Customer Reviews

The Mistresses of Henry VIII

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Of late, what with the quinticentennial of the coronation of Henry VIII, King of England, there has been an influx of new histories and novels about this notorious king and his many wives. One title that stood out for me was Kelly Hart's multiple biography about the rather shadowy women that were the king's other women.

The Mistresses of Henry VIII takes a look at not just the three ladies-in-waiting that the king made first his mistresses and later his queens, but also those women who entertained him, but never acquired the status of queen. Some were mothers or possible mothers of his illegitimate children, others were there to entertain or amuse him.

Not only does Hart explore the three women who were rumoured to be the king's mistresses before he married them -- Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour and Catherine Howard -- but those whom he did not marry. At least one of them gave him a living child -- and male to boot -- Bessie Blount -- but the other was Mary Boleyn, Anne's elder sister, who may have borne him two children as well, another son and a daughter. But there were more mistresses in Henry VIII's life, including various women of the court. And this is where it gets interesting.

For sexual mores of the time had particular ideas about what was proper in a marriage when a wife was pregnant. Sex during pregnancy was considered to be harmful to both the fetus and mother, and of course, since conception had already occurred, this was sex for pleasure's sake, a big no-no when it came to the Church's teachings. And Henry, being virile and not used to abstaining in just about anything, took mistresses to fill the sexual void when his wives were pregnant. For a mistress, having a fling with a king not only could be an adventure, it could lead to quite a few gifts in terms of land and trinkets, as well as political favours to her family from a grateful king. On the flip side, being a mistress wasn't just about bouncing in a bed either -- mistresses were expected to entertain and amuse their kings, and Henry VIII had high standards for his women as well.

And Henry's Queens were expected to ignore or look the other way when it came to his mistresses. After all, they were the ones getting the glory and the status, and if it caused a few scenes between husband and wife, or between Queen and lady-in-waiting, most of the time it was a low simmer, if that. And most of Henry's mistresses were married off, or already married when the king tired of them or moved on. But when it came to Anne Boleyn, the dynamic changed. Anne famously declared that while she was not good enough to be his wife, she was certainly too good to be his mistress -- an event that drove Henry to eventually divorce his wife of many years, Katherine of Aragon, and the break with the Catholic Church. Suddenly, there was an entirely new game in Henry's court, especially when Anne got pregnant and the king turned to other women for sexual satisfaction...

I found this to be very interesting reading, from discovering about the mistresses, and possible mistresses that Henry VIII had in his marriages, to what happened to these various women after their time with the king were over. While Henry's Queens are very well covered in other books, the mistresses at best got only a slight mention in histories, and tended to be turned to fodder for light historical romances. And usually these are riddled with plenty of inaccuracies or just plain silliness.

What is most revealing here is Henry himself. Thorough these stories I could see that not only was he a man that had never denied himself anything that he wanted, he was a romantic. Henry loved to chase women, playing the part of the courtly lover, and for the time that he was with them, being theirs alone. Of course, the flip side to this was that if a woman didn't meet his standards or got above herself, royal displeasure could be great indeed -- the tale of Catherine Howard is the most obvious.

However, Kelly Hart does go out onto the fringes of history with the final theories in her story. Most glaring was that Henry was thinking about taking Katherine Willoughby, the dowager Duchess of Suffolk as his mistress and possible queen. And somehow, this just didn't sound right. This was in the final years of Henry's life, when he was married to Catherine Parr, and obesity and chronic illness had made him nearly immobile. Not just that, but the Duchess was the widow of his closest friend, Charles Brandon, and somehow, I really can't see Henry doing this. So that was the most strange part of the story.

Along with the narrative, there is an insert of black and white reproductions of paintings and drawings of some of the players in the story. There are also extensive notes, bibliography and an index. The book itself isn't very long, just over two hundred pages, and makes for quick reading.

Summing up, I enjoyed this. It revealed a new aspect to the life and reign of King Henry VIII that had been long ignored, and helped to understand some of the odd (at least to modern eyes) behaviour that he indulged in. It was also interesting to see what happened to some of Henry's mistresses after the romantic relationships ended, especially with Bessie Blount and Mary Boleyn.

Overall, about four stars. I would recommend it for those who are very interested in the early Tudor period of English history; otherwise, it's pretty obscure for general reading.

Recommended.

As a true Tudorphile, I was eager to lay my hands on a new book. Sadly, very little of this is new.

This book is, at best, a condensed version of hundreds of other books, and what is new is mostly speculative. He "may have" had a relationship with this woman, or that woman; he "may have" considered this woman or that one was a potential wife. "He may have," "might have," "though of," etc. When you're writing a non-fiction book, it's important to have facts, and not speculate. If there are no facts or documentation, then really, how do you write a speculative non-fiction book?

By no means do I defend Henry's honor. He had none. He was an lecher with a major "divine right" complex who felt anything he though or did must have been ordained by God. But he wasn't the kind of person to sneak around, and he did marry a very high number of the women he sought--of his six wives, only Anne of Cleves was a political match, and the rest of his wives were his choice.

This isn't a bad book, it's just not fresh. And it doesn't really shed any light on anything you haven't read or couldn't read elsewhere. The book is adequate. And only that.

I'd have to say that this, so far, is my favorite Tudor History book, and I have read many. It keeps the interest, and has many facts that I have never seen touched upon before regarding Henry VIII's love life & loves. You get the feeling of a more updated fresh literary style of writing with this new book too. You won't regret buying this one. I can't wait until Kelly Hart's next book! If you have never delved into Tudor history before and don't know of the characters she's speaking of, you may not enjoy it until reading a book with general info about the Tudor age & Tudor royalty first.

Kelly Hart's first book could have used a good editor. Her writing style is obscure, repetitious, and confusing and there are grammatical and historical errors ("exasperated the situation" should be "Exacerbated", and Mary Shelton is described as being a lady-in-waiting to MARY Boleyn--an appalling lapse, here). A competent editor could have polished the gems in this book and eliminated the numerous sections where information is repeated, and repeated again.
There is new information here. Other books mentioned "Madge" Shelton as a royal mistress; Ms. Hart corrects this to "Mary" and we may see the splendid Holbein portrait of one of Henry's paramours, a very interesting woman.
But Ms. Hart should issue a second edition with some emendations and corrections.

I am glad to say that after just finishing this book I found it thoroughly enjoyable. It breathed life into many of the king's women that were nameless in this account but relevant, and many that we have heard about previously but were underdeveloped in other accounts. I highly recommend it to anyone who cannot get enough to read about the Tudor period. It suggested significant insights regarding the interrelationships between Henry and his women, wives and lovers, children etc. Most books that I have previously read just graced over these facts and this book went into much appreciated depth regarding these topics. You walked away feeling you knew much more about these womens' intelligence and character than you ever knew before.

This book of Henry V111 and his mistresses is accurate and full of history and tells of mistresses that I didn't know about plus the ones like Bessie Blount and Mary Boleyn who are famous. The book flows quite well and is easy to read for a history book. I recommend it highly.

While the information in this volume seemed to be good, the author leapt about from topic to topic and time to time much too much. On one page, she discusses possible marriages for the young Duke of Richmond, mentions his father-in-law (with no mention of his bride's name at all) and then moves onto a discussion of Tudor family history. None of it seems linked together in any cohesive way. She's a good researcher, but her writing style needs work. There doesn't seem to be a plan here. It's almost as if she's merely cut and pasted all of her research and called it a chapter. If one of my students had handed this in, I would have given them a C. No plan, sloppy execution, and in dire need of a good editor. Still, fascinating stuff for any history buff of the Tudor period, provided you can connect the dots yourself and don't mind being pulled and pushed first in one direction and then another.

I've had this book on my wish list FOREVER. I've waited well over a year for this to be made into a Kindle book, and nearly fell out of my chair when I noticed it finally was. While I didn't learn anything new about Henry, this was still an enjoyable read. Ms. Hart gives the backgrounds of every mistress Henry is thought to have had, from the well know ones such as Bessie Blount, to the lesser know mistresses like Elizabeth Carew and Jane Poppincourt.

There were some parts of this book that dragged on a bit, but for the most part is was very well written and organized. The author sticks to her focus, which is the mistresses. She doesn't get sidetracked by spending too much time on the wives (save for the three who started out as mistresses) or the polices of Henry's court...this book is mainly about his lovers.

If you're not already familiar with the story of Henry VIII and the background of the main women in his life, you may want to skip this book, or read up on Henry and company a bit before tackling it. There are so many players, and many of the women have the same name (Anne, Katherine, Mary, Elizabeth) that a novice would probably become confused rather quickly. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and am glad I finally got the chance to read it.

This was interesting because it was history from a very different point of view! There are some very interesting facts about some of the (other side of the bed) descendants from these alliances!