Elizabeth Holland facts for kids

Elizabeth Holland (died 1547/8), commonly known as Bess Holland, was the mistress of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and maid-of-honour to his niece, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England. The daughter of the Duke's secretary, she had worked for eight years as a laundress in the household of Norfolk's wife, Elizabeth Stafford, Duchess of Norfolk.

The fall of Norfolk

Despite a relationship of fifteen years duration with the Duke, when he and his son, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, were arrested in December 1546, Elizabeth Holland gave information which helped seal their fates. Surrey was executed on the eve of the King's own death. Norfolk's execution was not carried out after the King's death; instead, he was kept in the Tower of London throughout the minority reign of King Edward VI, and was released in 1553, at the start of the reign of Queen Mary I, whose Catholic beliefs were similar to his.

In 1547 Elizabeth Holland married Henry Reppes but soon afterwards died in childbirth.