Jane Shore the Elite Mistress
Elite mistresses and prostitutes were accepted at the court of Edward IV.
Jane Shore, the ex-wife of a London goldsmith who appealed for the annulment of her marriage due to her husband’s impotency, took the eye of Edward IV and was praised by him as his ‘merry whore’.
After the king’s death, she was publicly humiliated by his brother Richard III, who forced her to walk around the city walls wearing only a shift and carrying a lighted taper to show her shame and penitence.
The London crowds were said to have been so sympathetic to her that they refused to watch her walk.
