Elizabeth Spencer, Baroness Hunsdon
Elizabeth Spencer | |
---|---|
Baroness Hunsdon | |
Born | 29 June 1552 Althorp, Northamptonshire |
Died | 25 February 1618 |
Buried | Westminster Abbey, London |
Noble family | Spencer |
Spouse(s) | George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon Ralph Eure, 3rd Baron Eure |
Issue | Elizabeth Carey, Lady Berkeley |
Father | Sir John Spencer |
Mother | Katherine Kitson |
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Elizabeth Spencer, Baroness Hunsdon (29 June 1552 – 25 February 1618) was an English noblewoman, scholar, and patron of the arts. She was the inspiration for
Family
Elizabeth Spencer was born 29 June 1552 at
Marriages
On 29 December 1574, by licence from
George Carey and Elizabeth Spencer had an only daughter, Elizabeth Carey (24 May 1576 – 23 April 1663), who married firstly, Sir Thomas Berkeley, son and heir apparent of Henry Berkeley, 7th Baron Berkeley, by whom she had issue.[1] She married secondly, Sir Thomas Chamberlain. Like her mother, Lady Berkeley had scholarly interests and became a patron of the arts.
Elizabeth's husband, Baron Hunsdon died in 1603. Shortly before January 1613, she married her second husband, Ralph Eure, 3rd Baron Eure.
Patron of the arts
Elizabeth was a noted patron of the arts and a scholar. She translated Petrarch's works,[2] She was the inspiration for Edmund Spenser's Muiopotmos[3] in 1590, and she was represented as "Phyllis" in his pastoral poem Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, with her sisters Anne and Alice representing "Charyllis" and "Amaryllis". Elizabeth was also commemorated in one of Spenser's dedicatory sonnets to ‘’The Faerie Queen’’ :[4]
"Ne may I, without
blot of endless blame,
You, fairest Lady leave out of this place,
Remembrance of your gracious name
Wherewith that courtly garlond most ye grace
And deck the world."
Besides Edmund Spenser, to whom she was distantly related, she was a patron of Thomas Nashe and the composer John Dowland, who mentions her in his First Book of Songs (1597).[5]
Elizabeth's miniature portrait was painted by Nicholas Hilliard on an unknown date.
Death
Elizabeth died on 25 February 1618, and was buried on 2 March in Westminster Abbey, London.
References
- ^ "Main Page". Thepeerage.com. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
- ^ Alan Warwick Palmer and Veronica Palmer, Who's Who in Shakespeare's England, p.36, Google Books, retrieved 29-12-09
- ^ Palmer
- ^ Kathy Lynn Emerson, A Who's Who of Tudor Women, retrieved 29-12-09
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 29 Oct. 2021 (subscription or UK public library membership required).