In the English or British court, a royal mistress is a woman who is the lover of a member of the royal family; specifically, the king. She may be taken either before or after his accession to the throne. Although it generally is only used of females, by extrapolation, the relation can cover any lover of the monarch, whether male or female. Elizabeth I is said to have had many male favourites, including Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, although it is not known whether the relationships were sexual or not.
Monarchs have had an incentive to take mistresses in that they generally made dynastic marriages of convenience, and there was often little love in them.Montaine, 1580. Essais: De la Moderation.
Doctors also believed until the relatively recent past that it was unsafe for a man to have sex with a pregnant woman, which was another factor in regards to a king's decision to look outside of his marriage for intimacy.
Beyond the physical relationship, the royal mistress has often exercised a profound influence over the king, extending even to affairs of state. Her relationship with the queen consort could be tense, although some wives appear to have felt little jealousy in the matter.Carlton, Charles. Royal Mistresses. New York: Routledge, 1990.
Some notable examples of English and/or British Kings that are generally agreed to have never taken mistresses include William I, Henry III, his son Edward I, Henry VII, and George III. The end of George III's reign coincides with the European-wide practice of kings taking official mistresses beginning to fall out of fashion in the early 19th century.
House of Wessex
Alfred the Great Alfred the Great may have had an illegitimate son, Osferth, by a royal mistress. Osferth was described as a relative in King Alfred's will, and he attested charters in a high position until 934. A charter of King Edward's reign described him as the King's brother – mistakenly according to Keynes and Lapidge, but in the view of Janet Nelson, he probably was an illegitimate son of King Alfred.
Edward the Elder Edward the Elder reportedly took Ecgwynn as his royal mistress, and she gave birth to his only son and heir, Æthelstan. The suggestion that Ecgwynn was Edward's mistress is accepted by some historians, such as Simon Keynes and Richard Abels, but Yorke and Æthelstan's biographer, Sarah Foot, disagree, arguing that the allegations should be seen in the context of the disputed succession in 924, and were not an issue in the 890s. Ecgwynn probably died by 899, as around the time of Alfred's death Edward married Ælfflæd, the daughter of Ealdorman Æthelhelm, probably of Wiltshire.
Edgar Edgar, King of the English had children by three consorts. Almost all historians accept that he married the third one, but some question whether he married the first one; and others, the second. Yorke sees a case for recognising three marriages, as well as temporary liaisons.
The name of his first consort, who was the mother of his eldest son, Edward the Martyr, was not recorded until after the Norman Conquest. According to Osbern of Canterbury, writing in the late 11th century, she was a nun who was seduced by Edgar, but this is rejected by later chroniclers, and historians generally accept the statements of the 12th-century writers John of Worcester and William of Malmesbury that she was Æthelflæd Eneda, the daughter of Ordmær. Ann Williams describes her as his wife, but Cyril Hart says that Edward the Martyr was of doubtful legitimacy. The chroniclers described Ordmær as an ealdorman, but no ealdorman or thegn with that name attested any surviving 10th-century charter. According to the , a (powerful man) called Ordmær and his wife Ealde exchanged land with Æthelstan Half-King, and Edgar may have met Æthelflæd when he was Æthelstan's foster son. She probably died around 960. The historian Nicholas Brooks argues that Edgar must have married Æthelflæd, because Dunstan backed her son's succession to the throne, and he would not have supported an illegitimate son.
Edgar's second consort was called Wulfthryth. According to the late 11th-century Benedictine writer Goscelin, Edgar wished to marry her cousin Saint Wulfhild, the daughter of a nobleman called Wulfhelm, who had sent her to Wilton Abbey to be educated. Goscelin stated in his hagiography of Wulfhild that she resisted his determined advances, as she wished to become a nun, and he agreed to marry Wulfthryth, who was also being educated at Wilton. They had a daughter, Edith. Williams regards it as uncertain whether they married, but Yorke argues that they did, pointing out that Goscelin stated that she and Edgar were "bound by indissoluble vows", and that Edith's personal seal, which still survives, describes her as the "royal sister" of Kings Edward and Æthelred, implying that they recognised her legitimacy.
Wulfthryth returned to Wilton Abbey with her daughter by 964 and became a nun, allowing Edgar to remarry. He employed the renowned Lotharingian scholar, Radbod of Rheims, and the artist Benna of Trier, to educate Edith. Anglo-Saxon custom allowed for remarriage after a spouse entered a religious community, but on a strict interpretation of canon law, this was forbidden so long as the spouse lived, and so Edgar's third marriage may have had political repercussions. Wulfthryth and Edith were both later regarded as saints. However, support for Wulfthryth's sainthood never became widely established, unlike that of Edith, who was the subject of another hagiography by Goscelin.
House of Normandy
William I William the Conqueror, also known as William I and William the Bastard, was the illegitimate son of Robert I, Duke of Normandy, and his mistress, Herleva of Falaise, a daughter of Fulbert of Falaise; he may have been a tanner or embalmer. Herleva was possibly a member of the ducal household, but did not marry Robert. She later married Herluin de Conteville, with whom she had two sons – Odo of Bayeux and Count Robert of Mortain – and a daughter whose name is unknown. Robert I also had a daughter, Adelaide, by another mistress.van Houts "Les femmes" Tabularia "Études" pp. 19–34
William himself would marry Matilda of Flanders sometime in the early 1050s in what was to become a happy and successful union. Their marriage produced somewhere between nine and eleven children. It is widely believed that William was faithful to his wife throughout their approximately thirty years of marriage as historians have never found any evidence of mistresses or illegitimate children associated with him.Given-Wilson and Curteis Royal Bastards p. 59
Henry I
Henry I, the son of William the Conqueror, had a succession of mistresses before and during his reign, including Sybilla Corbet of Alcester, who was his mistress for over 13 years, and may have produced up to five children. He begat at least 24 illegitimate children, more than any other king of England.
His mistresses included:
Gieva de Tracy Ansfride (born c. 1070) Lady Sybilla Corbet of Alcester (1077 – after 1157) Edith Forne Princess Nest ferch Rhys (c. 1073 – after 1136) Isabel de Beaumont (c. 1102 – c. 1172)
House of Plantagenet
Henry II
Henry II had several long-term mistresses and some illegitimate children with them, the most prominent of his bastards were Geoffrey (later Archbishop of York) and William (later Earl of Salisbury).Warren, W. L., (2000); Henry II; p.119.
His mistresses included:
Rosamund Clifford (before 1150 – c. 1176)Nicholas Vincent, 2007; Henry II: New Interpretations; p. 331. Ida de Tosny was a royal ward and mistress of Henry II Annabel de Balliol
John John was King of England from 1199 to 1216 and had several known mistresses. Most of these relationships date to the time of his first marriage (which was later annulled) to Isabella, Countess of Gloucester, with whom he did not get along and had no children. The extent to which he was involved with other women, if at all, during his second marriage to Isabella of Angoulême is less clear. John had neither a known mistress nor illegitimate child fathered after this point, even during the years when the marriage presumably remained unconsummated due to Isabella's young age. They were known to have had a more companiable relationship than he did with his first wife, including having five children over the course of seven years.
His mistresses included:
Adela de Warenne, his half-first cousin Hawise, sister of Fulk FitzWarin A woman named Clemence A woman named Suzanne
Edward II
Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), was king of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. Edward had a very close relationship with Piers Gaveston, who had first joined his household in 1300. The precise nature of Edward and Gaveston's relationship is uncertain; they may have been friends, lovers or sworn brothers. Gaveston's arrogance and power as Edward's favourite provoked discontent both among the barons and his French in-laws. Pressured by both groups, Edward was forced to exile him. On Gaveston's return, the King was pressured into agreeing to wide-ranging reforms called the Ordinances of 1311. Gaveston was banished by the barons, to which Edward responded by revoking the reforms and recalling his favourite. Led by Edward's cousin, Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, a group of the barons seized and executed Gaveston in 1312.Phillips, Seymour (2011). Edward II. New Haven, US and London, UK: Yale University Press.
Another male favourite, Hugh Despenser the Younger, caused political trouble for Edward in the following decade. Despenser used his marriage to Edward's niece Eleanor de Clare to gain a foothold into the royal family. Edward's wife Isabella of France had tolerated Gaveston but quickly grew to hate Despenser and the sway he had over her husband. After Edward took ownership of her lands and custody of their children over their disagreements about his relationship with Despenser, their marriage broke down for good. Isabella, while ostensibly in France to visit her family on official business, launched a ploy aided by her brother Charles IV of France and probable lover Roger Mortimer to gain physical custody of her eldest son, Prince Edward. With the younger Edward safely away from his father's clutches, Isabella and Mortimer invaded England in his name in September 1326. The King and Despenser were quickly tracked down and captured. Despenser was put on trial and was hanged, drawn, and quartered in November after being found guilty of high treason. Edward himself was forced to abdicate in favor of his son and died in captivity the following September.
Whatever the nature of the relationships with his male favourites might have been, Edward had a sexual relationship with at least one other woman besides Isabella. He acknowledged an illegitimate child known as Adam FitzRoy who was born in about 1307, although his mother's identity is unknown.
Edward III
Edward III appears to have been devoted to his wife, Philippa of Hainault, who bore him 12 children. However, late in their marriage the aged King met Alice Perrers, a young lady-in-waiting to the Queen.C. Given-Wilson, "Perrers, Alice (d. 1400/01)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 17 Oct 2008 Some sources have it that she became his mistress in 1363, six years before his wife's death; others date their relationship to the time when the Queen was terminally ill.Prestwich, M.C., (1980); The Three Edwards: War and State in England 1272–1377; p. 241. The affair was not made public until after the Queen's death, when the King lavished gifts and honours on her. Edward III and Alice Perrers would have three illegitimate children.
Richard II