Lady Elizabeth Fane born Elizabeth Brydges (1510 – 1568) was an English writer and literary patron.

Life

She was born in about 1510, the daughter of Rouland Brugge, died 1540, and Margery Kelom. She married

Ralph Vane Sir Ralph Vane (also Ralph Fane, died 26 February 1552) was a supporter of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. He was hanged on Tower Hill as a result of factional strife. Life Ralph Vane or Fane was born at the manor of Badsell in Tudely, K ...

and in 1550 they were given Penshurst Place by the King. Her husband was executed for plotting to kill

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (1504Loades 2008 – 22 August 1553) was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Ja ...

in February 1552. Penshurst Place was given to

Sir William Sidney Sir William Sidney (1482?–1554) was an English courtier under Henry VIII and Edward VI. Life He was eldest son of Nicholas Sidney, by Anne, sister of William Brandon (standard-bearer), Sir William Brandon. In 1511 he accompanied Thomas Darcy, ...

their household goods in their house at Westminster went to

Sir John Gate Sir John Gates KB (1504–1553)Sil p. 69 was an English courtier, soldier and politician, holding influential household positions in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI. One of the Chief Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber under Edward VI, he be ...

, a follower of Northumberland. She was in a weak position and when Queen Mary came to power she had many Protestants arrested. She risked her own freedom and life by offering the prisoners support. John Strype states that Fane was a "liberal benefactor" to Protestants under Queen Mary and corresponded with Philpot and John Bradford. Her ''12 Certaine Psalms of Godly Meditation'' (1550) contains 102 proverbs. It was published by Robert Crowley, who went into exile about 1552. Lady Fane was described by

John Foxe John Foxe (1516/1517 – 18 April 1587), an English historian and martyrologist, was the author of '' Actes and Monuments'' (otherwise ''Foxe's Book of Martyrs''), telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the su ...

as a "a speciall Nourse and a great supporter ithinher power of the godly Saintes, which were imprisoned in Q

een Een ːnis a village in the Netherlands. It is part of the Noordenveld municipality in Drenthe. History Een is an ''esdorp'' which developed in the middle ages on the higher grounds. The communal pasture is triangular. The village developed dur ...

Marie's time."Quoted in Susan M. Felch (ed.): Elizabeth Tyrwhit's ''Morning and Evening Prayers'' (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate), p. 49. She died in Holborn, London, in 1568.Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy: '' The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present'' (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 355.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fane, Elizabeth 1510 births 1568 deaths 16th-century English women writers 16th-century English writers