Beautiful young exuberant the amazing life of Elizabeth Blount Henry VIIIs mistress & mother to his first son who came tantalizingly close to succeeding him as King Henry IX. The earliest known & longest lasting mistress of Henry VIII Bessie Blount was the kings first love. More beautiful than Anne Boleyn or any of Henrys other wives or concubines Bessies beauty & other charms ensured that she turned heads winning a place at court as one of Catherine of Aragons ladies. Within months she was partnering the king in dancing & she rose to be the woman with the most influence over Henry much to Catherine of Aragons despair. The affair lasted five years (longer than most of Henrys marriages) & in 1519 she bore Henry VIII a son Henry Fitzroy. As a mark of his importance Cardinal Wolsey was appointed his guardian & godfather. Supplanted soon after by Mary Boleyn Bessies importance rests on the vital proof it gave Henry VIII that he could father a healthy son & through Henry Fitzroy Bessie remained a prominent figure at court. In the country at large for proving that the king was capable of fathering a son Bessie prompted the saying Blessee Bessie Blount & her position of mother of such an important child made her an object of interest to many of her contemporaries. Sidelined by historians until now Bessie & the son she had by the king are one of the great what ifs of English history. If Jane Seymour had not produced a male heir & Bessies son had not died young aged 17 in all likelihood Henry Fitzroy could have followed his father as King Henry IX & Bessie propelled to the status of mother of the king.