Alice Perrers, Mistress of Edward III

Above: A fictional depiction of Alice Perrers attending the deathbed of her lover, King Edward III.

History abounds with the names of those who enchanted kings and became their mistresses. They were the stars at the centre of royal courts, they basked in favour, they were present at every social gathering, dazzling and enchanting onlookers, captivating observers and inspiring awe, envy, devotion and hatred. Whether for a night or a month, a year or a decade, these women were privy to their royal lovers' secrets and enjoyed informal influence at the heart of power. Whether they were motivated by wealth, ambition, love or goodwill, or whether they were coerced, depends entirely on circumstance.

One royal mistress who has traditionally been seen as motivated solely by blind, grasping ambition, is the legendary lover of Edward III, one of England's greatest medieval kings: Alice Perrers. For the last decade of the ageing king's life, Alice was his confidant, his bedfellow, his friend and his companion. She became a byword for promiscuity, arrogance, and greed. Loathed by commons and courtiers alike, but beloved of the king, Alice's story exemplifies the dazzling opportunities presented to those who captured the heart of their monarch.


Above: An artistic rendition of the relationship between Edward and Alice.

Alice's origins were humble, and at her birth no-one could have guessed that she would one day become mistress of a king. Her birth date is unknown, although it has been suggested that she was born around 1348. She was probably the daughter of Sir Richard Perrers of Hertfordshire, who was thrown into prison in 1350 (when his daughter may have been only two years of age) and outlawed nine years later, following a dispute with the abbey of St. Albans. Given-Wilson contends that the Perrers family's hostile relations with the abbey could account for the virulent hatred later directed towards Alice in the chronicle of Thomas Walsingham, who was chronicler at St. Albans. He disparaged her, describing her as ugly and claimed that she only enchanted Edward through sorcery and magic: a common explanation in the Middle Ages for beautiful women who captured the heart of kings. Elizabeth Wydeville is an obvious example of this.

At an unknown date, Alice arrived at court and served in the household of Queen Philippa of Hainault, the respected and matronly queen of Edward III. Around 1364, when she may have been only sixteen years of age (the king was fifty-two), she seems to have become Edward's lover. For the next five years, their relationship was secret and veiled. Only when Philippa died in 1369 did Alice's affair with the king become more conspicuous, and it aroused bitter envy and hatred at court. Alice acquired numerous favours from the king and she soon became an extremely wealthy lady. Her doting lover bestowed upon her property and even jewels belonging to the late queen. She became known as 'The Lady of the Sun' and courtiers were expected to behave respectfully towards her.

Alice's power soon became legendary, and it is possible that she inspired fear. She engaged in a series of enfeoffments-to-use and other land transactions, and Walsingham reported that Alice 'had such power and eminence in those days that no-one dared to prosecute a claim against her'. How credible this assertion is cannot be known with certainty. Alice may have been ambitious, she may have been grasping, she may even have been a calculating and cold-hearted opportunist who manipulated the ailing king into granting her unheard of wealth and status at a court that brimmed with spite and loathing of her. But it is also true that it was common practice for high-status women to be attacked as a way of besmirching the name of kings. No-one would have dared to attack Edward III; the easiest way of criticising him was through slandering his mistress. Hostile allegations directed against Alice, therefore, should be taken with a pinch of salt. In any case, who can blame her if she did take advantage of Edward's devotion? She was of humble birth and experienced limited opportunities. Being the king's mistress offered her access to wealth, luxury and security that she probably never dreamed she would ever have the luck of possessing.


Above: King Edward III.

Alice attracted scandal and caused controversy during her years at the centre of English politics. At the Good Parliament of 1376, it came to light that she was not, in fact, a single woman. Some years previously, she had been married to Sir William Windsor, a Westmorland knight. Alice was subsequently banished from court as part of the reforms instituted by those hostile to the way the country was being run. At a later date, she returned. Her besotted royal lover had been pining for her. She remained with him until his death in 1377, when Walsingham claimed that she coldly seized the rings from her royal lover's fingers. Alice had three children by Edward III: John de Southeray (1364-83), who married Mary, half-sister of Henry Lord Percy; Jane; and Joan. 

Later that year, in the new reign, Alice was accused in Parliament of corruption. Although she asserted her innocence, she was found guilty, and was convicted and sentenced to banishment from the kingdom and forfeiture of all her lands and goods. Evidence from inquisitions confirms that she held land in 15 counties: an insight into the extraordinary power and position Alice had acquired during her years as the king's mistress. Alice was clearly a resourceful and determined woman, for she refused to go down without a fight. She spent the remaining years of her life trying to recover as much as possible of what she had been deprived of in the 1377 Parliament. Her husband initially helped her, but his death in 1384 brought new problems, both because he died in debt to the crown and because he had enfeoffed all his lands to a group of trustees, rather than to his wife. The trustees refused to let Alice have the lands, claiming that it had been her late husband's wish that the lands go to his nephew, John Windsor. Alice fell into bitter conflict with John, and sent several petitions to Parliament. She was briefly successful in 1393 when John was imprisoned, but he was later released, and she recovered only a few small manors that were of little worth. She was clearly resentful that her nephew by marriage had 'usurped' her lands. Alice died in the winter of 1400-1, her will being proved in February of 1401.

Alice Perrers was a woman who caused considerable controversy. We lack details surrounding the most basic aspects of her life: her birth date, her appearance, her personality. Most of what we know about her derives from hostile sources that viewed her as to blame for Edward III's mismanagement in the later years of his long reign. She was defamed as arrogant, power-hungry, ruthless, greedy, acquisitive and grasping. How true this assessment is cannot be known with certainty. She occupied an important place in the literature of the age. It has been suggested that she served as the living prototype of the Wife of Bath in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and less favourably, William Langland's Lady Mede -  a selfish, materialistic and immoral high-status woman - in Piers Plowman may have been based on her. But perhaps Alice has been too quickly condemned and too easily reviled. She may have been an opportunist, but it is understandable why she took advantage of Edward III's devotion. She was not of high birth and would have been well aware that her opportunities in life were limited. Who can blame her if she became enamoured with power and dazzled by riches? Most other women of her social standing probably would have done the same. Alice Perrers is well known as one of the most famous royal mistresses, but her reputation remains decidedly unfavourable: perhaps, in this age, we should afford her the benefit of the doubt and view her actions somewhat less moralistically and somewhat more sympathetically.

Bessie Blount: Henry VIII's True Love?

Above: Portrait of an unknown woman, c.1525, possibly of Bessie Blount.

We are obsessed with Henry VIII's women. To date, at least two books (by Kelly Hart and Philippa Jones) have been published about Henry's loves, and numerous books have been published about his infamous six wives, including by respected Tudor historians such as David Starkey, Professor David Loades and the bestselling Alison Weir. Anne Boleyn is the subject of numerous biographies every year, and historians and writers are increasingly turning their attention to the less famous women he was involved with, including Mary Boleyn (following the success of Philippa Gregory's 2001 novel The Other Boleyn Girl), Jane Seymour and Katherine Howard.

Bessie Blount has long been an important name in accounts of Henry VIII's love affairs. We know that he was involved with at least eight women in the course of his fifty-five year life, including his six wives and at least two named mistresses, Mary Boleyn and Bessie herself. But was Bessie the great love of his life, at least during the fading years of his marriage to first wife Katherine of Aragon? She was certainly prominent as the mother of his only acknowledged bastard son Henry Fitzroy (1519-1536). But after her affair with the king Bessie faded into obscurity. 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.


Above: Mary Boleyn was probably Henry VIII's mistress for a considerably shorter time than her predecessor Bessie Blount.
Anne Boleyn - Henry's passion for Anne would of course surpass any feelings held for Bessie.

Bessie Blount was probably born by 1500 to Sir John Blount and Katherine Pershall in Shropshire. Her father was a loyal servant to the Tudors, a fact that probably proved of considerable importance in Bessie's career, for his loyalty to the crown perhaps offered an opportunity for his daughter to become a maiden to Katherine of Aragon, consort of Henry VIII. Bessie had arrived at court by 1514, aged about fourteen, and it seems that she had soon caught the eye of the young king. Beverley Murphy, in her article about Bessie published in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, relates that Bessie had arrived at court by the end of March 1512. Since maidens usually had to be aged a minimum of thirteen years to serve a queen or high-ranking noblewoman, she must have been born by 1499 the latest. Her beauty has often been commented on, but as no surviving portrait exists of Bessie (the portrait at the top of this article may be of her), it is impossible to verify. In 1529, she was confirmed to be more beautiful than Henry's new love, Anne Boleyn. Since Anne's darkness may have served as a reason why she was not considered more attractive, one could surmise from this that Bessie was more conventionally attractive in terms of her appearance; and so might have been blonde or at least fair.

Bessie was particularly renowned for her skill in music and dancing, two social graces that were considered essential to young women at court hoping to attract a prestigious marriage and enhance their family's fortunes. The king danced with the teenage Bessie at the New Year celebrations of 1514. At some point, he took her as his mistress. What their relationship is like is impossible to comment on. Murphy contends that 'the lack of any concurrent references suggests that their... affair was short-lived'. Perhaps, it is time to revise the long-held view, perpetuated in TV, film and historical novels, that Henry VIII enjoyed romantic liaisons with women such as Bessie and Mary Boleyn. Alison Weir, for example, in her 2011 biography of Mary, contends that her relationship with Henry was hardly the true love story depicted in The Other Boleyn Girl. Like Mary, it is possible that Bessie's affair with Henry was brief and of little importance.

In June 1519, Bessie delivered the twenty-eight year old king a bastard son, Henry Fitzroy. He was later created Duke of Richmond and Somerset and Earl of Nottingham, prestigious titles that infuriated the humiliated Queen Katherine of Aragon, who may have perhaps identified him as a threat to her three-year old daughter Princess Mary. There were later rumours, almost certainly false, that the king planned to marry his bastard to his daughter. Certainly Bessie's son proved that Henry could sire sons, and established, in his mind at least, that the fault lay with the queen for his lack of a legitimate male heir. 


Above: Henry Fitzroy, bastard son of Henry VIII and Bessie Blount.

By September of that same year Bessie had been married off to Gilbert Tailboys, which Murphy contends was a reward for Bessie because Gilbert was a ward of the crown. Bessie was granted property worth £200 per annum for life and the couple had three children once settled down in Lincolnshire: Elizabeth (born about 1520), George, and Robert. Between 1522 and 1539 Bessie continued to receive grants from the king. Gilbert died in 1530. At this time, of course, Henry was besotted by Anne Boleyn, and so did not consider taking the widowed Bessie as his wife, a move which would have legitimated his son Henry.

Bessie's role in her son's upbringing is uncertain, although records indicate that she made regular gifts to him, including a doublet and two horses in 1531. A letter of hers to his tutor John Palsgrave survives, which perhaps 'suggests that her involvement in the duke's upbringing was greater than has been generally allowed'. (Murphy) By 1535, Bessie had remarried. Her husband was Edward Fiennes de Clinton, who later became first earl of Lincoln. Bessie delivered three more daughters: Bridget, Katherine, and Margaret. However, misfortune struck Bessie in 1536 when her seventeen-year old son Henry Fitzroy died. It was a grievous blow and the king may have been profoundly affected by it, coming as it did two months after Queen Anne's execution. Henry had hinted that he believed his late wife had poisoned both the duke and his daughter Mary.

Bessie later served as lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves but ill-health prevented her from serving Anne's successor Katherine Howard. She died sometime between January 1539 and June 1541, aged probably in her early forties. As Karen Lindsey comments, Bessie's relative importance is negligible contrasted with the importance of Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, but she was certainly more significant than any of Henry's other mistresses including Mary Boleyn, in that she delivered his only known bastard son who was, at once point, perhaps considered by the king as a possible heir to the throne. 

What Bessie's personal relationship with the king was like is impossible to say with certainty. Perhaps she enjoyed a romantic relationship with him that lasted several years, or perhaps it was a brief interlude following on the heels of his increasing disillusionment with Katherine of Aragon and occurring shortly before his involvement with the Boleyn women. But the king certainly appears to have valued her, especially since he continued bequeathing her gifts during her later life and allowing her to be involved in her son's upbringing. Bessie certainly enjoyed a more fortunate career than some of Henry's other women, for she married twice, bore several children, enjoyed relative wealth and prosperity, and lived to what would be viewed in the Tudor period as a good age. Fortunately for her, it was not her fate to be discarded, divorced, rejected, or beheaded.