The FORGOTTEN Illegitimate Daughter Of Henry VIII

Henry VII is remembered today for being the sixth wife Tudor Monarch who orchestrated the executions of two of his wives he's known for being a brutal man and someone who would get whatever he wanted not many people dared to cross Henry and he was a king who also had a number of mistresses the most high-profile mistress he had was Mary Berlin the sister of the woman who would become his second wife but if the king wanted to sleep with a woman at his court the husband of the women would have little say in this and the expectation was that the women would be sent to Henry VII's bed chamber in the evening very few ladies rejected this idea and were encouraged to sleep with the Tudor King to advance their families in standing at court but the king did have a number of illegitimate children but there is one which today is very forgotten about and very little is documented about her life and also her fate but who was Ethel reader mulch the reported illegitimate daughter of King Henry VII Ethel reader who is sometimes referred to as Audrey was born around 1527 to 1535 and she later became an English courtier however there were many reports at the time and claims that her father was in fact Henry VIII it's believed that her mother was Joan dingley one of Henry VII's lawn dresses and Joan is also listed in records as Joan Dobson and she was a woman who was considered a member of the Lesser nobility and she was not a prominent player at court this means that Henry VII must have had his eye caught by Joan or that she was attractive enough to Captivate the king of course for a woman of Jones status to sleep with the king would have been a huge thing and would have been something she probably wouldn't have turned down and she could have been rewarded with great wealth and also power Henry VIII during his Reign did have an illegitimate son with Bessie Blount Henry Fitzroy and this child was shrouded in titles and great wealth however despite this affair which could have occurred during the marriage between Henry VII and Catherine of Aragon all the marriage between Henry VII and Anne Berlin It produced a child and a daughter named Ethel reader Henry VII himself never openly acknowledged Ethel reader as his daughter but he did give his tailor John malt land a property including Saint Catherine's Court a large Manor House in Somerset he did this as John actually recognized Ethel reader as his illegitimate daughter and with this took the shine away from Henry VIII however in 1547 John malt the step-in father of Ethel reader died when she was not too old and with this John left money in his will for her with this she was considered a rather well-off air rest of his lands and Estates and Ethel reader in 1548 married John Harrington her husband was a well-off official at the Royal Court and he served the Lord High Admiral Thomas Seymour the later executed Uncle of Henry VII's son Edward VI Ethel reader had already been engaged allegedly to an illegitimate grandson of Sir Richard civil a privy counselor but this was called off through her marriage Ethel reader brought many properties to the family including them owned by the Shaftsbury Abbey which was acquired during the dissolution of the monasteries this made her a rather well-off woman who owned a significant amount of land however following the death of her father Henry VIII her fortunes remained positive throughout the reign of her father's son Edward VI she had a daughter named Hester but during the reign of Mary the first her fortunes would change on the 18th of March 1554 Ethel reader was summoned to be part of Princess Elizabeth future Elizabeth the first ladies inside the Tower of London Mary the first had been on the throne roughly a year and she suspected her half-sister Elizabeth of being involved in plots against her and with this she ordered Elizabeth to be locked up inside the Tower of London Elizabeth was furious with this as the tower had a horrific reputation of personal Bloodshed for her as her mother Anne Berlin was executed inside the walls of the infamous Fortress put Ethel reader was one of the ladies who was there to wait upon Elizabeth the First and she could have been her rumored half-sister if as believed she was fathered by Henry VIII Elizabeth was imprisoned on suspicion of causing a rebellion within the tower she lived rather well to begin with but her imprisonment did get tougher inside the Tower of London it's believed that Ethel's reader and Elizabeth did grow close and had a bond as following the death of Mary the first the reader would be there at the corridation of Elizabeth the First on the 15th of January 1559 however tragically she died within the same month around the age of 30 which was considered quite young still during the Tudor period especially for a woman who had a significant amount of wealth she would have had a prominent role in Elizabeth the first court and certainly would have been one of her ladies in Waiting or Maids of honor it is believed that she may have died at Saint Catherine's Court her residence near to Bath and that she was possibly buried in the church next door however the church records for the Tudor period have been this would mean if true that the Forgotten and lost daughter of Henry VIII lies in a grave that today is unmarked in a church which does not know that an important Tudor woman is buried there within two months of Ethel reader's death her husband had remarried but the real story of The Forgotten illegitimate child of Henry VIII is one that is not the clearest we know that she died at a young age and we are not entirely certain when Ethel reader was born this would be interesting as it would have been captivating to see if her mother was a mistress to Henry VIII during the marriage to Anne Boleyn but Henry VIII may not have acknowledged Ethel reader for a number of reasons the first may have been as he did not want to upset his wife at the time but chances are the fact that he had slept with Joan dingley his lawn dress would have been talked and gossiped about heavily another reason is that for the king to acknowledge his illegitimate children was a big thing and we know that Henry VIII had a number Fitzroy was the exception to this and it's believed that Henry VIII also could have been the father to marry Berlin's children meaning he was the father of his nieces even when he married Anne Berlin but the story of Ethel reader is one which is forgotten and she was close with Elizabeth the first as the queen was a princess and this quite possibly was her half-sister and the chances are that the pair would have spoken about this Ethel reader today is the Forgotten illegitimate daughter of Henry VII thank you for watching and to support please subscribe to her remarkable history thank you

Channel: Her Remarkable History

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Id: zURlEeWho-4

Length: 8min 5sec (485 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 06 2022