Reluctant Mistress – The Life of Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk
This week we leave the Plantagenet era behind and journey to the Early Georgian era of London during the reigns of George I and George II. The early Georgians seem rather tame compared to the antics of George IV when he was Prince of Wales or the many royal mistresses of Charles II & James II. I never even knew that George II had a mistress until I read Eleanor Herman’s book SEX WITH KINGS. As far as I knew, the Georgian kings had spent most of their time hating their eldest sons, and pining for Hanover. The story of Henrietta Howard is fascinating because she was the last person one would expect as a royal mistress. Circumstances led her to seek the protection of the Prince of Wales, later George II. Henrietta was born Henrietta Hobart in London in 1689. Her father was a Norfolk landowner and MP who was killed in a duel when she was almost 9. Before his death, she had led an idyllic childhood at Blickling Hall (the childhood home of another royal mistress An