Margaret Clifford, Countess of Derby

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Possibly Margaret Clifford by Hans Eworth

Margaret Clifford, Countess of Derby ( 1540 - September 29, 1596 ), married Stanley, was an English nobleman and, through her mother Eleanor Brandon, a granddaughter of Mary Tudor , the younger sister of King Henry VIII . Her descent gave Margaret a place in the English line of succession. Under Queen Elizabeth I , her second aunt , Margaret was viewed by many as a legitimate heiress presumptive . Her dangerous proximity to the throne led to her imprisonment by Elisabeth on the grounds that Margaret had intrigued against her with black magic. After years of arrest, she was finally released. She died in debt and widowed seven years before Queen Elizabeth.

She is not to be confused with her sister-in-law Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland .

Life

Childhood and youth

Margaret was born in Brougham Castle, Cumberland , to her mother Eleanor Brandon, the only surviving child . Her older brothers died in childhood. Her mother Eleanor died in 1547 when Margaret was barely seven years old and her widower Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland, finally married Lady Anne Dacre for the second time, so that Margaret had two younger half-brothers and a younger half-sister. With the death of her mother, Margaret Clifford also inherited Eleanor's right to part of her grandfather's property, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk , which amounted to approximately one third of the total inheritance.

Her royal ancestry made Margaret an attractive match on the marriage market. In 1552, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland tried to marry his son Guildford Dudley to her. Margaret's father tried to avoid marriage until King Edward VI. ordered him in a personal letter to find “a happy ending to the matter of the marriage between Lord Guildford and his daughter”. The idea of ​​this marriage was extremely unpopular with the people, and Northumberland's own servants claimed that their master was trying to usurp the throne with this marriage.

However, Margaret was spared this marriage, as her father still refused to consent to the marriage. In addition, in her cousin Lady Jane Gray , a candidate for Guildford who was clearly above Margaret in the line of succession soon appeared. In 1553, Northumberland attempted to marry off his brother Sir Andrew Dudley to Margaret when Jane Gray was enthroned. Sir Andrew had already sent her precious fabrics for a wedding dress, but Princess Maria's recapture of the English throne put an end to the Dudley's ambitions. According to some sources, Margaret experienced her first public appearance on the occasion of Mary's wedding, where she stood next to the Queen at the altar and received a gift of money from the groom Philip II for Mary.

Countess of Derby

Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby by Isaac Oliver

With the permission of Queen Mary, Margaret married Henry Stanley Lord Strange, son and heir of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, in Westminster on February 12, 1555 . At court, as a relative of the Queen, she was one of the highest ranking ladies and held the post of First Lady of Honor together with her 2nd Aunt Lady Margaret Douglas . In Margaret Douglas' absence, she also had precedence over all other ladies at court. In 1558 a dispute over the Suffolk inheritance between Margaret, her aunts Frances and Anne Brandon and her cousin Sir William Stanley was finally settled. Margaret became the owner of Leadenham, Fulbeck, Frampton, Skirbeck, Carlton-in-the-Marsh, Mumby Soke, Barynes, Currey Rivel, Kirkstead, Holbeton and Fleet in Devon .

It quickly became clear in the marriage that Margaret was living beyond her means. In 1558 she was forced to borrow the handsome sum of £ 300 from her lady-in-waiting, Mistress Carfhill. Mistress Carfhill was also frequently sent by Margaret to buy and borrow on credit. Even Queen Elizabeth , who was known for her thrift, "assigned her rooms at court to ease her burden". According to Mistress Carfhills, Margaret spent £ 600 a year when her income was only £ 90. Henry Stanley was then forced to raise £ 1,500 by selling land to pay off his wife's debts. The couple's relationship was severely strained by the financial difficulties, as Henry finally decided to liquidate the expensive household in Gaddesden, Berkshire . Margaret then accused her husband of bribing her servant £ 200 to spy on her. He would also have brought all of their dishes and furnishings from Gaddesden to London to sell there.

After Elizabeth I ascended to the throne, Margaret Clifford was a relative of the Queen and was often at court. In 1561 she gave Elisabeth a golden measure with a muskrat in it and the queen reciprocated with a gold-plated bowl. When Elizabeth visited Cambridge , Margaret wore her train and attended the performances in honor of the Queen. From 1568 to 1570 Margaret belonged to the exclusive circle of ladies of the Privy Chamber , the royal private chambers, which gave her unrestricted access to the Queen. Nevertheless, the Spanish ambassador wrote in 1565 that she and her husband were “little respected” at court. Elizabeth gave Margaret permission to sell land several times to pay off her debts and reprimanded Henry Stanley for attempting to use his wife's lands to pay off his own debts. After the death of her father-in-law in 1572, her husband became the 4th Earl of Derby and Margaret was henceforth known as the Countess of Derby (in German: Countess of Derby).

Role in the line of succession

As the granddaughter of Mary Tudor , Margaret was originally listed in the will of her great-uncle Henry VIII after Princess Maria, Princess Elisabeth, Margaret's Aunt Frances Brandon, her cousins ​​Jane, Catherine and Mary Gray and after her mother Eleanor Brandon in the line of succession. Unlike the Grays, the Cliffords were not Protestants, but Catholics. Because of this, Margaret Clifford considered herself the rightful heir to the throne under Queen Mary. In 1557 she also claimed a higher rank in the line of succession than her cousins ​​Catherine and Mary Gray

“Because of the treason her home had committed for her sister, Lady Jane Gray, was charged, convicted and executed of treason, and so was her father. Therefore they would be excluded from the line of succession, but they themselves, as close relatives and of legitimate English birth, would have the best claim to the throne after the death of the queen without legitimate offspring. "

However, Parliament ignored this claim and instead endorsed the claim of Princess Elizabeth, who came to the English throne after Mary's death. Elizabeth used the same argument as Margaret a few years later to exclude Catherine and Mary Gray from the line of succession, but she was not ready to officially recognize Margaret as her heiress. In her opinion, Queen Mary of Scots had the best claim. She was descended from Henry's older sister Margaret Tudor , whose descendants, according to the classical line of succession, came before the line of younger sister Mary Tudor in the line of succession, although Henry VIII had ignored her in his will. Catherine Gray died in 1568 and her sons were declared bastards by Elisabeth, so that they no longer posed a threat to the succession to the throne. With the death of the last Grey's sister Mary in 1578, Margaret moved to the first place in the line of succession according to Henry VIII's will and thus became an unofficial Heir Presumptive .

Under arrest

In 1569, Margaret's brother-in-law, Thomas and Edward Stanley, were unmasked as one of the conspirators who wanted to free the captured Maria Stuart. You were imprisoned in the Tower of London . Margaret's son Ferdinando was called to court in 1574, where the queen could keep an eye on him. In August 1579, Margaret herself was hired under house arrest. Allegedly she had her doctor Dr. Randall consults a well-known astrologer for divination as to when the Queen will die and whom she will choose to succeed.

Elizabeth I around 1575, probably by Nicholas Hilliard

Predicting the monarch's death was treason under the law of the time, and Dr. Randall was finally hanged in 1581 after confessing everything, possibly for fear of torture. Margaret protested her innocence and swore that she had only housed him to get treatment for her toothache and limb pain. However, she was placed under arrest under the supervision of her distant relative, Thomas Seckford. It is uncertain whether the charge was justified or whether Elisabeth was simply looking for a reason to neutralize a potential rival. Ashdown argues in her book Tudor Cousins that Margaret might very well have tried magical practices. Margaret's Victorian biographer Agnes Strickland, on the other hand, criticizes Elisabeth's notorious paranoia against her cousins ​​and summarizes that the Queen herself after the death of the Grey's sisters

"Remembered that she had merely cleared the stage of the older Suffolk line to make way for the younger, Lady Margaret and her sons, who were immediately the targets of her jealousy."

Strickland also thinks it is possible that Elisabeth arrested Margaret in order to have some assurance that her family did not participate in conspiracies again. Margaret was never brought to justice for her alleged crime.

Unlike Catherine and Mary Gray, however, Margaret Clifford was under the care of a benevolent relative and she was still allowed to receive letters from friends and relatives. After four years of arrest, before September 26, 1583, Margaret was finally allowed to be in sight of the Queen as she traveled from Sion to Oatlands. Although she wrote a letter to Sir Christopher Hatton thanking him for mediating this gracious gesture, the royal resentment lingered for several years. Her husband, on the other hand, still enjoyed royal goodwill and was sent on various diplomatic trips. He was also one of the nobles who sentenced Mary Stuart to death in 1586. That Margaret was still not completely forgotten is proven by the fact that the poet Robert Greene dedicated his book The Mirror of Modesty to her in 1584 (in German: Der Spiegel der Sittsamkeit ). Another book that Margaret was devoted to was the 1586 published A Thousand Things of notable sundry Sorts (in German: A thousand notable things of various sorts ) by Thomas Lupton. Margaret was not forgotten by her creditors either, so she continued to sell lands from her grandfather's inheritance during her arrest.

Meanwhile, Margaret's health had deteriorated. She complained more and more of fainting and weaknesses. It was only after Christopher Hatton became Lord Chancellor , after April 1587, that there was evidence of greater royal goodwill, as Margaret was allowed to write to the Queen. She sent Hatton a draft letter asking for his opinion. In the letter, she thanked her in the most submissive way for her release:

"I prostrate myself and humbly request that Your Highness please read the lines and graciously accept the wretched condition of a poor, unhappy woman whose heart, as God knows, has long been overcome with sadness from the great loss of grace and the benevolent face of Your Majesty, which I enjoyed before. The desire for both made me eat my tears instead of my bread. "

Upon her release, Margaret leased a house from her relative and former overseer, Thomas Seckford, in Clerkenwell .

The last few years

Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, died on September 25, 1593. He and Margaret had lived separately for many years, and he had raised a family with four children with a lover. Despite the estrangement, Margaret attended his funeral in Ormskirk , Lancashire . Her son Ferdinando inherited the title and was contacted shortly afterwards by Catholic conspirators who hoped to proclaim him king. In order to bring him to the throne, Margaret would have had to renounce the throne in favor of her son, but Ferdinando refused. He died in April 1594 after a brief illness, which was interpreted by many as a Catholic poison attack. His title passed to his younger brother William.

Margaret Clifford only survived her eldest son by two years. She was still heavily in debt and forced to sell the land that was part of her dowry in order to pay off her debts. On August 7, 1596, she wrote her will. Aside from a few personal possessions, however, she did not leave much to her heirs as she had to sell most of the land. She made her half-brother George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland , executor of her will and asked that any legacy that she had left no one should be used to pay off her outstanding debts. She died on September 29 of the same year and was buried in St. Edmund's Chapel in Westminster Abbey . William Camden writes of Margaret Clifford on the occasion of her death:

“It is noteworthy about this lady that, through a lazy mix of curiosity and ambition, reinforced by optimistic hopes and gullible imagination, she often had conversations with necromancers and figure throwers [fortune tellers], due to which she had a large chunk of the for a while before her death Lost the Queen's affection. "

portrait

There is no clearly identified portrait of Margaret Clifford. A picture by Hans Eworth, which is traditionally mistaken for Margaret Clifford (see above), shows a young lady in splendid clothing who identifies her as a member of the English aristocracy. The crest next to her is a combination of the crests of Margaret Clifford's parents - Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Derby, and Eleanor Brandon. These combined coats of arms were commonly worn by wives after their marriage. For this reason, the portrait was long mistaken for an image by Eleanor Brandon, although it was not painted until several years after Eleanor's death. It eventually led to the conclusion that it could be the only surviving daughter of the two, Margaret Clifford. In heraldry, however, children did not use their parents' marital coat of arms, but received their own. To make matters worse, it is very likely that the coat of arms was only inserted about 100 years after the image was created. It is therefore assumed that at the time the coat of arms was inserted, the identity of the lady depicted was no longer known.

progeny

literature

  • Dulcie M. Ashdown: Tudor Cousins. Rivals for the Throne. 2000 Sutton Publishing
  • Barry Coward : The Stanleys, Lords Stanley and Earls of Derby, 1385 - 1672: The Origins, Wealth and Power of a landowning Family. 1983 Chatham Society
  • Agnes Strickland: Lives of the Tudor Princesses including Lady Jane Gray and her Sisters. 1868 Longmans, Green and Co.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Dulcie M. Ashdown: Tudor Cousins. Rivals for the Throne. 2000 Sutton Publishing, p. 200
  2. a b Barry Coward: The Stanleys, Lords Stanley and Earls of Derby, 1385 - 1672: The Origins, Wealth and Power of a landowning Family. 1983 Chatham Society, p. 29
  3. Leanda de Lisle: The Sisters who would be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Gray . 2008 Harper Press, p. 92
  4. Leanda de Lisle: The Sisters who would be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Gray . 2008 Harper Press, p. 93
  5. Leanda de Lisle: The Sisters who would be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Gray . 2008 Harper Press, p. 115
  6. Leanda de Lisle: The Sisters who would be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Gray . 2008 Harper Press, p. 166
  7. ^ Dulcie M. Ashdown: Tudor Cousins. Rivals for the Throne. 2000 Sutton Publishing, p. 110
  8. Agnes Strickland: Lives of the Tudor Princesses including Lady Jane Gray and her Sisters. 1868 Longmans, Green and Co., p. 301
  9. Barry Coward: The Stanleys, Lords Stanley and Earls of Derby, 1385-1672: The Origins, Wealth and Power of a landowning Family. 1983 Chatham Society, p. 28
  10. a b c Agnes Strickland: Lives of the Tudor Princesses including Lady Jane Gray and her Sisters. 1868 Longmans, Green and Co., p. 303
  11. a b c d Barry Coward: The Stanleys, Lords Stanley and Earls of Derby, 1385 - 1672: The Origins, Wealth and Power of a landowning Family. 1983 Chatham Society, p. 31
  12. ^ Dulcie M. Ashdown: Tudor Cousins. Rivals for the Throne. 2000 Sutton Publishing, p. 178
  13. Margaret CLIFFORD (C. Derby)
  14. a b Dulcie M. Ashdown: Tudor Cousins. Rivals for the Throne. 2000 Sutton Publishing, p. 179
  15. Agnes Strickland: Lives of the Tudor Princesses including Lady Jane Gray and her Sisters. 1868 Longmans, Green and Co., p. 306
  16. Leanda de Lisle: The Sisters who would be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Gray . 2008 Harper Press, p. 101
  17. Agnes Strickland: Lives of the Tudor Princesses including Lady Jane Gray and her Sisters. 1868 Longmans, Green and Co., p. 302
  18. a b Leanda de Lisle: The Sisters who would be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Gray . 2008 Harper Press, p. 220
  19. Leanda de Lisle: The Sisters who would be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Gray . 2008 Harper Press, p. 291
  20. a b c Dulcie M. Ashdown: Tudor Cousins. Rivals for the Throne. 2000 Sutton Publishing, p. 180
  21. Agnes Strickland: Lives of the Tudor Princesses including Lady Jane Gray and her Sisters. 1868 Longmans, Green and Co., p. 311
  22. Agnes Strickland: Lives of the Tudor Princesses including Lady Jane Gray and her Sisters. 1868 Longmans, Green and Co., p. 313
  23. ^ A b Agnes Strickland: Lives of the Tudor Princesses including Lady Jane Gray and her Sisters. 1868 Longmans, Green and Co., p. 322
  24. ^ Dulcie M. Ashdown: Tudor Cousins. Rivals for the Throne. 2000 Sutton Publishing, p. 181
  25. Agnes Strickland: Lives of the Tudor Princesses including Lady Jane Gray and her Sisters. 1868 Longmans, Green and Co., p. 318
  26. Agnes Strickland: Lives of the Tudor Princesses including Lady Jane Gray and her Sisters. 1868 Longmans, Green and Co., pp. 323-324
  27. a b c d Margaret Clifford's Testament (PDF; 104 kB)
  28. a b Dulcie M. Ashdown: Tudor Cousins. Rivals for the Throne. 2000 Sutton Publishing, p. 183
  29. Agnes Strickland: Lives of the Tudor Princesses including Lady Jane Gray and her Sisters. 1868 Longmans, Green and Co., p. 327
  30. ^ Dulcie M. Ashdown: Tudor Cousins. Rivals for the Throne. 2000 Sutton Publishing, p. 199
  31. Agnes Strickland: Lives of the Tudor Princesses including Lady Jane Gray and her Sisters. 1868 Longmans, Green and Co., p. 328
  32. a b c d Interpretation of the possible portrait of Margaret Clifford