![Susan Bertie, Countess of Kent](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Susan_Bertie%2C_Countess_of_Kent.jpg)
Susan Bertie (born 1554) was the daughter of
Catherine Duchess of Suffolk, ''née'' Willoughby, by her second husband,
Richard Bertie. Susan was the
noblewoman
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...
memorialized by
Lanyer at the beginning of the ''Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum'' (1611) as the "daughter of the Duchess of Suffolk." At sixteen years of age, she married
Reginald Grey of Wrest, who was later restored as the fifth
Earl of Kent
The peerage title Earl of Kent has been created eight times in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In fiction, the Earl of Kent is also known as a prominent supporting character in William Shakespeare's tragedy K ...
. Widowed at age nineteen, Susan, now Dowager Countess of Kent, remarried to Sir John Wingfield in 1581 at age twenty-seven.
Early life
Susan was the first child of her mother's second marriage. Born one year after Susan was a brother,
Peregrine Bertie, who later succeeded his mother
Catherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby
Katherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, ''suo jure'' 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby ( Willoughby; 22 March 1519 – 19 September 1580), was an English noblewoman living at the courts of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I. ...
as the 13th
Baron Willoughby de Eresby
Baron Willoughby de Eresby ( ) is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1313 for Robert de Willoughby. Since 1983, the title has been held by Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 28th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby.
History
The ...
.
The dowager duchess and her second husband, devout
Protestants
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
, went into
exile
Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
on the Continent with Susan and her brother for the remainder of the Catholic Queen
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
's reign, only returning in 1559 to the duchess’s elaborate manor house of
Grimsthorpe in Lincolnshire after the accession of Queen
Elizabeth
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to:
People
* Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name)
* Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist
Ships
* HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships
* ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...
, Susan being five years of age.
A record of clothes bought for Susan, her siblings, and the Bertie household in 1561 mentions Susan's farthingale, her Dutch gown of crimson satin, a gold cawl or hairnet, the finding of a brooch she lost, and a lute bought for her and her brother Peregine. A portrait of Peregine and Susan was painted in 1562.
[''HMC Earl of Ancaster'' (London, 1907) pp. 461–2, 468.]
In 1570, at the age of sixteen, Susan married
Reginald Grey of Wrest, and, of course, left
Grimsthorpe. Known at time of his marriage as "Master Grey", Susan's husband was restored as
Earl of Kent
The peerage title Earl of Kent has been created eight times in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In fiction, the Earl of Kent is also known as a prominent supporting character in William Shakespeare's tragedy K ...
by 28 March 1572, and Susan became ''Countess of Kent''. A year later, on 15 March 1573, the earl died.
Because the Earl and Countess of Kent had been childless, however, the heir to the earldom was the earl's thirty-three-year-old younger brother, styled until then
Henry Lord Grey of Ruthin. Susan Bertie Grey, now nineteen and Dowager Countess of Kent, and presumably unable to continue living in the new
Earl of Kent
The peerage title Earl of Kent has been created eight times in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In fiction, the Earl of Kent is also known as a prominent supporting character in William Shakespeare's tragedy K ...
's inherited residence, may at this time have been invited to live at Court. If so, the invitation was presumably issued at the behest of Queen
Elizabeth I
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".
El ...
, who often kept a benevolent watch over younger ladies of the
peerage
A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks.
Peerages include:
Australia
* Australian peers
Belgium
* Belgi ...
in Susan's situation – certainly the queen would take an angry interest in Susan's remarriage in 1581.
Second marriage
Her second husband, Sir
John Wingfield, was a nephew of
Bess of Hardwick
Elizabeth Cavendish, later Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury ( Hardwick; c. 1527 13 February 1608), known as Bess of Hardwick, of Hardwick Hall, Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, was a notable figure of Elizabethan English society. By a series ...
. They had two sons, Peregrine Wingfield, born in
Holland
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
, presumably named after her brother, and Robert Wingfield.
Aemilia Lanyer calls Susan Bertie "the Mistris of my youth, / The noble guide of my ungovern'd dayes." The poet was educated under the direction of the dowager Countess of Kent, whose
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
circle had a profound influence on the young Lanyer. The practice of being sent from one's family to be trained up in service in an aristocratic household, like that of Susan's, was then widespread.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bertie, Susan, Countess of Kent
Kent, Susan Bertie, Countess of
English Protestants
Marian exiles
1554 births
Year of death missing
16th-century English nobility
16th-century English women
16th-century Protestants
Willoughby family
Susan Bertie, Countess of Kent
Susan Bertie (born 1554) was the daughter of Catherine Duchess of Suffolk, ''née'' Willoughby, by her second husband, Richard Bertie. Susan was the noblewoman memorialized by Lanyer at the beginning of the ''Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum'' (1611 ...
Susan
Susan
Daughters of barons
English people of Spanish descent