell upon Lady Mary Boleyn, who later became the wife of courtier Sir William Carey. Mary Boleyn then replaced Blount, and was recognized as the king's official mistress for a period of a couple of years, continuing her relationship with him even after her marriage, before she was replaced by her sister, Anne Boleyn. For proving that Henry was not infertile when it came to the production of Royal sons, Elizabeth Blount prompted a popular saying - 'Bless 'ee, Bessie Blount', often heard during and after this period, and persists today in some social quarters of England.
Bessie was married-off through an arranged marriage to Lord Gilbert Tailboys, who rumours reported to be the son of a madman. After that she does not figure much into the affairs of the Tudor monarchy. In 1529, a palace chaplain remarked that Bessie was better-looking than Henry's fiancée, Anne Boleyn.
On June 18, 1536 her son died, probably of consumption. Her husband, Lord Gilbert, also preceded her in dying, leaving Bessie a widow. She was later remarried to Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln. Their only known daughter, Katherine Clinton (known to have been buried on August 14, 1621) was later wife to William Burgh, 2nd Lord Burgh (c. 1522 - September 10, 1584) and mother to Thomas Burgh, 3rd Lord Burgh (c. 1558 - October 14, 1597).
Henry had already gone through marriages to Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves and the teenage Catherine Howard by the time Bessie died in 1540. Legend has it Bessie died of consumption, the same disease that had killed her son.
