Shore, Jane

Shore, Jane, or Elizabeth Shore, d. 1527?, mistress of Edward IV of England. The wife of William Shore, a goldsmith, she became c.1470 mistress to Edward IV and exerted a great influence over the king. After Edward's death (1483) she became the mistress of Thomas Grey, 1st marquess of Dorset, and then of Lord Hastings. Probably only out of political motives, she was accused of sorcery (1483) by Richard III, placed in the Tower of London, and later forced to do public penance as a harlot. Her great beauty attracted the king's solicitor, Thomas Lynon, but their proposed marriage failed to come about, and Jane died in poverty. Her life was the subject of Nicholas Rowe's Tragedy of Jane Shore (1714).