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Mary Dudley

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For the British Quaker minister, seeMary Dudley (Quaker).For the African American radio personality, seeMary Dee.
Lady Mary Dudley
Mary Sidney byHans Eworth,c. 1550–1555
Bornc. 1530–1535
Died9 August 1586
London,England
BuriedPenshurst Place,Kent
Noble familyDudley
IssueSir Philip Sidney
Mary Margaret Sidney
Elizabeth Sidney
Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester
Ambrosia Sidney
Sir Thomas Sidney
FatherJohn Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland
MotherJane Guildford
OccupationLady-in-Waiting

Lady Mary Sidney(néeDudley;c. 1530–1535[1]– 9 August 1586) was alady-in-waitingat the court ofElizabeth I,wife ofSir Henry Sidneyand the mother ofSir Philip SidneyandMary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke.She was daughter ofJohn Dudley, Duke of Northumberland,and sister of Elizabeth'sfavourite,Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

Although she was marginally implicated in her father's attempt to placeLady Jane Greyon the English throne and affected by hisattainder,Mary Dudley was one of Queen Elizabeth's most intimate confidantes during the early years of her reign. Her duties included nursing the Queen throughsmallpoxin 1563 and acting as her mouthpiece towards diplomats. She was the mother of seven children and accompanied her husband, Sir Henry Sidney, to Ireland and theWelsh Marches.From the 1570s the couple complained repeatedly about their, as they saw it, poor treatment at the Queen's hands. Still one of Elizabeth's favourite ladies, Mary Dudley retired from court life in 1579, suffering from ill health during her last years.

Family and early years of marriage

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Mary Dudley was the eldest daughter among the thirteen children ofJohn Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberlandand his wifeJane Guildford.[1]Mary Dudley was well-educated. Fluent in Italian, French, and Latin,[2]she was interested inalchemy,romances,and writing poetry.[1]Her copy ofEdward Hall'sChroniclesbears her annotations in French.[2]She also became a friend, correspondent and frequent visitor of the scientist andmagusJohn Dee.[3]

On 29 March 1551 Mary Dudley marriedHenry SidneyatEsher,Surrey.Possibly a love match, the ceremony was repeated in public on 17 May 1551 at her parents' houseEly Place,London.[1]Four months later Henry Sidney became Chief Gentleman ofEdward VI'sPrivy Chamber;[4]he was knighted by the young King on the day his father-in-law, who headed the government, was raised to thedukedom of Northumberland.[5]

In May 1553 Mary's second youngest brother,Guildford Dudley,was married to Edward's favourite cousin,Lady Jane Grey.[6]According to Lady Jane it was Mary Dudley who, on 9 July 1553, called upon her to bring her toSyon House,the place where she was informed she was Queen of England according to King Edward's will.[7]AfterMary I's triumph within a fortnight and the arrest and execution of the Duke of Northumberland, the Sidneys were in a precarious situation. Like the rest of the Dudley family, Mary Dudley wasattaintedand suffered the consequences in her legal status.[1]Henry Sidney's three sisters, however, were favourite ladies of Queen Mary, which may have saved his career.[1]In early 1554 he went with an embassy to Spain to plead with England's prospectiveking consort,Philip,for the pardon of his brothers-in-lawJohn,Ambrose,Robert,and Henry.[8]John Dudley, the eldest brother, died days after his release in October 1554 atPenshurst PlaceinKent,the Sidneys' manor house granted to them by Edward VI in 1552.[9]Philip Sidney,Mary Dudley's first child, was born there in November 1554 and named after his godfather, the King.[10]His godmother, the widowed Duchess of Northumberland, died in January 1555. She left her daughter 200marksas well as a cherished clock "that was the lord her father's, praying her to keep it as a jewel."[11]

In 1556 Mary Dudley went with her husband to Ireland, where they resided mostly atAthlone Castle.[12]Their first daughter, Mary Margaret, was born some time after their arrival. Queen Mary acted as godmother, but the child died at "one year and three quarters old".[13]Meanwhile, the infant Philip stayed behind at Penshurst[14]until his mother returned from Ireland in September 1558.[1]She had been restored in blood earlier in the year when the Dudley's attainder was lifted by Mary I's lastparliament.[15]

Serving Elizabeth I

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On Elizabeth I's accession in November 1558 Mary Dudley became a Gentlewoman of thePrivy Chamber"without wages", an unsalaried position which left her dependent on her husband.[1]Like her brother Lord Robert, theroyal favourite,she belonged to the Queen's closest companions.[16]In the 1559 negotiations overArchduke Charles,theHabsburgcandidate for Elizabeth's hand, she acted as go-between for the Queen and her own brother in their dealings with the Spanish ambassadorÁlvaro de la Quadraand hisImperialcolleague, Caspar von Brüner.[1]Through Mary Dudley, Elizabeth discreetly indicated her serious intention to marry the Archduke and that he should immediately come to England. De la Quadra informed Philip II that

Mary Dudley said that if this were not true, I might be sure she would not say such a thing as it might cost her her life and she was acting now with the Queen's consent, but she (the Queen) would not speak to the Emperor's ambassador about it.[17]

Philip's envoy received assurances from Lord Robert andSir Thomas Parryas well.[18]Yet Elizabeth cooled down again and gave Mary Dudley further instructions to deal with the Spaniards, until she herself told de la Quadra "that someone had [spoken to him] with good intentions, but without any commission from her".[19]Angry at her brother and the Queen, Mary Dudley felt betrayed.[1]The Spanish ambassador, in his turn, was piqued that she used an interpreter, when "we can understand each other in Italian without him."[17]

In October 1562, Elizabeth became critically ill withsmallpox;Mary Dudley nursed her until she contracted the illness herself, which according to her husband greatly disfigured her beauty. The Queen, who suffered only a little pocking, distanced herself from her once friend.[20]That Mary took to wearing a mask afterwards is, however, a myth.[1]She continued her court service, unless absent when accompanying her husband to Wales and Ireland.[1]In late 1565 the couple travelled to Ireland, where Sir Henry was to take up his post asLord Lieutenant.On the passage one of the ships sunk with all Mary Dudley's jewels and fine clothes on board.[1]In 1567 Henry Sidney returned for a few weeks to the English court. His wife stayed behind atDrogheda,which came under rebel attack. Mary Dudley resolutely requested theMayor of Dublinto relieve the town with troops, which he did.[21]Later in the year Sir Henry sent her back to England because of her ill health, which was apparently caused by the Queen's criticism of his lieutenantship:[1]An unfriendly letter from Elizabeth "so perplexed my dear wife, as she fell most grievously sick upon the same and in that sickness remained once in trance above fifty-two hours".[22]

The four Dudley siblings who survived into Elizabeth's reign, Mary,Ambrose,Robert, and their much younger sisterKatherine,kept a close bond among themselves,[23]while Henry Sidney and Robert Dudley were friends since their common schooldays with Edward VI.[24]Mary Dudley's third child Elizabeth was born at her brother Robert's house atKewin late 1560. Until 1569 she had four more children, among them the future Countess of Pembroke and poetMary Herbert,andRobert,who became the first SidneyEarl of Leicester.[1]The death of her nine-year-old daughter Ambrosia in 1575 elicited a letter of condolences from Queen Elizabeth.[25]In 1573 an apothecary had supplied "oil ofcamenalland capers ", syrups, and a box of marmalade for" Mistress Ambrocia. "[26]

Henry Sidney being once again in Ireland,[1]in January 1570 Robert Dudley entertained his brother Ambrose as well as "Sister Mary" and "Sister Kate" atKenilworth.[27]The same castle was the scene of the great festival of 1575, at which the whole Sidney family were guests and Mary Dudley excelled in stag hunting.[1]In 1577 Robert Dudley negotiated the match of his 15-year-old niece Mary with his friend, the 40-year-oldEarl of Pembroke.[28]Her mother organized the wedding festivities atWilton House.[1]

By the 1570s, Sir Henry Sidney and his wife had become somewhat disillusioned and embittered about lacking financial rewards on the Queen's part for their long service.[1]In 1572 Mary Dudley even had to decline abaronyfor her husband in a letter toWilliam Cecil,himself Baron Burghley since the previous year:[29]The expenses such a title implied were simply too great, Sir Henry's mind being "dismayed [by the] hard choice" between choosing financial ruin and royal displeasure "in refusing it".[30]Two years later, in 1574, she quarrelled with theLord Chamberlain(her brother-in-law, theEarl of Sussex) over accommodation at court.[1]She refused to exchange her accustomed rooms with a cold chamber that had previously been "but the place for my servants".[31]All in all though, she explained, "old Lord Harry and his old Moll" would accept "like good friends the small portion allotted our long service in court; which as little as it is, seems something too much."[1]

Elizabeth was still attached to her old friend when Mary Dudley left the court in July 1579—because of bad health,[1]or out of solidarity with her brother Robert, Earl of Leicester, who was in disgrace for having married.[32]She joined her husband atLudlowin 1582, where he was serving his third turn asPresident of the Council of Wales.A year later her health was in such a state that Henry Sidney believed he would soon have the opportunity to take a second wife.[1]Mary Dudley died on 9 August 1586, three months after her husband, in whose elaborate funeral she had participated. She was buried by his side at Penshurst.[1]

Issue

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Ancestry

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Notes

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  1. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxAdams 2008c
  2. ^abStewart 2000 p. 40
  3. ^French 2002 pp. 126–127; Woolley 2002 p. 99
  4. ^Alford 2002 p. 156
  5. ^Beer 1973 p. 119; Loades 1996 p. 285
  6. ^Loades 1996 pp. 226, 239
  7. ^Ives 2009 p. 187
  8. ^Adams 2008c; Adams 2002 p. 133
  9. ^Stewart 2000 p. 17
  10. ^Stewart 2000 p. 9
  11. ^Collins 1746 pp. 34–35
  12. ^Adams 2008c; Stewart 2000 p. 19
  13. ^Stewart 2000 pp. 19–20
  14. ^Stewart 2000 p. 19
  15. ^Adams 2002 p. 134
  16. ^Adams 2008a
  17. ^abStewart 2000 p. 27
  18. ^Stewart 2000 pp. 27–28
  19. ^Stewart 2000 pp. 28–29
  20. ^Guy 2016 ch. 2
  21. ^Stewart 2000 p. 62
  22. ^Stewart 2000 pp. 62–63
  23. ^Gristwood 2007 p. 15
  24. ^Adams 2008b
  25. ^Adams 2008c; Stewart 2000 p. 144
  26. ^HMC Lord De L'Isle & Dudley,vol. 1 (London, 1925), p. 264.
  27. ^Gristwood 2007 pp. 190, 191
  28. ^Stewart 2000 pp. 200–201
  29. ^Stewart 2000 pp. 143, 60
  30. ^Stewart 2000 p. 143
  31. ^Stewart 2000 p. 143; Adams 2008c
  32. ^Kendall 1980 p. 182

References

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toMary Dudley, Lady Sidney.
  • Adams, Simon (2002):Leicester and the Court: Essays in Elizabethan PoliticsManchester University PressISBN0-7190-5325-0
  • Adams, Simon (2008a):"Dudley, Ambrose, earl of Warwick (c.1530–1590)"Oxford Dictionary of National Biographyonline edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-06
  • Adams, Simon (2008b):"Dudley, Robert, earl of Leicester (1532/3–1588)"Oxford Dictionary of National Biographyonline edn. May 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-03
  • Adams, Simon (2008c):"Sidney, Mary, Lady Sidney (1530x35–1586)"Oxford Dictionary of National Biographyonline edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-06
  • Alford, Stephen (2002):Kingship and Politics in the Reign of Edward VICambridge University PressISBN978-0-521-03971-0
  • Beer, B.L. (1973):Northumberland: The Political Career of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick and Duke of NorthumberlandThe Kent State University PressISBN0-87338-140-8
  • Collins, Arthur (ed.) (1746):Letters and Memorials of StateVol. I T. Osborne
  • French, Peter (2002):John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan MagusRoutledgeISBN978-0-7448-0079-1
  • Gristwood, Sarah (2007):Elizabeth and Leicester: Power, Passion, PoliticsVikingISBN978-0-670-01828-4
  • Guy, John (2016):Elizabeth: The Later YearsPenguinISBN978-1-1016-0901-9
  • Ives, Eric(2009):Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor MysteryWiley-BlackwellISBN978-1-4051-9413-6
  • Kendall, Alan (1980):Robert Dudley Earl of LeicesterCassellISBN0-304-30442-5
  • Loades, David(1996):John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland 1504–1553Clarendon PressISBN0-19-820193-1
  • Stewart, Alan (2000):Philip Sidney: A Double LifeChatto & WindusISBN0-7011-6859-5
  • Woolley, Benjamin (2002):The Queen's Conjuror: The Life and Magic of Dr DeeHarper CollinsISBN0-00-655202-1
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