Joan Larke

Joan Larke (c. 1490 – 1532) was the mistress of the powerful English statesman and churchman in the Tudor period, Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, and mother of his two illegitimate children. Wolsey's mistress Joan was born in about 1490 at Yarmouth, Norfolk, the daughter of Peter Larke, variously described as a Thetford innkeeper, common councilman of London or gentleman of Huntingdonshire, whose elder brother was Blessed John Larke. Her brother Canon Thomas Larke, dean of Bridgnorth, was chaplain to Wolsey. In about 1509, when Wolsey served as almoner to the new king Henry VIII of England, Joan became his mistress, living with him at Bridewell Palace. They had two children: Thomas Wynter (1510 – 1542), dean of Wells, and had issue. Dorothy Clancey (b. 29 September 1512), a nun. Her son, Thomas, was sent to live with a family in Willesden, whilst her daughter, Dorothy, was adopted by John Clancey, alderman of Worcester, later entering Shaftesbury Abbey as a nun; she received a pension from Sir Thomas Cromwell when her religious house was later dissolved. Sometime after Cardinal Wolsey's arrest and death in November 1530, Thomas Wynter went to Padua to read divinity, at the King's expense. When he returned penniless to England in about 1535, he was financially supported by Queen Anne Boleyn, Wolsey's former adversary.