Ethelreda Malte

Who was Ethelreda Malte?

Ethelreda Malte was an English courtier of the Tudor period who was reputed to be an illegitimate daughter of King Henry VIII. She was the wife of poet and writer John Harrington prior to Isabella Markham.

Contemporary reports claim she was fathered by Henry VIII. Almost nothing is known about her mother, a woman identified as Joan Dingley, alias Dobson; under the circumstances, Joan would have been a member of the lesser nobility, not well-connected at court. One theory is she was a laundress Though he never openly acknowledged Etheldreda, Henry VIII did give his tailor, John Malte, land and properties when Malte recognized her as his illegitimate daughter.

When he died in 1547, her putative father left her money in his will, and in 1548 the reasonably well-endowed heiress became the second wife of John Harrington, an eligible court official who served Lord High Admiral Thomas Seymour. Etheldreda brought to the marriage properties previously owned by Shaftesbury Abbey. Sometime between 1548 and her death in approximately 1555, she had a daughter: Hester Harrington.