A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN: C
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her very out-of-date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)
FRANCESCA de CACERES or CARCERES (d.1513+)
Francesca de Carceres was one of the Spanish ladies who came to England with Catherine of Aragon when she married Prince Arthur in 1501. She shared Catherine’s poverty during the years after Arthur’s death and was one of those who wanted her mistress to return to Spain. There are a number of contradictory accounts of her behavior from Catherine's biographers. Garrett Mattingly calls Francesca "the gayest, most vivacious and spirited of her maids." Discouraged by the princess's stubborn refusal to consider leaving England, she intrigued with the Spanish Ambassador, Gutierre Gomez de Fuensalida, in 1508 and early 1509, visiting him in his lodgings at the house of the elderly Genoese banker, Francesco Grimaldi. Fuensalida and Grimaldi had brought the second half of Catherine of Aragon’s dowry to England in February of 1508. Grimaldi was the London representative of the banking house to which the crown of Aragon owed a great deal of money. Convinced that it was Catherine's confessor, Fray Diego, whose influence prevented the princess from agreeing to return to Spain, Francesca encouraged Fuensalida to have him removed. This attempt backfired, however, when Catherine learned of Francesca's meddling. She scolded her for her disloyalty and ordered her never to see Fuensalida or Grimaldi again. Again according to Mattingly, Francesca "fled by night to the home of her elderly lover and was married to him before Catherine discovered her whereabouts." In a letter to her father, Ferdinand of Spain, Catherine claimed Francesca had been Fuensalida's mistress and that he had married her off to his landlord as a cover for their affair, but there appears to be no basis for this charge. Only two months after Francesca married Grimaldi, King Henry VII died and Catherine married Henry VIII and became queen of England. Had Francesca waited, she might have married an English nobleman rather than an Italian commoner. On the other hand, Grimaldi was wealthy. When Don Luis de Caroz replaced Fuensalida as Spanish Ambassador in 1510, Francesca was one of those who supplied him with court gossip, even though she was no longer at court. She was probably the one responsible for the story, in May 1510, that Henry VIII was involved with the duke of Buckingham's sister, Anne Stafford. In spite of her betrayal of her mistress, Francesca wanted to return to Catherine's service. Catherine, however, was unforgiving. According to Alison Weir's account in The Six Wives of Henry VIII, it was 1513 when Francesca asked to be readmitted to her household. Perhaps, by then, her elderly husband had died. Feeling it would be "perilous and dangerous" either to take her back or recommend her to a foreign princess, Catherine enlisted the aid of Thomas Wolsey to send Francesca back to Spain. This seems to contradict the story that Francesca at some point secured for herself a place with King Henry's younger sister, Mary Tudor. Mattingly says only that, although "she later enlisted no less an advocate than Margaret of Austria, Catherine's former sister-in-law, in her cause, Catherine never took her back."
AMATA (or JANE) CALTHORPE
see AMATA BOLEYN
ANNE CALTHORPE (1509-between August 22, 1579 and March 28, 1582)
Anne Calthorpe was the daughter of Sir Philip Calthorpe of Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk (c.1464-1535) and Jane Blennerhassett (c.1473-April 27, 1550). She married Henry Radcliffe, 2nd earl of Sussex (c.1506-February 17,1557), as his second wife, at some point before November 21, 1538. She was the mother of Egremont (d. 1578), Maud (d. yng), and Frances (1552-1602) Radcliffe, but the marriage was stormy. Anne was at court when Katherine Parr was queen and shared her evangelical beliefs. Along with other ladies at court, she was implicated in the heresy of Anne Askew. In 1549 she was examined by a commission "for errors in scripture." She separated from her husband between May 1547 and June 1549. Barbara J. Harris, in a footnote to her essay "Aristocratic Women in Early Tudor England," says that he threw her out of the house after Thomas Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, accused her of adultery. She was said to have entered into a "bigamous marriage" with Sir Edmund Knyvett (1508-1551). According to a letter from Anne to her mother, Radcliffe evicted her without money, men, women, or meat and "no more than two gowns of velvet." In September of 1552, she was arrested for dabbling in treasonous prophecies (sorcery) and spent five and a half months in the Tower of London. The Privy Council imprisoned two men, Hartlepoole and Clarke, for "lewd prophesies and other slanderous matters" touching the king and the council. Hartlepoole's wife and the countess of Sussex were jailed as "a lesson to beware of sorcery." According to a letter from the duke of Northumberland, cited by David Starkey in Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne, Anne had also treasonously claimed that one of Edward IV's sons was still alive. Within eighteen months of Mary Tudor's accession to the throne, Anne fled abroad, probably to avoid persecution for her religious beliefs. Meanwhile, in November 1553, a bill was introduced in Parliament against "the adulterous living of the late countess of Sussex." It did not pass. In 1554, Sussex attempted to bastardize her children with a bill in Parliament but this also failed. In 1555, an act was passed barring the countess from enjoying her dower and jointure rights, but this was because she'd left the country without permission, not because she'd been found guilty of adultery. Sussex's attempt to bastardize the children through an act of Parliament was apparently abandoned, but he may have continued ecclesiastical proceedings. He refers to Anne in his will as his "divorced wife." According to Sussex, she was “unnatural and unkind.” Anne returned to England at some point before December 1556 when, motivated by a desire to help Princess Elizabeth escape a forced marriage to the Catholic duke of Savoy, she twice met with the French Ambassador in England, in disguise, to broach the subject of spiriting the princess away to France. When he discouraged the idea, Anne went to France herself, taking with her three of her ladies and three servants, to study the situation there in person. When she returned to England in April 1557, after her estranged husband's death, she was imprisoned in the Fleet and questioned about her activities. In 1558, there was yet another bill in Parliament concerning the countess of Sussex, this one to settle the matter of her jointure. By 1559, Anne had married Andrew Wyse (d. by January 26, 1568), a former royal official in Ireland who was in prison at the time. A number of genealogies online list Wyse as the second husband of Anne's daughter, Frances, but the dates make this impossible. Furthermore, the Patent Rolls of Chancery in Ireland clearly state that Wyse was married to Anne, dowager countess of Sussex. They had two children, Elizabeth (baptized January 2, 1559 in London), who married Alexander Fitton on October 31, 1578, and Anthony. Andrew Wyse returned to Ireland with his family in 1564. I have not been able to discover Anne's whereabouts after the death of her second husband, but she apparently survived him by more than a decade.
AGNES CALVERLEY
PHILIPPA CALVERLEY
see PHILIPPA BROOKE
MARY CAPEL
ANNE CAREW (d. November 3, 1587)
Anne Carew was the daughter of Sir Nicholas Carew of Beddington, Surrey (1490-March 3, 1539) and Elizabeth Bryan (c.1495-1546). Impoverished by her father’s execution for treason she married Sir Nicholas Throckmorton (1515-1571) during the reign of Edward VI. As Lady Throckmorton, Anne was with Lady Jane Grey during her nine-day reign and was chosen by Queen Jane as her proxy to stand as godmother at a christening on July 19, 1553. Anne duly left the Tower for the church and after young Guildford Underhill was christened, she had dinner at her own house. By the time she returned to the Tower, Mary Tudor had been declared queen and even Jane Grey's parents had fled. Anne tried to do likewise but was prevented. She was held along with Jane, Guildford Dudley, and the duchess of Northumberland. She was later freed, but her husband then became involved in Wyatt’s Rebellion in February of 1554 and was imprisoned in the Tower. At that time, Anne was pregnant with her first child. Through a series of lucky circumstances, Throckmorton was acquitted in April. They lived quietly for the remainder of Queen Mary's reign. Under Elizabeth Tudor, Throckmorton was ambassador to France from 1559-1562. Anne refused to live there and was instrumental in having him replaced by Sir Thomas Smith. In 1569, Throckmorton was again imprisoned, this time on suspicion of supporting the Northern Rebellion. He was soon released, but he died two years later, suddenly, while eating a salad at the earl of Leicester's house. Their children were William (b.1554), Arthur (1558-1626), Robert (b.1559), Thomas (d.1590), Henry (d.yng.), Nicholas (1562-1643), and Elizabeth (1565-1647). None were of age when Throckmorton died and the eldest, William, seems to have been incompetent to inherit. Lady Throckmorton remarried about six months after her husband's death, choosing Adrian Stokes (1518-November 2, 1585), widower of Frances Brandon, duchess of Suffolk, as her second husband. They settled at Beaumanor in Leicestershire. In early 1579, Anne was in London and often at court, paving the way for her daughter to join the queen's household. She was again in London and at court in May 1583 and finally, in November 1584, Bess Throckmorton was sworn in as a maid of honor. Anne's health was failing by the autumn of 1587. She was buried alongside her first husband in St. Catherine Cree Church in London. Portrait: by Hieronimo Custodis.
ANNE CAREW
ELIZABETH CAREW
see ELIZABETH BRYAN; ELIZABETH NORWICH
MALYN CAREW
MARGARET CAREW
see MARGARET SKIPWITH
MARTHA CAREW
see MARTHA DENNY
MARY CAREW
see MARY NORRIS; MARY WOTTON
ANNE CAREY
see ANNE MORGAN
CATHERINE CAREY (1523/4-January 15, 1569)
Catherine Carey was the daughter of Mary Boleyn (by 1504-1543) and William Carey (c.1495-June 23,1528). She was likely Mary’s oldest child and therefore may have been fathered by King Henry VIII. If she was his daughter, he never acknowledged his paternity. Catherine came to court as a maid of honor to Anne of Cleves in January of 1540. She married Sir Francis Knollys (1514-1596) on April 26 of that same year and they had sixteen children, including Henry (1541-1582/3), Mary (b.1542), Lettice (1543-December 25,1634), William (1545-1632), Edward (1546-1580), Maud (b.1548), Elizabeth (b.1549), Robert (1550-1625), Richard (1552-1596), Francis (1553-1646), Anne (b.1555), Thomas (b.1558), Katherine (b.1559), and Dudley (b.1562). Catherine was in exile in Basel in June 1557, during the reign of Mary Tudor, and later was in Frankfurt. She probably left England in the spring of 1556, although her husband had left earlier. They had at least five of their children with them. Catherine was back in England by January 14,1559. She and her “sister” (probably Anne Morgan, her brother Henry’s wife), became ladies of the privy chamber to Queen Elizabeth. Catherine’s children were also at court. In 1560, she and her son Robert were granted Taunton Manor for life. She died at Hampton Court and the queen paid for her funeral, which cost £640 2s.11d. She was buried in Westminster Abbey. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Knollys [née Carey], Katherine." Portraits: portrait in the Pembroke collection, 1561; by Steven van der Meulen,early 1562, when she was pregnant with her last child; monument to Catherine and her husband in the church of Rothersfield Greys. Mary Boleyn's biographer, Josephine Wilkinson, also identifies a portrait similar to those elsewhere identified as Lady Catherine Grey and her son as being Catherine Carey and her child, but this is unlikely.
CATHERINE CAREY (c.1546-February 24, 1603)
Catherine Carey was the daughter of Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon (March 4, 1525/6-July 23, 1596) and Anne Morgan (1529-January 19, 1606/7). She came to court in January 1560 as a gentlewoman of the privy chamber and quickly became one of Elizabeth Tudor’s favorites. In July 1563 she married Charles Howard, later earl of Nottingham (1536-December 14,1624). They had ten children, including William (1577-1615), Charles (1579-1642), Elizabeth (d.1646), Margaret, and Frances (d.1628). The children were brought up at Reigate, but Catherine spent her time at court. She held various posts, including Mistress of Robes and Mistress of Jewels. She twice entertained the queen at her husband’s house in King Street, Westminster, in 1585 and again in 1587. As a reward for her long service, she was granted the manor of Chelsea in 1591. According to legend, the countess of Nottingham was responsible for the earl of Essex’s execution in 1601. The story goes that Essex was supposed to have given a ring (a gift to him from the queen) to a messenger with directions to give it to Lady Scrope, Lady Nottingham’s sister, who sympathized with his situation. The messenger mistook the sisters and gave the ring to Lady Nottingham and, as she was not an Essex supporter, she kept it. On her deathbed she is said to have confessed her deception to the queen, who cried out “God may forgive you, Madam, but I never can!” The problem with this story is that Lady Nottingham was not at court in 1601. She fell ill in January of that year and her health continued to decline until her death at Arundel House two years later. Her passing so demoralized the queen that Elizabeth lost her own will to live. Catherine was buried at Chelsea three days before Queen Elizabeth was interred in Westminster Abbey. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Howard [née Carey], Katherine." Portraits: in Nottingham Castle museum; one by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger; a miniature by Isaac Oliver
ELEANOR CAREY (c.1496-1528+)
Eleanor Carey was the daughter of Thomas Carey of Chilton (c.1455/60-1500) and Margaret Spencer (1472-1536) and the sister of Mary Boleyn’s first husband, William Carey (d.June 23, 1528). She was a nun at Wilton Abbey, a large Benedictine nunnery located some seventy miles from London. When the abbess, Cecily Willoughby, died on April 24, 1528, the prioress, Isabel Jordan or Jordayn, whose sister was the abbess at Syon, was the natural successor. She was "ancient, wise, and discreet." But Eleanor Carey's name was also proposed, and Eleanor had the backing of Anne Boleyn. Cardinal Wolsey, supporting Isabel Jordan, ordered that Eleanor’s background be thoroughly investigated. It soon came out that Eleanor had borne two children out of wedlock to two different priests and had more recently been involved with a servant in Lord Willoughby de Broke's household. Eleanor's eldest sister, also a nun at Wilton, was then proposed as a compromise candidate. This may have been Anne Carey (c.1493-1550). In July, the king decided that none of them should have the post, but Wolsey went ahead with Dame Isabel’s appointment anyway, precipitating the first violent disagreement between king and cardinal. What happened to Eleanor Carey after that is unknown. Side note: Philip W. Sergeant's The Life of Anne Boleyn mistakenly names Elizabeth Shelford as abbess of Wilton, rather than Cecily Willoughby. Elizabeth Shelford was abbess of Shaftesbury in Dorset from 1505 until her death in 1528.
ELIZABETH CAREY (May 24,1576-April 23,1635)
Elizabeth Carey was the daughter of George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon (1547-September 9,1603) and Elizabeth Spencer (1552-March 1618). She was a patron of the arts. Thomas Nashe dedicated his Terrors of the Night to her in 1594 and Peter Erondell probably used her as his model for Lady Ri-mellaine in his manual on proper behavior, The French Garden (1605). On February 19, 1595, Elizabeth married Sir Thomas Berkeley (1575-1611). Erondell had been his French tutor. Elizabeth had one son, George, 8th Baron Berkeley (1601-1658) and a daughter, Theophila (b.1596). She also paid off her husband's debts. In February 1622 she took Sir Thomas Chamberlain (d. September 17, 1625), a justice of the King’s Bench, as her second husband. He provided generously for her and left her son £10,000. Elizabeth was buried in Cranford Church, Middlesex.
ELIZABETH CAREY
see ELIZABETH NEVILLE; ELIZABETH SPENCER; ELIZABETH TREVANION
MARGARET CAREY (1567-1605)
Margaret (or Mary) Carey was the daughter of Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon (March 4, 1525/6-July 23, 1596) and Anne Morgan (1529-January 19, 1606). She is said to have been a maid of honor before she married Edward Hoby (1560-1617) on May 21, 1582. He was knighted the next day. They had no children and did not get along. When in London, Lady Hoby lived in rooms in Somerset House rather than with her husband in his house in Canon Row. In 1592, she helped her mother-in-law, Lady Russell, entertain the queen at Bisham. Margaret suffered from gout and journeyed to Bath in April 1600 with her brother, Lord Hunsdon and his wife to take the waters there. The following year she was a patient of Dr. Simon Forman. Her monument is in Bisham Church.
MARY CAREY
see MARY BOLEYN
PHILADELPHIA CAREY (c.1552-February 3, 1627)
Philadelphia Carey was the daughter of Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon (March 4, 1525/6-July 23, 1596) and Anne Morgan (1529-January 19, 1606). She was the middle sister between Catherine and Margaret and came to court in 1558 as a maid of honor. Like her sister, Catherine, she was in the queen’s service all her life. She married Thomas, 10th baron Scrope (c.1567-September 2,1609) and was the mother of Emmanuel Scrope, 11th baron (1584-1630). She wore mourning during the earl of Essex’s imprisonment in 1599 and campaigned for his pardon in 1601. She was with the queen when Elizabeth Tudor died in 1603 and went on to serve Queen Anne.
CHRISTIAN CARKETT (d. 1570+)
ANNE CARLETON
ELIZABETH CARLETON
JANE CARLISLE (d.1575)
FRANCES CARR
see FRANCES HOWARD
ANN CARY (1564-June 1611)
CATHERINE CARY
ELIZABETH CARY
see ELIZABETH TANFIELD
DOROTHY CATESBY (c.1527-September 30, 1613)
Dorothy Catesby was the daughter of Anthony Catesby of Whiston, Northamptonshire (c.1500-October 10,1554) and Isabel Pigott. In about 1550, Dorothy married Sir William Dormer of Eythrope and Wing, Buckinghamshire (c.1503-May 17, 1575). The Dormers were a Catholic family and sheltered priests during the reign of Edward VI. When Elizabeth Tudor took the throne, Dormer’s daughter by his first marriage, Jane, married a Spanish duke and moved to Spain. Dormer’s mother settled in the Netherlands. The family in England, however, seems to have conformed. Dorothy’s children by Dormer were Catherine (c.1550-March 23, 1615), Robert (January 26,1551-November 8, 1616), Margaret (1553-April 26,1637), Mary (c.1555-1637), Richard, Frances, Anne, and Peregrine. After Dormer’s death, Dorothy took as her second husband Sir William Pelham (c.1530-November 24, 1587), by whom she had one son, William. Pelham died of wounds suffered in battle at Flushing. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Pelham [née Catesby; other married name Dormer], Dorothy.” Portrait: alabaster effigy in Wing Church, Buckinghamshire.
CATHERINE OF ARAGON (December 16,1485-January 7,1536)
The daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon (1452-1516) and Isabella of Castile (d.1504), Catherine of Aragon was sent to England in 1501 to marry Henry VII’s oldest son, Arthur, Prince of Wales (September 19, 1486-April 2,1502). He died soon after their marriage and Catherine spent the next seven years on the fringes of the English court and in near poverty. When Henry VIII (June 28,1591-January 28,1547) succeeded his father, one of his first acts was to marry his brother’s widow. During the early years of Henry’s reign it was a successful and harmonious marriage. When the king left England to make war on France, he named Catherine as regent. Although she had expert help from the earl of Surrey and others, she was the one who ordered troops to defend England against the Scottish invasion that ended with the Battle of Flodden and she had a hand in negotiating the peace that followed. When she failed to give King Henry a son, he divorced her. Biographies: Garrett Mattingly’s Catherine of Aragon and Mary M. Luke’s Catherine the Queen have both been around for awhile, but both are excellent. Portraits: there are a number of these, most fairly well known.
BRIDGET CAVE
see BRIDGET SKIPWITH
ELIZABETH CAVE
see ELIZABETH LOVETT
ELIZABETH CAVE (d. 1562+)
MARGARET CAVE (d. 1588+)
ELIZABETH CAVENDISH
see ELIZABETH HARDWICK
ELIZABETH CAVENDISH (March 31, 1555-January 21, 1582)
MARGARET CAVENDISH
MARY CAVENDISH (1556-1632)
Mary Cavendish was the youngest daughter of Sir William Cavendish (c.1505-October 25,1557) and Elizabeth Hardwick (1527-February 13,1608), better known as Bess of Hardwick. On February 9, 1568, when she was twelve, Mary was married to her mother’s stepson, Gilbert Talbot (1553-May 8, 1616), who became earl of Shrewsbury on his father’s death. Their children were George (1575-1577), Mary (b.1580), Elizabeth (1582-1651), John (d.yng), and Alethea (1584-1654). The countess of Shrewsbury was a patroness of Rowland Lockey the painter, a subscriber to the Virginia Company, and a contributor to St. John’s College, Cambridge. She is best known, however, for her scheming on behalf of her niece, Arbella Stuart. Mary planned Arbella’s escape from the Tower of London, hoping she would go abroad and serve as a Catholic pretender to the throne. Mary was arrested and twice examined by the Privy Council after Arbella’s capture and was then fined and confined to the Tower herself in 1611. She was not restricted to her lodgings in the Lord Lieutenant’s House and was helpful in bringing to light the truth about the murder of Thomas Overbury. When her husband fell ill in 1618, she was released in order to nurse him, after which Mary was fined £20,000 and set free. Portraits: at St. John’s College and at Hardwick Hall (called “Queen Elizabeth”).
ANN CECIL (December 5, 1556-June 5, 1588)
ELIZABETH CECIL (1578-January 3,1646)
Elizabeth Cecil was the daughter of Thomas Cecil, earl of Exeter (May 5,1542-1623) and Dorothy Latimer (1547/8-1609). She married Sir William Hatton (d.1597), a wealthy gentleman who left her with properties on the Isle of Purbeck and in London. She also had the guardianship of her stepdaughter, Frances Hatton. She was courted by Francis Bacon and Fulke Greville, but married Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), a widower who had recently won a lawsuit for her father. She insisted on the wedding taking place in secret, on November 2, 1598, with only her father and the minister present. This was illegal for several reasons. They had wed without banns. They did not have a special license. The ceremony took place in a house instead of a church. And it took place outside the acceptable hours of the day for weddings. When Queen Elizabeth heard of it, she insisted that they remarry in St. Andrew’s Church. Rumor had the bride pregnant by another man before either ceremony, but the couple’s first child was not born until August 1599. Elizabeth continued to be known as Lady Hatton. By Coke she had two daughters, Elizabeth (1599-1623) and Frances (1603-1645) but for most of their marriage she did not live with her husband. They quarreled over the arrangements Coke made for the marriages of Elizabeth’s daughter and stepdaughter. By 1614, the servants at Hatton House had orders not to admit their mistress’s husband. He was forced to use a side door to see his own wife. In 1617, Lady Hatton kidnapped her daughter, Frances Coke, from Stoke Park to prevent her marriage to Sir John Villiers. She took the girl first to the house of her cousin, Sir Edmund Withipole, at Oatlands and then to the earl of Argyll at Hampton Court. Coke found them there, hiding in a closet, and took Frances away. Elizabeth chased them in her coach until it lost a wheel, forcing her to stop. According to one account, Elizabeth followed her husband, seeking another opportunity to make off with their daughter, until King James stepped in and ordered her locked up until after the September 27, 1617 wedding. The DNB, however, says that the matter went to trial, where it was ruled that the consent of both parents was needed for her marriage, since Frances was heir to her mother’s estates. Eventually, Lady Hatton agreed to the match, but on terms ensuring Frances’s income. Villiers, created Viscount Purbeck in 1618, later went insane and Frances returned to her mother’s house. There she fell in love with Robert Howard. In the hope of putting an end to their affair, Elizabeth took her daughter to Holland to visit the Electress Palatine, King James’s daughter, but in 1624, Frances gave birth to an illegitimate child and both she and Howard were arrested for adultery. After 1623, when she sold Hatton House in London, Lady Hatton lived mostly at Stoke Park. She entertained Parliamentary leaders there during the Civil War and in 1643 they returned Hatton House to her. According to legend, she died there, carried off by the devil in a clap of thunder, leaving behind only her heart. The name Bleeding Heart Yard clung to Hatton House for many years. In fact, she was buried in St. Andrew’s Holborn. Biography: Laura L. Norsworthy, The Lady of Bleeding Heart Yard (1935); Oxford DNB entry under “Hatton, Elizabeth [née Lady Elizabeth Cecil].”
FRANCES CECIL
see FRANCES BRYDGES
JANE CECIL
MILDRED CECIL
see MILDRED COOKE
CECILIA OF SWEDEN (November 16,1540-January 27,1627)
Cecilia of Sweden was the daughter of Gustavas Vasa (May 12,1496-September 29,1560) and Margareta Leijonhufvud (January1,1516-August 26,1551). Gustavus wanted an alliance with England and at least three of his children, Eric, John, and Cecilia, grew up with a rosy picture of that island kingdom. Both John and Eric proposed marriage to Elizabeth Tudor and, as a condition of Cecilia's 1564 marriage to Margrave Christopher of Baden (1527-1575), she insisted on a wedding journey to England. They left Sweden in October but did not reach Dover until September of the following year, by which time Cecilia was about to give birth. She created a sensation when the countess of Sussex and Lady Cobham escorted her through London by wearing a black velvet dress with a mantle of cloth of gold and her long, pale blonde hair loose under a crown. Her son was born on September 15,1565. Queen Elizabeth was the child’s godmother and named him Edward Fortunatus. Cecilia remained in England until April 29,1566, running up huge bills that she had no intention of paying. Hounded by creditors, the Margrave was briefly imprisoned for debt. Eleven years later, when Cecilia was widowed, Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, sought her hand in marriage. He was formally rejected in January 1578. Cecilia apparently led a rather wild life, possibly taking a lover before her marriage, dabbling in piracy to help her brothers and, as a widow, giving birth to a daughter, Caritas (b.c.1579) fathered by Spanish Ambassador Francisco de Eraso. She converted to Catholicism for political reasons and sent her sons to be educated by Jesuits.
ANNE CHAMBERLAIN
CECILY CHAMBERLAYNE (d.1592+)
Cecily Chamberlayne was the daughter of Sir Leonard Chamberlayne of Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire (d.1561) and Dorothy Newdigate. She was a devout Catholic and married another of that ilk, Sir Francis Stonor (1520-1564), in 1552. The entire family was involved in hiding priests and turning out Catholic propaganda during the reign of Elizabeth I. Cecily was arrested in August 1581 for harboring Father Campion. She had allowed him to set up an illegal printing press at Stonor Park, which is four miles south of Henley-on-Thames and about twenty miles from London. By that time she was a widow. Her younger son, John, was also arrested and upon his release in 1582, he went into exile in the Low Countries. Cecily was allowed to move back into Stonor Lodge in November of that year but she was in prison again ten years later, in 1592. Her older son, Sir Francis (1553-1625) remained in England.
JOAN CHAMPERNOWNE (d. September 10,1553)
Joan Champernowne was the daughter of Sir Philip Champernowne of Modbury, Devon (c.1479-August 2, 1545) and Catherine Carew (1495-February 5, 1546+). Joan came to court as a maid of honor to Catherine of Aragon and remained at court during the tenures of Henry VIII’s next five wives. Initially sponsored by her uncle, Sir Gawen Carew, her own beauty, her accomplishments, and her conversion to the New Religion all contributed to her success. She married Sir Anthony Denny (January 16, 1501-September 10, 1549) by whom she had at least ten children: Honora (b.1526), Anne (b.1528), Mary (b.1530), Arthur, Douglas (b.1534), Charles (b.1536), Edmund, Henry (1540-March 24,1574), Anthony (1542-1572), and Edward (c.1544-1600). N. P. Sil in Tudor Placemen and Statesmen gives the date of their marriage as February 9, 1538, but this does not mesh with the dates usually given for their children's births. Joan was accused of sending 8s. to Anne Askew but nothing was proven against her. In 1547, she retired to Cheshunt but her service to the Crown was not yet over. In May 1548, Princess Elizabeth and her household were sent to stay there with the Dennys and remained until autumn. Some accounts say Elizabeth’s governess, Katherine Champernowne Astley, was Joan’s younger sister. Others believe they were only distantly related.
KATHERINE CHAMPERNOWNE (d. July 18,1565)
Known as Kat, Katherine Champernowne’s birth year and parentage are uncertain. Some sources say she was the sister of Joan Champernowne (above), others identify her (and sometimes, Joan) as the daughter of Sir John Champernowne of Dartington (1458-1503) and Margaret Courtenay (c.1459-1504). She may have been from another branch of the family altogether. What is known is that Kat was appointed as a waiting gentlewoman to the young Elizabeth Tudor in July 1536 and that a letter from Kat to Lord Cromwell written in that same year makes reference to her father, saying he "has much to do with the little living he has." The implication is that this Champernowne was still alive and was not well-to-do. This seems to eliminate both Sir Philip, who was wealthy, and Sir John, who had died thirty-three years earlier, as candidates to be her father. In addition, no contemporary records refer to Joan Denny and Kat Astley as sisters. Whatever her origins, by the end of 1537, Kat had been made Elizabeth’s governess. In 1545, Kat married John Astley—also spelled Ashley—(c.1507-1595/6), Elizabeth’s senior gentleman attendant. In 1547, when Henry VIII died, the household was combined with that of the Queen Dowager at Chelsea. While there, Kat permitted her charge to go to a party on the Thames at night. The Lord Protector’s wife declared that she was not fit to have governance of the king’s daughter. Soon, however, Kat faced a more serious problem in dealing with a flirtation between Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour, the Queen Dowager’s husband, and the young princess. In the end, Elizabeth and her household were sent to Cheshunt. After the Queen Dowager’s death, Kat seems to have believed that a match between the Lord Admiral and the princess could be arranged. She journeyed to London in December 1548 to meet with Seymour. On that same visit she also saw Lady Cheke and Lady Tyrwhitt and was commanded to go to the Lord Protector’s wife, Ann Stanhope, Duchess of Somerset. On January 21, 1549, Sir Anthony Denny arrested Kat at Hatfield and conducted her to the Tower. She finally confessed in February, but to nothing treasonous, and she was released thirteen days before Seymour’s execution. By August she had returned to Hatfield. When Mary became queen, Kat’s husband went into exile but she remained with the princess until Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower in 1554. Kat was allowed to rejoin her in October 1555 but shortly thereafter a search of Somerset House unearthed a casket full of seditious books and papers. Kat was arrested in May 1556. This time she spent three months in Fleet Prison and after her release was forbidden to see Elizabeth Tudor again. When Mary Tudor died the order was recinded and Kat was made either First Lady of the Bedchamber or Chief Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber. She may also have served as Mother of Maids until 1562. She was much sought after as a source of information about the new queen and as a means of asking favors of the sovereign. Her death distressed Elizabeth greatly. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Astley [née Champernowne], Katherine." Portrait: unknown artist or date.
KATHERINE CHAMPERNOWNE (1519-1594)
MARY CHAMPERNOWNE
see MARY NORRIS
MARY CHEKE
see MARY HILL
ELIZABETH CHENEY (1505-November 20, 1556)
JANE CHENEY (d. September 15, 1574)
AGNES CHETWODE
MARGARET CHEYNEY
see MARGARET STAFFORD
ELIZABETH CHOLMELEY
see ELIZABETH PICKERING
MARGARET CHOLMONDELEY
see MARGARET BABTHORPE
MARY CHOLMONDELEY
see MARY HOLFORD
CHOLMONDELEY SISTERS
The identities of the sisters pictured below with their babies, born on the same day, is not certainly established. It was long said that they were twins, but it is more likely that they were sisters Mary (d.1616) and Lettice (1585-1623) Cholmondeley, daughters of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley (1557-1601) and Mary Holford (1563-1626). Mary married Sir George Calveley and Lettice's husband was Sir Richard Grosvenor (1595-1646). The portrait, painted between 1600 and 1610 is in the Tate. Lettice had a son, named Richard after his father, who was born c.1604.
CHRISTINA OF DENMARK (1522-1590)
The daughter of Christian II, deposed king of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (1481-1559) and Isabella of Austria (July 18,1501-January 19,1526), Christina was married in 1533 to Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan (February 4,1495-October 24,1535). In 1538, she was considered as a prospective bride for Henry VIII and was at the court at Brussels when Hans Holbein the Younger painted her portrait. This likeness, in which Christina was said to resemble Henry’s former mistress, Margaret Shelton, convinced the king that she should be queen, but negotiations were not successful. Henry wanted Christina to be named heir to Denmark but she was second in line behind an older sister. Christina was not enthusiastic about the match, although she would have married Henry if the Emperor had commanded it. In 1541, Christina married Francis I, duke of Lorraine (August 23,1517-June 12,1545) and had by him two children, Charles III, duke of Lorraine (February 18,1543-May 14,1608), and Renata (April 20,1544-May 22,1602). Christina became active in politics after her husband’s death, serving as her son's regent, and she visited England in 1557, during the reign of Mary Tudor, to try to arrange a marriage between Elizabeth Tudor and the duke of Savoy. Mary’s husband, Philip of Spain, was said to be in love with Christina. In 1558, she helped bring about a peace between Philip and King Henri II of France. Portraits: aside from the Holbein portrait, there are at least three others, one as a baby in “The Children of King Christian of Denmark” and two others as duchess of Lorraine.
SUSAN CLARENCE or CLARENCIEUX
see SUSAN WHITE
ALICE CLARKE
MARY CLARKE
see MARY ROPER
CLAUDE OF FRANCE (October 14, 1499-July 20, 1524)
Claude de France was the daughter of King Louis XII (1462-January 1, 1515) and Anne of Brittany (1477-January 11, 1514). Under the laws of the time, she could inherit her mother’s duchy but not her father’s kingdom. She was married to the nearest male heir, who became Francis I (1494-1547) upon Louis’s death and fulfilled her duty by bearing eight children: Louise (1515-1517), Charlotte (1516-1524), Francois, duke of Brittany (1517-1536), Henri II (1519-1559), Madeleine, queen of Scotland (1520-1537), Charles (1522-1545), and Marguerite, duchess of Savoy (1523-1574). Religious, moral, small in stature and suffering from scoliosis that caused her to have a hunched back, Claude kept very much in the background of her husband’s glamorous and loose-living court, but her household was the training ground for two girls who were to have an impact on English history—Mary and Anne Boleyn. There is some debate about when Sir Thomas Boleyn’s daughters went to France and if they arrived together. One or both may first have gone to the court of Archduchess Margaret. One or both may have arrived in France in the retinue of Mary Tudor when she married Claude’s father. Mary, probably the elder, is generally accepted to have become one of King Francis’s mistresses before returning to England, marrying, and beginning an affair with Henry VIII. Anne’s time in France passed quietly and chastely but when she returned to England, she too caught King Henry’s eye. King Francis’s second wife was Eleanor of Austria (aka Leonor of Castile) (November 15, 1498-February 25, 1558), eldest child of Archduke Philip of Austria and Juana of Castile, widow of Manuel of Portugal (d. December 13,1521), who married Francis on July 4, 1530.
ANNE CLEMENT
see ANNE BARLEE
MARGARET CLEMENT (1540-1612)
Margaret Clement was the daughter of John Clement (c.1500-1572) and Margaret Gigs (1509-July 6,1570). She went into exile in Flanders with her family at a young age and she and her sisters were educated at the Flemish Augustinian Cloister of St. Ursula in Louvain. She became a nun there in 1557. In 1569 she was elected prioress, a post she held for the next thirty-eight years. The fact that she was English attracted many English Catholic girls to St. Ursula’s during those years. After she retired, the English sisters formed their own house, St. Monica’s, in Louvain. Margaret Clement was the subject of a biography written by Elizabeth Shirley, The Life of Our Most Reverend Mother Margrit Clement (1626), in which Shirley described her as “a firebrand to enkindle in me the love of God.” For more on the convent under Margaret Clement’s management, see Nicholas Patrick Wiseman, ed., The Dublin Review (1872) in Google Books.
MARGARET CLEMENT see MARGARET GIGS
ALICE CLERE
see ALICE BOLEYN
ELIZABETH CLERKE
see ELIZABETH BRYDGES
ANNE CLIFFORD (January 30, 1590-March 22, 1676)
Anne Clifford is more of the Stuart era than the Tudor, but her diary records her impressions, at thirteen, of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral procession. She was the daughter of George Clifford, 3rd earl of Cumberland (1558-1605) and Margaret Russell (1560-1616). Her tutor, Samuel Daniel, dedicated poems to her and she inspired many others in the course of a long life. Anne married first Richard Sackville, Lord Buckhurst and earl of Dorset (1589-1624), by whom she had three sons who died young and daughters Margaret and Isabella. Her second husband was Philip Herbert, earl of Montgomery and Pembroke (1584-1650). Biography: Richard T. Spence, Lady Anne Clifford; Oxford DNB entry under “Clifford, Anne.” Portraits: there are many, but the detail below, from a group portrait, shows her at fifteen.
MABEL CLIFFORD (c.1492-August 1551)
ELEANOR CLIFFORD
see ELEANOR BRANDON
GRISOLD CLIFFORD
MARGARET CLIFFORD (1540-September 29,1596)
Margaret Clifford was the daughter of Henry Clifford, 2nd earl of Cumberland (1517-January 2,1570) and Eleanor Brandon (1517-November 1547) and as the great-granddaughter of Henry VII was next in line to inherit the throne of England after the three Grey sisters under the terms of Henry VIII’s will. The duke of Northumberland proposed to marry her to either his son, Guildford, or his brother, Sir Andrew Dudley, but Cumberland refused the match and took no part in the attempt to make Lady Jane Grey queen. Margaret married Henry Stanley, Lord Strange (September 1531-September 25,1593) at Westminster on February 7,1555. Queen Mary gave her the confiscated Dudley jewels and robes as a wedding gift. By 1557, Margaret was openly asserting that Lady Jane’s treason had excluded her sisters, Catherine and Mary Grey, from the succession, thus making Margaret Queen Mary’s heiress presumptive. She excluded Elizabeth Tudor because Elizabeth was not a Catholic. Lady Strange was, but that did little to increase support for her claim. The “poor esteem” in which Lord and Lady Strange were held kept Philip II from backing them. Early in Elizabeth Tudor’s reign, the poet John Harington chose Margaret as his ideal of a royal lady. Robert Greene dedicated The Mirror of Modesty to her, and Thomas Lupton’s dedication to A Thousand Notable Things and Sundry Sortes called her “the affable Lady Margaret,” but she was not generally regarded as a likeable woman. She was a spendthrift. In 1558, she was reduced to borrowing £300 from Mrs. Calfhell, her lady-in-waiting. Margaret quarreled with her father-in-law, the earl of Derby, over money matters. In 1565, Margaret was at court as the queen’s trainbearer and she was a lady of the Privy Chamber from 1568-1570. By 1566, the family finances were stretched by the weddings of two of Lord Strange's sisters. Each received a dowry of £1500. At about the same time, Margaret's husband was forced to sell land to pay her creditors. She owed another £1500. Eventually the couple separated, the final rift coming when he broke up the household at Gaddesden. Margaret also claimed that he'd offered one of her ladies £200 to spy on her. Lord Strange consoled himself with a mistress, Jane Halsall, by whom he eventually had four acknowledged children. Lady Strange developed a dangerous interest in alchemy, to which she had been introduced by her father. From 1572, Margaret was countess of Derby. A note here: Lady Margaret Clifford should not be confused with the other Lady Margaret, Margaret Douglas, who was also a cousin to the queen. Margaret Clifford was never in the Tower for treason. She did, however, consult with wizards "with a vain credulity, and out of I know not what ambitious hope,” according to William Camden, and lost the queen’s favor. In 1578 she was accused of employing a "magician," actually a well-known physician named Dr. Randall, to cast spells to discover how long Queen Elizabeth would live. According to one source, Randall was hanged and Margaret was banished from court and spent the rest of her life, eighteen years, in the custody of a series of keepers, although she was allowed to live in her own house at Isleworth. According to a book on the Stanley family, her debts continued to mount. In 1579, the Privy Council ordered the Lord Mayor of London to pressure her creditors to stop hounding her. In May 1580, Margaret's husband petitioned to be allowed to sell lands to pay debts. In June 1581, the Privy Council appointed a commission to find ways to reduce the Derbys' debts. In December 1581, the Privy Council was after the earl to pay Margaret her pension. In 1582, Queen Elizabeth finally approved the sale of Derby lands. Margaret proceeded to sell off land in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and Staffordshire valued at £88 8s.4d/year. With a twenty year purchase, that meant she probably received £1,768 6s.10d. In 1584-93, her husband and sons borrowed at least £8,732 13s.4d. against Derby holdings and sold other land for £3800. Not only had Margaret's debts mounted, but the earl had incurred other debts in the course of undertaking diplomatic missions for the Crown. Before their separation, Margaret gave Lord Strange four sons, Edward and Francis, who died young, Ferdinando, 5th earl of Derby (1559-April 16,1594), and William, 6th earl (1561-September 29,1642). Portrait: one attributed to Hans Eworth c.1560 may be Lady Strange.
MARGARET CLIFFORD
see MARGARET RUSSELL
ELIZABETH CLINTON
see ELIZABETH BLOUNT; ELIZABETH FITZGERALD; ELIZABETH KNYVETT
URSULA CLINTON
see URSULA STOURTON
MARGARET CLITHEROW
see MARGARET MIDDLETON
KATHERINE CLOUGH
see KATHERINE TUDOR
NAN COBHAM (d. 1536+)
MARGARET COFFYN
see MARGARET DYMOKE
JOAN COLTE (c.1545-February 21, 1606)
ANNE COKE (1585-1671/2)
ELIZABETH COKE
see ELIZABETH CECIL
ANNE COLTE (d.1535+)
ELIZABETH COLVILLE
ANNE COMPTON
see ANNE SPENCER
ELIZABETH COMPTON
see ELIZABETH STONOR
MARY COMPTON
see MARY BEAUMONT
CATHERINE CONSTABLE
see CATHERINE NEVILLE
DOROTHY CONSTABLE (1580-March 26,1632)
MARGARET CONSTABLE
ANNE COOKE (c.1528-August 27, 1610)
Born between 1528 and 1533, Anne Cooke was the daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall (1505-June 11, 1576) and Anne FitzWilliam (c.1504-June 5, 1588). Her father was one of King Edward VI’s tutors. Cooke saw to it that his five daughters had an education equal to that of his sons. Their learning was remarked upon (and praised) as early as 1559, in William Bercher’s Nobylytye of Women and by Elizabeth Tudor’s tutor, Roger Ascham. Anne Cooke is sometimes said to have helped her father in the task of educating Prince Edward, but at the time (1544) that Cooke took up the task, the prince’s household was exclusively male. Anne became the second wife of Sir Nicholas Bacon (1510-1579) in 1553. According to Robert Tittler's Nicholas Bacon: The Making of a Tudor Statesman, Anne and Nicholas Bacon visited Mary Tudor at Kenninghall in July 1553 and Anne stayed with the royal retinue as a gentlewoman of the bedchamber at least until William Cecil (her brother-in-law) met them near London. It is said that it was Anne Bacon’s presence at court that kept Cecil out of prison. Anne may have continued as one of Queen Mary’s ladies, in spite of the fact that her father was in exile for his religious beliefs for most of Mary’s reign. Her younger sister, Margaret, was later one of Mary's maids of honor. If Anne did continue to serve at court, her service must have been sporadic since she bore six children between 1554 and 1561: Mary (b.1554), Susan (b.1555), Edmund, Anne, Anthony (1558-1601) and Francis (1561-1626). Only Anthony and Francis survived early childhood. Anne educated them herself until they entered Cambridge in 1573. She had by then a reputation as a translator of religious works and some of these were published. As Anne grew older, she became obsessed with religion and was one of the wealthy widows who formed the backbone of English Puritanism. Throughout the latter part of her life she provided a haven at Gorhambury for radical preachers. In the last few years, fanaticism seems to have turned to insanity. Biographies: Chapter Two in Pearl Hogrefe’s Women of Action in Tudor England; see also biographies of her son, Francis Bacon and Golden Lads by Daphne du Maurier; Oxford DNB entry under "Bacon [née Cooke], Anne." NOTE: The DNB gives the date of her mother's death as 1553. Portraits: effigy with three of her sisters on the Cooke monument in Romford Church; terra cotta bust (1571); portrait by George Gower (1580) at Gorhambury.
ELIZABETH COOKE (c.1528-May 1609)
Elizabeth Cooke was the daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall (1505-June 11, 1576) and Anne FitzWilliam (c.1504-June 5, 1588). She may have been born as late as 1538. Her father was one of King Edward VI’s tutors. Cooke saw to it that his five daughters had an education equal to that of his sons. Their learning was remarked upon (and praised) as early as 1559, in William Bercher’s Nobylytye of Women and by Elizabeth Tudor’s tutor, Roger Ascham. Elizabeth had a reputation for learning so great that in later years scholars came to consult her. She also composed epitaphs in several languages to the people had been dear to her. Elizabeth lived with her sister, Mildred Cecil, from 1550-1558. During part of that period her father was in exile for his religious beliefs. On Monday, June 27, 1558 she married Thomas Hoby (1530-July 13,1566). Together they rebuilt Bisham Abbey. Elizabeth had three children, Edward (March 30, 1560-March 1, 1617), Elizabeth (May 27, 1562-1571), and Mary (November 16, 1564-1571) before Hoby was knighted in 1566 and sent to France as English ambassador. Lady Hoby accompanied him there in April of that year, although she was already pregnant with their fourth child. She had made a number of influential friends at the French court by the time Hoby died of the plague on June 13th. Queen Elizabeth wrote to the widow that she would “hereafter make a more assured account of your virtues and gifts” and some years later (1589) appointed her Keeper of the Queen’s Castle of Donnington and Bailiff of the Honor, Lordship, and Manor of Donnington. In the interim, Lady Hoby gave birth to her fourth child, named Thomas Posthumous Hoby (1566-1640) and erected a chapel at Bisham in which she built a monument to her husband and his brother, Sir Philip Hoby. In 1569, Elizabeth’s brother-in-law, Sir William Cecil, proposed to marry her to the imprisoned duke of Norfolk but the idea came to nothing. On December 23,1574 she married Lord John Russell (1550-July 1584), heir to the earl of Bedford. Their first child, Elizabeth, was christened in Westminster Abbey the following October. Their son, Francis, died young in 1580, and their only other child was a daughter, Anne (d.1639). Thus, when Lord John died before his father, Elizabeth’s chance to one day be the wife or the mother of an earl passed her by. The story that the ghost of one of Lady Hoby's children haunts Bisham Abbey because she went off to court and left him locked in his room to starve is pure fiction. As Lady Russell, Elizabeth was an avid letter writer and a contentious neighbor. She was involved in disputes over her rights at Donnington, the building of an indoor playhouse in the Blackfriars district of London, where she had a home, and the marriages of her children. There were lawsuits over land claims and debts, and on one occasion (May 14, 1606) she spoke for more than half an hour in the Star Chamber. In 1605, she published a translation she had made from the French to avoid an incorrect edition coming out after her death. She also designed and oversaw construction of her own monument in Bisham Church. She was buried there on June 2, 1609. Biographies: partial accounts of Elizabeth Cooke’s life, none of them recent, can be found in A. L. Rowse’s The English Past, Roy Strong’s The Cult of Elizabeth, and Violet Wilson’s Society Women of Shakespeare’s Time; Oxford DNB entry under Russell [née Cooke], Elizabeth." NOTE: the DNB entry gives the date of her mother's death as 1553. Portraits: effigy in Bisham Church and on the Cooke monument in Romford; portrait at Bisham Abbey.
KATHERINE COOKE (c.1530-December 27, 1583)
Katherine Cooke was the daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall (1505-June 11, 1576) and Anne FitzWilliam (c.1504-June 5, 1588). Her father was one of King Edward VI’s tutors. Cooke saw to it that his five daughters had an education equal to that of his sons. Their learning was remarked upon (and praised) as early as 1559, in William Bercher’s Nobylytye of Women and by Elizabeth Tudor’s tutor, Roger Ascham. Katherine was proficient in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. She may have accompanied her father into exile during the reign of Mary Tudor. On November 4, 1565 she married Henry Killigrew (c.1528-1603) in the church of St. Peter le Poor, London. In the spring of 1566, he was sent to Scotland by Queen Elizabeth. Their life together included many such separations. Many of their letters survive, including one in which Katherine asks her sister Mildred, wife of Sir William Cecil, to prevent Killigrew from being sent abroad again. It is written in verse. She also corresponded with Edward Dering, the Puritan divine. Killigrew impoverished himself in royal service, but in 1573 he was granted the manor of Lanrake, Cornwall and from 1575 until Katherine’s death was in England. They had four daughters, Anne, Elizabeth, Mary, and Dorothy and lived primarily at Killigrew’s estate at Hendon and his house in St. Paul’s Churchyard in London. Katherine was ill of the plague at Hendon in 1575 but it was childbirth that killed her. A stillborn son was born December 21, 1583 and she died six days later. Three prominent Puritans, Andrew Melville, William Charke, and Robert Formanus, wrote verses to go on her monument in the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle in London. Her sister Elizabeth and William Camden also wrote epitaphs. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Killigrew [née Cooke], Katherine." NOTE: the DNB entry gives the date of her mother's death as 1553. Portraits: effigy on the Cooke monument in Romford Church.
MARGARET COOKE (1540-August 1558)
Margaret Cooke was the fifth daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall (1505-June 11, 1576) and Anne FitzWilliam (c.1504-June 5, 1588). Her father was one of King Edward VI’s tutors. Cooke saw to it that his five daughters had an education equal to that of his sons. Their learning was remarked upon (and praised) as early as 1559, in William Bercher’s Nobylytye of Women and by Elizabeth Tudor’s tutor, Roger Ascham. Margaret is the only one of the five sisters whose writings have not survived her and the only one who is not shown on the Cooke tomb in Romford Church in Essex. She married on the same day as her sister, Elizabeth, Monday, June 27, 1558, at a time when their father was still in exile in Frankfurt. Her husband, Sir Ralph Rowlett, is variously described as a London goldsmith and as a rich merchant of Gorhambury’s heir. One source gives his father as the Sir Ralph Rowlett, one of the masters of the mint to Henry VIII. Sadly, Margaret, and died within a few weeks of the ceremony. She was buried on August 3, 1558 at St. Mary Staining, London. The diary of Henry Machyn supports that of Sir Thomas Hoby in saying that, in spite of her family’s Protestant leanings, Margaret was one of Queen Mary’s maids of honor before her marriage. As such, and assuming David Loades is correct in attributing the "praise of eight of the queen's ladies" to Mary's court rather than Elizabeth's, Margaret seems likely to have been the "Cooke" lauded as "comely" by anonymous poet "R.E." See Mildred Cooke's entry for an alternate interpretation.
MILDRED COOKE (August 24, 1524-April 4, 1589)
Mildred Cooke was the eldest daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall (1505-June 11, 1576) and Anne FitzWilliam (c.1504-June 5, 1588). Her father was one of King Edward VI’s tutors. Cooke saw to it that his five daughters had an education equal to that of his sons. Their learning was remarked upon (and praised) as early as 1559, in William Bercher’s Nobylytye of Women and by Elizabeth Tudor’s tutor, Roger Ascham. She was ranked with Lady Jane Grey for her erudition, known to speak Greek fluently, and had some fame as a translator. A contemporary poem, Richard Edwards's "Praze of Eight Ladyes of Queene Elizabeth's Court," apparently refers to Mildred with the lines, "Cooke is comely, and thereto In bookes setts all her care; In learning with the Roman Dames Of right she may compare." However, by the time Elizabeth became queen, Mildred had been the second wife of William Cecil, later Lord Burghley (September 13,1521-August 4,1598) since December 1545. See Margaret Cooke's entry for an alternate theory. Mildred had six children, three of whom died young. Those who lived to adulthood were Anne (1556-1588), Robert (1563-1612), and Elizabeth (1564-1583). She had charge of their education as well as that of the various wards her husband was responsible for, including the earl of Essex and the earl of Oxford. In a letter dated December 29, 1558, the Spanish ambassador to England referred to Mildred as a "tiresome blue-stocking" (a learned lady). Biographies: Chapter One in Pearl Hogrefe’s Women of Action in Tudor England ; Oxford DNB entry under "Cecil [née Cooke], Mildred." NOTE: the DNB gives the date of her mother's death as 1553. Portraits: effigy on her tomb in Westminster Abbey; two portraits at Hatfield by the Master of Mildred Cooke, one of which shows her during her pregnancy with her son Robert in 1563. This has more recently been attributed to Hans Eworth. According to Christopher Hibbert's biography, The Virgin Queen, Mildred had a shallow dent on the left side of her forehead and was rather hunchbacked.
ELIZABETH COPLEY
see ELIZABETH SHELLEY
ISABELLA CORBY
ANNE CORNWALLIS
see ANNE JERNINGHAM
ELIZABETH CORNWALLIS (1547-August 12,1628)
JANE CORNWALLIS
MARY CORNWALLIS (d.1627)
AGNES COTELL (x. February 20, 1523) (maiden name unknown)
Agnes was married one John Cotell or Coteel, who may have been the steward of Farleigh Castle, one of the properties belonging to Sir Edward Hungerford (d. January 24, 1522) of Heytesbury, Wiltshire. The Cotells were in residence there, with servants, when Agnes decided she would rather be married to Hungerford, who was a wealthy widower with a teenaged son. She incited her two servants, William Mathewe and William Ignes, to strangle Cotell on July 26, 1518, and some accounts say they afterward burned his body in the castle's oven. Sometime between Cotell's death and the end of that year, Agnes married Sir Edward. Although there was speculation about Cotell's death early on, it was only following Hungerford's death that Agnes was arraigned for murder. She had been named Hungerford's sole executrix and sole heir, even though his son was still alive, but her newfound wealth did her no good. Indicted on August 25, 1522, Agnes and her two accomplices were tried on November 27. Agnes was convicted in January of inciting and abetting murder. She was hanged at Tyburn and all her goods and property were forfeit to the crown. They were subsequently returned to Hungerford's son. Agnes was buried at Grey Friars in London. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Hungerford [other married name Cotell], Agnes."
GERTRUDE COURTENAY
see GERTRUDE BLOUNT
KATHERINE COURTENAY
ELIZABETH COWDRAY (1520-1588/9)
JANE COX
CATHERINE CRADDOCK
see CATHERINE GORDON
AGNES CRANAGE
see AGNES NEEDHAM
ELIZABETH CRANE
ALICE CRANMER (d.1536+)
MARGARET CRANMER
see MARGARETE HETZEL
ANNE CRESACRE (1510-December 2, 1577)
ELIZABETH CRESSENER (c.1456-December 1537)
Elizabeth Cressener was the daughter of Alexander Cressener (d. 1497/8) and Cecily Radcliffe. She was Prioress of the Dominican Priory of Dartford for fifty years. Her letters to Lord Cromwell, written in 1535 and 1536 are still extant, as are financial records of the house, the seventh richest nunnery in England at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In about 1520, Elizabeth Cressener was authorized to take in widows of good repute as permanent guests at Dartford and to receive young ladies and give them “a suitable training.” The priory had not yet been surrendered when Elizabeth Cressener died and Joan Fane was elected to replace her. Joan sent Lord Cromwell a gift of £100 upon her election and granted her brother, Sir Ralph Fane, a lease of the manor of Shipborne for ninety-nine years at £5 a year, together with a number of privileges at the monastery. When the priory was dissolved in 1539, pensions were granted to the nuns. Joan Fane received 100 marks and a second Elizabeth Cressener, most likely a niece of the late prioress, received 106s. 8d. Of twenty-six sisters who received pensions, twenty were still alive and in receipt of their pensions in 1556. Under Queen Mary, seven of the Dartford nuns, with the second Elizabeth Cressener as prioress, established the conventual observance at King’s Langley. The Dominican sisters at Dartford had previously been “subject in spirituals” to the Friars Preacher of King’s Langley. In 1557, Dartford Priory was restored to them and they removed there on September 8, 1558. Only two months later, however, Queen Mary died. In 1559, the nuns were given a choice of taking the oath of supremacy or leaving within twenty-four hours. Two priests, the prioress, four choir-nuns, four lay sisters, and a young girl not yet professed joined with the nuns of Syon House and left England for Antwerp. There they lived on alms until 1566. In January 1573(5?), the sisters of Engelendael, near Bruges, were ordered to take the three surviving nuns from England into their monastery.
MARY CRESSWELL (1586-February 6, 1622)
ELIZABETH CROFTS or CROFT (c.1535-1554+)
ELIZABETH CROMWELL
see ELIZABETH SEYMOUR
JOAN CROMWELL (c.1558-1641)
SUSAN CROMWELL
see SUSAN WEEKS
JOYCE or JOCOSA CURZON (x. December 10, 1557)
Joyce Curzon was the daughter of Thomas Curzon of Croxall Staffordshire and Anne Aston. She married Sir George Appleby (1513-September 10,1547) of Appleby, Leicestershire, by whom she had two sons, George (d.1561+) and Richard, and then Thomas Lewis (d.1558) of Mancetter, Warwickshire. In about 1555, she left the Catholic church to become an evangelical, along with many others in the neighborhood. She was arrested in 1556, found guilty of heresy, and burned at the stake in Lichfield. Her story is told in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Lewis [née Curzon], Joyce.”
MOLL CUTPURSE
see MARY FRITH
CECILY CYOLL
see CECILY GRESHAM
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see AGNES WOODHULL
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see ANN CARY
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Christian Carkett was the daughter of William Carkett. She married widower John Browne of Horton Kirby (before 1513-September 1570), a wealthy London merchant. They had five children, including William, Charles, and Christian. I believe Christian Carkett was the Lady Brown arrested for hearing mass in 1568, along with Lady Cary, who had been arrested before. Lady Cary was pardoned. Lady Brown had to find surety for future behavior. I am not certain of this identification and I am still trying to discover which Lady Cary was involved.
see ANNE KILLIGREW
see ELIZABETH HUSSEY
Jane Carlisle or Carlyle was an Englishwoman from Carlisle who inherited property in that city. She had a sister, Elizabeth (c. 1510-c.1564), who is sometimes said to have been the daughter of William Carlisle, 2nd Lord Carlisle of Torthorald, Dumfrieshire, but Lord Carlisle was a Scot and neither Jane nor Elizabeth are listed among his children in the usual sources, so I don’t believe this is accurate. Whatever her parentage, Jane became the mistress of Sir John Lowther (c.1488-1553) during his tenure as constable of Carlisle Castle in the 1540s. She had two daughters by Lowther, Mabel and Jane. In his will Lowther named his mistress as one of his executors and as residuary legatee. In March 1564/5, Jane traveled to Scotland to attend the wedding of her nephew, John Sempill or Semple (Elizabeth’s son by Robert, 3rd lord Sempill, legitimized after their 1546 marriage), to Mary Livingston, Queen Mary’s lady in waiting. The queen called John Sempill “the Englishman” because he had been born in the south to an English mother. It may be at this time that Jane received the gift of a chain worth £60, possibly from Mary Queen of Scots herself. It is unclear exactly when Jane became the third wife of Sir Thomas Dacre (d. July 17, 1565), illegitimate son of Thomas, 2nd baron Dacre, but they appear to have had a happy marriage. After his death, however, Jane was involved in a bitter lawsuit with one of Dacre’s sons by an earlier marriage. Biography: Oxford DNB entry in “Dacre family” as “Jane Dacre [née Carlisle].” Portrait: c. 1545, previously misidentified as Lady Jane Grey.
Ann Cary was the daughter of Richard Cary (1515-June 1570), a wealthy Bristol merchant, and Joan Holton. She married Nicholas Ball (d. March 1586), a pilchard merchant of Totnes, Devon, who was M.P. for Totnes in 1584 and mayor in 1586. His house in Totnes is still standing. She is said to have had several children by him, the youngest a daughter, Elizabeth (1585-September 28, 1659). On June 19, 1586, the recently widowed Ann Ball married Thomas Bodley (March 2, 1545-January 29, 1613). Although they had no children, they had a happy marriage that lasted for twenty-four years. Bodley was resident ambassador to the United Provinces from December 1588 until early 1597 and Ann was issued a safe conduct on May 29, 1589 to take ship to join him. It is not clear how long she resided with him in the Hague. Following his return to England, Bodley devoted himself to restoring the university library at Oxford, which opened in 1602. He was knighted in 1604, making Ann Lady Bodley. Biography: Bodley wrote his autobiography in 1608. Portrait: monument in St. Bartholomew-the-Less.
see CATHERINE KNYVETT
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Elizabeth Cave was the daughter of Thomas Cave of Stanford (d.1558) and Elizabeth Danvers. Birthdates given in various online genealogies vary wildly, from as early as c.1515 to c.1536. She married Humphrey Stafford of Bletherwick, Northamptonshire (d.1574). They had two children, Humphrey (d. unm.) and John (d.1596). In 1562, before the Court of Requests, Elizabeth’s husband stated that he had beaten her (a husband’s right in those days) because she had uttered "many unseemly and quarrelous words." His goal was to reform "her manners and life."
Margaret Cave was the daughter of Roger Cave (d. July 26, 1586) and Margaret (or Mary) Cecil (d. March 19, 1552/3). She is included here mostly because she is so often confused with her mother and then, in some cases, said to be a daughter of William Cecil, Lord Burghley and his second wife, Mildred Cooke. Margaret Cave’s mother was Burghley’s sister, not his daughter. Margaret herself married Sir William Skipwith of Coates (c.1564-May 3, 1610), by whom she had a son, Henry Skipwith. Some genealogies give her a second husband named Erasmus Smith. Others give her mother a second husband named Ambrose Smith. Neither seems likely, since in both cases these women were outlived by their first (and apparently only) husbands.
Elizabeth Cavendish was the daughter of Sir William Cavendish (c.1505-October 25,1557) and Elizabeth Hardwick (1527-February 13,1608) and the goddaughter of Elizabeth Brooke, Lady Northampton and Lady Catherine Grey. She was an attractive girl with whom Sir Christopher Hatton was said to be in love. Her mother tried to arrange a marriage for her with Peregrine Bertie, but in 1574 she found a more prestigious match. In the autumn of that year, Margaret Douglas, countess of Lennox, and her son Charles Stuart, earl of Lennox (1556-1577) were en route to Settringham. On October 9 they stopped for a few days with the duchess of Suffolk at Huntingdon. Elizabeth’s mother, better known as Bess of Hardwick and by that time married to the earl of Shrewsbury, was at nearby Rufford. She met them between Huntingdon and Sheffield and invited them to stop for the night with her. According to some accounts, this meeting had been pre-arranged for the purpose of establishing contact between Margaret and her imprisoned daughter-in-law, Mary Queen of Scots, who was in the keeping of the earl of Shrewsbury. At Rufford, Lady Lennox took to her bed, claiming to be ill, and remained there, with Lady Shrewsbury for company, for the next five days. During that time the two young people were left to their own devices and Charles so “entangled himself” with Elizabeth Cavendish that they had to be secretly married in early November. On November 17, both mothers and newlyweds were ordered to London by the queen. The blame seems to have fallen entirely on the two countesses, but by March both had been acquitted of “large treasons.” The cause of the queen’s alarm was Charles Stuart’s claim to her throne, which he would pass on to any children he and Elizabeth produced. Their daughter, Arbella Stuart, was born at Chatsworth the following September. Sadly, Charles Stuart died when his daughter was only two and Elizabeth died when Arbella was six. Portrait: reproduced in E. C. Williams’s Bess of Hardwick (1959).
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Ann Cecil was the daughter of William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520-1598) and Mildred Cooke (1526-1589). She was educated by her mother and then, after 1565, by William Lewin. She is said to have briefly been a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth. Her father wished to marry her to Sir Philip Sidney, but she fell in love with Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford (1550-1604), one of her father’s wards. He asked for her hand in July 1571 and they were married in Westminster Abbey on December 19, 1571. Soon, however, Oxford neglected his wife, spending all his time at court flirting with the queen and with other ladies. He blamed his father-in-law for failing to obtain the freedom of his kinsman, the duke of Norfolk, who was executed in 1572, and by May 1573 there was open hostility between Oxford and Lady Burghley. Oxford swore “to ruin the Lord Treasurer’s daughter,” casting doubt on her honor. This careless talk came back to haunt him when Ann gave birth to their first child, Elizabeth (July 2, 1575-1627) while Oxford was abroad. Lord Henry Howard, Nofolk’s brother, stirred up more trouble, and Ann was unable to convince her husband that the child was his. Surviving letters testify to her efforts and reveal her continuing love for him. They were finally reconciled in 1582, but not until after Oxford’s mistress, Ann Vavasour, had borne him a son. Ann gave her husband four more children, a son who died in infancy in May 1583 and three daughters, Bridget (April 6,1584-1620), Frances (d. September 12, 1587), and Susan (May 26,1587-1629). Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Vere [née Cecil], Anne de." Portraits: effigy in Westminster Abbey, where she shares a tomb with her mother.
see JANE HECKINGTON
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This second Katherine Champernowne, was the daughter of Sir Philip Champernowne (c.1479-August 2, 1545) and Catherine Carew (d.1545+). She married first Otho Gilbert (d.1547) and second Walter Raleigh (d. February 1581), giving birth to several famous sons. Her offspring were John, Humphrey (1539-1625) and Adrian Gilbert and Carew (1550-1625),Walter (1552-1618), and Margaret Raleigh. During the reign of Henry VIII, she converted to Protestantism and refused to give up her beliefs when Mary Tudor was queen. She sat with the martyr, Agnes Prest, the night before her execution. She does not, however, seem to have been prosecuted herself. Under Elizabeth Tudor, through the influence of Katherine’s relative, Kat Astley (cousin? aunt? sister?), Katherine’s son Walter was introduced to court and made a success of himself there. Katherine continued to live in the West Country, where she kept liveried servants and a waiting woman, but she was in debt when she died. She made her will on April 18, 1594. She was buried in Exeter with her second husband.
Elizabeth Cheney was the daughter of Thomas Cheney of Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire and Anne Parr. Elizabeth married Thomas, 2nd Lord Vaux (1510-1556) and by him had William (1542-1595), Nicholas, Anne (d. May 7, 1619), and Maud. Portraits: Holbein sketch; Holbein portrait at Hampton Court and copy in National Gallery, Prague; miniature dated 1535.
Jane Cheney was the daughter and heiress of William Cheney of Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire and Emma Walwyn. She was taught to read and write and owned a copy of the 1532 edition of Chaucer, in which she later wrote "this ys Jane Southampton boke." Before 1533, possibly as early as 1527, she married Thomas Wriothesley (December 21, 1505- July 30, 1550), who was created earl of Southampton in 1547. A number of sources, some very reputable, say they had only one daughter, Elizabeth (d.1554/5), perhaps because she was the only one to marry into the peerage. The earl's will, however, written in 1550, also lists daughters Anne, Mary (d. December 1561), Katherine, and Mabel. All but Anne married and had families. Jane's male children were William (1535-1537), Anthony (d.1543), and Henry (April 24, 1545-October 9, 1581). As a widow, Jane inherited several manors, most in Hampshire, including Titchfield and Micheldever, and Southampton House in Holborn. In January 1551, the Privy Council ordered the arrest of her children's schoolmaster, suspicious of certain messages he'd been sending abroad. Although I've found no further information on this incident, it is suggestive of Jane's religious leanings. The loss of Jane's first two sons in infancy, perhaps combined with her recusancy, appears to have made her overly protective of the third. When nineteen-year-old Henry was summoned to court in 1564, she refused to let him leave home. The Privy Council had to issue a special order to remove him from his mother’s house. Henry himself seems to have wished to make his own decisions. In February 1566, when he wed Mary Browne, he did so without his mother’s consent. He did not, of course, need her consent. Jane appears to have forgiven him. In her will she left specific gifts of jewelry to each of her daughters, her daughter-in-law, and her granddaughter. She left her prayer book, in which she had collected inscriptions and verses written by friends, to her daughter Katherine. Jane's son left instructions in his will for the erection of a family monument that would include his mother's effigy. Work on the tomb began in 1582. Portraits: effigy in St. Peter’s Church, Titchfield, Hampshire; A. L. Rowse, in Shakespeare's Southampton, describes a portrait of Jane as seen in an article by R. W. Goulding titled "Wriothesley Portraits" in Walpole Society, viii (pp. 17-94): rounded face; surprised, rather sweet expression; small mouth and nose; arched eyebrows; white lace cap with long lappets falling behind; richly dressed.
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see ALICE MORE
Mabel Clifford was the daughter of Henry, 10th baron Clifford (c.1454-1523) and Anne St. John (c.1456-c.1506). In November 1513, she married William Fitzwilliam (c.1490-October 15, 1542), who was created earl of Southampton in 1537. The king attended the wedding. She was at court as a lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon and rode in the first chariot in Queen Jane’s funeral procession. Portrait: unknown artist and date.
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According to a letter from John Husee, viscount Lisle's man of business in London, dated 24 May 1536, "the first accusers" against Queen Anne Boleyn were "the Lady Worcester, and Nan Cobham and one maid more." Lady Worcester was Elizabeth Browne, wife of the earl of Worcester, but "Nan Cobham" is more difficult to identify. As M. St. Clare Byrne points out in The Lisle Letters, it seems unlikely that Husee would refer to Anne Brooke (née Bray), Lady Cobham so familiarly. So who is the "Mrs. Cobham" among the queen's gentlewomen who received a New Year's gift from the king in 1534? Is she the same "Anne Cobham" who was one of Katherine Parr's gentlewomen in 1547? Or was that Anne Bray? There was an Anne Cobham, widow (not Anne Bray) who, in 1540, was granted some of the lands formerly belonging to Syon Abbey. There was also a Cobham family in Dingley, Hampshire. An Anne Cobham from there married John Norwich (c.1497-before 1553) around 1518. And yet another Anne Cobham (1467-June 26, 1526) was the wife of Edward, 2nd Lord Borough. Just to complicate matters, members of the Brooke family sometimes used Cobham as a surname. The practice was not unique. It is also found in the Fiennes/Clinton, West/de la Warr, and Sutton/Dudley families.
Joan, also known as Agnes, Colte was the daughter of John Colte of Little Munden, Hertfordshire. She married a man named Brockhurst and after his death, on February 7, 1563, wed Richard Whitelocke or Whitlock (1533-1570), a London merchant. By Whitelocke she had several sons, including Edmund (February 10, 1564/5-1608), Richard (December 28, 1565-1624), John, and twins James (November 28, 1570-1632) and William, born posthumously. To provide for them, she married a third time, but her third husband, John Price, was a spendthrift. Only Joan’s constant struggle to do the best for her children resulted in their success. She placed James in the Merchant Taylor’s School when he was only five and he became a judge and a renowned scholar.
Anne Coke was the daughter of Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634) and Bridget Paston (1565-1598). She grew up in Elsing, Norfolk. She had a dowry of £3000 and on September 13, 1601 married Ralph Sadlier (1579-1661). The couple lived at Standon Lordship, Hertfordshire but the marriage was childless and unhappy. Anne remained close to her father, however, and visited him when he was a prisoner in the Tower of London in 1622. She was an avid letter writer, often debating matters of religion (she was Anglican), and donated her letters, notebooks, coins, and several illuminated manuscripts to the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Sadlier [née Coke], Anne.”
Anne Colte became abbess of Wherwell in 1529, succeeding Avelene Cowdrey. In April 1534, she was asked to resign in return for a pension and the right to stay at Wherwell or move to any other religious house. Anne's reply was that she would not resign until she had spoken to the king himself. The cause of her removal seems to have been political, but when she refused to cooperate, other charges were brought, linking her with John Stokesley, Bishop of London (1475-1539), who had himself been charged with adultery in 1507 but exonerated. Anne appeared before the Privy Council several times and in June 1534 a commission was appointed to look into the charges against her. The commission does not seem to have found any proof of scandal but, in September 1535, when she was offered a pension of £20 by Lord Cromwell's agents, Anne did resign in favor of Morphita Kingsmill, Cromwell's choice for the post of abbess.
see ELIZABETH MELVILLE
Dorothy Constable was the daughter of Sir Henry Constable of Burton Constable, Yorkshire (d.1608) and Margaret Dormer (1553-April 26, 1637). In 1597, Dorothy married Roger Lawson (1570/1-1613/14) and had at least fourteen children, including Ralph (d.1612), Dorothy (1600-1628), Henry (c.1601-1636), George, Margaret, John, Mary, Roger, Thomas, Edmund (d. 1642/3), James, Catherine (d.1637), Anne, and Elizabeth. Both Dorothy’s mother and Roger’s (Elizabeth Burgh) were recusants who spent time in prison for their faith. When Dorothy arrived at Brough Hall after her marriage, where she and her husband were to live with his parents until 1605, one of her first acts was to arrange for regular visits from one of the Jesuit priests secretly working in Yorkshire. She was something of a missionary, convincing her in-laws to return to the Catholic faith and seeking converts in the neighborhood, as well. In other houses, at Heaton Hall, Northumberland and St. Anthony’s, she supported a succession of Jesuit chaplains and continued her proselytizing. She was somewhat remarkable in that she was never prosecuted for recusancy. She died of consumption. Three of her daughters embraced the religious life, Dorothy as a canoness at Louvain and Margaret and Mary as Benedictine nuns at Ghent. Biography: William Palmes, Life of Mrs. Dorothy Lawson of St. Antony’s near Newcastle-upon-Tyne in Northumberland was written in the early seventeenth century by her former chaplain; Oxford DNB entry under “Lawson [née Constable], Dorothy.”
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see ISABELLA RICHARDSON
Elizabeth Cornwallis was the daughter of Sir Thomas Cornwallis of Brome Hall (c.1519-December 24,1604) and Anne Jerningham (June 28, 1516-before May 28, 1581). Her mother was a lady of the privy chamber to Queen Mary and Elizabeth entered the service of the duchess of Norfolk until her marriage in 1561. Her husband was Sir Thomas Kytson (October 9, 1540-January 28, 1603). Elizabeth brought the madrigal singer and composer, John Wilbye with her from Brome to Hengrave Hall and her daughter Mary (1566-June 28, 1644) took over as his patron after Elizabeth’s death. Elizabeth's elder daughter, Margaret (1563-1582), had predeceased her, as had a son, John, who died as an infant. In 1581, Elizabeth persuaded friends from court to intercede on behalf of her father, who was imprisoned for recusancy. In 1599, she was facing that charge herself and again called upon influential friends who were able to keep her from being presented at the Bury St. Edmunds petty sessions. As a widow, Elizabeth spent part of her time at Hengrave Hall and the rest at a new house her husband had built in Clerkenwell. Portraits: by George Gower, 1573; miniature. 
see JANE MEAUTAS
Mary Cornwallis was the daughter of Sir Thomas Cornwallis of Brome Hall (c.1519-December 24,1604) and Anne Jerningham (June 28, 1516-before May 28, 1581). On December 15,1578, she secretly married William Bourchier, earl of Bath (1557-July 12,1623) though the connivance of her brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Kytson, who was the young earl's uncle. The marriage was later repudiated, according to some sources because the earl's mother (Frances Kytson, by then remarried to William Barnaby) would not consent to the match. A trial over the matter was instituted in May 1590 and the marriage was annulled on April 28, 1581. In 1582, the earl married Elizabeth Russell (d. March 24,1605), daughter of the earl of Bedford. Mary, however, did not accept this turn of events. She continued to style herself countess of Bath for the rest of her life and to stir up controversy over the matter. It was still a hot button issue in 1600, when poet Francis Davison, who had a connection to the Russell family, published his "Answer to Mrs. Mary Cornwallis." Included in Davison's account of the affair were charges that Mary had "lived an incontinent and lewd life" and had borne a child to her lover, one Francis Southwell, before she seduced William Bourchier into agreeing to marry her. How much truth there is in any of this is difficult to say. On the other side of the argument, Sir Thomas Kyston left his sister-in-law £300 in his will in June 1601 and included in it a statement of his belief that she was the rightful countess of Bath. Portrait: by George Gower c.1580-85.
see KATHERINE PLANTAGENET
Elizabeth Cowdray was the daughter of Peter Cowdray of Herriard, Hampshire (d. April 10, 1528). Cowdray and his wife both died, probably in the epidemic known as the sweat, when Elizabeth and her two sisters were still children. Joan (1518-October 15, 1562), Elizabeth, and Margery Cowdray inherited numerous Hampshire properties, including Herriard and Padworth Manor. In 1538, Elizabeth married Richard Paulet of Basing (1493-c.1551). Paulet acquired Elizabeth’s sisters’ shares of Herriard and sold Padworth Manor to Joan, who by then was married to Peter Kidwelly of Faccombe. Elizabeth had children by Paulet, including a son named John. At some point before March 1554, she married William Windsor, 2nd Baron Windsor (1499-August 20, 1558), by whom she had children Elizabeth and Philip (d. yng.). In May 1560, she married George Puttenham (1529-October 1590), a writer and literary critic. They may have been estranged as early as 1563 and within six years of the marriage, she had sued him for divorce. Initially, he was to pay her £100 a year in quarterly payments. He was involved in several legal disputes, primarily over land, and in June 1570 was in the Fleet on charges he’d slandered the queen. He was released but in 1575 was in the Wood Street compter because he had not made any payments to Elizabeth since 1572. He also tried to appropriate the manor of Herriard, which rightfully belonged to the Paulet family. The court of arches ordered Puttenham to pay Elizabeth £3 a week and he was excommunicated for his failure to support her. When the divorce became final on June 9, 1578, Elizabeth renewed her appeals for money owed her. Puttenham was in and out of various prisons over the matter but on July 13, 1579 he agreed to provide Elizabeth with six servants, a coach, and an annuity of £20. Once again he defaulted. This battle continued for another eight years and Puttenham was imprisoned at least twice more over the matter before Elizabeth’s death.
see JANE AUDER
see ELIZABETH HUSSEY
Alice Cranmer was the daughter of Thomas Cranmer (d.1501) and Agnes Hatfield and the sister of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury (1489-1556). In 1525, she was a nun at the Cistercian nunnery at Stixwould, Lincolnshire, which was dissolved in 1536. She may have been there in 1519 when the prioress was accused of spending the night outside of the priory with secular friends. To remedy that, she was given permission to keep a private house within the cloister to entertain them. At that time the nuns' accommodations were reorganized. Some boarded with the prioress and others with the sub-prioress. Alice was later elected prioress at Minster in Sheppey, a Benedictine house in Kent, succeeding Mildred Wigmore. In 1556, when her brother was imprisoned by Queen Mary, his sister is said to have pleaded with the queen for his release, but this may not have been Alice.
Anne Cresacre was the daughter of Edward Cresacre of Barnborough, Yorkshire (d.1512) and Jane Bassett. She was the ward of Sir Thomas More and brought up with his children, one of whom, John (1508/9-1547), she married in 1528. Their children included Thomas (1531-1606), Augustine (b.1533), Edward (1535-1620), another Thomas (b. June 2, 1538), and Anne (b.1541). After John More’s death, Anne married George West of Aughton (d.1572). Portraits: Holbein sketch; included in More family portraits.
Mary Cresswell was the daughter of Thomas Cresswell. Both parents died when she was an infant and Mary was raised by an elderly Catholic lady who died when she was fourteen. At that point, Mary joined the household of her kinsman, Sir Christopher Blount (c.1556-x. March 18,1601/2) and his wife, Lettice Knollys, countess of Essex and Leicester. She remained part of the household at Drayton Basset Staffordshire after his death and planned to go abroad and become a nun. Lady Leicester objected and with the help of her chaplain, John Wilson, converted Mary to protestantism. She embraced the new religion with considerable fervor, even keeping a catalogue of her sins. Lady Leicester provided Mary with a marriage portion when she wed another member of the household, Humphrey Gunter, son of Geoffrey Gunter of Melton, Wiltshire and Alys (or Agnes) Yale. Mary insisted upon giving part of her marriage portion to the heir of the elderly lady she’d lived with earlier in life, since one of her sins had been to steal money from her at the instigation of the old woman’s servants. No one seems to have recorded the elderly lady’s name or Mary's exact connection to Sir Christopher Blount. With Gunter, Mary had one son and they continued to reside at Drayton Basset until 1621. Mary’s claim to fame is her funeral sermon and the short biography published with it as Pilgrim’s Profession in 1622. It was dedicated to the countess of Leicester and Essex and was reprinted three times by 1633. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Gunter [née Cresswell], Mary.” Portrait: memorial brass, St. Mary’s, Reading.
Elizabeth Crofts is included here mostly because she rates an entry in the Oxford DNB under “Crofts, Elizabeth.” She was famous for one thing only—she spent several days in mid-March of 1554 hidden in the false exterior wall of a house in Aldersgate Street, London, pretending to be a spirit and spouting anti-Catholic sentiments. The ruse was discovered, of course, and Elizabeth was thrown in jail, but she seems to have been regarded as either a dupe or a madwoman and was not executed. In fact, no one knows what happened to her. She was said to be a servant, but the name of her master does not seem to have been recorded, let alone any hint of her parentage or family connections. Sir James Croft (c.1518-September 4, 1590) might have had a daughter about the right age by his first wife, Alice Warnecombe (d.1573), but it seems unlikely that a gentlewoman would have been used in this enterprise.
Joan Cromwell was the daughter of Sir Henry Cromwell of Hinchinbrooke, Huntingdonshire (c. 1524-January 6, 1603/4) and Joan Warren (c.1540-August 22, 1585). Sir Henry was born Henry Williams but his father later took his mother’s maiden name, Cromwell, in order to inherit. In 1579, Joan married Sir Francis Barrington of Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex (c.1560-July 3, 1628). They were adherents of predestinarian Calvinism and gave financial support to a large number of ministers, preachers, and authors. Lady Barrington not only raised her own children but also brought up several female relatives and arranged marriages for them. One suitor she rejected for a niece was Roger Williams, who went on to found Providence, Rhode Island. Aside from a period in 1626-7, when Sir Francis was imprisoned in the Marshalsea for refusing to pay a forced loan and Joan stayed with him, she made her home at the Priory, Hatfield. Her four sons and five daughters included Thomas (c.1585-September 1644), Robert, Francis, Mary (d. c. 1666), John (d. c. 1631), Elizabeth, Winifred, Ruth, and Joan. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Barrington [née Williams or Cromwell], Joan.”
