Paperback review: Bessie Blount: Mistress to Henry VIII, by Elizabeth Norton

Elizabeth “Bessie” Blount became Henry VIII’s mistress during his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and bore him at least one child, Henry Fitzroy. The boy might have ascended to the throne as king, but for his death from tuberculosis in 1536, and there is evidence that Henry considered taking Bessie as his wife. As Elizabeth Norton puts it in this biography: “One of the great ‘what-ifs’ of English history”.

Little information survives about Blount, and Norton fills out the book with speculation based on the lives of women of similar social standing. Thoughtful and well-researched, it will be of use to students of the era, but Norton’s writing is probably too stodgy to serve the tastes of a more general audience.