Anne de Vere (née Cecil), Countess of Oxford (5 December 1556 – 5 June 1588) was the daughter of the statesman
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598) was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from 1 ...
, chief adviser to Queen
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
Eli ...
, and the translator
Mildred Cooke
Mildred Cecil, Baroness Burghley (née Cooke; 1526 – 4 April 1589) was an English noblewoman and translator in the sixteenth century. She was the wife of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, the most trusted adviser of Elizabeth I, and the mother ...
. In 1571 she became the first wife of
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. She served as a
Maid of Honour
A maid of honour is a junior attendant of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts.
Role
Traditionally, a queen ...
to Queen Elizabeth before her marriage.
Family and childhood
Anne was born 5 December 1556, the elder daughter of William Cecil, later created 1st Baron Burghley, the leading member of Queen Elizabeth's
Privy Council, by his second wife, Mildred Cooke, a woman noted for her learning and translations from the Greek. Anne was an intelligent, well-educated child. She is thought to have been tutored by
William Lewin. She knew French, Latin and possibly Italian. A letter from the German scholar
Johannes Sturm
Johannes Sturm (also known as Jean Sturm; Latinized as Ioannes Sturmius; 1 October 1507 – 3 March 1589), was a German educator and Protestant reformer, who was influential in the design of the gymnasium system of secondary education.
Biogr ...
referred to her knowledge of Latin. Her father affectionately called her 'Tannakin'.
In 1569, Anne was engaged to marry
Sir Philip Sidney
''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...
. When these marriage negotiations failed, she instead married
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford on 16 December 1571 at
Whitehall Palace
The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. H ...
, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth. It was a triple wedding with
Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester
Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester, KG, Earl Marshal (c. 1550 – 3 March 1628) was an English aristocrat. He was an important advisor to King James I (James VI of Scots), serving as Lord Privy Seal.
He was the only son of three children ...
and bride,
Elizabeth Hastings and
Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard.
The wedding was celebrated with great pomp. According to some accounts, Anne genuinely loved Oxford, who as her father's ward had partly grown up in the Cecil household. However, his reasons for marrying Anne were largely mercenary, as he had hoped her father would pay his many outstanding debts.
[Grant, Teresa. "Vere, Anne de (1566-1588)", ''Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance'', (Diana Maury Robin, Anne R. Larsen, Carole Levin, eds.) ABC-CLIO, 2007]
Following her marriage, Anne continued to live with her parents at
Theobalds House
Theobalds House (also known as Theobalds Palace) in the parish of Cheshunt in the English county of Hertfordshire, was a significant stately home and (later) royal palace of the 16th and early 17th centuries. Set in extensive parkland, it was a ...
. When she gave birth to her first child, Elizabeth, on 2 July 1575, Oxford was abroad touring the Continent. Upon his return, he accused Anne of adultery and declared the baby to have been fathered by another man, reputedly because Burghley failed to save his cousin,
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, ( Kenninghall, Norfolk, 10 March 1536Tower Hill, London, 2 June 1572) was an English nobleman and politician. Although from a family with strong Roman Catholic leanings, he was raised a Protestant. He was ...
, from execution.
[
In April 1576 he separated from Anne, after rumours of her infidelity, and refused to sleep with her, recognise her or countenance her presence at court, despite Burghley's threats and public admonitions from Anne's mother. During his separation from Anne, Oxford began an affair with the Queen's Lady of the Bedchamber, Anne Vavasour. When the latter gave birth to his illegitimate son Edward in March 1581, both he and his mistress were sent to the ]Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...
by the Queen's command. Oxford was soon released, and in December 1581 Anne began a correspondence with him; and by January 1582, he was reconciled with her, acknowledging the paternity of her daughter Elizabeth.
In his ''Pandora'' (1584), a work dedicated to her husband, the harpist and poetaster John Southern credited Anne with writing six elegiac poems memorialising her infant son, Lord Bulbecke, after his premature death as an infant in May 1583. Although this has been contested by Stephen May as the poems are written in Southern's style and draw heavily on his favourite poet, Philippe Desportes,[ Louise Schleiner has argued for Anne's authorship.][Schleiner, Louise. ''Tudor and Stuart Women Writers'', Indiana University Press, 1994, 9780253115102]
/ref>
Issue
Together Oxford and Anne Cecil had a total of five children:
* Lady Elizabeth de Vere (2 July 1575 – 10 March 1627); married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby
William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, KG (1561 – 29 September 1642) was an English nobleman and politician. Stanley inherited a prominent social position that was both dangerous and unstable, as his mother was heir to Queen Elizabeth I un ...
, by whom she had issue.
* Lord Bulbecke (died May 1583 in early infancy)
* Lady Bridget de Vere (6 April 1584 – December 1630/March 1631); married Francis Norris, 1st Earl of Berkshire
Francis Norris, 1st Earl of Berkshire (6 July 1579 – 31 January 1622) was an English nobleman with the title of Earl of Berkshire.
He was the son of Captain Sir William Norreys (d. 1579) and Elizabeth Morison, daughter of Sir Richard Morris ...
, by whom she had one daughter.
* Lady Frances de Vere (died as an infant on 12 September 1587)
* Lady Susan de Vere (26 May 1587 – January 1629); married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, by whom she had issue.
Death
Anne died 5 June 1588 at the age of 31 at the Queen's court at Greenwich, of unknown causes. She was buried in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...
[Walpole, Horace and Park, Thomas. ''A Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England, Scotland, and Ireland'', Vol. 2, John Scott, 1806]
/ref> in a tomb which she shares with her mother, who died in 1589, and upon which is Anne's effigy. Her daughters were also later buried in the tomb. Her father was so stricken with grief at her death that he was unable to carry out his ministerial duties in the Privy Council. Her three young daughters remained in her father's household where they received excellent educations and eventually married into the peerage. Her husband remarried in 1591 Elizabeth Trentham, by whom he had his heir Henry de Vere, 18th Earl of Oxford
Henry may refer to:
People
* Henry (given name)
*Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portuga ...
.
In fiction and film
Lady Anne was portrayed in the movie '' Anonymous (2011)'' by actresses Amy Kwolek (young Anne de Vere) and Helen Baxendale
Helen Victoria Baxendale (born 7 June 1970) is an English actress of stage and television, known for her roles as Rachel Bradley in the British comedy drama '' Cold Feet'' (1997–2003), and Emily Waltham in the American sitcom '' Friends'' ( ...
. The role is based on Lady Anne Cecil, but is heavily fictionalized.
Anne Cecil is the narrator in Peter Hildebrandt's alternate history novel, ''The Rest is Silence'', the story of her husband, the 17th Earl of Oxford.
Notes
References
*
*
Anne Cecil (5 December 1556 – 5 June 1588), ''A Who's Who of Tudor Women: C-Ch'', compiled by Kathy Lynn Emerson to update and correct ''Wives and Daughters: The Women of Sixteenth-Century England'' (1984); retrieved 1 September 2013.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oxford, Anne Cecil, Countess of
1556 births
1588 deaths
English countesses
English women poets
British maids of honour
16th-century English women
Anne
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
Daughters of barons
16th-century English poets
Anne
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
16th-century English nobility
Burials at Westminster Abbey
Court of Elizabeth I