Mary Dudley

Mary Dudley, around 1550–1555

Mary Dudley (* around 1530 - 1535 ; † 9. August 1586 in London ) was an English maid of honor at the court of Elizabeth I.

Life

family

Mary Dudley was the eldest daughter of the 13 children of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and his wife Jane Guildford. She enjoyed a very good education, spoke Italian, French and Latin fluently, and was interested in alchemy , novels and poetry writing. She was also friends with the scientist and mystic John Dee .

On March 29, 1551, Mary Dudley married Henry Sidney in Esher , Surrey . It was probably a love marriage. On May 17, 1551, the ceremony was officially performed again at her parents' house, Ely Place, in London. By Edward VI. Henry Sidney was knighted in the same year.

In May 1553, Guildford Dudley , Mary's second youngest brother, married Edward's cousin Lady Jane Gray . According to Lady Jane, it was Mary Dudley who had her brought to Syon House on July 9, 1553 , where she learned of Edward's death and her succession to the throne according to his will. After Maria Tudor triumphantly moved into London within a few days and Lady Jane was deposed and, like her father-in-law John Dudley , was imprisoned in the Tower of London , Mary and her husband also got into a dangerous situation. Like the rest of the Dudley family, she fell out of favor. Henry Sidney's three sisters, however, were Queen Mary's favorite court ladies, which may have saved Sidney's career. At the beginning of 1554 he traveled with an embassy to Spain to ask for mercy for his brothers-in-law John, Ambrose, Robert and Henry at the future husband of Mary, Philip II . John Dudley, the eldest brother, died just days after his release in October 1554.

Marry Dudley's first child, Philip Sidney , was born in November 1554 at Penshurst Place , the family home in Kent . It was named after his godfather, King Philip. In 1556 Mary moved with her husband to Ireland, where they lived mainly in Athlone Castle . Their first daughter, Mary Margaret, was born there. Queen Maria became godmother, but the child died at the age of one. Philip Sidney stayed in Penshurst until his mother returned from Ireland in September 1558. Her rights and titles, which had been stripped of her father's execution in the course of the Lady Jane Gray affair, had been restored the previous year.

Court lady of Elizabeth I

With Elizabeth I's accession to the throne in November 1558, Mary Dudley became Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber. Like her brother, Lord Robert, the Queen's favorite, she was one of Elizabeth's closest circle. Among other things, she acted in the marriage negotiations with Archduke Karl of Austria as a mediator between the Queen and her own brother, who negotiated with the Spanish ambassador Álvaro de la Quadra and his colleague from the Holy Roman Empire, Caspar von Brüner.

In October 1562, Elisabeth fell seriously ill with smallpox. Mary Dudley nursed her until she developed smallpox herself, the scars of which she later disfigured, according to her husband. However, the fact that she always wore a mask later on is a myth. She continued to serve at court except when she accompanied her husband to Wales or Ireland. In late 1565, the couple traveled to Ireland, where Sir Henry was to take up his post as Lord Lieutenant. On the crossing, one of the ships with all of Mary Dudley's jewels and clothes sank. In 1567 Henry Sidney returned to court for a few weeks, his wife stayed behind in Drogheda , which was attacked by rebels. Due to her poor health, her husband sent her back to England towards the end of the year.

The four Dudley siblings who were still alive at the time of Elizabeth's reign, Mary, Ambrose, Robert and Katherine, remained in close contact. Henry Sidney and Robert Dudley were since childhood, when they were together with Edward VI. had been taught, close friends. Mary Dudley's third child, Elizabeth, was born in late 1560 at her brother Robert's home in Kew. By 1569 she had four more children, including the future Countess of Pembroke and poet Mary Sidney and Robert , who later became Earl Leicester. In 1577 Robert Dudley organized the marriage of his 15-year-old niece Mary to his friend, the 40-year-old Earl of Pembroke . Her mother hosted the wedding at Wilton House .

In the 1570s, Mary and her husband ran out of money, as the Queen did not pay them financial compensation for their long service. In 1572, Mary Dudley even had to refuse baronate for her husband because the expenses that such a title entailed were too great. In July 1579, Mary Dudley withdrew from court, whether due to poor health or in solidarity with her brother Robert, who had fallen out of favor because of his marriage, is unclear. She went to live with her husband in Ludlow, where Henry served as President of the Council of Wales. Mary Dudley died on August 9, 1586, three months after her husband, whose funeral she had attended. She was buried at his side at Penshurst.

progeny

There were seven children from his marriage to Henry Sidney:

• Philip (1554–1586), poet ⚭ Frances Walsingham (1567–1633)
• Mary Margaret (around 1556–1558)
• Elizabeth (* 1560), died as a child
• Mary (1561–1621), poet ⚭ Henry Herbert (1538–1601)
• Robert, 1st Earl of Leicester (1563-1626) ⚭ 1. Barbara Gamage (1563-1621), ⚭ 2. Sarah Blount
• Ambrosia (around 1566–1575), died at the age of nine
• Thomas

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Simon Adams: Sidney, Mary, Lady Sidney (1530x35–1586). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved March 6, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Peter French: John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus . 2002, p. 126-127 .
3. ↑ Simon Adams: Leicester and the Court: Essays in Elizabethan Politics . 2002, p. 133 .
4. ↑ Simon Adams: Leicester and the Court: Essays in Elizabethan Politics . 2002, p. 134 .
5. ^ Sarah Gristwood: Elizabeth and Leicester: Power, Passion, Politics . 2007, p. 15 .
6. ^ Alan Stewart: Philip Sidney: A Double Life . 2000, p. 60.143 .