I will give the fat git, a modicum of credit, he kept his mistresses (few that they were) very secretive, and it’s really only Mary Boleyn, that we know was his mistress for a time. We know this basically because when Henry wanted to marry Anne, (before the split with Rome, Henry took it a little forgranted that the divorce was literly in the bag) he asked the Pope for a dispansation to marry Anne, due to his close association, with anohther member of the Boleyn family, this could of course only mean either Mary B or Elizabeth B (the mother of both girls). In fact I heard a rumour so time again that it was believed that Anne was in fact Elizabeth B’s and Henry’s love child.. Ha Ha Ha..(sounds like something SWMNBN, would come out with.)

Yes, we cannot forget Bessie. Then there is the ever mysterious, imperial lady, who Chapuys mentions. I wish I knew who this woman was.

Nicolas Sander wrote during Elizabeth I’s time that Elizabeth Boleyn and Henry had an affair and the result was Anne. He was a staunch Catholic, writing in a foreign country. He wrote many terrible things about Anne that were not true. He wrote that she had six fingers, had a huge wen on her neck, and had moles all over her body. Three of things which made her a witch.

Boleyn,
Brain freeze. It happens to all of us.

Does anyone else wonder who the imperial lady was, or is it just me? Any guesses? Chapuys would have known who she was, yet he never mentions her by name. I wonder if she was Spanish? One of Katherine’s or Mary’s attendants? I have always been curious about her. She must have been something in order for Chapuys to give her that title. Anne was Henry’s wife, and yet he called her the concubine, or Lady Anne. He gives this one a mysterious title. There is a fictional story here just waiting to be written.

Maria de Salinas was one year older than Henry. (born in 1490) It is true that Maria was no longer a member of Katherine’s household after Katherine was banished, but she was very much a part of Henry’s court. Her husband was up in the ranks and they would have been at court often. She was held in high regard by both Katherine and Henry. Henry named a ship after her. The HMS Mary Willoughby entered the Navy list in 1535.

Boleyn, She was the one who I thought of too. But after reading more about her, I don’t think she would have become a mistress of Henry. She was totally committed to Katherine. She wrote to Katherine often letting her know how Mary was doing. She was with Katherine when she died. Very dedicated. Keeping in mind though that Jane was supposedly dedicated to Katherine’s cause as well.

I tried looking for comments about the “imperial” lady. All I could find was the story of the “mysterious” lady who had gained Henry’s heart for a moment. She was the lady who in 1534, Anne and Jane Boleyn tried to remove from court. This is when Jane was banished from court. The “mysterious” lady was one of Anne’s ladies. Chapuys said she had written to Mary to say all was well, do not worry, things are about to turn in favor of Mary. In Lauren Mac Kay’s book about Chapuys, or in Linda Porter’s book about Mary, (not sure which one I read it in) it is noted that no such letter was found in Mary’s possession, and the author guesses the mysterious lady may have been Jane Seymour. I don’t think Chapuys would call Jane imperial or mysterious, seeing as how he had nothing nice to say about her when he found out Henry had chosen her as a mistress/wife. And if it was Jane, why would Chapuys not confirm that she was the mysterious lady of two years prior? Were these two women one in the same?

Hannele said

Anyanka said Personally, I don’t think Jane was the Imperial Lady. I can’t see Chapuys hiding the fact that Jane had been Henry’s mistress in any context prior to the spring of 1536 from Charles.

One must remember that there was two kind of mistresses: mistress in the game of courtly love and a mistress with whom one had a sexual affair. Henry liked to pay court to ladies as befitted to his role of king, but keep his actual affairs private.

As for Jane Seymour, why would Henry want to marry his former mistress whom he had once so easily abandoned? And what she would she believe to win by playing virtuous if Henry already knew she was not such? Or, if she had earlier refused to become his mistress and he had not been interested enough to continue to pursue her, why would he have returned to her? One can understand that she kept Henry’s interest alive for months in 1536 but not years.

Yeah..I don’t see Henry as a “Double-Dipper” when it came to his mistresses.