This is the Tudor's Dynasty podcast.

And now, Ask the Expert with Steph.

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to this week's episode of Ask the Expert.

As always, I'm your host, Steph Storer, and I'm here today with the wonderful and knowledgeable

historian and author, Dr. Elizabeth Norton.

It's so great to have you, Elizabeth.

Welcome.

Well, thank you very much for inviting me on.

It's a real pleasure.

So you're here today to talk about someone that we all know of, yet many of us don't necessarily

know her very well. So that person, of course, is Bessie Blount. And for any listeners

out there that don't know her, Bessie was a longtime mistress of Henry VIII, who gave birth

to the only illegitimate child that he ended up acknowledging

Henry Fitzroyd. But Bessie was more than just someone who had a son for Henry. She's worthy

of being discussed outside of that, right? Yeah, absolutely. So why don't you tell us a little bit about

her early years then?

So, yeah.

So, I mean, I find Bessie incredibly fascinating.

And I should say that I did my PhD on her family, the Blounts or the Blunts.

So I'm slightly biased.

But I'm hoping that you will share my love of Bessie.

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