Elizabeth Blount
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Elizabeth Blount, better known as Bessie Blount (c. 1502 - 1540).
Elizabeth, better known by her nickname of "Bessie," 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 whenever the king waged war against Louis XII.
Little is known of Bessie, except for reputed beauty and her famous affair with Henry VIII. The young girl came to the Royal court of Henry as a maid of honour to his wife, Katherine of Aragon. It was there that she caught the eye of the king and quickly became his mistress, sometime around 1517.
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 over and soon after the king's attentions fell upon the recently-married Lady Mary Boleyn, wife of courtier William Carey.
Bessie was married-off to Lord Gilbert Tailboys, who rumours reported to be the son of a madman. After that she does not figure much in the affairs of the Tudor monarchy. In 1529, a palace chaplain remarked that Bessie was better-looking than Henry's fiancée, Anne Boleyn. The latter, although considered pretty, was not judged a great beauty by Tudor standards. Bessie and Lady Mary Boleyn are the only two of Henry's mistresses to be popularly remembered. Although others did exist, those affairs lasted for a much shorter period of time. On June 18, 1536 her son died.
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.