For details see: ’Mistress Blanche, Queen Elizabeth I’s Confidante’.

Blanche Parry’s father, Henry Myles was Steward of Dore Abbey, managing the monks’ business affairs. He inherited this position from his grandfather, Harri Ddu ap Gruffudd, though his father, Miles ap Harry, may have held it immediately before him. There were also links between the ancestors of Sir William Cecil Lord Burghley, Blanche’s friend and cousin, and Dore Abbey (see page 9).

Henry Myles had a charter proving he was the Steward with a fee of 66s 8d (worth now about £1,600). Although efficient and fair in his administration, in 1520 Abbot Thomas Cleubery tried to replace him with a nobleman more influential at Court. This resulted in a legal battle in the Court of the Council of the March of Wales which it seems Henry Myles won. However, the stress may have contributed to his death on 27th September 1522.