Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Question from Rose - Elizabeth I's closest ladies in the 1570s

Hi! I'm doing a paper project for a history class about queen Elizabeth's ladies (maids of honour too) and I would like to know who were her closest friends among them (in the 1570's especially).

7 comments:

kb said...

Elizabeth had several close friends among her official and unofficial ladies at court. Those alive during the 1570s include: Philadelphia Carey Scrope, baroness Scrope ( a teenager during the 1570's); Anne Cooke Bacon; Elizabeth Knollys Leighton; Anne Knollys West, baroness De La Warre; Helena Snakenborg, marchioness of Horthampton; Katherine Carey Howard, baroness Effingham; Anne Russell Dudley, countess of Warwick; Lady Margery Norris and Blanche Parry. These are but a few of the ladies active at court during the 1570s.

Rose said...

Hi it's Rose.Thank you for your answer.I was trying to find out something about Margery,but I couldn't.Can you tell me something more abot her?Thank you.And I'm interested in some less known ladies,maybe some lady that was really a true friend of the queen and one who she especially liked.Thank you again.

Rose said...

Hi,kb!Thanks for your help.I was thinking about Margery,but I couldn't find any information abot her.Can you help?Thanks again.Yes, and I was thinking of some lady who queen really loved and was special to her.

kb said...

HI Rose,

Margery Norris was born in 1522 and died in 1599. So she was 11 years older than Queen Elizabeth and she died 4 years before the queen. She was the daughter of Sir John Williams and Elizabeth Edmonds. Her father was a supporter of Mary I. This was very helpful to the Norris’ during Mary’s reign. The queen nicknamed Lady Margery ‘Crow’ we think because she had dark hair and a dark complexion. In one letter, the queen addressed her as ‘Mine own Crow’.

Margery married Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norris. Margery’s dad was one of the two guardians of Princess Elizabeth when she was under house arrest during Mary’s reign. This was probably when Margery met Elizabeth. When Elizabeth came to the throne, she quickly restored property to the Williams and Norris families that had been under dispute. The Norris’s were Protestants.

Margery was not officially appointed to the queen’s chamber but spent a great deal of time at court. It appears she was the chief mourner at the funeral of Amy Rosbart Dudley because she was the highest-ranking woman in the district.


The Norris’s were in France for part of the 1560s as an ambassador. His time there was a bit rocky as the queen mother, Catherine de Medici thought he was too friendly to the Protestants in France, known as Huguenots. He was replaced in France in 1570 by Francis Walsingham.

The Norris’s had 6 sons who were soldiers in the 1570s. The couple sold some manors and mortgaged others to support their sons’ military careers. The queen visited the family at their house at Rycote a few times. All but one of their six sons died in military service. When Margery died in 1599, the queen wrote off 2,000 pounds of debt as a relief to her widower Henry who died two years later.

While Margery was a good friend of the queen’s she was not at court as consistently as some other ladies. Blanche Parry was one of the queen’s closest ladies. Blanche died in 1589. Katherine Carey Howard was a relative of the queen’s. When Katherine died in 1603, the gossip was that the queen died of grief over the loss of her dearest friend. Katherine was married to the Lord High Admiral, baron Effingham. The Effinghams were ennobled as the earl and countess of Nottingham in 1597.

Anonymous said...

Hi,kb thank you for your help,I am really thankful for it.I'm sorry that I have to be soo boring but I wanted some really special ladies,etc who went hunting with queen ...Sorry for being so boring :)!!!

kb said...

That's not boring. Robert Dudley entertained Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth in the 1570s. During that time Lettice Knollys and her sister Anne Knollys hunted and killed some deer. Information like this is available in the state papers and in Nichols Progresses. These are available online. You can try archive.org to search for them.

Anonymous said...

Thanks kb I'll have fun with it.I was researching myself and I was thinking about Frances Howard(queen's cousin)?