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year. Certainly, when Jane finally took her leave of the court the king gave her a substantial parting gift of £100. In the circumstances, it seems highly likely that Henry’s generosity stemmed from something more than mere royal largess. 22
    As Elizabeth turned fifteen, she increasingly featured in the pleasures and pastimes of the court. In May 1515 she was one of twenty-five young ladies mounted on white palfreys, with ‘housings [harness] all of one fashion, most beautifully embroidered with gold’ who accompanied the Queen to Shooters Hill near Greenwich as part of the traditional May Day celebrations. Dressed in an outfit ‘slashed with gold lama with very costly trim’ and attended by a number of footmen, Elizabeth must have felt almost like royalty herself as she gracefully entertained the visiting ambassadors. In July 1515 her father was granted a two-year advance on his wages as a Spear, amounting to over £146. Since it was not unusual for the males of the family to reap the benefit of a daughter’s success (as Mary Boleyn would discover), this certainly seems to indicate that Henry had come to appreciate Elizabeth’s undoubted talents and was feeling generous towards her family. Was this the opening salvo of a hopeful suitor?
    Any consideration of the king’s courtship of Elizabeth Blount is hampered by the fact that the only firm references to the progress of their affair are retrospective. After the event it was recorded that:
    The king in his fresh youth was in the chains of love with a fair damsel called Elizabeth Blount, daughter to Sir John Blount, knight, which damsel in singing, dancing, and in all goodly pastimes, exceeded all other, by the which goodly pastimes, she won the king’s heart: and she again showed him such favour, that by him she bore a goodly man child, of beauty like to the father and mother. 23
    This in itself is the strongest argument that Henry did not yet look at Elizabeth with any serious intent. If episodes like Henry’s supposed attraction to the Duke of Buckingham’s sister Lady Anne Hastings could be seized on and blown out of all proportion, could a relationship of some four years’ standing really escape all gossip and censure? A romantic dalliance, such as he may have enjoyed with Jane Poppingcourt, when the queen herself was pregnant was one thing; an enduring relationship, when a woman and her relatives might gain the ear of the king, was another thing entirely. Also, if this was the first indication of interest stirred, why is there no record in the years to follow to indicate where Henry’s affections lay?
    In fact, it is unlikely that Henry became involved with Elizabeth before 1518. Certainly the birth of Princess Mary, on 18 February 1516, gave Henry every incentive to remain faithful to his wife. The arrival of a healthy daughter did much to revive the king’s hopes of an heir. After seven years of marriage, marred by miscarriage and infant mortality, Henry’s confidence was restored. He rather optimistically declared to the Venetian ambassador ‘The Queen and I are both young and if it is a girl this time, by God’s grace the boys will follow’. If he wanted to capitalise on this fortuitous omen he needed to make Katherine pregnant again as soon as possible.
    Although the following year saw the appointment of Elizabeth’s great-uncle, Sir Edward Darrell, as the queen’s vice-chamberlain, this probably had little bearing on his great-niece’s relationship with the king. Even if he had wanted to use his position to encourage Henry’s attentions in Elizabeth’s direction, events in 1517 were not conducive to the onset of an affair. From July until December the capital was hit by an outbreak of the sweating sickness. An infectious and usually deadly disease, the outbreak abruptly curtailed the accustomed round of gaiety and society at court. At first Henry merely removed into