A WHO’S WHO OF TUDOR WOMEN: H-I

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her very out-of-date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)

 

MARY HABINGTON
see MARY PARKER

CATHERINE HALL
see CATHERINE GEDDING

MARY HALL

see MARY LASSELLS

SUSANNA HALL
see SUSANNA SHAKESPEARE

JANE HALLIGHWELL (c.1486-October 24,1558)

Jane Hallighwell was the daughter of Sir Richard Hallighwell, Halliwell, Halwell, or Holywell of Harberton (c.1462-July 24,1506) and Jane (or Anne) Norbury. She married Edmund, 1^st baron Bray (1484-October 18,1539) and had by him one son and ten daughters, all of whom are shown with her on the memorial brass in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire. Those for whom there are records are Anne (1500-November 1,1558), Elizabeth (c.1513-1573), Frideswide (b.c.1516; some lists do not include this daughter), Mary(c.1518-1569), Frances (c.1522-May 27,1592), Dorothy (c.1524-October 31,1605), and John (c.1527-November 18,1557). By 1545, Lady Bray had remarried, taking as her second husband Sir Urian Brereton (c.1510-March 19,1578) of Handforth, Cheshire. From 1553-1557, various members of Jane's immediate family, including several grandchildren, were in and out of prison on charges of treason for their participation in the attempt to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne instead of Mary Tudor, in Wyatt's Rebellion, and in the Dudley Conspiracy. In May, 1556, Jane's only son was arrested on suspicion of treason in connection with the latter. She immediately went to London to petition for his release. He was held for nearly a year but was never tried and was eventually pardoned. Soon after that, he left with King Philip's army to fight in France and was wounded at Saint Quentin on August 10, 1557. He died of his injuries in his house in Blackfriars. Jane was with him and was named his executrix. The will was proved two days after his death. She made all the arrangements for his funeral, which was conducted according to Catholic ritual, and for his burial at Chelsea, where his father and grandfather were buried. There was obviously some dissention in the family. No one from John's wife's family attended the funeral, nor did the husbands of at least three of his sisters. The chief mourner was Lord Cobham, who was married to Jane's eldest daughter. Jane died during the influenza epidemic of 1558. Portrait:memorial brass in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire.

SYBIL HAMPDEN (d. November 6, 1562)

Better known as Mrs. Penne, Sybil Hampden was the daughter of William Hampden of Dunton and Wingrave, Buckinghamshire and Audrey Hampden (daughter of Richard Hampden of Kimbell). She married David Penne (d.c.1570) and had two sons, John (d. 1596) and William. In October 1538 she became the chief nurse in the household of the future Edward VI and remained in that post until 1544. The prince was very fond of her and, as king, gave her the manor of Beaumond and the rectory of Little Missenden in Buckinghamshire. In 1553 she reappears in the household of Queen Mary, Edward’s sister, and she continued to live in rooms at Hampton Court during the reign of Elizabeth Tudor. She was stricken with smallpox at the same time Queen Elizabeth caught the disease, but Sybil Penne died of it. She was buried in Hampden Church and according to Ernest Philip Alphonse Law’s The History of Hampton Court, the inscription and arms on the monument there make her parentage clear. By the arms on her monument, Sybil Penne was a Hampden rather than a Pagenham and yet generations of biographers have repeated the story that she was the daughter of Hugh Pagenham or Pakenham and the sister-in-law of Sir William Sidney. Sidney was responsible for Sybil obtaining her position in Edward’s household. In a letter, he refers to Sybil as his sister-in-law. However, in sixteenth-century usage, sister-in-law could mean any connection that was "by law" rather than by blood. Sir William's son, Sir Henry Sidney, added to the confusion in a letter to Frances Walsingham dated March 1, 1583, in which he lists as being in Prince Edward's household "my near kinswoman being his only nurse my father being his chamberlain my mother his governess my aunt in such a place as among meaner personages is called a dry nurse." The ghost of Sybil Penne supposedly haunts Hampton Court Palace. Portraits: life size recumbent effigy in Hampden Church; illustration of Sybil Penne’s ghost from Law's book.

DOROTHY HANCOCK

see DOROTHY BAMPFIELD

ELIZABETH HARDING (1589-1628+)

Elizabeth Harding or Harden was the daughter of a court musician named James Harding. In February 1606 she became the third wife of artist Isaac Oliver (d.1617). Elizabeth’s sister, Anne (1593-1672), married Oliver’s son by his first marriage, Peter Oliver (1589-1647). Peter’s mother, possibly another Elizabeth, died in 1599. Oliver’s second wife, Sara Gheeraerts, is discussed in a separate entry. With Elizabeth, Oliver had six more children. After his death, Elizabeth married Pierce Morgan, a mercer. She died sometime before 1640. Portraits: in addition to the one below, dated c.1615 because of the clothing, Oliver painted his wife a second time. That portrait, in which she wears a ruff, is now lost.

ELIZABETH HARDWICK (1527-February 13,1608)

Elizabeth Hardwick, better known as Bess of Hardwick, was the daughter of John Hardwick (1495-January 29, 1528) and Elizabeth Leake (1499-c.1570). She married four times, first to Robert Barlow (1529-December 24, 1544) in 1543, second to Sir William Cavendish (c.1505-October 25,1557) in 1547, third to Sir William St.Loe (1518-February 1565) in 1559, and fourth to George Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury (1528-November 18,1590) on February 9,1568. She had eight children, all born of her second marriage, Frances (June 18,1548-1632), Temperance (June 10,1549-1550), Henry (December 17,1550-1616), William (December 27,1551-1625), Charles (November 1553-1617), Elizabeth (March 31,1555-January 21,1582), Mary (January 1556-April 1632), and Lucrece (1557-1557). She is best known as the builder of Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, but she had a long and eventful career at court, as well, and was for many years, with her fourth husband, responsible for keeping Mary, Queen of Scots prisoner in England. She raised her granddaughter, Arbella Stuart, who had a claim to the throne. She was also said to be the richest woman in England. This entry is short because there are several biographies available, the most recent Bess of Hardwick, Empire Builder by Mary S. Lovell. Others are by David Durant, Maud Stepney Rawson, and Ethel Carleton Williams; Oxford DNB entry under "Talbot [née Hardwick], Elizabeth." Portraits: three at Hardwick Hall, one c.1550-55, one c.1580, and one c.1590 and attributed to Rowland Lockey; British Library; effigy in Derby Cathedral.

ETHELREDA HARINGTON

see ETHELREDA MALTE

ISABEL HARINGTON

see ISABEL MARKHAM

LUCY HARINGTON (January 1581-May 26, 1627)

Lucy Harington was the daughter of John Harington, 1^st baron Harington of Exton (1539/40-August 23,1613) and Anne Kelway (c.1554-May 25,1620). She married Edward Russell, 3^rd earl of Bedford (December 20,1572-May 3, 1627) on December 12, 1594, at the age of thirteen. They had two children, Francis (1602-1602) and a daughter who lived only a few hours in 1610. As her husband was an invalid, Lucy had considerable independence. She was a patron of the arts, supporting John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Inigo Jones, among others. She was also a subscriber to the Virginia Company, a poet, and a possible conspirator in the Essex Rebellion of 1601. She was restored to royal favor as a lady of the bedchamber to Queen Anne from 1603 until 1620 and was a frequent participant in masques at court. In 1608, she bought Twickenham Park and made it her principal residence, possibly hiring architect Robert Smythson to design a new house and gardens. In 1617, she and her husband moved to Moor Park in Hertfordshire. They are said to have died, within a few days of each other, having spent their entire fortune. As early as 1619, Lucy was reportedly £50,000 in debt. Biography: Margaret Byard’s “The Trade of Courtiership,” History Today 1979; Oxford DNB entry under "Russell [née Harington], Lucy." Portraits: There are many, some certain and others speculative, including those by John de Critz (1606), Isaac Oliver (c.1615), and William Larkin (c.1615).

MARGARET HARINGTON or HARRINGTON (d. 1601)
Margaret Harington was the daughter of Sir James Harington of Exton, Rutland (1511-January 1592) and Lucy Sidney (c.1520-c.1591). In July 1559, she was one of six attendant gentlewomen who accompanied her cousin, Jane Dormer, countess of Feria, when Jane left England for the Low Countries. Margaret followed Jane to Spain and remained in her household there until her marriage in 1588 to Don Benito de Cisneros. Jane, by then duchess of Feria, gave Margaret a dowry of 20,000 ducats. In the summer of 1593, Jane wrote in a letter that Margaret was “out of her wits all these days with grief” because her daughter had been seriously injured in a fall. At the time of the letter, the child was expected to recover, but both of Margaret’s children, as well as her husband, predeceased her. Shortly before her death, Margaret founded a monastery in Zafra for Franciscan nuns. Her tomb is in the Convento de Santa Maria.

MARY HARINGTON

see MARY ROGERS

SARAH HARINGTON or HARRINGTON (1566-September 1629)
Sarah Harington or Harrington was the daughter of Sir James Harington of Exton, Rutland (d. January 1592) and Lucy Sidney (c.1520-c.1591). She married four men, the last when she was sixty. Her first husband, wed before 1586, was Francis, Lord Hastings (d.1596). All of her children were from this marriage. They were Henry, 5^th earl of Huntingdon (April 24, 1586-November 14, 1643), Sir George (d. July 5, 1611), Edward (d.c.1617), Catherine (d. August 28, 1636), Theodosia, and Francis. Sarah’s second husband was Sir George Kingsmill (c.1539-April 1606), a judge. In October 1611, she married Edward de la Zouche, 11^th baron Zouche (June 6, 1556-August 18, 1625) and on September 11, 1626 wed for the last time, taking diplomat Sir Thomas Edmondes (1563-September 20, 1639) as her husband. She was buried October 3, 1629. Portrait: unknown artist.

THEODOSIA HARINGTON or HARRINGTON (c.1560-January 1649)
Theodosia Harington was the daughter of James Harington of Exton (1511-January 1592) and Lucy Sidney (c.1520-c.1591). On June 12, 1581, she married Edward Sutton, 5th baron Dudley (September 1567-June 23, 1643). Their children were Anne (1582-December 8, 1615), Theodosia (b.1584 d.yng.), Mary (October 2, 1586-May 24, 1645), Ferdinando (September 4, 1588-November 22, 1621), and Margaret (1597-December 13, 1621+). In 1597, Theodosia brought charges against her husband with the Privy Council. They had separated and he'd promised support money but had not honored the agreement. He was ordered to pay Theodosia £66 to cover the period since May 1st (twenty-two weeks) and to pay the bills for boarding and educating his children. In addition, he was told to pay £100 per annum for his wife's maintenance, for life, "unless it shall please God to put their minds to cohabit together." Ferdinand, Mary, and Anne would receive £10 per annum and Margaret, an infant, £10. He was also to repay a loan to Sir John Harington and appear before the council again in November. He neither honored the agreement nor appeared before the council, although he did send his wife £32. Dudley kept a mistress, Elizabeth Tomlinson, by whom he had an additional eleven children. Theodosia was buried in St. Margaret's Westminster on January 12, 1649.

JOAN HARKEY (d.1550)

Joan Harkey’s background is unknown but she was the prioress of Ellerton in Swaledale, Yorkshire, a Cistercian convent, which was surrendered to the Crown on August 18, 1536. She was granted a pension of £3 per annum. She lived in nearby Richmond until her death. Her will, made on April 8, 1550 and proved on July 22, mentioned several former Ellerton nuns—Alice Tomson, Cecily Swale (who had given birth to a child while Joan was prioress), Agnes Aslaby, Elizabeth Parker, and Margaret Dowson. Aslaby and Parker had gone to Nun Appleton Priory when Ellerton was dissolved and Swale had transferred to the nunnery at Swine. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Harkey, Joan.”

ELIZABETH HARLESTONE (d.1552)

Elizabeth Harlestone was the daughter of Clement Harlestone, Harleston, or Harlesden (1493-October 24,1544) of Okinden, Essex and Margaret Tey or Teye and on June 8, 1529 married Sir John Wallop (1490-July 1551) at Windsor as his second wife. Wallop served as lieutenant of Calais Castle in 1530 and was resident ambassador to France from 1532 until the spring of 1537 and again in 1540. Elizabeth was often with him in France and often traveled back and forth. In 1532, she was one of Anne Boleyn’s attendants when Anne, as Marquess of Pembroke, visited France with King Henry VIII. She was in the funeral process of Queen Jane Seymour in 1537. The letter she wrote on August 8, 1538 from Farleigh in Hampshire to Lady Lisle in Calais still exists. She was obviously on intimate terms with the whole family and writes of Lady Lisle’s daughter, Anne Bassett, that “there is no doubt but she shall come to some great marriage.” She also refers to the countess of Sussex’s recent miscarriage. Anne Bassett was at that time living in the Sussex household. In March 1541, when Lady Wallop was at their house in Calais, Sir John Wallop was placed under house arrest in England on vague charges stemming from the seizure of Lord Lisle’s papers in Calais the previous year. He was pardoned and released within a few weeks. Sir John had no children by either of his wives.

MARGARET HARLESTONE (1519-1570)

Margaret Harlestone was the daughter of Robert Harlestone of Mattishall, Norfolk (b.c.1490). She waited seven years to marry Matthew Parker (August 6,1504-May 15,1575) because he was a priest. They lived together from around 1544 and finally wed on June 24, 1547, when such unions became legal. He became Archbishop of Canterbury under Queen Elizabeth and took up residence in Lambeth Palace in Southwark. The queen did not quite approve of married clergy and is reported to have told Margaret that she did not know what to call her, saying “Madam I many not call you, mistress I am ashamed to call you.” Under the name “Thomas Martin,” Parker published a defense of married clergy. Bishop Sandys nicknamed Margaret “Parker’s Abbess” because of her gravity, chastity, discretion, and piety. She had five children, John (May 5,1548-1618), Matthew (d.yng), Matthew (September 1, 1551-December 1574), Joseph (d.yng.), and Martha (b. August 1550). In 1566 a description of her household indicated that it included two daughters-in-law, Joanna Cox and Frances Barlow, both daughters of bishops, along with Parker’s niece, Mrs. Clark, a Mrs. Baker and her daughter, and Parker’s comptroller’s wife. Each of them had a maidservant. At the time of her death, she owned the Bell Inn and Norfolk House, formerly the residence of the dukes of Norfolk, both located just west of the Archbishop's palace in Lambeth.

MARGARET HARLESTONE (d. c. 1592)
Margaret Harlestone was the daughter of Clement Harlestone of Okinden, Essex (1493-October 24, 1544) and Margaret Tey or Teye. Her first husband was named Howe but she was a widow by June 1, 1554 when she married Roger Ascham (1514/15-December 1568). According to his Oxford DNB entry, another suitor, referred to only as “J. B.” had attempted to kidnap her and this ended in a court case. Ascham won. Margaret had only a small dowry and her relatives were poverty-stricken, so one presumes it was a love match. They had at least four sons—Giles (1560-April 1600), Sturm (1562-1567), Dudley (1564-1603), and Thomas (1569-1608)—and two daughters, the last child born posthumously. A long, rather preachy letter is extant from Ascham to his wife following the death of their newborn child, but he does frequently refer to her in the text by her first name, indicating a warmer relationship than many sixteenth century couples had. On September 28, 1569, Margaret took Thomas Rampston as her third husband and bore him at least one daughter, Anne. In a 1582 letter to Queen Elizabeth, Margaret says she has seven children to care for. She and her third husband lived at Salisbury Hall. Margaret died at some point between July 30, 1590 and June 26, 1592. There is some debate over whether Roger Ascham had an earlier wife named Alice. In a letter to Lady Jane Grey in 1551, he asks to be remembered to “Alice, my wife.” Leanda de Lisle’s recent biography of Lady Jane Grey and her sisters states that Alice Ascham was in service at Bradgate in the summer of 1550 when Ascham visited there prior to leaving England to take up a post at the court of Charles V. Lawrence V. Ryan’s biography of Ascham, however, argues that the words were meant in jest. The letter to Lady Jane was actually in Latin and says “uxor” not wife, which Ryan says would not refer to an actual wife, although it might mean someone he intended to marry. Ascham had written to his uncle for approval to marry a certain A___ B___, but (again, according to Ryan) no marriage took place, in large part because Ascham needed an exemption from the statute of celibacy in order to wed. He did not ask for this exemption until after 1551. Since the penalty for marrying without an exemption was death, this was not something to take lightly and, had he wed in secret, he would certainly not have been writing of it openly to a member of a family closely connected to the Crown.

ANNE HARLING (d. September 18, 1498)
Anne Harling was the daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Harling or Harlyng of East Harling, Norfolk (d.1435) and Jane Gunville. She married three times. Her first husband was Sir William Chamberlain or Chamberlayne of Gedding, Suffolk (d. April 1462). She then married Sir Robert Wingfield (c.1432-1481; alternate date of death is February 21, 1492/3). Her third husband was John, 5th baron Scrope of Bolton (July 22, 1435-August 17, 1498). He named Anne the executor of his will. Lady Scrope is remembered for having converted a college of priests at Rushworth, Norfolk into a grammar school. This was done to secure perpetual prayers for herself and her three husbands. Rushworth and Harling manors were conveyed to the college to support this foundation. She also left bequests to ten convents in her will and was a lay sister at four of them: Bruisyard, Campsey, Redlingfield, and Syon. She was buried in the church at East Harling with her first husband. Most accounts give her no children, but her will, dated August 28, 1498, lists a daughter, Dame Elizabeth Hengrave. Portraits: matice of the brass of Sir William Chamberlain and Lady Anne from Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, East Harling.

ISABELLA HARPER
see ISABELLA BOTT

ALICE HARPUR (c.1474-1546)

Alice Harpur was the daughter of Sir Richard Harpur (d. 1492) and Elizabeth Ardern (d.c.1510). Before 1492, Alice married John Middleton (d. 1509), a London mercer. They had two daughters, Alice (c.1501-1563) and Helen (d.c.1510). She became the second wife of Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) in 1511 and as such was painted by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1527. More’s children were all from his first marriage. More and his family lived at Crosby Place in London and, after 1523, in the house he built on land in Chelsea. More’s execution and the confiscation of his property left his widow destitute until, on March 16, 1536/7, she was granted £20 per annum. In 1542, she was leasing a house in Chelsea at 20s/year. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "More [née Harpur; other married name Middleton], Alice." NOTE: the DNB entry gives her date of death as "on or before 25 April 1551." Portraits: Alice is included in the group portrait of the More Family which exists as a sketch by Hans Holbein and a later portrait based on Holbein by Rowland Lockey. Below is a detail from the Lockey painting. Holbein also painted an individual portrait of Dame Alice More.

ALICE HARRIS (d. 1602)
Alice Harris was the daughter of John Harris, Thomas More’s secretary, and Dorothy Colley, Margaret More’s maid. Harris was reemployed by Margaret More to make copies of manuscript letters. These were in Dorothy Colley Harris’s possession in 1588 when she loaned them to Thomas Stapleton, More’s biographer, whose Tres Thomae was published that year at Douai. The entire Harris family went into exile after the death of Mary Tudor and Alice was married at some point before 1571, in Louvain, to John Fowler (1537-February 13, 1578/9), a scholar and printer. With her husband, she moved to Antwerp in 1574, Douai in 1577, Rheims in 1578, and finally Namur, where he died. Alice then opened a boarding house in Douai for English Catholics.

ANNE HARRIS (1574-October 2, 1636)
Anne Harris was the daughter of Sir Thomas Harris (1547-1610) and Elizabeth Pomeroy (d.1634). On June 24, 1594 she married Thomas Southwell of Spixworth, Norfolk (c.1575-1626). Anne was a poet, writing from a staunch protestant viewpoint. She often wrote about prominent people. Her second husband, Captain Henry Sibthorpe (d. 1626+), was her mentor and editor. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Southwell [née Harris], Anne.”

ELIZABETH or ISABEL HARRIS (d.c.1554)
Elizabeth Harris was the daughter of Francis Harris of Hayne, Devon (d.1509) and Philippa Grenville (d.1524). In 1528 or 1529, she married Walter Staynings or Steyning of Honycott (Honeycroft; Holnicote), Somerset (c.1500-1537) and had four children under the age of six by 1534, when he was in prison for debt. One of these children, Honor (c.1530-1601), was named after her mother’s sister, Honor Grenville, viscountess Lisle. Left in poverty and pregnant with her sixth child when her husband died, Elizabeth entered the service of Mary Arundell, countess of Sussex, as a waiting gentlewoman, although she was also offered a home with Lady Lisle in Calais. Lady Sussex was Elizabeth’s cousin (the daughter of Katherine Grenville). Another of Elizabeth’s children was Philip Steyning (d.1589). Elizabeth remarried at some point after 1538, becoming the second of the three wives of Thomas Gawdy (c.1476-1556/7). Her daughter Honor later married his son Thomas. Elizabeth was the mother of Gawdy’s son Anthony (c.1554-1606) and may have died as a result of the birth, since Gawdy was negotiating for a third wife in July of 1554.

ANNE HASTINGS (c. 1471-c. 1512)
Anne Hastings was the daughter of William, 1^st baron Hastings (1430-x. June 13, 1483) and Katherine Neville (1442-before November 22, 1503). She married George Talbot, 4^th earl of Shrewsbury (1468-July 26, 1538), by whom she had eleven children: Mary (d. April 16, 1572), Francis (1500-September 25, 1560), Margaret (d. before 1516), Elizabeth (d.1532), Dorothy, Richard, Henry, John (d.yng.), John (d.yng.), William, and Lucy. Anne was at court as one of Catherine of Aragon’s ladies in waiting at the beginning of Henry VIII’s reign and her youngest daughter Lucy was a maid of honor. Portrait: effigy with her husband and his second wife (Anne on Talbot's right). The other wife is Elizabeth Walden (d.July 1567); engraving of the monument.

ANNE HASTINGS

see ANNE STAFFORD

ANNE HASTINGS (c.1485-November 1550)
Anne Hastings was the daughter of Edward, 2^nd baron Hastings (November 25, 1466-November 8, 1506) and Mary Hungerford (c.1468-July 10, 1533). Anne was married to John Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter (1442-1496) as a child. In 1507, she married Thomas Stanley, 2^nd earl of Derby (1485-May 23, 1521) and was the mother of Edward, 3^rd earl (May 10,1508-October 24,1572), John, Anne, Margaret (d. January 1534), Henry (d. June 29, 1528), James, George, Thomas (c.1515-1538), and Jane. Anne was at the court of Catherine of Aragon as the youngest of her ladies in waiting in 1509 and at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520.

ELIZABETH HASTINGS (c.1450-1507/8)
Elizabeth Hastings was the daughter of Sir Leonard Hastings (c.1397-October 20, 1455) and Alice de Camoys and the sister of William, Lord Hastings. At some point between February 24, 1462 and March 11, 1565, she married Sir John Donne (Don, Dun, Dwnn) of Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire (d. January 1503). They had a number of children, including Anne (c.1471-c.1507), Margaret, Edward (1482?-1552), and Griffith or Gruffudd (1487?-1543). Although Donne was replaced as lieutenant of Calais in 1497, Elizabeth still had a house there after his death. The family also lived for long periods in Wales. She and her husband are buried in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Portrait: c. 1479/80, the artist Hans Memling, created an altarpiece for use in a private chapel, using Sir John and his wife and one of their daughters (the Oxford DNB entry for Donne indicates this daughter was probably Anne) as models for the figures kneeling before the Virgin Mary. The Donne Triptych is now in the National Gallery, London.

ELIZABETH HASTINGS (c. 1496-1504/5)
Elizabeth Hastings was the daughter of Sir John Hastings of Fenwick,Yorkshire (c.1466-July 12,1504) and Katherine Aske (c.1457-February 4, 1506/7). Following her father’s death, she was abducted by Henry Percy, 5^th earl of Northumberland, an action which usurped King Henry VII’s right of prerogative wardship. To make matters worse, Elizabeth died while in Northumberland’s custody, thus permanently depriving the king of a valuable wardship. Northumberland was fined £10,000, although payment was suspended during the king’s pleasure. Eventually Northumberland paid £3000, although part of that may have been for unlawful retaining (keeping too many liveried retainers in his employ).

ELIZABETH HASTINGS (1504+-1588)
Elizabeth Hastings was the daughter of Sir William Hastings (1470-1514) and Jane Sheffield (1474-March 16, 1528). She married John Beaumont of Thringston, Leicestershire (d. c. 1556) as his second wife in around 1540 and they had two sons and two daughters, including Francis (d.April 22, 1598), Henry (d.1585), and Elizabeth (d. August 1562). Beaumont became master of rolls on December 13, 1550, but he abused his position, speculating with the revenues and forging the signature of the late Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, on a deed to favor Suffolk’s daughter, Anne Brandon, Lady Grey of Powis. He then bought the property from her. Since Henry Grey, the new duke of Suffolk, challenged Anne's right to the property, the forgery was discovered and Beaumont was imprisoned in February 1552. His lands were surrendered, including his family seat at Grace Dieu, which was granted in 1553 to Francis Hastings, earl of Huntingdon, Elizabeth’s cousin. After Beaumont’s death, Elizabeth recovered Grace Dieu from Francis. From 1571, Elizabeth raised her daughter’s four children, Henry (c.1559-1587), Eleanor (c.1560-c.1625), Elizabeth (b.c.1561), and Anne (July 1562-c. 1637) Vaux at Grace Dieu, instilling in them the tenets of Roman Catholicism. She was obviously successful since Eleanor and Anne spent decades providing safe houses for Jesuit missionaries and Elizabeth became a Poor Clare nun.

ELIZABETH HASTINGS (c.1546-August 24, 1621)
Elizabeth Hastings was the daughter of Francis Hastings, 2^nd earl of Huntingdon (1514-June 20, 1561) and Katherine Pole (d. September 23, 1576). She was a maid of honor before she married Edward Somerset, 4^th earl of Worcester (1553-March 3,1628) in December 1571. Queen Elizabeth credited her with converting “a stiff papist into a good subject.” The large number of their children kept them poor. The children were Francis (d.yng.), Katherine (c.1575-October 30, 1624), Anne, Elizabeth, William (d.before January 21, 1598), Henry (d.December 18, 1646), Thomas (1579-1649/50), a second Catherine (d.November 6, 1654), Blanche (c.1583-October 28, 1649), two sons named Charles,Christopher, Edward, Frances, and Mary. Elizabeth died at Worcester House, St. Clement Danes, London and was buried at Raglan. Portraits: c.1600 (black and white below), as reproduced in Roy Strong's The Cult of Elizabeth; the color portrait below is listed as "possibly Elizabeth Hastings, Countess of Worcester" on flickr. There do seem to be similarities between the two.

ELIZABETH HASTINGS

see ELIZABETH STANLEY

KATHERINE HASTINGS

see KATHERINE DUDLEY; KATHERINE POLE; KATHERINE WOODVILLE

MARY HASTINGS
see MARY HUNGERFORD

MARY HASTINGS (c.1552-1584+)

Mary Hastings was the youngest daughter of Francis Hastings, 2nd earl of Huntingdon (1514-June 20,1561) and Katherine Pole (d. September 23, 1576). In 1562, Mary's brother contracted a marriage for one of his sisters, either Lady Elizabeth or Lady Mary, to Lord Bulbeck, the earl of Oxford's heir. The agreement provided for a dowry of 1000 marks and a jointure of £1000. Edward de Vere was supposed to marry one of the sisters within a month of his eighteenth birthday. Before that date, however, the earl of Oxford died and the new earl became the ward of William Cecil, Lord Bughley. He married Burghley's daughter, Ann Cecil, instead. Lady Mary, still unmarried and in her late twenties, may have been a maid of honor at the court of Queen Elizabeth in 1581 when Dr. Atkins, an English physician living in Muscovy, suggested her name to Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia in reponse to his interest in beginning negotiations for an English bride of royal blood. Mary qualified, being a Plantagenet descendent distantly related to the queen. It is uncertain when she was told of her role in the matter, but if she knew anything about Ivan, she cannot have been enthusiastic. He was at that time married to his seventh wife, a woman he planned to discard if the match with an English "princess" could be arranged. Ivan sent an ambassador,Theodor Andreevich Pissemsky, to England to negotiate the marriage and an alliance against the king of Poland. He was to report on the height, complexion, and measurements of the proposed bride and procure a portrait of her. Ivan was looking for a stately appearance, and would also require that Mary and all her attendants convert to the Orthodox religion. Queen Elizabeth, who wanted exclusive English access to the port of St. Nicholas, deliberately delayed committing herself with the ambassador, who arrived in England in September 1582, at first telling him that Mary Hastings had recently had smallpox and that a face-to-face meeting and a portrait would be intrusive. In May 1583, however, she could put him off no longer. There are two accounts of the meeting, one from the ambassador himself (translated) and one by Sir Jerome Horsey, who was not present. They differ widely in some areas but agree that the meeting was in the Lord Chancellor's garden. The Lord Chancellor was Sir Thomas Bromley, but while the ambassador's account says the garden was at Bromley's country house, Horsey places it in the gardens at York House, near Charing Cross in the city of Westminster. According to the ambassador, he was allowed only an interpreter, Dr. Roberts, and did not actually speak to Lady Mary. There was a party of ladies in the garden and Lady Mary was pointed out to him. She was walking at the head of the group, between the countess of Huntingdon (her brother's wife, born Katherine Dudley) and Lady Bromley (Elizabeth Fortescue). The two groups circled the garden several times, passing each other, so that the ambassador could get a good look. Horsey's version, in which the ambassador throws himself on the ground before the Tsar's betrothed and declares she has the face of an angel, seems unlikely. What the ambassador did say was, “It is enough.” He reported to the Tsar that “The Princess of Hountinski, Mary Hantis is tall, slight, and white-skinned; she has blue eyes, fair hair, a straight nose, and her fingers are long and taper.” Some translations make her eyes grey. The long-awaited portrait was completed in time for him to take it with him when he returned to Russia. He embarked on June 22, 1583 along with England’s new ambassador to Russia, Sir Jerome Bowes. Bowes's instructions were to dissuade the Tsar on grounds of Mary's poor health, scarred complexion, and reluctance to leave her friends. Until Ivan's death on March 18, 1584, Mary (at least according to Horsey) had to put up with being called “the Empress of Muscovia.” Mary herself died, still unwed, before 1589, by which date a bequest in her will was being contested. One source says her death came was shortly after a visit to her brother in Ireland but, so far, I've found no record that any of her brothers were ever sent to that country, let alone were serving there in the 1580s.

SARAH HASTINGS
see SARAH HARINGTON

ANNE HATHAWAY (1556-August 8, 1623)

Anne Hathaway was the daughter of Richard Hathaway (d.1581). She married William Shakespeare (April 1564-April 23,1616) on November 30 or December 1,1582 and bore three children, Susanna (May 1583-1649), Hamnet (January 1585-August 1596) and Judith (January 1585-February 1662). From her husand’s departure for London until his death there is no documentary evidence of Anne’s whereabouts or activities. In his will, he left her “the second best bed with the furniture.” The best bed went with the house, which was left to his daughter Susanna and her husband. This was in no way an unusual bequest, as the expectation was that Susanna would take care of her mother, who was then sixty, for the remainder of her life. Anne is said to have wished to be buried with her husband but that the curse on those who disturbed his remains prevented this. Portrait: a tracing of an earlier portrait by Sir Nicholas Curzon, 1608, comes from the Colgate Library copy of the 3rd Folio of 1663. Biography: Germaine Greer, Shakespeare's Wife (2007).

DOROTHY HATTON (c.1536-c.1591)
Dorothy Hatton was the daughter of William Hatton of Holdenby, Norfolk (c.1510-August 29, 1546) and Alice Saunders. She married first John Newport of Hunnington, Warwickshire (d.1565), by whom she had a son, William (d. March 12, 1596). He took the name Hatton in order to inherit from his uncle, Dorothy’s brother Sir Christopher Hatton (1540-1591), who never married. Dorothy’s second husband was William Underhill of Idlicote, Warwickshire (c.1512-May 31 1570) by whom she also had a son, also named William (d.1597). Underhill purchased New Place, the second best house in Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1567. Their son sold it to William Shakespeare in 1597, shortly before he (William Underhill) was poisoned by his son, Fulke Underhill (x.1599). This loose connection led novelist and biographer Daphne du Maurier to speculate in The Winding Stair (1977) that Elizabeth Cecil, Lady Hatton, William Newport Hatton’s second wife, was the dark lady of Shakespeare’s sonnets. This is unlikely.

ELIZABETH HATTON

see ELIZABETH CECIL

FRANCES HATTON (July 1590-before November 21, 1623)
Frances Hatton was the daughter of William (Newport) Hatton (d. March 12, 1596) and his first wife, Elizabeth Gawdy. Left an orphan, she was raised by her stepmother, Elizabeth Cecil Hatton (1577-1646). Frances’s marriage on February 24, 1605 to Robert Rich, 2^nd earl of Warwick (1587-April 18, 1658) was cause for a major rift between Lady Hatton and her second husband, Sir Edward Coke. Frances and her husband had four sons and three daughters, including Anne (d. February 14, 1642), Robert (1611-1659), Charles (1619-1673), and Essex (a daughter).

MARGARET HAWKINS

see MARGARET VAUGHAN

ANNE HAWORTH

see ANNE BRANDON

JANE HAWTE (1522-1595+)
Jane Hawte or Haute was the daughter of Sir William Hawte of Bishopsbourne, Kent (1489-1539) and Mary Guildford (b.1487). In 1536 she married Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger of Allington, Kent (1521-x.April 11,1554). Their children were Anna, Frances, Jane, Richard, Charles, Arthur, Henry, Jocosa, Ursula, and George (1554-1624). Five of the children were still living when Wyatt was executed for treason and his property confiscated by the Crown. According to some accounts, Jane was sent for after Wyatt's arrest and promised he would be spared if she could convince him to implicate Elizabeth Tudor in treason. He refused. Until Queen Mary provided an annuity of £200 in 1555, the family was destitute. Jane was allowed to reclaim her husband’s goods and some of his property. By the time the family was restored in blood in 1570, however, George was the only surviving son. Some accounts say that Jane and her husband did not get along and that he had a mistress. While this may be correct, it is more likely a case of confusing Wyatt the Younger with his father. See the entries for ELIZABETH BROOKE and ELIZABETH DARRELL.

JOAN HAYWARD (1558-March 3,1612)
Joan Hayward was the daughter of Sir Rowland Hayward or Heyward (c.1520-1593), a clothworker who was Lord Mayor of London in 1570, and Joan Tillesworth (d.1580). In February 1576 she married John Thynne (c.1551-November 21,1604). Their children were Thomas, Dorothy, Christian, and John. From 1580 until 1604, Joan was mistress of Longleat House, one of the great mansions of Elizabethan England. After that she lived primarily at Caus Castle in Shropshire. In 1594, at sixteen, Thomas secretly married Maria Touchet at the Bell Inn in Beaconsfield. She was the daughter of Lord Audley, whose politics were opposed to those of the Thynnes and there may have been a long standing feud with her mother’s family, the Mervyns. Joan and her husband attempted to annul the marriage but failed. Some speculate that this was the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Joan was also involved in other legal disputes and was reputed to keep muskets in her bedroom at Caus Castle. As a widow, she managed her own affairs and added a lead mine to her holdings. John Maynard, who was music tutor to Joan’s children, dedicated his The XII Wonders of the World to her in 1611. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Thynne [née Hayward], Joan;” Alison D. Wall, Two Elizabethan Women: correspondence of Joan and Maria Thynne. Portrait: by an unknown artist.

JANE HECKINGTON (1501-March 10, 1588)
Jane Heckington was the daughter of William Heckington of Bourne, Lincolnshire and Alice or Anne Walcot. Around 1518, she married Richard Cecil of Burleigh, Northamptonshire (d. May 19,1552) and was the mother of William (September 13, 1520-1598), Anne, Margaret, and Elizabeth. Jane took no part in court life, although her husband was yeoman of the wardrobe from 1530. As a widow, Jane was noted for her piety and her good works at Stamford. Late in life she became difficult and demanding, partially because she suffered from poor eyesight. She was said to be careless about her appearance. Portraits: artist unknown; effigy on monument in St. Martin’s Church, Stamford.

ANNE HEIGHAM (1567-February 27, 1601)

Anne Heigham was the daughter of Sir William Heigham of Dunmow, Essex and Ann Allen. She and her brother, William, were disowned by their father for converting to Catholicism. On February 3,1583, Anne married Roger Line or Lyne of Ringwood, Hampshire (1567-1594), who had also been disinherited by his family for the same reason. In 1585, Anne’s husband and brother were arrested for their religious activities and banished from the realm in December 1586. Roger went to Douai and lived out the rest of his life in poverty. William went to Spain. Although her husband sent her part of his small pension, Anne was left destitute and had to fend for herself. She lodged for a time with the Wiseman family, then became housekeeper at a refuge in London used by priests. She took a vow of poverty and chastity. She was arrested in 1599 for harboring priests but was let go with a fine.The next time she was caught, however, on February 2,1601, she was sentenced to be hanged at Tyburn. Anne Line was the only woman in the years 1590 to 1603 to be executed in England for harboring priests and the last woman ever to be hanged in England as a felon for that crime. After her death, Anne Dacre, countess of Arundel, loaned her coach to friends bent on retrieving Anne Line's body. After a clandestine funeral the body was buried in secret. It has been suggested that Shakespeare’s poem, “The Phoenix and the Turtle” may have been written to commemorate the lives of Roger and Anne Line. In 1970, Anne Line was canonized. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Line [née Heigham], Anne."

ELIZABETH HENEAGE (July 9, 1556-1633/4)

Elizabeth Heneage was the daughter of Sir Thomas Heneage (d. October 17, 1595) and Anne Poyntz (d. November 19, 1593). She married Sir Moyle Finch of Eastwell, Kent (d. December 14, 1614) in 1572. At her father’s death, she made a settlement on her stepmother, Mary Browne, dowager countess of Southampton, in return for the countess’s agreement to pay all of Heneage’s debts. Elizabeth was at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I as Lady Finch and was in the queen’s funeral procession in 1603. In 1623, she was created viscountess Maidstone, supposedly in remembrance of the good services of her father. In fact, she transferred the family seat, Copt Hall, Essex, to the Lord Treasurer, Sir Lionel Cranfield, to secure the honor. In 1628, she was created countess of Winchelsea. Her children were Sir Heneage (d.1631), Thomas, earl of Winchelsea (c.1575-November 4,1634), Anne (d.1638), and Katherine (d.1639). Portraits: the lifelike effigy created during her lifetime at Eastwell, Kent is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum; two portraits by unknown artists; portrait shown, c.1600, by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

MARY HENEAGE

see MARY BROWNE

ANNE HERBERT

see ANNE PARR

BLANCHE HERBERT

see BLANCHE MILBORNE

MAGDALEN HERBERT

see MAGDALEN NEWPORT

MARY HERBERT

see MARY SIDNEY

SUSAN HERBERT
see SUSAN de VERE

CECILY HERON

see THE DAUGHTERS OF SIR THOMAS MORE

BRIDGET HERVEY

see BRIDGET WILTSHIRE

ELIZABETH HERVEY OR HARVEY (d. 1542+)

Elizabeth Hervey, known as Bess, is my candidate for the "very handsome young lady of the court" in whom Henry VIII took an interest in during Anne Boleyn’s 1534 pregnancy. This woman's name has not survived, only that Anne attempted to dismiss her and failed to do so and that she was a friend to Princess Mary. In October 1534, Lady Rochford was dismissed from court instead, for conspiring against this mystery woman. David Starkey’s Six Wives recounts that Bess Hervey was in service to Anne Boleyn and on “friendly terms” with Sir Francis Bryan. She was sent away from court in 1536, although she claimed she did not know why. If she was the "handsome young lady," she had lost the king's interest by then. In 1539, however, she was part of a group of court ladies who visited Portsmouth to tour the king's ships, at Henry VIII's special invitation. She was also among the ladies in Anne of Cleves’s household, as “Elsabeth Harvy.” She was not appointed to Catherine Howard’s household, but during Catherine's tenure as queen, Catherine gave Bess the gift of a gown. Starkey suggests Bess was Thomas Culpepper’s paramour. In March 1541, Bess was granted an annuity of £10/year. I am hoping to find out more about this intriguing person.

ISABEL HERVEY or HARVEY (d. May 8, 1594)

Isabel Hervey was the daughter of Edmund Hervey (b.1492) and Margaret Wentworth (c.1492-1511). Her father was a wealthy London merchant with a house in Cheapside. According to the legend, Isabel and her father were visiting friends in the village of Kensington when the earl of Sussex and his retinue rode past. In her eagerness to see the cavalcade, Isabel leaned too far out a window and dropped her glove. Sir Humphrey Radcliffe (c.1509-August 13,1566), third son of the earl, dipped his lance, impaled the glove, and returned it to its owner. Struck by her beauty, he left his father’s company and offered his services to Hervey to escort him and his daughter back to London. Humphrey represented himself as one of the earl’s men, but did not tell them he was Sussex’s son until, some versions of the tale insist, he and Isabel had been married for some time. They lived at Elstow in Bedfordshire and Edgworth, Lancashire. They were the parents of four daughters and two sons, including Mary (d.1616/17), a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth, Edward (1552-1643), Martha, and Frances (b.1545). Portrait: the Hans Holbein the Younger drawing at Windsor inscribed “The Lady Ratclif” may be Isabel Hervey, although neither the date of her marriage nor the date of the drawing are known. Other likely candidates (Elizabeth Howard, Lady Fitzwalter; Margaret Stanley, countess of Sussex; Mary Arundell, countess of Sussex) would not have been called Lady Radcliffe.

MARY HERVEY

see MARY BROWNE

MARGARETE HETZEL or PREU (c.1511-1576)

According to a story invented by the author of Bishop Cranmer’s Recantacyons (1556), the wife of Thomas Cranmer (July 2,1489-x.March 21,1556), was smuggled into England in a crate. Cranmer, later Archbishop Cranmer, met Margarete in the summer of 1531, when he was in Nuremberg, Germany as Henry VIII’s ambassador to the Emperor. He was visiting a German reformer, Andreas Osiander (1498-1552), Margarete’s uncle. Since Osiander's name is also given as Hosmer, Hosemann, and Heiligmann, Margarete's name was long thought to be Hosmer. Her parents' names seem to be lost to history, but she was the niece of Osiander's wife, Katharina Preu, so her surname was either Preu or Hetzel. Margarete married Cranmer in 1532 as his second wife. His first, Joan, married sometime between 1515 and 1519, had died in childbirth along with their child. In August of 1532, when Archbishop Warham died, Cranmer was appointed to replace him. Unfortunately, wives were not at that time permitted for priests, let alone archbishops, so Cranmer hid his marriage. He was consecrated on March 30, 1533. After her arrival in England, by crate or otherwise, Margarete had at least four children by Cranmer, as Margaret (c.1536-1568) was her third daughter. She also had a son, Thomas (c.1538-1598). Around 1540, Cranmer sent Margarete back to Germany to avoid prosecution, but she was able to return c. 1544. She seems to have left England after her husband's execution and there married publisher and preacher Edward Whitechurch (d.1562). By 1561, they were living in Chamberwell, near Lambeth. After his death, she took possession of the abbey of Kirkstall near Leeds. On November 29, 1564, she married Bartholomew Scott of Chamberwell (d.1600), J.P. for Surrey, but soon realized that he had only married her for her money. She left him, taking refuge with old friends Reyner Wolfe and his wife in London, and lawsuits ensued. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Cranmer, Margaret."

MARY HEVENINGHAM

see MARY SHELTON

ANNE HEWETT (1543-July 14, 1585)

Anne Hewett was the daughter of William Hewett (1496-January 21,1567), Lord Mayor of London in 1559, and Alice Leveson (d.April 8,1561). She was their only surviving child and heir to Hewett’s country house at Highgate and estates and manors in Essex, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire. According to the legend, a young man named Edward Osborne (1530-February 4,1592) was apprenticed to Hewett when Anne was just a baby and when her nurse carelessly let her fall out of a window overlooking the Thames, Osborne dived in and saved her. Paintings depicting this rescue hang in both the Clothworker’s Hall and at Hornby Castle, and the story first broke into print in 1720, but there are those who say that Osborne was never apprenticed to Hewett and that Hewett’s house, far from being on London Bridge, was located in Philpot Lane. Whatever the truth, although Anne was at one time courted by George Talbot, 6^th earl of Shrewsbury, in 1562 she married Edward Osborne, who became Lord Mayor of London in 1583. Their children were Alice (March 15,1563-1626), Hewett (1566-1614), Anne (March 1570-1653), Edward (November 1572-1625), and Jane (November 1578-1601+). Lady Osborne was buried in St. Martin Orgars on July 14, 1585.

MARIA HEYMAN (d. 1556+)
Maria Heyman was the daughter of Peter Heyman of Somerfield House, Sellinge, Kent (c.1502-August 1550), who was steward to Thomas Cranmer and a gentleman of the bedchamber to King Edward VI. Her mother was Mary Hawte, the sister of Jane Hawte, Lady Wyatt. Maria made a controversial marriage in 1551 to John Ponet, Bishop of Winchester (c.1514-August 1556), not only because the concept of married clergy was still an anathema to many but also because until earlier that same year Ponet had been “married” to another woman. They had both been charged with bigamy when it had come to light that she already had a husband, a Nottingham butcher. Ponet had obtained a formal separation from her in July 1551 but part of the settlement was that he had to make an annual payment to the butcher. Thomas Cranmer, however, attended Maria’s wedding, giving additional respectability to the occasion. When Mary Tudor became queen, Ponet and Maria left England and settled in Strassburg, where Ponet died. Maria probably remarried while still in exile, taking as her second husband a man named John Hill.

ROSE HICKMAN

see ROSE LOCKE

JULIANA HICKS

see JULIANA ARTHUR

ELIZABETH HILL

see ELIZABETH ISLEY

MARIA HILL
see MARIA HEYMAN

MARY HILL (1532-November 30, 1616)

Mary Hill was the daughter of Richard Hill of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire (c.1500-1539), wine merchant and master of Henry VIII’s wine cellar, and Elizabeth Isley (1510-1566+). By 1539, Mary's mother was trying to place her in the household of Elizabeth Tudor and according to the Oxford DNB ("Cheke, John"), she did join that household in 1546. Other sources place her, as a young girl, in the household of Ann Stanhope, countess of Hertford (later duchess of Somerset) and say it was there she met Sir John Cheke (June 16,1514-September 13,1557), tutor and close friend of King Edward VI. They were married on May 11,1547. In the winter of 1549, Mary somehow displeased the duchess, prompting Cheke to write a letter of apology on January 27, 1549/1550. In it he tells the duchess that he has urged Mary to “be plain” and hopes that Mary’s “honest nature” will “content” the duchess. He also blamed Mary's behavior on the fact that she was pregnant. Mary had three sons by Cheke, Henry (c.1548-1586), John (1549-1580), and Edward (1550-1563). When Mary Tudor became queen in 1554, Cheke fled the country, leaving his family behind. On April 4, he wrote from Calais to his friend, John Harington, asking him to look after Mary. In the spring of 1556, Cheke journeyed to Brussels at the invitation of Sir John Mason, Mary’s stepfather and the queen’s ambassador, and met Mary there. On May 15, Cheke was kidnapped and sent back to England to stand trial for heresy. He was in the Tower on June 1. On July 7, Mary was allowed to visit him and stay the night. When he was released, he went to live with a nephew by marriage, Peter Osborne, and died at Osborne’s house. Widowed, Mary left her sons with Osborne to be raised. According to the DNB, she was left well-to-do, with plate valued at £666 13s. 4d., jewels worth £533 6s. 8d., and household goods worth £400. Her second husband was Henry MacWilliams (1532-December 1586), a gentleman at the court of Elizabeth Tudor, by whom she had Margaret (c.1560-1640), Susan, Ambrosia, Cassandra, Cecily, and Henry. Mary was a lady of the Privy Chamber and received a number of valuable grants from the queen and became quite wealthy. She was buried in St. Martin’s-in-the-fields. Portraits: a marble figure on her monument; portrait by the Master of the Countess of Warwick, 1567; the portrait by the Circle of Gower, c.1585-1590 is questionable as it is identical with a portrait at Hatfield called “Lady Hunsdon.”

ALICE HILLIARD

see ALICE BRANDON

ELIZABETH HOBY

see ELIZABETH COOKE; ELIZABETH STONOR

MARGARET HOBY

see MARGARET CAREY; MARGARET DAKINS

MARY HOBY
see MARY TRACY

ISABEL HOLCROFT (1555-January 16, 1606)
Isabel Holcroft was the daughter of Thomas Holcroft of Vale-Royal, Cheshire (1505-1558) and Juliana Jennings (d.1595). Isabel was a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth and on January 6, 1573 married Edward Manners, 3^rd earl of Rutland (July 12, 1549-April 14, 1587). As they had no sons, the Rutland title passed to the earl’s brother but their daughter, Elizabeth (1574/5-May 1, 1591) kept the title Baroness Roos. Portraits: effigy on her tomb.

MARY HOLFORD (1563-August 15, 1626)

Mary Holford was the daughter of Christopher Holford of Holford, Cheshire (d.1581) and Elizabeth Mainwaring. In 1581 she married Sir Hugh Cholmondeley (1552-1601), by whom she had five sons and three daughters: Robert, earl of Leinster (1584-1659), Hatton (d.1605), Hugh (d.1641), Francis (d.yng), Thomas (1595-1653), Lettice (1585-1612), Mary (d.1616) and Frances. Lettice and Mary may be the Cholmondeley sisters pictured in the double portrait of “twins” and their babies now in the Tate. Mary Holford, Lady Cholmondeley, became somewhat infamous for the lawsuits she waged against her uncle, George Holford of Newborough, her father’s half brother. The litigation went on for forty years, finally ending in 1620 with an agreement to split the property. Mary got Holford Hall, where she lived until 1606, and George got the manor of Iscoit. After rebuilding Holford Hall, Mary bought and moved to Vale Royal. It was during a three-day visit there by King James I that he dubbed Mary “the bold lady of Cheshire.” She is buried at Malpas with her husband. Portrait: effigy at Malpas.

ELIZABETH HOLLAND (d.1554+)

Elizabeth Holland was the daughter (some sources say the sister) of John Holland of Wartwell Hall in Redenhall, Norfolk and a kinswoman, probably a niece, of John Hussey, 1st baron Hussey of Sleaford. John Holland was the duke of Norfolk’s secretary and one of his stewards and Elizabeth, known as Bess, was also part of the ducal household at Kenninghall in 1526. At that time, Thomas Howard, 3rd duke of Norfolk (1473-August 24,1554) noticed her and she became his mistress. Because of the letters left by the duchess of Norfolk (Elizabeth Stafford), there is a good deal of confusion about Bess Holland. Since she was a gentlewoman, she was probably not a laundress in the household, or the children’s nurse. She may have been their governess. She was certainly on good terms with Mary Howard, Norfolk’s daughter. When Anne Boleyn was created Marquess of Pembroke, Bess Holland was one of her maids of honor and she was still at court in 1537, when she rode in the funeral cortege of Queen Jane Seymour. The records left by the duchess of Norfolk paint Bess Holland as a villainess and the duke as a monster, but the truth is probably less dramatic. Bess was his mistress for some twenty years. In December 1546, however, when both the duke and his son, Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, were charged with treason, Bess gave evidence against them. She probably had no choice. When the king’s agents seized and searched Kenninghall, they also confiscated all of Bess’s possessions, including the jewelry she had concealed upon her person. She also lost a new house on thirty-six acres of land in Framlingham, which the duke had recently given to her. In her chamber at Kenninghall, the commissioners seized rings, brooches, strings of pearls, silver spoons, ivory tables, and other treasures. She was taken to London for questioning but was eventually released. Her jewelry was returned. She also received an annuity of £20 from Mary Howard, duchess of Richmond. At some point after her liaison with the duke of Norfolk ended, she married Jeffrey Miles or Myles of Stoke Nayland. She was still alive when the duke died, but although he left £100 to a natural daughter named Joan Goodman, Bess received nothing. It is not clear whether Joan was Bess’s child or not.

ELEANOR HOLLES
see ELEANOR SHEFFIELD

MARGARET HOLSEWYTHER (d.1547+)
Margaret Holsewyther was the daughter of Henry Holsewyther of Berg, a part of Cleves. He was a goldsmith and was naturalized in England on June 12, 1514. Margaret married Lucas Horenboult (d.1543) in 1522 or 1523 and had by him a daughter named Jacomyne. They lived at Charing Cross and both appear to have been working artists, since in May of 1547, nearly three years after Lucas’s death, Queen Kathryn Parr was sending to “the painters” to order miniatures of herself and the young King Edward VI. Susan E. James believes that this reference is to Margaret and her daughter. On July 4, 1544, Margaret remarried, taking as her second husband Hugh Haward, surveyor of the queen’s stable.

JOAN HONE (d. 1586)
Joan Hone was the daughter of Robert Hone of Ottery St. Mary, Devon (c.1490-1543) and his wife Johane. In about 1543 she married John Bodley of Exeter (c.1520-October 1591). Their children were Thomas (1545-1613), Sybil, Lawrence (1547/8-1615), Josias (c.1550-1617), Miles, Prothesia, Alice, Elizabeth, and Susan. Under Mary Tudor, the family left England in 1555, settling first in Wesel. They arrived in Geneva in May 1557, remaining there until they returned to England in September 1559. In Geneva artist Nicholas Hilliard, then still a child, was part of their household. On January 8, 1561, John Bodley received a license for seven years exclusive right to print and import the Geneva Bible. By 1568, the family was settled at the Three Cranes in London.

MARY HONYWOOD or HONEYWOOD
see MARY WATERS

ANNE HOPTON (1561-May1625)

Anne Hopton was the daughter of Sir Owen Hopton of Cockfield Hall in Yoxford, Suffolk (c.1524-1591) and Anne Echyngham or Itchingham. She is said to have been a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth in 1588/9 but other sources say she was married to Henry Wentworth, 3^rd baron Wentworth (1558-August 16,1593) around 1585. Maids of honor were, by definition, unmarried. With Wentworth she had three children, Thomas, earl of Cleveland (1591-1667), Henry (d.1644), and Jane. In 1595 she married Sir William Pope of Wroxton (1573-1633) who was later created earl of Downe. She had a son, William (1596-1624), by her second husband. Portraits: by Marcus Gheeraerts, 1596, pregnant with son William and shown with her children from her first marriage.

CECILY HOPTON (d. April 1624)

Cecily Hopton was the daughter of Sir Owen Hopton of Cockfield Hall in Yoxford, Suffolk (c.1524-1591) and Anne Echyngham or Itchinham. Hopton was Lord Lieutenant of the Tower of London and Cecily lived there with him. In 1581, a twenty-five-year-old recusant named John Stonor was a prisoner in the Tower for eight months. Cecily fell in love with him and converted to Catholicism. In November, she let George Throckmorton, brother of the imprisoned Francis Throckmorton, into the precincts so that Francis could throw messages written on playing cards to him from his cell. After Stonor’s release, Cecily continued to work for the Catholic cause. She took messages from prisoners in the Tower to those in the Marshalsea and in 1588 let a priest into the earl of Arundel’s cell to say mass. These acts should have led to her own imprisonment but do not seem to have done so. She later married Sir George Marshall (d. July 1636), an equerry to King James, and was the mother of a daughter, Anne. Cecily was buried April 23, 1625 at the Athelstan Chapel at Malmesbury.

SUSANNA HORENBOULT or HORNEBOLT (c.1504-c.1554)

Susanna Horenboult was the daughter of Gheraert Horenboult of Ghent (1480-1540) and Margaret Sanders (d. November 26,1529). Both her father and her brother, Lucas, were among the King’s Painters at the court of Henry VIII. Lucas was employed in 1525 and Gerard by 1528 at an annual salary £25. The surname is also spelled Horneboud, Hoorenbault, Horenbout, and Horebout. Susanna herself was an illuminator and miniature painter who had gained recognition on the Continent before coming to England around 1522 to work as an artist for Henry VIII. She was assigned to the queen's household rather than being listed as a artist. Around 1526, she married John Parker (c.1493/4-September 1537), who was, among other things, Yeoman of the Wardrobe and Keeper of the Palace of Westminster. Susanna may have ceased to paint professionally when they married, as that was the common practice. Her husband had houses in Fulham and King's Langley. The same year Parker died, Susanna also lost her place in the queen's household due to the death of Jane Seymour and by 1538 she was in serious financial difficulties. She had no children by Parker. On September 22,1539, Susanna married John Gylmyn or Gilman (c.1503-1558) in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster. He was a widower with a young daughter and a freeman of the vintner's company, as well as holding a position at court. Two weeks later, Susanna was sent to Anne of Cleves as a personal ambassador from King Henry, and possibly as a spy. She was supplied with £40 for travel expenses and issued livery and was gone from England for three months. She joined the household of Anne of Cleves in Dusseldorf and accompanied the future queen to England. Anne made Susanna her chief gentlewoman and provided her with servants of her own. At Calais in December, delayed by bad weather, "Mrs. Gylmyn" taught Anne of Cleves to play a card game called Cent (an early form of piquet). Susanna remained in Anne's household as a gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber until Anne's marriage to Henry VIII was annulled. Susanna and her second husband received several grants of property from the Crown and lived in St. Bride's parish, London and later in Richmond. They had two children, Henry (1540-1593) and Anne (b.c.1541/2). In 1543, Susanna was back at court as part of Kathrine Parr's household and remained at court under Edward VI. In June 1547, Susanna and her second husband brought a case against the heirs of her first husband in the Court of Requests. She died before July 7, 1554, when John Gilman remarried. According to one source, at the time of her death, she was living in Worcester. Biography: Lorne Campbell and Susan Foister, "Gerard, Lucas and Susanna Horenbout," The Burlington Magazine, vol.128 no.1003 (October 1986), pp. 716-727; Susan E. James, The Feminine Dynamic in English Art, 1485-1603, Chapters 5 and 6. Portrait: Susanna and her first husband may be the subjects of a pair of miniatures in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna painted by Hans Holbein in 1534

ELIZABETH HORNE (c.1549-1599)
Elizabeth Horne was the daughter of Edmund Horne of Sarsdon, Oxfordshire (c.1490-1553) and Amy Clarke. Elizabeth's mother took as her second husband Sir James Mervyn (1539-1611), by whom she had another daughter, Lucy (1565-before 1610), who later married George Touchet, baron Audley (later earl of Castlehaven). Brought up in her stepfather's household in Wiltshire, Elizabeth married Anthony Bourne of Holt Castle, Worcestershire in 1566. Although they had two children, Mary and Amy, Bourne was a womanizer and frequently away from home. He was also a violent man, both verbally and physically. By the early 1570s, after he had stolen the wife of a London gentleman, Lord Burghley threatened to prosecute him. In 1575, Bourne fled to Calais with his mistress and their son. He had placed his assets in trust, but Bourne's trustees feared the queen would confiscate his estate. To prevent that, they persuaded him to return to England and beg Queen Elizabeth's forgiveness for leaving the country without a license. He was fined £1000. After setting up a new trust with Sir John Conway (d. October 4, 1603) as sole trustee, he left England for a second time. He also gave Conway the right to arrange his daughters' marriages, with the understanding that the eldest girl would marry Conway's eldest son, Edward (c.1564-1631). A little later, Bourne tried to break the trust. According to Lamar M. Hill's "The Privy Council and Private Morality," an essay in State, Sovereigns & Society, edited by Charles Carlton, it was at this point that Elizabeth petitioned the Privy Council for a legal separation from her husband. This was a highly unusual course of action and the situation dragged on, unresolved, for the next thirteen years (1577-1590), in spite of Elizabeth having the able advice of Sir Julius Caesar. Meanwhile, Sir John Conway and his wife, Ellen or Eleanor Grenville, had custody of Elizabeth's daughters. Amy was married to one of their younger sons. Elizabeth's relationship with Sir John and his wife was complex. One of her letters complains about Lady Conway, implying that she foiled the plan to marry Elizabeth's daughter to Conway's heir. In a letter she wrote using the pseudonym Frances Wesley, she mocked Lady Conway mercilessly. About seventy of Elizabeth's letters are extant, some of them written as Frances Wesley and as Anne Hayes (another pseudonym). They paint a detailed picture of her life after her husband left her. A good number of the letters are addressed to Sir John Conway, a man she called "a friend so perfect as ever was." In many they discussed books—Elizabeth read histories, romances, and poetry—but there are also hints of a closer, romantic relationship. One prefaces a plea for financial aid with an original poem. In another, Elizabeth describes herself as "a wandering woman laden with grief." Excerpts from a number of her letters and more details can be found in James Daybell's Women Letter-Writers in Tudor England.

MARGARET HORNE

see MARGARET NEVILLE

EDITH HORSEY

see EDITH MOHUN

MARGERY HORSMAN (d.1547+)
Margery Horsman was a maid of honor to Henry VIII’s first three queens and a member of the households of the last three. She may have been the "one maiden more" who was the third of three women who supposedly made accusations against Anne Boleyn in 1536, but a report by Sir William Kingston suggests she was loyal to the queen. When Jane Seymour was queen, Margery offered advice to Lady Lisle about placing her daughters at court and appears a number of times in the Lisle letters. In particular, she advised that Anne Bassett, Lady Lisle’s daughter, was too young at fifteen to serve as a maid of honor to Queen Jane. Margery married Sir Michael Lister of Hurstbourne, Hampshire, as his second wife, on June 27, 1537 and with her husband served jointly as Keeper of the Queen’s Jewels. She had two children, Charles (d.November 26, 1613) and Lawrence. Portrait: The portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger labeled Lady Lister is probably Margery’s mother-in-law, Jane Shirley (c.1484-July 7, 1533), but I include it here on the off chance it is Margery instead.

MARGARET HOSMER

see MARGARETE HETZEL

AGNES HOWARD

see AGNES TYLNEY

ALATHEA HOWARD

see ALATHEA TALBOT

ANNE HOWARD

see ANNE DACRE

CATHERINE HOWARD

see CATHERINE CAREY

CATHERINE HOWARD (1521-February 13,1542)

Catherine Howard was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard (c.1479-March 19,1539) and Joyce Culpepper (c.1480-1527+). She was raised by her father’s stepmother, the dowager duchess of Norfolk (Agnes Tylney) until she went to court as a maid of honor to Anne of Cleves in January,1540. In short order, King Henry VIII fell in love with her, had his marriage to Anne annulled, and married Catherine on July 28. Unfortunately, Catherine had two lovers in her past and another in her future and within two years of her marriage had been executed for adultery and treason. Biographies: Joanna Denny’s Katherine Howard and Lacey Baldwin Smith’s A Tudor Tragedy; Oxford DNB entry under "Katherine [Catherine; née Katherine Howard]." Portraits: a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger often said to be Catherine is actually Elizabeth Seymour, sister of Queen Jane; Holbein miniature.

DOUGLAS HOWARD (1542/3-December 1608)

Douglas Howard was the daughter of William Howard, baron Howard of Effingham (c.1510-January 21,1573) and Margaret Gamage (1515-May 1,1581). She was said to resemble her cousin, Queen Catherine Howard. She was a maid of honor in 1558. In 1560, at seventeen, she married John Sheffield, 2^nd baron Sheffield (c.1538-December 10,1568). After Sheffield's death, some later said by poison, his widow returned to court as a gentlewoman of the privy chamber. There she vied for the attention of Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester (June 24,1532-September 4,1588) with her own sister, Frances Howard. By May, 1573, it was an open secret that Douglas was his mistress. According to a later deposition by Douglas, they were secretly married late that year, well before the birth of their son, Robert (August 7, 1574-1649), at Sheen House in Surrey. When the boy was two, Leicester took him to Newington to be brought up by Lord North as befitted an earl's son, but he refused to support Douglas's claim that she was his wife. In 1576, he offered her a settlement of £700 per annum to agree that they had never been married. After Leicester's marriage to Lettice Knollys became public, Douglas was asked to help the queen in her effort to have that marriage annulled, but instead of pressing her claim, she married Sir Edward Stafford (1552-February 5, 1605) on November 28, 1579 at her house in Blackfriars. She later claimed she committed bigamy to put an end to Leicester's attempts to have her poisoned. She went with Stafford to France, where he served as ambassador from 1583 until 1591. She was a great success there, but was sent home in 1588 for her own protection. She was at the English court during the 1590s. Douglas had three legitimate sons, Edward Sheffield (December 7,1565-October 6,1646) and two boys by Stafford who died young, and a daughter, Elizabeth Sheffield (d.November 1600). In 1604, in an attempt to legitimize her son by Dudley, she appeared before the Star Chamber and testified that she and Dudley were betrothed in 1571 and married in 1573, but she had no proof. Douglas was buried December 11, 1608 in St. Margaret's, Westminster. Biography: a lengthy Oxford DNB entry under "Sheffield [née Howard], Douglas."

ELIZABETH HOWARD

see ELIZABETH STAFFORD

ELIZABETH HOWARD (1476-April 3, 1538)
Elizabeth Howard was the daughter of Thomas Howard, 2^nd duke of Norfolk (1443-May 21, 1524) and Elizabeth Tylney (d. April 4, 1497). She married Sir Thomas Boleyn (c.1477-March 12, 1539) c.1499 and had by him three famous children, Mary (between 1499 and 1504-July 1543), George (1503-1536), Anne (1507-x. May 19, 1536). She was at court as a lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon and was there as Countess of Wiltshire during her daughter’s time as queen. Her brother, the 3^rd duke of Norfolk, was the most powerful nobleman in England and it is generally accepted that, with the exception of his wife (see ELIZABETH STAFFORD) he controlled the rest of his family, including his sister’s husband and children. It once was believed that Elizabeth Howard died young and her children were raised by a stepmother, but documentary evidence has since disproved this.

ELIZABETH HOWARD (d. January 1645/6)
Elizabeth Howard was the daughter of Charles Howard, earl of Notthingham (1536-December 14, 1624) and Catherine Carey (c.1546-February 24, 1603). She was a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth. In 1583, she married Sir Robert Southwell of Woodrising (1563-October 12, 1599) by whom she had two daughters, Elizabeth (c.1586-September 13, 1631) who became a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth in 1599, and Catherine, and a son, Thomas (1599-1643). On October 26, 1604, Lady Southwell remarried, taking as her second husband John Stewart, earl of Carrick (d.c. 1644). They had a daughter, Margaret. Elizabeth was buried on January 31, 1546 at Greenwich, Kent. Portrait: unknown artist.

FRANCES HOWARD
see FRANCES de VERE

FRANCES HOWARD (1553/4-1598)

Frances Howard was the daughter of William Howard, baron Howard of Effingham (1510-January 21,1573) and Margaret Gamage (1515-May 1,1581). She was a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth for many years. She spoke fluent French and had many admirers. In the 1570s, Thomas Coningsby was in love with her and in a tournament carried a banner with the device of a white lion (an allusion to the Howard family crest) devouring a young cony and the words “Call you this love?” In 1573, she was her sister Douglas’s rival for the earl of Leicester’s attentions and soon after became the object of a nine-year courtship by Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford (1539-April 6,1621). They married in 1582, but the queen still kept her “Franke” at court. In 1591, the Hertfords entertained the queen at Elvetham. Shortly thereafter, when Hertford attempted to establish the legitimacy of his sons by Lady Catherine Grey, he was imprisoned. Lady Hertford was said to have gone mad with fear for his life. The queen wrote to reassure her that she had no intention of executing Hertford. Frances returned to court and subsequently obtained her husband’s release.

FRANCES HOWARD (d.July 1628)

Frances Howard was the daughter of Charles Howard, earl of Nottingham (1536-December 14,1624) and Catherine Carey (d.February 25,1603). She married Henry FitzGerald, 12th earl of Kildare (1562-August 1,1597), in 1589 and had two daughters, Bridget and Elizabeth. After his death, she returned to England and became a lady in waiting, vying with a maid of honor, Margaret Radcliffe, for the attentions of Henry Brooke, baron Cobham (November 22,1564-January 24, 1618/19). She wed Cobham c. 1600/01 but they did not remain on good terms long. She also feuded for many years with Elizabeth Throckmorton, Lady Raleigh, over her refusal to help Elizabeth win the queen's forgiveness for her clandestine marriage. At Elizabeth Tudor’s death, Frances was one of two countesses appointed to lead a delegation of ladies to meet Queen Anne. They were supposed to wait in Berwick, but Frances rushed on to Edinburgh in the hope of winning a position in the Privy Chamber. She did serve as Princess Elizabeth’s governess for a time. Frances’s husband was involved in the plot to assassinate King James and was sent to the Tower in July, 1603. He was released in 1617 in ill health and died in poverty soon afterward. Frances attempted to obtain a pardon for him, but only in order to save the estate. After his death, she was granted lands worth £5000, but they were held in trust for her by her father and two friends. She continued to occupy Cobham Hall, where the king visited her in 1622. In 1620, she took charge of her granddaughter, Mary Stuart O’Donnell, intending to make the girl her heir, but Mary ran away in 1626 rather than marry the Protestant suitor Frances had picked out for her. Portrait: by Marcus Gheeraerts.

FRANCES HOWARD (July 27, 1578-October 8, 1639)

Frances Howard was the daughter of Thomas Howard, viscount Bindon (c.1520-January 28,1582) and his third wife, Mabel Burton (1540-1580) and was born at Lytchett, Dorset. She married Henry Prannell (d. December 10,1599), the son of a wealthy vintner, in 1592. In 1597, Frances began to consult Simon Forman the astrologer. According to Forman’s records, she was hoping to begin an affair with the earl of Southampton. In April, 1600, widowed, she was being courted by William Eure, heir to baron Eure, but on May 27,1601 she married Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford (1539-April 6,1621), whose previous wife had also been named Frances Howard (see above). When their marriage became known, another former suitor, Sir George Rodney of Somerset, killed himself. After Hertford’s death, Frances married Lodovic Stuart, duke of Lennox (September 29,1574-February 16,1624) and became the only duchess in the kingdom. Later her husband was also created duke of Richmond, earning her the nickname the “double duchess.” Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Stuart [née Howard; married name Prannell], Frances." Portraits: an effigy on the monument she erected to herself and her third husband in Henry VII’s chapel in Westminster Abbey; portraits painted in 1611, 1615, and c.1620.

FRANCES HOWARD (May 31,1593-August 23,1632)

Frances Howard was the daughter of Thomas Howard, baron Howard of Walden and later earl of Suffolk (August 24,1561-May 28,1626) and Katherine Knyvett (1564-September 8,1638) and on January 5, 1605 married Robert Devereux, earl of Essex (1591-September 14,1646). In 1613, she had the marriage annulled in order to marry Robert Carr, earl of Somerset (1587-1645). They were both arrested, tried, and imprisoned when it was revealed that Frances had planned the murder of one Thomas Overbury in order to advance her plans. For accounts of the Overbury murder see Beatrice White’s Cast of Ravens and Anne Somerset's Unnatural Murder: Poison at the Court of King James; Oxford DNB entry under "Howard [married names Devereux, Carr], Frances." NOTE: the DNB gives the year of her birth as 1590. Portraits: there have been a number of portraits said to be Frances Howard, countess of Somerset. Some have been discredited. The one below is in the National Portrait Gallery and is attributed to William Larkin. It is dated c.1612-15.

ISABEL HOWARD

see ISABEL LEGH

JANE HOWARD (1537-1593)

Jane Howard was the eldest daughter of Henry Howard, earl of Surrey (1517-x.January 19,1547) and Frances Vere (1517-June 30,1577). Robert Hutchinson, in House of Treason, a history of the dukes of Norfolk, states that Jane was the youngest child, born in February 1547, three weeks after her father's execution. Other sources report that Lady Surrey miscarried in 1547 and was ill afterward. What is known of Jane's early life supports her position as the oldest sister. Her early education was in the hands of Hadrianus Junius. After 1547, she and her sisters Catherine (1539-April 7,1596) and Margaret (January 1543-March 17,1592), were entrusted to their aunt, Mary Howard, duchess of Richmond (1517-December 9,1557). The girls were educated by John Foxe, who taught them Greek and Latin and had them compose poetry. He equated Jane’s learning with that of the most learned men of her times. Jane went to court in 1558/9. Around 1563, she married Charles Neville, 6^th earl of Westmorland (August 8,1542-November 16,1601). They had four daughters, Margaret (1564-1594+), Anne, Catherine, and Eleanor, and a son, Thomas (1565-1601+). In 1569 the earls of Northumberland, Westmorland, Cumberland, and Derby plotted a rebellion to rescue Mary queen of Scots, marry her to Jane’s brother, Thomas Howard, 4^th duke of Norfolk, and restore Catholicism to England. When the duke was arrested, he advised the earls to abandon their plans, but in a meeting between Northumberland and Westmorland at Branspeth it was Lady Westmorland who persuaded the two earls to take up arms. Of her brother’s defection she is said to have remarked, “What a simple man the duke is to begin a matter and not go through with it.” To the earls, who were considering flight or submission to the queen, she said, “We and our country were shamed forever, that now in the end we should seek holes to creep into.” She goaded them until, on November 14,1569, they began the first uprising England had seen since Wyatt’s abortive rebellion in 1554. Lady Northumberland and Lady Westmorland were with the troops when they took the city of Durham and sacked the cathedral there, tearing up all the English translations of the Bible and all the Reformation prayer books they could find. Queen Mary’s removal to Coventry and the lack of support they found as they moved slowly southeast forced them to turn back at Tadcaster and begin a rapid retreat. From Naworth Castle, Westmorland slipped across the border into Scotland, taking refuge there until he could escape to the Netherlands. Lady Westmorland, however, remained in England and wrote to Queen Elizabeth for leave to come to court. In part, she wrote: “Innocency and the great desire I have had to do my humble duty to her Highness . . . emboldeneth me to continue this my suit.” Her request was denied. She was sent to Kenninghall, Norfolk and held there, a virtual prisoner, for the rest of her life. She was paid a pension of £200 during her husband's exile. This was increased to £300 after his attainder. She was buried at Kenninghall on June 30, 1593. Portrait: effigy on her father's tomb. She is on the near side with her sister Catherine in the middle and her sister Margaret on the far side.

KATHERINE HOWARD (c.1546-c.1601)
Katherine Howard was the daughter of William Howard, 1^st baron Howard of Effingham (1510-January 21, 1573) and Margaret Gamage (1515-May 1,1581). Katherine was a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth as a young woman and remained in the queen’s service and unmarried until her death. Her sisters Mary and Frances Howard were also maids of honor.

KATHERINE HOWARD

see KATHERINE KNYVETT

MARGARET HOWARD

see MARGARET AUDLEY; MARGARET DOUGLAS; MARGARET GAMAGE

MARGARET HOWARD (January 1543-March 17,1592)

Margaret Howard was the daughter of Henry Howard, earl of Surrey (1517-x.January 19,1547) and Frances Vere (1517-June 30,1577). After her father’s execution for treason, she and her sisters, Jane (1537-1593) and Catherine (1539-April 7,1596), were brought up by their aunt, Mary Howard, duchess of Richmond (1517-December 9,1557). The girls were educated by John Foxe, who taught them Greek and Latin and had them compose poetry. After Queen Mary succeeded to the throne in 1553, Margaret was briefly in the household of her grandfather, Thomas Howard, 3^rd duke of Norfolk (1473-August 1554). Margaret married Henry Scrope, 9^th baron Scrope of Bolton (c.1534-June 13, 1592) after his first wife died in November 1558. They had two sons, Thomas, 10^th baron Scrope (1567-September 2, 1609) and Henry (c.1569-September 5,1625). When Mary Stewart first fled from Scotland into England her earliest prison was Carlisle Castle, where she was in the keeping of Lady Scrope. She was there by May 18,1568 and was moved to Bolton Castle in Yorkshire by mid-July. On February 3,1569, the queen of Scots arrived at Tutbury Castle, where she was turned over to the keeping of the earl and countess of Shrewsbury. Mary’s biographer, Antonia Fraser, remarks that the Scots queen was surrounded by Protestants at Bolton, so it may be that Margaret Howard, unlike her older sisters, was permanently converted from the Catholicism of her father and grandfather to the Protestantism of her aunt. In June 1569, however, Margaret accompanied her husband to a meeting at Tattershall, Lincolnshire with her sister Catherine and Catherine’s husband, Henry Berkeley, 7^th baron Berkeley (1534-1613), a gathering perceived by some to be held to plan the Northern Rebellion, in which Margaret’s sister Jane, as countess of Westmorland, was to play a major role. When Scrope received an appeal for help from Westmorland, he proved his loyalty to Queen Elizabeth by forwarding it to her. Portraits: a double portrait with her son Thomas (detail below).

MARY HOWARD

see MARY FITZALAN

MARY HOWARD (1519-December 9,1557)

Mary Howard was the daughter of Thomas Howard, 3rd duke of Norfolk (1473-August 25,1554) and Elizabeth Stafford (1499-November 30,1558). She was a maid of honor to her cousin, Anne Boleyn and was married to King Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, duke of Richmond (June 18,1519-July 22,1536) at Hampton Court on November 26,1533, but they never lived together. In fact, King Henry tried to use non-consummation of the marriage as an excuse not to support Mary in her widowhood. By 1540, however, she had been granted a number of former church properties and had an income in excess of £744 per annum. Following Fitzroy's death, Mary lived primarily at Kenninghall when she was not at court and was at the center of a literary circle that included her brother, Henry Howard, earl of Surrey and Lady Margaret Douglas. She was part of the household of Catherine Howard but send back to Kenninghall in November 1541 when the queen's household was disbanded. There was talk of a marriage with Thomas Seymour, Queen Jane’s brother, as early as 1538 and the idea was broached again in 1546, but Surrey was violently opposed to the idea and Mary does not seem to have liked it much herself. Her brother went so far as to suggest that if the family wanted to use Mary to advance their interests at court, she should become King Henry’s mistress rather than Seymour's wife. In December 1546, when Mary’s father and brother were arrested on charges of treason, she was forced to give evidence against them, but managed to say very little of use. After Surrey was executed, Mary was given charge of his children. She established a household at Reigate and employed John Foxe to educate them. Unlike most of the rest of the Howards, Mary adoped the New Religion, which meant she fell out of favor when Queen Mary came to the throne. She did remain close to her father, however, and when he died he left her £500. She was buried with her husband in St. Michael's church, Framlingham, Suffolk, but their tomb was left unfinished at the duke of Norfolk's death and has no effigies. Biography: there is none of Mary, but those written about her father, husband, and brother give some further details of her life; Oxford DNB entry under "Fitzroy [née Howard], Mary." Portrait: Hans Holbein’s sketch of “The Lady of Richmond” is incomplete but is the only likeness we have of Mary. It is not certain when it was drawn or why it was not completed.

MARY HOWARD (d. August 21, 1600)
Mary Howard was the daughter of William Howard, 1^st baron Howard of Effingham (1510-January 21, 1573) and Margaret Gamage (1515-May 1,1581). Dates given for her birth range from 1537 to 1548. She was a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth before 1566. In that year, the queen presented her with a purple velvet loose gown, and at some point before his death that year, poet Richard Edwards wrote of her "Howarde is not haughte/But of such smylinge cheare/That wolde aleve eche gentill harte/His love to holde full clere." There were rumors that she had secretly married Sir Thomas Southwell (c.1542-c.1572), and although they both denied it, the matter was taken seriously enough to require investigation by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Once he determined that no marriage had taken place, Mary married Edward Sutton, 4^thbaron Dudley (c. 1513-July 8, 1586), in 1570, as his third wife. They had no children. She remarried in 1587. Her second husband was Richard Mompesson (1548-1627) and she was the first of his three wives. She was buried in St. Margaret’s, Westminster, as were many others of the queen’s ladies.

MARY HOWARD (d. 1600+)
Said to be the Lord Chamberlain’s granddaughter (that would be William, 1^st baron Howard of Effingham), Lady Mary Howard was at court as a maid of honor as early as 1591. Records are unclear as to her parents names. Although she does not appear on lists of their children, she may have been the daughter of William Howard of Lingford (c.1540-September 2,1600) and Frances Gouldwell (d.c.1614). Another possiblity is the Lord Chamberlain’s younger son Thomas Howard (c.1561-1600), about whom little is known. The Lord Chamberlain also had two other younger sons, Henry and Richard, for whom I cannot find dates and therefore cannot tell if they died young or lived long enough to marry and father a daughter. Aside from the dearth of information about her parents, however, there is a great deal known about Mary Howard. A letter from William Fenton to John Harington in 1597 tells Harington that Fenton has spoken to the queen twice since Easter and that both times she spoke “vehemently and with great wrath” of Lady Mary Howard. Mary had refused to bear the queen’s mantle when the queen wished to walk in the garden and made an unseemly answer that “did breed much choler” in her mistress. On other occasions, Mary failed in other duties—carrying the cup of grace during dinner in the privy chamber and not attending the queen when she went to prayers. Worse, she caught the attention of “the young Earl.” This may have been Essex, but is just as likely to have been Southampton. In either case, the queen was not pleased. Fenton seems to indicate that Mary had a sister, Jane, who had been a maid of honor before her marriage. Sir John Harington (1560-1612), in writing to Robert Markham in 1606, recalled another incident “that fell out when I was a boy,” that seems to have involved this same Mary Howard, although in the 1590s he would hardly still be “a boy.” Still, the story does not seem to fit the first Mary Howard (see above). According to Harington, she had “a rich border powdered with golde and pearle, and a velvet suite belonging thereto.” The queen, thinking it exceeded her own, sent for Mary’s “rich vesture, which she put on herself, and came forthe the chamber amonge the Ladies; the kirtle and border was far too shorte for her Majesties height; and she askede every one, How they likede her new-fancied suit? At lengthe she asked the owner herself, If it was not made too short and ill-becoming? — Which the poor Ladie did presentlie consente to. ‘Why then if it become not me, as being too short, I am minded it shall never become thee, as being too fine; so it fitteth neither well.’ This sharp rebuke abashed the Ladie, and she never adorned her herewith any more. I believe the vestment was laid up till after the Queenes death.”

MARGARET HOWE
see MARGARET HARLESTONE

ELIZABETH HUGGONS

see ELIZABETH GYLLYOTT.

GRISOLD HUGHES (c.1560-June 15,1613)
Grisold or Grizel Hughes or Hewes was the daughter of Thomas Hughes of Uxbridge, Middlesex (d.1587) and Elizabeth Don (d.1590). She was married twice, the first time before 1588 to Edward Neville, 5^th baron Bergavenny (1518-February 10,1589). After he died, at Uxbridge, she very quickly remarried, wedding Francis Clifford, 4^th earl of Cumberland (1559-January 21,1641), by whom she had four children: Margaret (c.1590-1622), George (d. yng), Henry (February 28, 1591/2-December 11, 1643), and Frances (b.c.1594). Although some sources say that she was the “Lady Neville” of “My Lady Neville’s Book,” this was most likely Elizabeth Bacon, second wife of Sir Henry Neville of Bellingbear, Berkshire (d.1593). Not only was Grisold already remarried by 1591 when this manuscript was presented to “Lady Neville,” but she would never have been called Lady Neville in the first place. Her proper title would have been Lady Bergavenny throughout her brief first marriage.

AGNES HUNGERFORD

see AGNES COTELL

ANNE HUNGERFORD

see ANNE BASSETT; ANNE DORMER

ELIZABETH HUNGERFORD

see ELIZABETH HUSSEY

MARY HUNGERFORD (c.1468-before July 10, 1533)
Mary Hungerford was the daughter of Sir Thomas Hungerford (x. January 17, 1468/9) and Anne Percy (d. July 5, 1522). She was suo jure 5th baroness Botreaux, and 4th baroness Hungerford, and baroness Moleyns. Described as a "wealthy West Country heiress," she married Edward, 2nd baron Hastings (November 26, 1466-before November 8, 1506/7) around 1480. They had two children, Anne (c.1485-November 1550) and George, 3rd baron (1486/7-March 24, 1544). On May 1, 1509, Mary wed her second husband, Sir Richard Sacheverell (d.1534). They lived, by 1517, in apartments within the College of St. Mary in the Newarke, Leicester. The appointment of Lord George Grey as dean of the college led to a decade of petty quarrels. Lady Hungerford, according to Mary L. Robinson's essay, "Court Careers and County Quarrels," let her dogs run free in the chapel, organized bear-baitings on the grounds, and allowed her servants to be rude to Grey's supporters. The rivalry grew so heated that Lady Hungerford complained because it was no longer safe for women to walk in the woodlands adjacent to the town. By the spring of 1525, Lady Hungerford and her husband took an armed escort of nearly two hundred men any time they traveled outside of Leicester and men came to blows on a market Saturday in July. For more details see Robinson's essay in Charles Carlton, ed., State, Sovereigns & Society.

ALICE HUNTINGDON
see ALICE MORE

ANNE HUSSEY

see ANNE GREY

BRIDGET HUSSEY (c.1514-January 12, 1601)

Bridget Hussey was the daughter of John, Lord Hussey of Sleaford (1466-xJune 29,1537) and Anne Grey (c.1490-c.1545). Some accounts give her birthdate as late as 1528. Her first husband was Sir Richard Morison (1510-March 17,1556), one of the men who had written virulent denunciations of her father and the Pilgrimage of Grace. They had two daughters, Elizabeth (1545-1611) and Jane Sybilla (d. July 1615), and a son, Sir Charles (d.1599), but Morison also had a mistress, Lucy Harper. He received Snitterfield Manor in 1545 and in 1546 had a license to alienate it to John Hales for a regrant in trust for Lucy Harper and her five children. Lucy’s daughter (and presumably Morison’s), Mary, married Bartholomew Hales (d.1599), John’s brother, and held the manor from 1570-1599. Meanwhile, under Edward VI, Morison was sent as Ambassador to Charles V. Bridget went with him and they remained on the Continent from 1550 until Edward’s death in 1553. One of their children was born in Augsburg when that city was under siege in 1551. Following a brief visit to England after Mary Tudor became queen, they returned to the Continent, this time as exiles, and took their daughters with them. They settled in Strassburg, where Morison died. As a widow, Lady Morison returned to England and was allowed to claim her husband’s estate at Cassiobury, Hertfordshire. In 1561, she married Henry Manners, earl of Rutland (September 23, 1526-September 17, 1563), a widower. He died two years later, probably of the plague. On June 25,1566, she married a third time, to another widower, Francis Russell, 2^nd earl of Bedford (1527-July 28,1585). She was with him at Berwick, where he was Captain, and probably accompanied him into Scotland to attend the christening of the future James I. Twenty years later, she served as chief mourner at the funeral of James’s mother, Mary queen of Scots. The Bedfords entertained Queen Elizabeth at Chenies in 1570 and at Woburn in 1572. As dowager countess of Rutland and Bedford, she was a prominent social figure and an influential supporter of Puritan causes. She did not get along well with the earl of Bedford’s children, but she arranged brilliant matches for her own daughters, marrying Elizabeth to her stepson, Lord Edward Russell. In 1588, she took over the upbringing of one of her second husband’s daughters, Lady Bridget Manners. She trained the girl to take a post as maid of honor to the queen the following year. Bridget Hussey lived the last part of her life at Woburn. She died on a Sunday, “well at the sermon in the afternoon and dead that night.”

ELIZABETH HUSSEY (c.1510-January 23, 1554)

Elizabeth Hussey was the daughter of John, Lord Hussey of Sleaford (1466-xJune 29,1537) and Anne Grey (c.1490-c.1545). She married Sir Walter Hungerford (1503-x.July 28,1540) in October 1532 and they had two children, Eleanor and Edward (c.1533-December 5, 1605), but the marriage was not a happy one. A letter from Lady Hungerford to Lord Cromwell complained that her husband had kept her prisoner in Farleigh Castle for three or four years and tried to poison her. She wanted a divorce. So, apparently, did Hungerford, but when he learned that obtaining one would not permit him to remarry, he dropped the suit. Part of the problem may have been that Elizabeth’s father, Lord Hussey, participated in the Pilgrimage of Grace and was attained for treason and executed in 1537. In 1536, Hungerford, who had Lutheran leanings, was created Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury. In 1540 he was arrested and charged with a number of treasonous offenses, including shielding a traitor (his chaplain), conjuring to determine how long the king would live and whether the Pilgrimage of Grace would succeed, and committing unnatural acts. He was accused of "the abominable and detestable vice and sin of buggery" and held in the Tower of London until he was executed by being beheaded. In October 1542, Elizabeth remarried, taking as her second husband Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton (c.1510-February 12, 1581). Their children were Anne, Elizabeth, Temperance, Muriel, Robert, George, and another son whose name has not survived and who probably died young.

ELIZABETH HUSSEY (1532-1590+)
Elizabeth Hussey was the daughter of Sir Robert Hussey of Linwood, Lincolnshire (d.1546) and his second wife, Jane. In 1553, she married Anthony Crane of Rochampton, Surrey (1510-August 16, 1583) and by him had a daughter, Mary (d.1606). Crane supported Puritan reforms in religion and Elizabeth seems to have been of like mind. In 1588, she permitted Robert Waldegrave and his wife, whose printing press had been destroyed for printing an unauthorized book, to bring what they could salvage of the type to her house in Aldermanbury. Soon afterward, they set up a new press at Elizabeth’s country house at East Molesey, Surrey and there printed the first of the Martin Marprelate tracts. By October, they’d moved the press to Fawsley Priory in Northamptonshire, a house owned by George Carleton (1529-January 1590). Carleton and Elizabeth married by early 1589 and continued to hide the printing press from the authorities. In October, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Fleet and was probably still there when Carleton died. On May 17, 1590, she appeared before the Star Chamber and was fined £500 for hiding the press. It is not clear how much longer she remained in prison, nor is it certain when she died. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under “Crane, Elizabeth.”

MARY HUSSEY (d. 1545+)

Mary Hussey was the daughter, probably the youngest daughter, of John, Lord Hussey of Sleaford (1466-xJune 29,1537) and Anne Grey (c.1490-c.1545). Because of her father’s treason, she lost her social standing and whatever dowry might normally have been provided for her. At the end of May 1539, she went to Calais to become a waiting gentlewoman to Honor, viscountess Lisle, wife of the Lord Deputy. As a result, she was part of the household a year later when Lord and Lady Lisle were arrested and charged with treason. All the Lisle correspondence was seized. A number of letters survive concerning Mary’s coming to Calais, along with the depositions she gave concerning the destruction of certain love letters by Lady Lisle’s youngest daughter, Mary Bassett. Mary Hussey seems to have remained with Lady Lisle during her enforced stay in the house of a gentleman of Calais, one Francis Hall. Lady Lisle was freed and returned to England after Lord Lisle’s death in March 1542. Mary is said to have married Humphrey Dimock or Dymock and to have children Francis, Henry, Thomas, Mary, and Catherine, but details and dates are just sketchy enough to leave some doubt about this.

ELIZABETH HUTTON

see ELIZABETH BELLINGHAM

ESTHER INGLIS or LANGLOIS (1571-August 30, 1624)

Esther Inglis was the daughter of Nicolas Langlois (d.1611) and Marie Prisott or Presot. Her parents were Huguenot refugees who came from Dieppe, France to London. The DNB gives the date of their arrival as 1569, so that Esther would have been born in England. Other sources say 1572 and give her birthplace as Dieppe. The family had moved to Edinburgh, Scotland by 1574. Esther's mother was a calligrapher, a not uncommon profession for women in Europe, and she taught her daughter the trade. In 1596, Esther married Bartholomew Kello (d. March 15, 1638), a minor government official. They moved to London by 1604 and lived in Essex from 1607-1614, where Kello was rector of Willingale Spain. Esther was patronized by both Elizabeth I and James I and many of the manuscripts she illuminated still survive. She had four children, including Samuel (d.1680) and daughters Elizabeth and Mary. They returned to Edinburgh in 1615. Biography: Oxford DNB entry under "Inglis [married name Kello], Esther." NOTE: the DNB gives Kello's date of death as 1631. Portraits: The portrait done in 1595 was the basis for a self-portrait which appears sixteen times in her extant manuscripts.

IPPOLYTA THE TARTARIAN (d. 1569+)

Most writers who mention Ippolyta speculate that she was a child, a dwarf, or one of Queen Elizabeth’s fools. The queen stood as godmother at her christening in 1561 and gave her a “baby of pewter” as a gift in 1562. However, in 1564 Ippolyta is referred to as “our dear and well beloved woman.” The explanation? In the spring of 1559, Anthony Jenkinson of the Muscovy Company returned to Moscow from a trip to Bokhara bringing with him a Tartar girl he would later present to Queen Elizabeth. I believe Ippolyta was that girl. She’d have been christened because she’d just converted to Christianity, not because she was a small child. As for the pewter baby, many grown women collected dolls, including Queen Jane Seymour. Giving royalty a person as a gift was not unheard of. Aside from the case of Mary Radcliffe, there is that of three savages from the New World presented to Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather, Henry VII, by men of Bristol. They were kept at court and dressed in English clothing for quite a number of years. In Ippolyta’s case, there are numerous records of livery, shoes, and other clothing paid for by the queen. In 1564, even excluding the most expensive items—two gowns and a kirtle—these expenses totaled more than £15 for the year. The last record for Ippolyta is in 1569 when a skinner was paid for five dozen black coney skins to fur her short damask cloak.

ELIZABETH ISLEY (1510-1566+)

Elizabeth Isley was the daughter of Sir Thomas Isley of Sundridge, Kent and Elizabeth Guildford (b.1490). Her first husband was Richard Hill (c.1500-1539), wine merchant and master of Henry VIII’s wine cellar, by whom she is said to have had ten or eleven children. Among them were Mary (1532-November 30,1616), Margaret, and Richard. Elizabeth’s second husband was Sir John Mason (1503-April 21,1566), who served in a number of civic posts, including ambassador to the court at Brussels under Mary Tudor. At his death, Mason held the post of Treasurer of the Chamber. Queen Elizabeth appointed his widow to fill out his term.

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