Mysterious Mistress

by Margaret Crosland

Jane Shore often gets just a byline in history. We know her name, and that she was the mistress of a king. But who was this woman caputred for the stage by Shakespeare in 'Richard III', fictionalised by Jean Plaidy and others? Where did she come from? And how was it that having been mistress to the most powerful man in the land, she ended her years in prison and poverty? Jane Shore was born into a family of merchants and was married early, to William Shore. Having already attempted to get her marriage annulled - citing William's impotence - once she became involved with Edward IV it was inevitable that her marriage was dissolved. She is said to have been a benign influence - 'where men were out of favour, she would bring them in his grace' wrote Thomas More - even intervening to save Eton College and King's College from destruction. When the king died, her position became very vulnerable. Sorcery, treason, penance, imprisonment, poverty, escape and execution were key elements in the rest of Jane's life. Margaret Crosland draws on literary, historical and artistic sources to explore Jane's life both before and after Edward's demise.

Paperback

First published May 18, 2006

Reviews

[Pete daPixie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do accept that to write a historical biography of a person who lived over 500 years ago and left scant trace of her life is no easy task. This 'life' of Jane Shore is largely picked off the bones of Thomas More's Life of Richard III, and therefore contains all the Tudor slant on the personalities of Edward IV reign. Queen Elizabeth Woodville, Rivers and the usurpation by Richard.
The second part of the book looks at the legend, as portayed in verse and plays over the following few hundred years after mistress Shore's passing.

[historic_chronicles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Royal mistresses often hold a level of fascination surrounding them. These notorious women once captured the hearts of the most important men in the world and what was their appeal? To many it certainly was not the attractiveness of their royal lover that bound them, and indeed it can be argued that the wealth accumulated was only temporary and the reward was often a life of relative obscurity.

There are exceptions, however. In France it was an official position to be the maîtresse-en-titre to the King and this gave power. Women were allowed titles, land, and riches. In England, it was less rewarding.

Crosland attempts to piece together the very fragmented and legendary life of Elizabeth Lambert, mistress to King Edward IV. Elizabeth was Jane Shore, "Shore" being the name taken by her first husband and "Jane" being an invention due to her legendary reputation. Very little is known about Jane Shore and I appreciate how difficult this book must have been to create. However, I did find a lot of the information very generalised and limited to it being sourced from Sir Thomas More's unfinished work "Life of Richard III", who having served a Tudor King (Henry VIII) the information is biased and restricted to appeal to that of his Tudor master.

Despite this, the information that the author provides on how a woman such as Jane lived and survived was fascinating and an interesting step back from my usual reads on the lives of royal women. I also found the comparisons of other legendary royal mistresses and their situations (think Fair Rosamund) against that of Jane emphasised how dangerous life could be for a mistress and just how reliant they were on the King.

[Eve · Rating 1 out of 5]

Factually inaccurate even with basics such as the author claiming that Mary 1 reigned BEFORE Jane Grey (p115). Could not, in all honesty, continue to read after such a basic error.