Joan, Lady Guildford

Who was Joan, Lady Guildford?

Joan Vaux, Lady Guildford, also known as Mother Guildford, was an English aristocratic woman who was the Lady Governess to the Princesses Margaret Tudor and Mary Tudor, and accompanied the latter to France when she married King Louis XII in 1514.

She had been a lady-in-waiting and protégée of Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, and afterwards entered the household of Elizabeth of York, Queen consort of the Countess's son, King Henry VII of England. While at court, she met the scholar and philosopher Erasmus, who was favourably impressed by Joan.

Her first husband was Sir Richard Guildford, by whom she had her only child, Sir Henry Guildford. Her second husband was Anthony Poyntz.

When King Henry VIII was attempting to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn, Joan gave a deposition, concerning whether or not Catherine's marriage to Arthur, Prince of Wales had been consummated, in which she confirmed that Prince Arthur and Catherine had lain together "as man and wife all alone five or six nights after the said marriage".