Elizabeth Hussey, Baroness Hungerford

Elizabeth Hussey, Baroness Hungerford
Bornc. 1510
Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England
Died23 January 1554
BuriedSt. Laurence's Church, Weston Underwood, Buckinghamshire, England
Spouse(s)Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury, Sir Robert Throckmorton
FatherJohn Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford
MotherAnne Grey, Baroness Hussey

Elizabeth Hussey, Baroness Hungerford (c. 1510 – 1554) was an English noblewoman who was allegedly imprisoned by her first husband for four years. She was married to Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury until his execution, then to Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton. Through her daughters she was grandmother to two of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham.

Early life

Hussey was born about 1510 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. She was the daughter of John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford (c. 1465 – 1537)[1] and Anne Grey, Baroness Hussey (c.1490–1545).[2] Her parents held high positions at the Tudor court. Her father was a member of the House of Lords, a Chamberlain to King Henry VIII's daughter, Mary I of England and travelled to France to take part in the Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I, King of France in 1520.[1] Her mother was a close friend of Catherine of Aragon.[3] She was also one of Mary's, personal attendants, a member of her court and was imprisoned in the Tower of London for continuing to call her Princess after this had been forbidden by the King.[4]

Marriages

Hussey married firstly Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury (died 1540), as his third wife, in 1532.[5] He was the only child of Sir Edward Hungerford (died 1522) of Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset, and his first wife, Jane, daughter of John, Lord Zouche of Harringworth.[6]

Hungerford's treatment of his wife, which she endured for years,[7] was remarkable for its brutality. In an appeal for protection which she addressed to Thomas Cromwell, chief minister of King Henry VIII of England, in about 1536, Hussey asserted that her husband had kept her incarcerated at Farleigh Castle for four years, had starved her[8] and endeavoured on several occasions to poison her.[6] She begged Cromwell to work to grant her a divorce from him, and he duly commissioned William Petrie and Thomas Benet to advance a bill in Parliament regarding the matter of the marriage.[9]

Around this time, her husband was already falling from favour and the privy council investigated unsavoury rumours about him.[6] He, together with his personal chaplain William Bird, Rector of Fittleton and Vicar of Bradford, were accused of sympathising with the Pilgrimage of Grace. Secondly, Hungerford was accused of having instructed a chaplain named Dr Maudlin to practise conjuring and magic to "compass or imagine" the kings death.[9] Lastly, he was accused of committing sodomy with William Master and Thomas Smith, two of his servants, which was forbidden by the Buggery Act 1533. Hussey's husband was charged on all of the three crimes, was attainted by act of parliament and was beheaded at Tower Hill on 28 July 1540.[6] Hussey had escaped from her marriage by the conviction of her husband and was now a widow.

She married secondly Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton, Warwickshire (d. 1586), as his second wife.[10]

They had four daughters,[11] who were raised in the Catholic faith of their ancestors:[12]

Death and monumental brass effigy

Hussey died on 23 January 1554 and was buried in the Throckmorton family vault at St. Laurence's Church, Weston Underwood, Buckinghamshire.[6]

A monumental brass effigy of her survives in the church, located at the east end of the floor of the south aisle.[15] She is depicted wearing an embroidered gown with slashed sleeves and her head has a modern replacement.[16]

The Latin inscription reads "Hie jacet tumulata dna Elizabetha Hungerford una filiaru dni Hussey que primum nupta fuit dno Gualtero Hungerford et nuper vxor Roberti Throkmarton Militis que obiit xxiii die Januarii Anno dni Mccccclxxi". This translates to: "Here lies buried Mrs. Elizabeth Hungerford, one of the children of Mr. Hussey, who was first married to Mr. Walter Hungerford, and late the wife of Robert Throckmarton, a soldier, who died the 23rd day of January, in the year of Mcccclxx".

References

  1. ^ a b Hoyle, R. W. (8 January 2015) [23 September 2004]. "Hussey, John, Baron Hussey (1465/6–1537), nobleman and alleged rebel". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14266. Retrieved 11 December 2024. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ Maddison, Arthur Roland (1903). Lincolnshire Pedigrees. Vol. 51. for the Harleian Society. p. 527.
  3. ^ Harris, Barbara J. (June 1990). "Women and Politics in Early Tudor England". The Historical Journal. 33 (2): 259–281. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00013327. ISSN 1469-5103.
  4. ^ McMahon, Elizabeth (2022), Schutte, Valerie; Hower, Jessica S. (eds.), "Accounting Legitimacy in Purple and Gold: Mary Tudor, Household Accounts, and the English Succession", Mary I in Writing: Letters, Literature, and Representation, Queenship and Power, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 189–217, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-95128-3_9, ISBN 978-3-030-95128-3, retrieved 11 December 2024
  5. ^ Gunn, Steven J. (2016). Henry VII's New Men and the Making of Tudor England. Oxford University Press. p. 297. ISBN 978-0-19-965983-8.
  6. ^ a b c d e Ashton, D. J. (3 January 2008) [23 September 2004]. "Hungerford, Walter, Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury (1503–1540), alleged traitor". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14183. Retrieved 11 December 2024. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. ^ Levin, Carole; Bertolet, Anna Riehl; Carney, Jo Eldridge (3 November 2016). A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen: Exemplary Lives and Memorable Acts, 1500-1650. Taylor & Francis. p. 182. ISBN 978-1-315-44071-2.
  8. ^ Garwood, Sasha (17 July 2019). Early Modern English Noblewomen and Self-Starvation: The Skull Beneath the Skin. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-45854-1.
  9. ^ a b Young, Francis (23 January 2020). Magic as a Political Crime in Medieval and Early Modern England: A History of Sorcery and Treason. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-0-7556-0275-9.
  10. ^ Burke, Bernard (1970). A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, 105th edition. U.K. Burke's Peerage Ltd. p. 2643.
  11. ^ Cokayne, George Edward, et al eds. 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), Vol. 3, p. 12.
  12. ^ a b c McKeogh, Katie. Tresham [née Throckmorton], Muriel. Oxford University Research Archive (ORA). Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  13. ^ Lock, Julian (21 May 2009) [23 September 2004]. "Tresham, Sir Thomas (1543–1605), gentleman and recusant". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27712. Retrieved 12 December 2024. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  14. ^ Nicholls, Mark (24 May 2008) [23 September 2004]. "Catesby, Robert (b. in or after 1572, d. 1605), conspirator". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
  15. ^ Page, William. ed. (1927) "Parishes: Weston Underwood", in A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4. pp. 497-502. via - British History Online.
  16. ^ "Parish Church of St Laurence, Weston Underwood, Milton Keynes". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 11 December 2024.