![Portrait of Frances, countess of Exeter, 1660s, by William Fairthorne, after Anthony van Dyck](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Portrait_of_Frances%2C_countess_of_Exeter%2C_1660s%2C_by_William_Fairthorne%2C_after_Anthony_van_Dyck.jpg)
Frances Cecil, Countess of Exeter (, other married name was Smith; 1580–1663) was an English noblewoman.
Cecil was born in 1580, daughter of
William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos
William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos (ca. 1552 – 1602) was an English peer and politician.
He was the younger son and heir of Edmund Brydges, 2nd Baron Chandos and Dorothy, the youngest daughter and child of Sir Edmund Braye, 1st Baron B ...
(d. 1602), and his wife, Mary (d. 1624). She first married
Thomas Smith sometime before 1604, an English judge who died in November 1609. The following year, in late 1610, she married
Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter
Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, KG (5 May 1542 – 8 February 1623), known as Lord Burghley from 1598 to 1605, was an English politician, courtier and soldier.
Family
Thomas Cecil was the elder son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, b ...
, despite being 40 years his junior, younger than most of the earl's children. Poet
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
praised the marriage in his ''
Gipsies Metamorphos'd'' (1621), writing "An old man's wife is the light of his life". During the earl's lifetime, Frances enjoyed great prestige in the English court.
The court physician
Théodore de Mayerne
Sir Théodore Turquet de Mayerne (28 September 1573 – 22 March 1655) was a Genevan-born physician who treated kings of France and England and advanced the theories of Paracelsus. The Young Doctor
Mayerne was born in a Huguenot family in Gen ...
treated her for melancholy in November 1614. In 1617 the Exeters intervened to protect the interests of his grandson
illiam Cecil, 16th Baron de Rosin his marital dispute. Sir Thomas Lake and his wife accused Frances of adultery with Lord Ros - an accusation which led the Exeters to successfully bring a case in
Star Chamber
The Star Chamber (Latin: ''Camera stellata'') was an English court that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late to the mid-17th century (c. 1641), and was composed of Privy Counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the judic ...
against her accusers.
After a serious illness contracted in late 1622, Thomas died in February 1623. Widowed again, Frances devoted herself to getting her daughter, Margaret, a husband, settling on MP
Thomas Carey Thomas or Tom Carey may refer to:
*Thomas Carey (Australian politician) (1830s–1884), Australian politician and surveyor
*Thomas Carey (baritone) (1931–2002), American opera singer
* Thomas Carey (cricketer) (1903–1966), American-born Irish c ...
. In the 1630s, the countess had her portrait painted by
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy.
The seventh c ...
. This portrait was lost in the 19th century, surviving in engraved and drawn copies. Frances lived another 30 years, as her daughter was widowed and remarried to
Edward Herbert. Cecil died in 1663, between 20 January and 17 July, when her will was signed and probated, respectively. Thomas Cecil reserved a space for her in his monument at
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 United ...
, but Frances chose instead to have her grave in the floor of
Winchester Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity,Historic England. "Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (1095509)". ''National Heritage List for England''. Retrieved 8 September 2014. Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Swithun, commonly known as Winches ...
.
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References
1580 births
1663 deaths
Burials at Winchester Cathedral
Exeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
Daughters of barons
17th-century English women
17th-century English nobility
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