Jane Shore

Jane Shore was an English courtier best known as a mistress of Edward IV. Born Elizabeth Lambert and married to the merchant William Shore, she moved within the Yorkist court and remained politically connected after Edward’s death. Richard III’s regime subjected her to public penance in 1483, helping turn her life into one of the most enduring moral and romantic stories of the late medieval English court.

Elizabeth Lambert married the goldsmith and merchant William Shore, but the marriage was annulled. She later became Edward IV’s mistress and was remembered for her wit, generosity and influence rather than for seeking wealth. After the king’s death she was associated with William Hastings and Thomas Grey. Richard III’s government subjected her to public penance, yet she appears to have survived for several decades and became a durable figure in English drama and historical legend.

In Anne Easter Smith’s Royal Mistress, Elizabeth Lambert, later remembered as Jane Shore, moves from a London merchant family into an unhappy marriage and then into the intimate world of Edward IV’s court.