Margaret and Mary Shelton - King's Mistress

King's Mistress

One of the Shelton sisters is believed to have been King Henry's mistress for a six-month period beginning in February 1535, according to statements about mistresses made by the Imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, who does not give any name. According to biographer Antonia Fraser, this was Margaret Shelton.

However recent research has suggested that it was Mary who was rumoured to be Henry's mistress, and was rumoured to have been selected to become his fourth wife. Supposedly, the confusion of earlier historians arose from the label "Marg Shelton", in which the "y" resembled a "g", a common confusion in sixteenth-century writing. Some historians, including the two who have full chapters on Mistress Shelton in their books, Paul G. Remley and Kelly Hart, argue that Margaret and Mary were the same person, and not two separate individuals.

According to Heale, "Rumour twice linked Mary amorously with Henry VIII". This other rumour, that Margaret or Mary Shelton might become Henry's wife in 1538, appears in one of the Lisle Letters.

By 1546 Mary had married her cousin Sir Anthony Heveningham (1507–1557). by whom she had five children, including Arthur Heveningham, and her youngest daughter, Abigail (wife of Sir George Digby of Coleshill, Warwickshire), who was in attendance on Queen Elizabeth in 1588.

In 1546 there was suspicion of conspiracy between Mary and Surrey, which was noted for investigation by the Privy Council.

Mary married Philip Appleyard (b. c.1528) in 1558.

She was buried in Heveningham church, Suffolk, on 8 January 1571. A probable portrait of Mary by Hans Holbein is in the collection at Windsor Castle.

Mary Shelton is one of the main subjects of The Mistresses of Henry VIII by Kelly Hart, and Rethinking the Henrician Era: Essays on Early Tudor Texts and Contexts by Paul G. Remley.