She was the daughter of Francis Brudenell, Baron Brudenell, and his wife, the former Lady Frances Savile.[1] Her paternal grandfather was Robert Brudenell, 2nd Earl of Cardigan;[2] her father would have inherited the earldom had he not predeceased his father.
Her first husband was Henry Belasyse,[2] whom she married in about 1689; Belasyse died in August 1691.[3] The couple had no children.
On 8 January 1692 Anne married the duke, who was an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England.
The duke also had an illegitimate daughter by his mistress, Jacqueline de Mézières.
The duchess died in 1722, aged about 51. She was buried on 16 December 1722 in the Brudenell family vault at St Peter's Church, Deene, Northamptonshire, where her marble memorial, designed by Giovanni Battista Guelfi and erected in 1734,[6] can still be seen.[7] Her husband died the following year.
References
^G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910–1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 90.
^G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910–1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume X, page 837.