Zooming into spring and summer 2021.

Classes will run on a Monday afternoon at 3.00pm (London time) for 1 ½ hours. Please be in the waiting room at least five minutes before the class starts so that you are ready to be admitted into the virtual class room.

If you would like to join the class for the seven week block, the cost is £30.00. Choose the £30.00 option to pay via Paypal. If you prefer to join fewer sessions continue to scroll down to the next PayPal button where you can choose to pay for the sessions that you would like to attend. The button is an automatic link to pay me via my Paypal account.

Medieval Mistresses

Join me in an exploration of the medieval mistresses of the Normans, Angevins and Plantagenets.

22 March 2021 The many mistresses of Henry I

Henry had somewhere between 20 and 24 illegitimate children depending on the source you prefer! This week we will be looking at Nest, sometimes called the Helen of Wales, whose beauty started a civil war; Sybilla Corbet whose daughter married Alexander I of Scotland and Edith Force Sigulfson who attuned for her sins with the foundation of Osney Abbey.

29 March 2021 The complicated lives of Isabel de Vermondais and her daughter Isabel de Beaumont – a story of kidnap, forced marriage, true love, the law and another of Henry I’s royal mistress.

5th April Easter Monday

12 April 2021 A courtly love triangle Henry II and Rosamund Clifford. Historical facts, legend and a scandalous queen. And Isabel de Vermondais’s grand daughter…

19 April 2021 Magna Carta Mistresses King John was the only English medieval king to be divorced but is his reputation for lechery justified? There’re also the small matters of 200 hens and a prostitute.

26 April 2021 Alice Perrers Reviled for rising above her social station and being more astute than she should find out about Edward III’s mistress and a smear campaign that’s extended across six hundred years.

3 May Bank Holiday Monday

10 May 2021 When is a marriage not a marriage? The many mistresses of Edward IV. Meet the merriest and the holiest harlots in the land and a queen. Explore betrothal and secret marriages and compare Edward Iv’s behaviour with that of his brother Richard.

17 May 2021 Jane Shore- the wittiest harlot Elizabeth Lambert was renamed Jane Shore by Thomas Heywood and the name stuck. This is the story of lust, treachery, fake news and true love.