Ethel(d)reda Malte (sometimes referred to as Audrey; c. 1527/35 – c. 1559) was an English courtier of the Tudor period who was reputed to be an illegitimate daughter of King Henry VIII.
She was the wife of poet and writer John Harington, prior to Isabella Markham.
[4] When he died in 1547, her putative father (Malte) left her money in his will and, in 1548, the reasonably well-endowed heiress became the first wife of John Harington, an eligible court official who served Lord High Admiral Thomas Seymour (evidently her previous engagement to an illegitimate grandson of Sir Richard Southwell had been cancelled).
[5] Etheldreda brought to the marriage properties previously owned by Shaftesbury Abbey.
[7] On 18 March 1554, Etheldreda Malte was among the six ladies who accompanied the future queen Elizabeth to the Tower of London, where her rumoured half-sister was imprisoned under suspicion of causing rebellion.