A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN: Bradbridge-Butts

compiled by

Kathy Lynn Emerson

to update and correct

her very out-of-date

WIVES AND DAUGHTERS, THE WOMEN OF SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND (1984)

NOTE: this document exists only in electronic format

and is ©2008-10 Kathy Lynn Emerson (all rights reserved)

 

ALICE BRADBRIDGE (September 7, 1523-1604)

Alice Bradbridge was one of fourteen children of William Bradgbridge (d.1546) and his wife Alice. She married Francis Barnham (c.1515-1576) and had by him four sons, Martin (1548-1610), Steven (1549-1608), Anthony (b.1558) and Benedict (1559-1598). Her husband was a London draper and alderman. Alice was a silkwoman, running that business in her own right. Biography: Lena Cowen Orlin’s Locating Privacy in Tudor London. Portrait: formerly called “Lady Ingram and Her Two Boys Martin and Steven” c.1557.


JOAN BRADBURY

see JOAN LEGH

MARY BRADGATE
see MARY SLANEY

ALICE BRANDON (1556-before 1608)

Alice Brandon was the daughter of Robert Brandon (d. 1591), the queen’s jeweler, and Katherine Barber and is sometimes said to be either the niece or the granddaughter of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk. On July 15,1576 she married Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1618) and is the subject of one of his most appealing miniatures. Shortly after their marriage, they traveled to France in the entourage of Sir Amyas Paulet, the English ambassador. Hilliard, probably on Queen Elizabeth's orders, entered the service of François, duc d’Alençon. Although her husband may have returned at a later date, Alice was back in London by May 1578, when their first child, Daniel, was baptised. By 1579, the Hilliards lived in a house in Gutter Lane, off Cheapside in London, where Hilliard also had his studio. There they raised Elizabeth (b.1579), Francis (b.1580), Laurence (1582-1648), Lettice (b.1583), Penelope (b.1586), and Robert (b.1588). Hilliard does not seem to have been reliable in money matters. When Alice’s father died, he made no mention of his son-in-law or grandchildren in his will, instead stipulating that the allowance he left to Alice be administered by the Goldsmith’s Company. Although there was an Alice Hillyard buried at St. Margaret's Westminster on May 16, 1611, this was probably not Alice Brandon. Hilliard is known to have had a second wife and records show a Nicholas Hilliard marrying Susan Gysard at St. Mary at Hill on August 3,1608, placing Alice's death before that date. Portrait: miniature painted in 1578 in the Victoria & Albert Museum.


ANNE BRANDON
see ANNE BROWNE

ANNE BRANDON (c.1507-January 1558)

Anne Brandon led a controversial life. At the time she was most likely born, her father, Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk (1485-August 22,1545), had abandoned her mother, Anne Browne (d. 1510), to whom he had been betrothed, in order to marry Margaret Neville, a wealthy widow. When that marriage was later declared null and void, Brandon returned to Anne Browne and married her in 1509. In 1514, Brandon secured a place for Anne, aged about seven, at the court of Margaret of Savoy. She remained there for nearly two years. While she was abroad, her father married Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s sister. When Anne returned to England, she lived with them at Westhorpe Hall. To ensure the legitimacy of Brandon’s children by Mary Tudor, a papal bull was secured from Pope Clement VII to confirm that the divorce from Margaret Neville was valid. This also settled the question of Anne's legitimacy. In 1531, Anne married Edward Grey, baron Grey of Powys (1503- July 12,1551). It was not a happy marriage and by 1537 Anne had left her husband for a lover, Randall Haworth or Hanworth, and Grey had taken a mistress, Jane Orwell, daughter of Sir Lewis Orwell. In that year, her father attempted to force Lord Powys to support Anne. With Lord Cromwell’s help, he succeeded in obtaining an annuity of £100 for her, but in 1540, Powys petitioned the Privy Council to punish Anne for adultery and also claimed that she was conspiring with Haworth to murder him. No official action seems to have been taken against her, and she remained with her lover, which may be why she was left out of her father’s will. At some point between 1545 and 1551, Anne entered into a "corrupt understanding" with John Beaumont, a judge in Chancery, whereby she obtained lands with forged documents (supposedly generated by her late father) and then sold those lands to Beaumont. This defrauded her half sister Frances's husband, Henry Grey, marquis of Dorset. The scheme came to light in 1552 and Beaumont was arrested, but Anne does not seem to have been punished. By then, Lord Powys was dead and she had married Haworth. She had also written her will, dated October 29, 1551, although she was not to die until early 1558. She was buried on January 13 of that year, either in Westminster Abbey or in the adjoining St. Margaret's Church.

CATHERINE BRANDON

see CATHERINE WILLOUGHBY

ELEANOR BRANDON (1519-September 27, 1547)

Eleanor Brandon was the youngest daughter of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk (1485-August 22,1545) and Mary Tudor (March 18,1495-June 25,1533). She married Henry Clifford, 2nd earl of Cumberland (1517-January 2,1570) in 1537, by whom she had a daughter, Margaret (1540-September 29,1596) and two sons, Henry and Charles, who died young. The story of Eleanor Clifford’s abduction during the Pilgrimage of Grace is fiction. She was not yet married at that time. She did not live long enough to become involved in the quarrel over the succession, but she passed her dangerous inheritance of royal blood on to her daughter. Portrait: sketch by Holbein?


FRANCES BRANDON (July 16, 1517-November 20,1559)

The daughter of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk (1485-August 22,1545) and Mary Tudor (March 18,1495-June 25,1533), Frances Brandon was one of Henry VIII’s nieces and therefore in line for the throne. She married Henry Grey, marquess of Dorset (January 12,1517-February 23,1554), in 1533 and had a girl and a boy who died young and then three daughters, Lady Jane (1537-February 12,1554), Lady Catherine (August 1540-January 27,1568) and Lady Mary (1545-April 20,1578) (see separate entries for each) and was a prominent figure at court during the reigns of Henry VIII and his children. After the deaths of her father and half brothers, her husband was granted the Suffolk title, making Frances duchess of Suffolk and creating occasional confusion with her stepmother, Catherine Willoughby. According to Leanda De Lisle's biography of Frances's daughters, The Sisters Who Would Be Queen, Frances has been the victim of bad press over the last few centuries. She has long been said to have been an active participant in the plot to marry her oldest daughter to one of the duke of Northumberland’s sons and put the young couple on the throne in place of Mary Tudor, even beating the Lady Jane to convince her to agree. Her true role may never be known, but when Mary Tudor took the throne, Frances was not imprisoned. Even after the execution of her husband for his role in Wyatt’s Rebellion, she continued to play a ceremonial role at court and her two remaining daughters were also at court. She remarried on March 1,1555, taking as her second husband her master of horse, Adrian Stokes (1518-November 30,1586). They are said to have had three children who died young and one genealogy site gives the details as Elizabeth Stokes (November 20, 1554-November 20, 1554), a second Elizabeth Stokes (July 16,1555-February 7, 1556) and a son who died young. Frances retired from public life after her marriage. She had suffered from poor health since at least the summer of 1552. She was at Sheen in October of 1559 when the earl of Hertford approached her for permission to marry her daughter, Catherine. Frances gave it, but she did not live to see the disastrous result. When she died, her two daughters and several close friends were with her. The queen paid for her funeral. Biography: Oxford DNB under "Grey [other married name Stokes], Frances." Portraits: The drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger labeled “The Lady Marchioness of Dorset” is not Frances Brandon, but rather Margaret Wotton, her mother-in-law. What was once thought to be a double portrait of Frances with her second husband by Hans Eworth, painted in 1559, is now known to be a portrait of Mary Neville, Lady Dacre and her son, Gregory Fiennes. The portrait below is in the Royal Collection and is believed by Mary S. Lovell (Bess of Hardwick) to be Frances Brandon. Leanda De Lisle states that no portrait of Frances survives and that the effigy on her tomb in Westminster Abbey is the only likeness of her. 

 

MARGARET BRANDON

see MARGARET NEVILLE

MARY BRANDON (1510-1541+)

Mary Brandon was the younger daughter of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk (1485-August 22,1545) by Anne Browne (d. 1510). She married Thomas Stanley, 2nd baron Mounteagle (May 25,1507-August 15,1560) and was the mother of William, 3rd baron (1527-November 10,1581), Elizabeth, Margaret, Anne, and George. In the 1530s, Mary was almost constantly at court.  In 1538, Mounteagle complained of misbehavior on his wife’s part to Thomas Cromwell but nothing seems to have come of the allegations. Mary was a favorite lady in waiting to Jane Seymour. Portraits: the drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger labeled “The Lady Montegle.” 

 

ANNE BRAY (c.1500-November 1, 1558)

Anne Bray was the daughter of Edmund Bray, 1st Baron Bray (1484-October 18, 1539) and Jane Hallighwell (c.1480-October 24,1558). Around 1517, well before her father was created a baron in 1529, she married George Brooke (1497-September 29, 1558), who would become 9th Baron Cobham in 1529. Their children included Dorothy (b.1518), Anne, Elizabeth (June 25, 1526-April 2, 1565), William, 10th Baron Cobham (November 1, 1527-March 6, 1597), Catherine (b.c.1527), George (January 27, 1533-c.1570), Thomas (1533-1578), John (1535-1594), Henry (February 5, 1537/8-January 13, 1592), Edmund (b.1540), and several others who died young. Barbara Harris in her work on aristocratic women names Anne, Lady Cobham as one of Anne Boleyn’s first accusers but M. St. Clare Byrne argues that Lady Lisle’s man in London, John Husee, would not have referred to a noblewoman as “Nan Cobham” and therefore he must have meant some other person, probably someone lower on the social ladder. Lady Cobham was one of Queen Jane Seymour's ladies. Portraits: there is an effigy on her tomb in Cobham Church, dated 1561. The Latin inscription put there by her oldest son, William, translates, in part, as follows: "Here Anna lies, a lady chaste and fair, Blest with her children's love and husband's care. . . .'Twas in the last sad year of Mary's reign That first the husband, then the wife, was ta'en."


ANNE BRAY

see ANNE TALBOT

DOROTHY BRAY (c.1524-October 31, 1605)

Dorothy was either the youngest daughter or the fifth of six daughters of Edmund, 1st baron Bray (1484-October 18,1539) and Jane Hallighwell (c.1480-October 24,1558). She was at court as a maid of honor to Anne of Cleves in 1540 and then served Catherine Howard and Katherine Parr. She embarked upon a brief, passionate love affair with William Parr, brother of the future queen c.1541, but it was well over by 1543, when his interest had shifted to Dorothy’s niece, her sister Anne’s daughter Elizabeth Brooke. Dorothy married Edmund Brydges, 2nd baron Chandos (d. September 11, 1573) and their children were Eleanor (b.c.1546), Giles (1547-1594), Mary, Katherine (1554-1596), and William (d. 1602). In 1574, Elizabeth Tudor visited Lady Chandos at Sudeley Castle, Gloucestershire. In 1588 she was living in Essex House in London and had 220 books in her bedchamber there. Dorothy’s second husband was a younger man, Sir William Knollys (1545-1632). She was known among courtiers as “old lady Chandos” and at the time her husband fell in love with one of the queen's maids of honor, Mary Fitton, Dorothy was living with him in a house adjoining the royal tilt yard (according to Violet Wilson's Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honor and Ladies of the Privy Chamber). Dorothy's daughters, Eleanor and Katherine, and her granddaughters, Frances and Elizabeth Brydges, were also maids of honor. Portraits: The “Duchess of Chandos” attributed to John Bettes the Younger, 1578, could be Dorothy Bray, although the sitter looks very young for someone who would be around fifty-four years old at the time. Dorothy's effigy appears with her second husband in the church at Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire.


JANE BRAY

see JANE HALLIGHWELL

ELLEN or HELEN BRAYNE (c.1542-1613)
Ellen Brayne was the daughter of Thomas Brayne (d.1562) and Alice Barlow (d.1566). Her father was a tailor and also a member of the Girdler’s Company. On April 23, 1559, at St. Stephen, Coleman Street, London, Ellen married James Burbage (c.1535-December 1596). Shortly before their marriage, he had left a career as a joiner to become a player. In 1567, Ellen’s brother John (c.1541-July 1586), a grocer, constructed the first purpose-built professional playhouse in England since Roman times, the Red Lion, east of London’s Aldgate. Little is known of this venture, but certainly it indicates a family interest in plays and players. By 1572, James Burbage was the leader of Leicester’s Men. On April 13, 1576, he obtained a twenty-one year lease on a property in the Northern Liberty of Shoreditch, paying a £20 deposit and £14 per annum, and there built the Theatre, with Ellen’s brother as his partner in the venture. The lease ran until March 25, 1597 with a provision for up to ten more years if they spent £200 on the old buildings on the property in the first ten years. John Brayne had married in 1565 and had four children (Robert, Roger, Rebecca, and John), but they had all died by 1576. The agreement was verbal, with Burbage promising to add Brayne’s name to the lease and Brayne indicating that the Burbage children would be his heirs. When expenses skyrocketed, Burbage had to borrow money and mortgage the lease. The entire Burbage family and Brayne and his wife all had to help in the construction of the building. Brayne even sold his house and business in Bucklersbury and moved to Shoreditch. In January 1580, with Burbage’s help. Brayne acquired a twenty-four year lease on The George inn in Whitechapel. He did not run it as an inn, but rather moved into the building with his wife. Again without a written contract, Brayne took an old friend, Robert Miles or Myles, a goldsmith, as a partner and Miles also moved into The George. Meanwhile, in 1583, Leicester’s Men disbanded and Burbage joined Lord Hunsdon’s company, better known as the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. All this while, Ellen's family had been growing. The Burbage children were Cuthbert (June 1565-1636), Richard (July 1568-March 13,1619), Ellen (June 1574-December 1596), Alice (b. March 1576), Anne (b.1577), and Joan (d.1582). Ellen’s brother, however, appears to have been a quarrelsome sort. He fell out with James Burbage and also with Robert Miles. After a particularly violent quarrel with Miles, John Brayne suddenly died. His widow, Margaret (née Stowers) (d. April 1593), who had worked temporarily as a gatherer (collecting money from spectators) at the Theatre in the mid 1580s, accused Miles of murdering her husband. Since Brayne had died bankrupt, Margaret also sued Miles for a share of The George. And she gave birth to another child, Katherine Brayne (1586-July 1593). Not long after Miles evicted Margaret from The George, however, she moved back in. In 1588 they joined forces to sue James Burbage for half the Theatre or the £600 Brayne had been owed. The Burbages countersued, claiming Miles was an adulterer and a “murdering knave” and Margaret a “murdering ho.” On June 7, 1589, the Theatre was reclaimed from creditors by means of assigning the lease to James’s oldest son, Cuthbert. Margaret Brayne was supposed to have a share in the settlement, but this promise was not honored. On November 16, 1590, still in the midst of lawsuits over ownership of the theatre, Margaret attempted to install her own gatherer on the premises. James and Cuthbert were charged with contempt of court for trying to block her efforts and according to later testimony from Margaret Brayne’s supporters, Ellen Burbage and her second son, Richard, physically attacked Margaret Brayne and her “agent,” Robert Miles. With Richard Burbage, already well known as an actor, wielding a broomstick, the Burbages drove Margaret and her men out of the theatre yard. Ellen, obviously, played an active role in her husband’s enterprises. Although Margaret Brayne died of the plague in 1593, she made Miles her heir and he continued the lawsuit until 1595 and began another in 1597 that was later dropped. In 1596, meanwhile, the Burbage family moved from Shoreditch to Blackfriars, hoping to build an indoor theater there. They knew by then that their lease on the land on which the Theatre was built would not be renewed. They spent £1000 for the Blackfriars property and renovations on an existing theater there (formerly used by children’s companies) and lived in the building during construction, but in November the neighbors got up a petition to prevent them from opening. This blow was quickly followed by two more. Their daughter Ellen died in early December and James Burbage himself died later the same month. His wealth was valued at only £37, but he had already deeded his personal property to Cuthbert and the Blackfriars property to Richard. As a temporary measure the Burbages rented the Curtain in Shoreditch for performances. Then, rather than let James Burbage’s Theatre be taken over and run by outsiders, Ellen and her sons brought a dozen workmen to the site on the night of December 28, 1598, dismantled the structure, and ferried the parts across the Thames to be reassembled in Southwark and open in the autumn of 1599 as the Globe. Ellen lived for another fourteen years, long enough to savor the successes of her two famous sons.

DOROTHY BRERETON

see DOROTHY EGERTON

ELIZABETH BRETON

see ELIZABETH BACON

KATHERINE BRETTARGH
see KATHERINE BRUEN

ALICE BRIGANDINE (x. March 14,1551)

Alice Brigandine was the daughter of John Brigandine or Bryganten of Southampton and Alice Squire or Squyer (d.1560). She was brought up by her stepfather, Edward, baron North, at Kirtling and there met and married Thomas Arden or Ardern of Faversham, Kent (c.1508-February 15,1551). Arden had a daughter, Margaret (b.1538), but she seems to have been the child of a previous wife. Well before the end of 1550, Alice had a lover named Thomas Mosby. Probably because she wanted to marry him, she plotted to murder her husband. She tried and failed to kill him with poison, then asked a neighbor, John Grene, to hire an assassin who would do the deed for £10. Grene hired one “Black Will,” but Will’s first attempt also failed. More conspirators, George Shakebag and Arden’s servant, Michael Saunderson, were brought into the plot, the latter with the promise of marriage to one of Mosby’s kinswomen. More attempts were made and failed. Mosby even challenged Arden to a duel, but Arden refused to fight. Alice, Mosby, Grene, Saunderson, Shakebag, Will, and Alice’s maid, Elizabeth Stafford, met at the house of Mosby’s sister, Cecily Ponder or Pounder, to devise a new plan and finally, on Sunday, February 14, 1551, they killed Arden in his own parlor. With company due to arrive for supper, Alice quickly cleaned up the blood and temporarily hid the body in the cellar. Over supper, she and Cecily Ponder professed amazement that Arden had not yet returned home. Arden’s daughter entertained the company by playing on the virginals. Then, after the guests left, with the help of Arden’s daughter, Elizabeth Stafford, and Cecily Ponder, Alice dragged the corpse out of the house and put it in her neighbor’s field, hoping that the authorities would conclude that Arden had been murdered by robbers. Unfortunately, it had started to snow, and footprints led the authorities straight back to Alice. She was tried, convicted, and burnt to death in Canterbury. Mosby and his sister were hanged. Michael Saunderson was hanged in chains. The maid was burnt for killing her master. Grene and Mosby were not captured at once, but were eventually taken and executed. The custody of Arden’s daughter, Margaret, was given to Sir Thomas Cheyne. Raphael Holinshed included an account of the crime in his Chronicles in 1577 and in 1592 it was the basis for a play, The Tragedie of Arden of Feversham and Blackwill. More recent accounts are Patricia Hyde's Thomas Arden in Faversham: the man behind the myth and Chapter Four of John Bellamy’s Strange, Inhuman Deaths: Murder in Tudor England; a concise account of the crime is in the Oxford DNB entry under "Arden, Thomas."

ELEANOR BRITTON (d. 1595+)
Eleanor Britton was a servant of in the household of George Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury. She came there from Norfolk in 1579 and by 1586 was housekeeper at Hardwick Hall and Shrewsbury’s mistress. Some accounts say she was a widow, which would mean her maiden name is unknown. Shrewsbury was at odds with his wife, Bess of Hardwick, who lived seven miles away at Wingfield. They reconciled for a brief time early in 1587, but a few months later the earl was living openly with Eleanor at Hanworth or Handsworth Manor. Eleanor is said to have the earl completely enthralled. She was with him when he died at Sheffield on November 18, 1590 and she and her nephew, Thomas, left immediately afterward, taking with them everything they could find of value. When Shrewsbury’s son and heir arrived, he discovered thousands of pounds worth of property missing. Gilbert raided Eleanor Britton’s house and confiscated everything he could get his hands on. Then he sued, accusing her of embezzlement during the last year of his father’s life. Eleanor countersued, demanding the return of the confiscated goods. The matter was still ongoing five years later.

DOROTHY BROADBELT (d. 1589+)

Dorothy Broadbelt was one of two names Elizabeth Tudor herself suggested to replace Elizabeth Sandes when Mistress Sandes was removed from her service at Woodstock in June, 1554. Dorothy had probably been in the princess’s service before that date. A “Jane Bradbelt” is listed as a chamberer in the princess’s household in 1536. Just as Bradbelt is probably a mistake for Broadbelt, so Jane may be a mistake for Dorothy. In his biography of Elizabeth Tudor, David Starkey refers to one of Elizabeth’s ladies in 1554 as “the long-serving Dorothy Bradbelt.” Dorothy is listed among the queen's ladies in 1562-68, 1570, 1575, and 1585-89 and may have been there in the interim as well. In 1562 she was briefly confined to her chamber, as was Kat Astley, for writing to the Swedish Chancellor, Nicolas Guildenstern, in support of a marriage between Queen Elizabeth and King Eric. She married John Abingdon or Habingdon in 1567. He was a clerk of the kitchen. On June 29, 1560, Dorothy was granted a forty-one year lease on certain properties. She surrendered it in 1570 in exchange for another forty-one year lease, this one on land in Northamptonshire and the rectory of Utterby, Lincolnshire.

ALICE BROCK (May 9, 1560-c.1615)
Alice Brock was the daughter of Sigismund Brock of Essex and Anne Jerningham (1540-c.1598). She married Thomas Blague (d.1611), later Dean of Rochester, when she was fifteen. They had six children—John, Thomas, Cornwallis, Edmund, Nicholas, and Frances (1586-1604). Alice was a client of Simon Forman the astrologer and as such details of her person and her love affairs have been preserved. He wrote of her that she “was of long visage, wide mouth, reddish hair, of good and comely stature; but would never garter her hose, and go much slipshod . . . She kept company with base fellows . . . and yet would seem as holy as a horse.” After Blague’s death, Alice married Walter Meysey, who was thereafter arrested for Blague’s debts and separated from his wife to avoid being held responsible for them. Biography: A. L. Rowse, Sex and Society in Shakespeare’s Age, Chapter VII.

JOAN BROCKHURST
see JOAN COLTE

ELIZABETH BROKE (d. May 12, 1502)
Elizabeth Broke was elected abbess of Romsey Abbey in 1471. She alleged that she came from a noble race of barons, but whether this was the family of Brooke of Cobham or Willoughby de Broke is unclear. She was in trouble with her superiors as early as 1478. It was probably at that time that she was absolved of adultery with one John Placy. She resigned as abbess, but was immediately reelected. In 1492, she confessed to being in debt for £80 to her steward at Romsey, Master Terbock or Terbocke. He persuaded her to let his friend, John White, enter the nunnery freely. According the depositions given by some of Romsey's forty nuns, White had continual access to the abbess. Their complaints were recorded, as were Elizabeth's about them. She said she suspected that they were slipping into town and that she feared they were frequenting taverns. In 1501, she was again accused of being under the influence of a man, this time the chaplain of the infirmary, Master Bryce. One of the complaints against her this time was that she'd allowed the roofs at Romsey to become defective in order to squander funds on Bryce.

JOCOSA or JOYCE BROME (d. June 21, 1528)
Jocosa Brome was the daughter of John Brome of Baddesley Clinton (1415-November 9, 1466; alternate date November 5, 1468) and Beatrice Shirley (1417-July 10, 1483). She became a nun and was prioress of Wroxall when she retired, due to old age, in September 1525. In retirement, she had her own chamber, furnished with her own possessions, and a pension of £3 a year for life, paid in quarterly installments. She was succeeded as prioress by Alice Little (d.1553+).

JOAN BROMLEY (b.1562)
Joan Bromley was the daughter of Lord Chancellor Thomas Bromley (1530-April 12, 1587) and Elizabeth Fortesque (1534-June 1602). She was courted by Sir Edward Greville of Milcote, an unscrupulous gentleman who nonetheless apparently possessed a great deal of charm. After their 1583 marriage, Greville spent his wife’s fortune, leaving her with little more than the clothes on her back. They had several daughters but their names do not seem to have been recorded.

MURIEL BROMLEY (1560-1630)
Muriel Bromley was the daughter of Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas Bromley (1530-April 12, 1587) and Elizabeth Fortescue (c.1540-June 1602). She was married to John Lyttleton or Littleton of Frankley (c.1563-July 1601), a Papist and conspirator in Essex’s Rebellion who died in prison. He had been condemned to death and his estates forfeited but Muriel “begged the estate” of King James and managed to pay fines totally £25,000. This took her thirty years, during which time she raised her children, Thomas (1596-February 22, 1651) and Anne (d. February 6, 1624) at Hagley, Worcestershire.

ANNE BROOKE

see ANNE BRAY

CATHERINE BROOKE

see CATHERINE BRYDGES

DOROTHY BROOKE

see DOROTHY NEVILLE

ELIZABETH BROOKE (1503-1560)

The daughter of Thomas Brooke, 8th baron Cobham (d.July 19,1529) and Dorothy Heydon, Elizabeth married Sir Thomas Wyatt the poet (1503-October 11, 1542) in 1520 and bore him a son, Sir Thomas the rebel (1521-x1554) and a daughter, Anne. Early in the marriage, marital difficulties arose, with Wyatt claiming they were “chiefly” her fault. He repudiated her as an adulteress, although there is no record linking her with any specific man. For fifteen years or so, he continued to support her, but then refused to do so any longer and sent her to live with her brother, Lord Cobham. This was around 1537, the year in which Lord Cobham attempted to force Wyatt to continue his support. He refused. It wasn't until 1541, when Wyatt was arrested and his properties confiscated, that the Brooke family was able to force a reconciliation as a condition for Wyatt’s pardon. It is unclear, however, whether this provision was ever enforced. Wyatt continued his association with his mistress, Elizabeth Darrell. In early 1542, more than a year before Wyatt’s death, Lady Wyatt's name crops up in Spanish dispatches as one of three ladies in whom Henry VIII was said to be interested as a possible sixth wife. The Spanish Ambassador wrote that the lady for whom the king “showed the greatest regard was a sister of Lord Cobham, whom Wyatt, some time ago, divorced for adultery. She is a pretty young creature, with wit enough to do as badly as the others if she were to try.” This is an odd comment in several ways, not the least of which is that Elizabeth was almost forty years old. What would make more sense, would be to assume that the ambassador was mistaken in his identification. Another Elizabeth Brooke (see next entry), Lord Cobham’s daughter, could easily have been at court on this occasion, since she was definitely there the following year. She would have been nearly sixteen in January of 1542 and in later years was accounted one of the most beautiful women of her time. More important to a king who had just rid himself of a wife (Catherine Howard) who had committed adultery, this second Elizabeth had a spotless reputation. Following Wyatt’s death, Lady Wyatt married Edward Warner (1511-1565), Lord Lieutenant of the Tower. Warner was removed from his position on July 28, 1553, after Mary became queen, and was arrested on suspicion of treason the following January at his house in Carter Lane when Thomas Wyatt the younger rebelled against the Crown. Warner was held for nearly a year. Elizabeth’s son was executed. Edward, the son she had with Warner, died young. Eventually, however, the family fortunes were restored and under Elizabeth Tudor Warner reclaimed to his post at the Tower of London. His wife died there in August 1560 and was buried within its precincts. Portrait: the drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger labeled “Anna Bollein Queen,” his only portrait of a woman in informal dress, may indeed be Anne Boleyn, but a good argument has also been made to identify her as Elizabeth Brooke, Lady Wyatt.

 

ELIZABETH BROOKE (June 12,1526-April 2,1565)

Elizabeth Brooke was the daughter of George Brooke, 9th baron Cobham (1497-September 29,1558) and Anne Bray (c.1500-November 1,1558). She is known to have been at court in 1543 and to have captured the heart of the queen’s brother, William Parr, marquis of Northampton (August 14,1513-October 18,1571), but it seems reasonable that she might have been there earlier, perhaps in attendance at the banquet held by King Henry for a number of ladies after Catherine Howard was arrested. See the argument in the entry above for that logic. In 1543, Elizabeth’s desire to marry Northampton was thwarted by the fact that he already had a wife, one he had repudiated for adultery many years before. Elizabeth and Northampton went through a private form of marriage in 1547 and began living together, but when this became known they were ordered to separate by the duke of Somerset, Lord Protector for King Edward VI. Elizabeth was sent to live with Katherine Parr, now the wife of Sir Thomas Seymour. She remained in that household until April, 1548, when her marriage to Northampton was declared valid. This was later ratified by an Act of Parliament on March 31, 1552. The Northamptons took up residence in Winchester House in Southwark and Lady Northampton spent much of her time at court. She is said to have inspired the young Sir Thomas Hoby to begin his translation of Castiglione’s The Courtier, although she did not travel to France with Hoby when he went there in Northampton’s entourage in 1551. Together with Frances Brandon and Jane Guildford, the duchesses of Suffolk and Northumberland, she was involved in the matchmaking that preceded Northumberland’s attempt to place Lady Suffolk’s daughter, Lady Jane Grey, on the throne of England instead of Mary Tudor. Some sources even credit her with the suggestion that Lady Jane marry one of Northumberland’s sons. Elizabeth may have accompanied Lady Jane to the Tower to await her coronation after the death of King Edward VI. Upon Northumberland’s defeat, Northampton was arrested, tried, sentenced to death, and then pardoned at the end of December, but all was not well. Bishop Gardiner, released from the Tower by Mary Tudor and restored to his former post as Lord Chancellor, had ordered Elizabeth out of Winchester House. Northampton had been deprived of his titles, his lands, his Order of the Garter and, by the repeal of the act of 1552 (on October 24, 1553), his second wife. Forced to borrow money on which to live, Elizabeth probably went to live with her mother, Lady Cobham, or her brother, William, in Kent. When Parr was released from the Tower, he stayed at the house of Sir Edward Warner in Carter Lane. Sir Edward was married to Elizabeth’s aunt, the former Lady Wyatt. It was her son, Sir Thomas Wyatt, Elizabeth’s cousin, who led a rebellion against Queen Mary. Parr was arrested once again, as were three of Elizabeth’s brothers (William, George, and Thomas Brooke). Parr was released for the second time on March 24, 1554 and restored in blood on the 5th of May. Although their marriage remained invalid, Elizabeth returned to Parr after his release and in March 1555 they were joint godparents to Elizabeth Cavendish. They existed in considerable poverty for the remainder of Queen Mary’s reign. In 1557 they were living in Blackfriars when the French ambassador, the bishop of Acqs, asked Elizabeth to deliver a message to the queen’s sister at Hatfield. It was a warning not to flee to France to avoid being forced to marry Emmanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy. In the last months of Mary’s reign, in what was probably an influenza epidemic, Elizabeth Brooke’s mother, father, and maternal grandmother died and Parr was seriously ill. With Mary’s death, however, Elizabeth’s fortunes took a turn for the better. The new queen made a point of stopping to speak to Northampton as her procession through London passed his widow. On January 13, 1559, she restored him as marquis of Northampton. Elizabeth Brooke became one of the queen’s closest women friends and her word that the queen was not Robert Dudley’s lover was enough for the Spanish ambassador, Don Guzman de Silva. It was also de Silva who recorded that when Lady Northampton fell ill, the queen came from St. James to dine with her and spend the day. In August 1562, Lady Northampton was reportedly near death from jaundice and high fever and given up for lost in mid-September, but by October 12th she had recovered. In 1564, however, she developed breast cancer. She made a trip to Antwerp in hope of a cure, accompanied by her brother William and his wife, but the effort was futile. In November of that year the personal physician of Maximilian, king of Bohemia, came to England to examine her. He could do nothing, either, nor could a series of quacks. In January 1565, the queen’s physician, Dr. Julio, took over her treatment. Unfortunately, his man, Griffith, made sexual advances toward Elizabeth, who was still, apparently, “one of the most beautiful women of her time,” and the queen had both men thrown into the Marshalsea. When Elizabeth died, the queen paid for her funeral. Biography: for more on Elizabeth Brooke, see Susan E. James’s Kateryn Parr: The Making of a Queen. Portraits: a medal by Stephen van Herwijck, 1562; memorial portrait in the 1567 Cobham Family Portrait (see FRANCES NEWTON for more information), based on a portrait from c.1560. Elizabeth was apparently painted fairly often and gave copies of her portraits to friends and family, including her brother and her husband's brother-in-law, the earl of Pembroke.


FRANCES BROOKE

see FRANCES HOWARD; FRANCES NEWTON

PHILIPPA BROOKE (c.1579-c.September 1613)

Philippa Brooke was the daughter of Sir Henry Brooke (February 5,1538-1591) and Anne Sutton (d. June 1612). She was married to Walter Calverley (c.1575-August 5,1605), whose wardship and marriage were controlled by Philippa’s relatives, and had by him three sons, William (c.1601-April 23,1605), Walter (c.1603-April 23,1605), and Henry (b.1605). The family seat was Calverley Hall in Yorkshire. Calverley was a gambler and a drunkard, deeply in debt by April 23, 1605 when, in a drunken rage (or a fit of insane jealousy over a Vavasour of Weston), he killed his two oldest sons with a knife and then stabbed Philippa. Fortunately her steel corset deflected the blow. Leaving her for dead, he rode toward Norton, where the youngest boy lodged with his wet nurse, intending to kill him, too, but he was pursued and captured when his horse stumbled and threw him. The next day, in his examination before justices of the peace, he claimed that his wife had been unfaithful to him, that the children were not his, and that he had been in danger “sundry times” of being murdered by Philippa. It is obvious he was not believed. He was pressed to death at York Castle for his crimes. The tragedy inspired a ballad, two tracts, and two plays, The Yorkshire Tragedy (1608) and The Miseries of Enforced Marriage (1607). Calverley Hall is supposed to have a blood stain on the floor that cannot be cleaned and Walter is also said to haunt the area, galloping about on a headless horse. Philippa later married Sir Thomas Burton (d.c. August 1655) and had a daughter by him named Anne. Philippa was buried on September 28, 1613 at Stockeston, Leicestershire.

ELEANOR BROOKSBY
see ELEANOR VAUX

ANNE BROUGHTON
see ANNE SAPCOTE

ALICE BROWNE
see ALICE KEBEL

ANNE BROWNE (d.1510)
Anne Browne was the daughter of Sir Anthony Browne (d.1505) and Lucy Neville (1468-1534) and was at court as a maid of honor to Elizabeth of York shortly before the queen’s death. She had the misfortune to fall in love with Charles Brandon (1485-1545). They were betrothed, and lived together as man and wife, but after Anne became pregnant with their first child, Anne (c.1507-January 1558), Brandon abandoned her to marry her aunt, Margaret Neville, a wealthy widow. When that marriage was declared null and void, on the grounds of Brandon’s precontract with Anne, he returned to her and married her in 1509. Anne died the following year, probably shortly after giving birth to a second daughter, Mary (1510-1541+)

ANNE BROWNE (d.1517+)
Anne Browne was the daughter of Sir Matthew Browne of Betchworth Castle, Surrey (1473-August 6,1557) and Frideswide Guildford (b.1479). She was at court, taking part in the revels there, in 1517-1518, although it is not clear if she had an official post in the queen’s household.

ANNE BROWNE (1509-March 10, 1582)
Anne Browne was the daughter of Sir William Browne of Flambard’s Hall (1467-1514), Lord Mayor of London in 1507-8 and again in 1513/14, and Alice Kebel (1482-June 8, 1521). Through remarriage, Anne's mother became Lady Mountjoy and was at court. Anne's first husband was John Tyrrell of Heron, Essex (d.1540). Her second, to whom she was married by March 1542, was Sir William Petre of Ingatestone Hall, Essex (1505- January 13, 1572). Curiously, the Oxford DNB entry for William Petre calls Anne the daughter of John Tyrrell and the widow of William Browne of Flambard's Hall, but the life dates of both men make this impossible. All accounts agree that she brought to the marriage a dowry of £280 a year. By her second marriage, Anne had several children: Thomasine (April 7, 1543-1611+), Catherine, Edward (d. yng), Sir John (1549-October 11, 1613), William (d. yng), and Anne (1557-1610). One record also appears to give her a daughter named Griselda, perhaps from her first marriage. Petre was in royal service to Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. In 1561, he entertained Queen Elizabeth at Ingatestone and from 1564-66 he and his wife were responsible for keeping Lady Catherine Grey under house arrest there. As a widow, Anne remained at Ingatestone Hall and there sheltered a number of seminary priests. She was on the list of recusants for 1582 but she died before any official action was taken against her. Portraits: attributed to Steven van der Meulen; effigy at Ingatestone.


CHRISTIAN BROWNE
see CHRISTIAN CARKETT

ELEANOR BROWNE (c.1491-after August 21, 1560)

Eleanor Browne was the daughter of Robert Browne (b.c.1433) of Chilham, Kent and Mary or Margaret Mallet. She married first Thomas Fogge, porter of Calais (d.August 16,1512), by whom she had two daughters, Anne and Alice, and second Sir William Kempe (c.1487-January 28, 1535) of Ollantigh, Kent and Spains Hall in Finchingfield, Essex. Their children were Emeline (d. before 1538), Thomas (d. March 7, 1591), John, Edward, Anthony (d.1597), Francis (d.1597), George (d.1570+), Cecily, Faith, Mary, and Margaret. As Eleanor Kempe, Eleanor served in Katherine Parr's household from 1543-1547 and was one of the longest serving and most loyal of Mary Tudor’s ladies. She was part of Mary’s household by 1547 and was still there in 1558 when the queen died. Eleanor’s will is dated August 21, 1560.

ELIZABETH BROWNE (1500-1565)

Elizabeth Browne was the daughter of Sir Anthony Browne (1443-November 19,1506) and Lucy Neville (1468-March,1534) and married by 1527, as his second wife, Henry Somerset, 2nd earl of Worcester (1499-November 26, 1549). She was at court in the household of Queen Anne Boleyn and seems to have been a friend of Anne’s. On April 8, 1536, she borrowed £100 from the queen, a debt that had not yet been repaid when Queen Anne was arrested and sent to the Tower. An unsubstantiated story has Elizabeth taken to task for immorality by her brother, Sir Anthony Browne (1500-1548) and responding that she was “no worse than the queen.” One variation on this story identifies Elizabeth as King Henry VIII’s former mistress and has her specifying that her brother should talk to Mark Smeaton and one of the queen’s gentlewomen called Marguerite for details on the queen’s misconduct. Another version has Lady Worcester issuing the reprimand and an unidentified woman comparing herself to the queen. All that is certain is that gossip prevalent at the time of Queen Anne’s arrest did mention Lady Worcester as a source of some of the accusations against her, but without specifics. Comments Queen Anne made during her imprisonment suggest that Lady Worcester may have recently miscarried of a child but give no indication that Anne thought Elizabeth had turned on her. As for the loan, Elizabeth wrote to Thomas Cromwell on March 8, 1538, thanking him for his kindness in that matter and asking that he not mention it to her husband, since the earl did not know she had borrowed the money. Elizabeth bore her husband several children including William (1527-February 21, 1589), Jane (1535-1573+), and Anne (1538-September 8, 1591). She died between April 20 and October 23 of 1565. Portrait: effigy, St. Mary's Church, Chepstow.


ELIZABETH BROWNE

see ELIZABETH FITZGERALD

MABEL BROWNE (c.1528-August 25,1610)

The daughter of Sir Anthony Browne (June 27,1500-May 5,1548) and Alys Gage (d. March 31,1540), Mabel was a member of a recusant family. Her marriage to the brother of her stepmother, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, on May 28, 1554, made her countess of Kildare. Gerald Fitzgerald (February 25,1525-November 16,1585) had been living in exile following the execution for treason of most of the other Fitzgerald men. He was restored to the title in 1554. During part of the reign of Mary Tudor, Mabel was a gentlewoman of the privy chamber. She was less welcome at court under Elizabeth. Living primarily in Ireland, Mabel had five children: Gerald, Lord Offalay (c.1559-1580), Henry, 12th earl of Kildare (d.1597), William, 13th earl of Kildare (d.1599), Mary, and Elizabeth. By the 1570s, Mabel's recusant leanings were very apparent. She may have had no direct role in treason, but her oldest son's tutor was a suspect and she harbored a number of priests within her household. Her husband was committed to Dublin Castle in December 1580 and later was incarcerated in the Tower of London. He was released in June 1583. According to Vincent P. Carey, author of Surviving the Tudors: The 'Wizard' Earl of Kildare and English Rule in Ireland, 1537-1586, Mabel "maintained a refuge and library for the Jesuit missionary Robert Rochfort. She also kept the priest Nicholas Eustache, a relative of the rebel Baltinglass, as her private chaplain, and hired the suspected Father Compton as a tutor to her younger children." She was innocent of the charge that she intended to have one of her sons taken to Spain to be brought up with the duchess of Feria, but she was a close friend of the duchess (Englishwoman Jane Dormer) from the time they had both been at the court of Mary Tudor. An even more interesting story, but one with even less foundation in fact, attributes the death of the 'Wizard' earl and the 'enchanted sleep' that legend maintains followed it, to an accident while the earl was giving his wife a demonstration of his magical powers. In fact, the earl died in his bed.

 

MAGDALEN BROWNE

see MAGDALEN DACRE

MARY BROWNE (c.1527-1592+)
Mary Browne was the daughter of Sir Anthony Browne (June 27, 1500-May 6, 1548) and Alys Gage (d. March 31, 1540). She married Lord John Grey, a younger son of the marquis of Dorset (c.1527-November 19,1569). He was imprisoned along with his brother, Henry, duke of Suffolk, after Wyatt’s Rebellion in 1554, but Mary’s family, who supported Queen Mary, contrived his release. Under Queen Elizabeth, Grey was granted Pyrgo and the queen visited him there in 1561. Mary’s children with John Grey were Henry (1547-July 26, 1614), Frances, Elizabeth, Edward, Thomas, John, Jane (c.1550-c.1619), Anne, and Margaret (1559-August 14, 1604). After her first husband’s death, Mary married Henry Capel or Capell of Hadham Hall (1514-June 22, 1588). Her daughter Margaret married his son Arthur. The queen visited Hadham Hall on progress in 1578. On Capel’s death, Mary inherited, among other things, her coach and the two horses that went with it. She moved to the other Capel seat, Rayne, while Arthur, took possession of Hadham Hall.

MARY BROWNE (July 22,1552-April, 1607)

Mary Browne was the daughter of Anthony Browne, viscount Montagu (November 29,1528-October 19,1592) and Jane Radcliffe (1533-July 22,1552). She was brought up at Cowdray by her stepmother, Magdalen Dacre, as a devout Catholic. She married a Catholic neighbor, Henry Wriothesley, earl of Southampton (April 29,1545-October 9, 1581) on February 19,1566. Two opposing views of Mary’s life and character can be found in biographies of her son, Henry (October 6, 1573-November 10,1634). A. L. Rowse’s Shakespeare’s Southampton finds her sympathetic while G.P.V. Akrigg’s Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton does not. In 1577, Mary’s husband suspected her of adultery with one Donesame and sought to deprive her of her children. After Southampton’s death, her daughter, Mary (1572-1607) was returned to her. In 1592, it was revealed that one of the countess’s gentlemen in waiting, Mr. Harrington, and a priest named Butler, had lived in Southampton House in London, Lady Southampton’s principal residence, in 1584, in the next chamber to her cousin, Robert Gage, one of the conspirators in the Babington Plot. At least in part to obtain protection for herself and her family, the countess remarried on May 2, 1594, choosing as her husband Sir Thomas Heneage (d. October 1595), an influential courtier. Their wedding may have been the occasion for the first performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Upon Heneage's death, Mary inherited Copt Hall, Essex. Her stepdaughter, Elizabeth Heneage, Lady Finch, guaranteed that Mary would have an annual income of £600 if Mary would pay off Heneage’s debts to the Crown, a total of some £13,000. This Mary agreed to and sold one of her own manors to raise the money. In January 1599, she married a third time, to Sir William Hervey (d.1642). When James I became king, Mary was granted a free gift of £600 from the Exchequer and her son, who had been imprisoned for his part in the Essex Rebellion, was released from the Tower of London. A. L. Rowse suggests that her estate included Shakespeare’s sonnets, written to Mary’s son, and that William Hervey was the “Mr. W.H.” who provided them to the printer in 1609. Mary was buried at Titchfield with her first husband. Portrait: Painted at thirteen (1566) by Hans Eworth. This painting is at Welbeck Abbey.


ISABEL BROWNSWORD (d.1598)
Isabel Brownsword, probably the daughter of Richard Brownsword (d.1559) and his wife Elizabeth (d.1559+), married Richard Tipping (d.1592), a linen draper of Manchester. In 1561, they occupied a house in Hanging Ditch, close to the church, formerly occupied by Richard Brownsword. Later it became known as "Tipping Gates." Tipping also owned houses and shops in the Shambles. After Tipping's death, Isabel continued her husband's business, trading in yarn and sackcloth. By the time she died, she was extremely wealthy. The inventory taken at her death reveals the value of her personal wealth was at least £1500 and that she had £471 17s. on hand in silver and gold. She also owned books. Her children with Tipping were John (d. before 1592), Samuel, George (d.1629), Anne, Dorothy, and Cecily (d. before 1617).

AGNES BRUDENELL

see AGNES BUSSY

KATHERINE BRUEN (February 1579-May 31, 1601)
Katherine Bruen was the daughter of John Bruen of Bruen Stapleford, Cheshire (1510-1587) and Dorothy Holford. From the age of eight, she was raised by her older brother, John Bruen (1560-1625), who enforced a strict religious regimen that included prayers seven times a day and attendance at two sermons every Sunday. In about 1599, Katherine married William Brettargh of Brettargh Hall near Liverpool (c.1571-1602+). He was a puritan, almost as strict as her brother. They lived at Little Woolton in Childwall, Lancashire and had one child, Anne, before Katherine contracted an unknown illness and, facing death, lost her faith. Her death inspired an account of her life—actually two sermons that attempted to explain what had happened to her—printed later that same year, and spawned a debate about which religious beliefs led to a more merciful death. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Brettargh [née Bruen], Katherine.” Portraits: portrait; engraving.

ELIZABETH BRYAN (c.1495-1546)

The daughter of Sir Thomas Bryan (c.1464-1517) and Margaret Bourcher (1468- 1551/2), Elizabeth and her siblings grew up at court, where her mother was one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies in waiting and her father was vice chamberlain of the queen’s household. Elizabeth was married in December 1514 to Sir Nicholas Carew of Beddington, Surrey (c. 1496-March 3,1539), a squire of the king’s body. Both before and after her marriage, Elizabeth and her sister Margaret (married to Sir Henry Guildford from 1512) participated in many masques at court. Elizabeth’s children by Carew were Isabel, Elizabeth, Mary, Francis (1530-May 16, 1611), and Anne (d. November 3, 1587). Elizabeth is credited with persuading her uncle, John Bourchier, 2nd baron Berners (1467-1533), to translate “The Castell of Love” from Spanish into English. The manor of Bletchingley, Surrey, was granted to Nicholas and Elizabeth Carew in 1522. In 1536, Jane Seymour stayed with them prior to her marriage to Henry VIII. Queen Jane was very fond of Elizabeth Carew and left her several pieces of jewelry when she died. This gift, described on one website as “many beautiful diamonds and pearls and innumerable jewels,” seems to be the source of a totally unfounded story that Elizabeth Bryan, as a young teenager, was Henry VIII’s mistress. She was a beauty, and she was not left in poverty after her husband was charged with treason and executed, but there is no evidence of any affair. In fact, after Sir Nicholas's death, she was evicted from the Carew seat at Beddington and had to take refuge at Wallington. She wrote to Lord Cromwell from there, asking him to intercede for her with the king. Her mother also wrote to Cromwell, saying that Elizabeth "has not been used to straight living and it would grieve me in my old days to lose her." Elizabeth was allowed to keep Wallington and a few manors in Sussex. She was buried in St. Botolph’s, Aldgate. Biography: included in Ronald Michell, The Carews of Beddington.

 

JOAN BRYAN
see JOAN FITZGERALD

MARGARET BRYAN

see MARGARET BOURCHIER

ELIZABETH BRYCE (d. before 1542)

Elizabeth Bryce was the granddaughter of a London goldsmith, Sir Hugh Bryce (d. September 22, 1496) and his wife, Elizabeth Chester (d.1504). It is not certain when her father, James, died, but Elizabeth was still underage and unmarried in 1498. She married another goldsmith, Robert Amadas (1470-by April 14,1532). They had two daughters, Elizabeth, who died before her parents, and Thomasine. In 1526, Robert Amadas was appointed Master of the Jewel House to King Henry VIII. Amadas owned a house in Aldersgate and land in Essex. Upon his death, Elizabeth inherited Jenkins, a “mansion house” in Barking, and on August 28, 1532, married Sir Thomas Neville (c.1475-May 29,1542) in the chapel there. He was the younger brother of Baron Bergavenny and a lawyer. He and Elizabeth had no children and she died before him. Here the “facts” become contradictory. According to Carolly Erickson’s biography of Henry VIII’s daughter, Queen Mary, Mrs. Amadas "began, in 1533, to spread ‘ungracious’ statements about the king’s occult destiny.” She said these prophesies had been known to her for some twenty years. She kept a “painted roll of her predictions” which included battles and deaths and conquest by Scotland, as well as Anne Boleyn’s death within six months by being burnt at the stake. The story that Mrs. Amadas claimed, in 1532, that she had once been the king’s mistress, has fairly wide circulation. Since she specified that she met him in Sir William Compton’s house in Thames Street, this must have been before Compton’s death in 1528 . . . if it ever happened. And if, indeed, she called Anne Boleyn a harlot and spoke out against the king setting aside his wife, then it would have been difficult indeed for her to marry Thomas Neville when she did. Wikipedia, never the most reliable of sources, summarizes “what everyone knows” about Elizabeth Amadas, which is that she was arrested for her treasonous statements and that Richard Amadas was ordered to pay several hundred pounds to the crown, although whether to free his wife or because there was plate missing from the Jewel House is not clear. Of course, since Amadas had died early in 1532, either would have been a good trick. That Elizabeth was “given to tantrums and strange visions,” as Alison Weir recounts, is equally suspect, although both she and G.W. Bernard give sources in the L&P for the affair with the king and the prophesies. Kelly Hart, in The Mistresses of Henry VIII, repeats all the stories about Elizabeth Amadas and adds that Robert Amadas owed the king 1,771 livres 19s.10d. for missing plate. She also says that Elizabeth died within four months of her second marriage but gives no sources for this information. Sharon Jansen, in Dangerous Talk and Strange Behavior, has a different take on Mrs. Amadas. Indeed, she doesn't think the self-proclaimed prophet was Elizabeth Bryce at all. Jansen identifies the Mrs. Amadas who compared herself with Catherine of Aragon and Elizabeth Stafford, Duchess of Norfolk as an abused wife as the wife of John Amadas (by 1489-1554/5), a member of the king's household with properties in Devon, Cornwall, and Kent. He was married by 1519, but his wife's name is unknown. They had a son and a daughter and she had died by 1542, when he remarried.

ANNE BRYDGES

see ANNE STANLEY

CATHERINE BRYDGES (c.1497-1556)

Catherine Brydges was the daughter of Sir Giles Brydges or Brugge of Coberley (1462-December 1, 1511) and Isabel Baynham (c.1475-1511+). She married c. 1515 Leonard Pole or Poole of Sapperton, Gloucestershire (d.1538), gentleman usher of the king’s chamber, by whom she had two sons, John and Sir Giles (d. February 24, 1589). Her second husband, married c. 1539, was Sir David Brooke (1497-1559). Catherine was one of Mary Tudor’s nurses in 1516. She was still with the princess in July 1525 when Mary’s household was set up at Ludlow Castle. In 1553, when Mary became queen, Catherine returned to her household, after a long absence, as Catherine Brooke.

DOROTHY BRYDGES

see DOROTHY BRAY

ELEANOR BRYDGES (b.c.1546)
Eleanor Brydges was the daughter of Edmund Brydges, 2nd baron Chandos (d. September 11, 1573) and Dorothy Bray (c.1524-October 31,1605). She went to court with her sister Katherine to be maids of honor to Queen Elizabeth and remained in the Privy Chamber after her marriage to George Gifford or Giffard (b.1552), a courtier, at some point during the 1570s. Gifford was arrested on August 23, 1586 on charges of dealing with Jesuits, but he was released by the end of that year. After that he was much abroad. I have not been able to discover when either Eleanor or her husband died.

ELIZABETH BRYDGES or BRUGGE (c.1510-1568)

Elizabeth Brydges or Brugge was the daughter of Rowland Brydges (Brugge; Bruges) of Clerkenwell, Middlesex and Margaret or Margery Kellom. Her first husband was Valentine Clerke, by whom she had three children: Rowland (b.1532), Anne (b.1534) and Amy (b.c.1540) Widowed by the end of 1540, she took Sir Ralph Fane or Vane (x. February 1552) for her second husband. Elizabeth translated psalms and proverbs and received dedications from poet Robert Crowley and others of the radical protestant persuasion. When her husband was executed, charged with conspiracy to murder the duke of Northumberland, Elizabeth lost their home at Penshurst, Kent and the contents of their house in Westminster. Under Queen Mary, Elizabeth offered aid to co-religionists imprisoned by the queen and as a result was eventually forced to go into hiding. She was concealed near Reading for twenty-one weeks in 1556. She died peacefully in Holborn and was buried at St. Andrews on June 11, 1568. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Fane [Vane; née Brydges], Elizabeth.”

ELIZABETH BRYDGES (1574-October 1617)

Elizabeth Brydges was the daughter of Giles Brydges, 3rd baron Chandos (1547-February 21,1594) and Frances Clinton (1551-September 12,1623). She was co-heiress with her sister Catherine (1576-1654) to a fortune reckoned at £16,500. She nearly married one Charles Lister, then caught the eye of Robert Devereux, earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth’s favorite. In April 1597, she and Elizabeth Russell were turned out of the Coffer Chamber for going to watch the earl play at ballon without permission. The two maids of honor spent three nights at Lady Stafford’s house before they were allowed to return to court. Elizabeth Brydges’s romance with Essex cooled, but in early 1598, he was said to have resumed the affair. In June 1602, during negotiations over the ownership of Sudeley Castle (Elizabeth’s uncle, William, 4th baron Chandos, also claimed the property) Elizabeth’s cousin, Grey Brydges, assaulted Elizabeth’s representative. In October of that year the proposal was made that Elizabeth marry Grey to settle the matter, but nothing came of the suggestion. Elizabeth Brydges was still at court in 1603 when Queen Elizabeth died and was in the funeral procession. Shortly after James I became king, Elizabeth married Sir John Kennedy, but Grey, now Lord Chandos, disapproved of the match and discovered that Kennedy already had a wife in Scotland. Forced to separate from her husband, Elizabeth lived the rest of her life in relative poverty and obscurity. Portraits: The one below was painted by Hieronomo Custodis in 1585; two others painted in 1595 by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger.


FRANCES BRYDGES (1580-1663)

Frances Brydges was the daughter of William Brydges, 4th baron Chandos (d.1602) and Mary Hopton (d. October 23,1624). She may have been a maid of honor. By 1603, she had married Sir Thomas Smith (c.1556-November 1609), a courtier who was named Master of Requests in 1608. They had two children, Robert (1605-1626) and Margaret, and houses in Westminster and Parsons Green, Fulham. In 1610, Frances married Thomas Cecil, earl of Exeter (1542-1623) by whom she had a daughter, Georgi-Anna (June 1616-1621). Frances entertained lavishly at Wimbledon but she was also involved in a scandal when Exeter’s grandson, Lord Ros (d.1618) was blackmailed by his wife, Anne Lake, and her parents. The hostilities extended to accusing Frances of an incestuous relationship with Ros and an attempt to poison Lady Ros. In February 1619 the charges and countercharges were finally heard in the Star Chamber with King James presiding. Frances was vindicated. The Lakes were imprisoned and fined. Following her second husband’s death, Frances returned to Fulham, where she lived until 1632, when she turned the property over to her daughter, Margaret, and Margaret’s husband, Thomas Carey (d.1634). She made her will on January 20, 1663. It was proved July 17. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Cecil [née Brydges; other married name Smith], Frances.” Portraits: painting by Van Dyck, now missing; drawing by Van Dyck; both from the 1630s.

KATHERINE BRYDGES (1554-1596)
Katherine Brydges was the daughter of Edmund Brydges, 2nd baron Chandos (d. September 11, 1573) and Dorothy Bray (c.1524-October 31,1605). She went to court with her sister Eleanor to be maids of honor to Queen Elizabeth. She was considered the most beautiful of that group and a poem by George Gascoigne (d.1577), “In Prayse of Bridges,” called her the damsel at court who “doth most excell” and praised “her sweet face.” In 1573 she married William Sandys, 3rd baron Sandys of the Vyne (c.1545-September 29, 1623). They had a daughter, Elizabeth (d. between April 5, 1644 and 1649).

AGNES BULKELEY

see AGNES NEEDHAM

CATHERINE BULKELEY (d. 1560)

Catherine Bulkeley was the daughter of Rowland Bulkeley of Beaumaris (c.1461-1537) and Alice Beconsall. She was a nun and in 1535 became the last abbess of Godstow in Oxfordshire. Following the abbey’s surrender, she conformed to the New Religion and leased the parsonage of Cheadle church in Cheshire from her brother, John, who was (absentee) rector there from 1525-1545. She apparently lived in the rectory until her death. She was buried at Cheadle on February 13, 1560.

ELINOR BULL
see ELINOR WHITNEY

JOAN BULMER

see JOAN ACWORTH

MARGARET BULMER

see MARGARET STAFFORD

CECILY BULSTRODE (1584-August 4, 1609)
Cecily Bulstrode was the daughter of Edward Bulstrode (November 3, 1550-August 31, 1595) and Cecily Croke (d.1608+). In 1605 she was part of the countess of Bedford’s household and by 1607 had become a gentlewoman of the queen’s bedchamber to Queen Anne. Several poems were apparently written about her, some of them attacking her for promiscuity, and at least one poem was written by Cecily herself in reply. Poems were also written about her death, which occurred at The Park, Twickenham, the countess of Bedford’s house. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Bulstrode, Cecily.”

ELLEN BURBAGE
see ELLEN BRAYNE

FRANCES BURKE

see FRANCES WALSINGHAM

AGNES BUSSY (c.1523-January 8, 1583)

Agnes was the only child of John Bussy or Bushy of Houghham, Lincolnshire (d.January 31,1542) and Anne Borough or Burgh (c.1500-1582). This considerable heiress was betrothed to a son of Sir William Fairfax in 1536, but disputes between the two fathers over the manor of Wigsley in Nottingham and other properties led Bussy to pay Fairfax £450 in 1539 to relinquish his claim to both Agnes and the land. She was then married to Edmund Brudenell of Deene (1521-February 24, 1585). They were visited there by Queen Elizabeth on her progress of 1566. Agnes and Edmund quarreled over money, Edmund’s unfaithfulness, religion (she was a staunch Protestant; he was sympathetic to Catholic recusants), how long to stay at Deene and how long at Houghham, and (in 1562) over title deeds. As a wife, Agnes had few legal rights. At one point she had to borrow money from her cousin, John Bussy, to pay her dressmaking bill. However, she did apparently have some say in the distribution of Bussy lands after her death and she paid her cousin, Richard Topcliffe (their mothers were sisters and Topcliffe’s sister was married to Brudenell’s brother) an annuity. Because Agnes was childless, there were several cousins with claims on her estate. Early on, Brudenell conspired with John Bussy to defraud the others by taking Agnes to London while another woman pretended to be her in court and surrendered the Bussy lands. The plan was to split the inheritance but Bussy backed out at the last minute. After the death of her second husband, Sir Anthony Neville, Agnes’s mother (Anne) lived with the Brudenells. In the October following Anne's death, when Agnes was ailing, Sir Walter Mildmay brokered an agreement for the distribution of the property after Agnes's death. In addition to deciding on her heir, Agnes wished to endow schools. Included was a provision that Brudenell (now Sir Edmund) “banish Kelam’s wife out of his company.” Brudenell, however, had plans of his own. He secretly negotiated a deal with Anthony Mears of Kirton, the principal heir to the seven manors Agnes had brought with her when they married. Two days after Agnes died, Sir Edmund purchased the Bussy inheritance from Mears for an undisclosed amount. This was contested by other Bussy relatives and the lawsuits were still ongoing in 1589, well after Sir Edmund himself had died. At one point he was even accused of giving her “lewd physic” to shorten her life, but there was no basis for this charge. Some three months passed between the date when Sir Edmund was supposed to have poisoned his wife and her death and in the interim she was well enough to have a company of players come to Deene and perform. After Agnes’s death, Sir Edmund remarried, taking as his bride one Audrey Fernley, widow of Anthony Rone of Houndslow. They had one child, a daughter, in 1584. Audrey died soon after she was born. Upon Sir Edmund’s death the following hear, the infant inherited an annuity of 100 marks (£55 13s. 4d.) and a marriage portion of £3000. Perhaps this is why the ghost of Agnes Bussy is said to haunt Deene. The story of Dame Agnes is found in Joan Ware’s The Brudenells of Deene and in Mary E. Finch’s The Wealth of Five Northamptonshire Families, 1540-1640.

JANE BUSSY (d.1557+)

Jane or Joan Bussy was the daughter of Sir Miles Bussy of Hougham, Lincolnshire (d.before February 12, 1525/6) and Margery Foljambe and the great-aunt of Agnes Bussy (above). She married Thomas Mears, Meres, or Meers of Kirton (d.before October 1, 1535). They had two sons, Francis (d. June 24,1557) and Thomas. Apparently, a man named Milnes was killed in Jane’s chamber at court and she was attainted for his “surmised murder,” then pardoned by Henry VIII. It was apparently also necessary that her sons’ legitimacy be “proven” following the incident. Some sources say that Jane's husband was disinherited by his father. The family's estates did go to Jane's husband's much younger half brother, Anthony Mears. I am hoping to discover more about this "surmised murder."

ELEANOR BUTLER (d. 1636)
Eleanor Butler was the daughter of Edmund Butler, Lord Dunboyne (d.1567), an Irish peer, and Cecily MacCarthy. Three weeks after Gerald Fitzgerald, earl of Desmond (c.1533-November 11, 1583) buried his first wife in January of 1565, he began his courtship of Eleanor Butler. After their marriage, they were almost immediately embroiled in hostilities with the first countess’s sons by her first marriage (to James Butler, earl of Ormond). Desmond spent the next seven years in English captivity, which Eleanor voluntarily shared. From October 1570 until his release in March 1573, he was in the custody of Sir Warham St. Leger and their son James (June 6, 1570-October 1, 1601) may have been born in St. Leger House, Southwark. Their other children were Thomas, Catherine, Jane, Ellen, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Ellice. When they returned to Ireland, their son James was left behind in England to ensure his father’s good behavior. More than six years passed before he was allowed to visit Ireland. He resided with his mother at Askeaton, Limerick, but only for a month. Then she was obliged to hand him over to the English authorities. He was kept in Ireland, a prisoner, until his father’s death, and then sent back to England and housed in the Tower of London. An account of the involvement of both the earl and countess in Irish rebellions can be found in Richard Berleth’s The Twilight Lords, An Irish Chronicle. It ended with Eleanor, a price on her head, surrendering to the English in 1582. After Desmond’s death, she was resettled near Dublin with her daughters and still resided there, living in poverty, when her son was allowed to return to Ireland in 1600. He died the following year. Eventually, Eleanor was pardoned and pensioned by Queen Elizabeth. She made several visits to London during the latter part of Queen Elizabeth’s reign and the early part of that of King James.

JOAN BUTLER
see JOAN FITZGERALD

MARGARET BUTLER
see MARGARET FITZGERALD

SYLVESTRA BUTLER

see SYLVESTRA GUISE

ELA BUTTRY (d.1546)
Ela Buttry was the prioress of Campsey in 1532. There were many complaints about her stinginess, both from nuns and visitors. Meals were sparing and the food was often unwholesome. As Eileen Power points out in her Medieval English Nunneries, she was even stingy in death. Rather than erect her own monument in St. Stephen's Church, Norwich, she appropriated the brass of a fourteenth century laywoman.

MARGARET BUTTS

see MARGARET BACON


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