Part III of IV, The Very Merry Maids-of-Honor Class of 1591
“The Queen’s Maids have had a good year of this. Master Dudley is forbidden the court for kissing Mistress Cavendish in the Presence (Chamber), being his wife, it is said. Mrs. Wingfield is Mother of the Maids that are, but it is said that Mr. Vavasour is in for Mistress Southwell’s lame leg, but fie!
Burn this letter!”
- William Fowler, October 27, 1591, from St. James Palace
A Recap on Orlando Furioso and the “Corruption” of Maidenly Morality
Queen Elizabeth I’s court was not just a hub of political intrigue, but also a playground for the scandalous effects of controversial literature. The English translation of Orlando Furioso in 1591 set tongues wagging and glances wandering, especially between the Queen’s Maids-of-Honor and male courtiers. Whispers of moral corruption swirled. Whether maidenly missteps were purely personal, or influenced by the bold themes of love, betrayal, and chivalry in this daring Italian epic forbidden to them, these young women seemed determined to challenge the limits of both the Queen’s authority and their own virtue. Before we continue exploring the furtive frolics in which Queen Elizabeth’s Maids-of-Honor engaged right under her nose in 1591, let’s do a quick tally of results from the prior post:
Elizabeth Southwell Banished for a bastard by Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex. Thomas Vavasour imprisoned instead of Essex.
Margaret Cavendish Banished for marrying young Robert Dudley without permission. Young Dudley imprisoned.
Frances Vavasour Banished for marrying Thomas Sherley without permission while betrothed to young Robert Dudley. Sherley was simultaneously courting Frances Brooke, twin sister to Robert Cecil’s wife. Frances and Sherley both banished.
With three of three Maids banished from court, William Fowler’s description above distinguishing “the Maids that were” from “the Maids that are” makes the circumstances at court perfectly plain. Maids who married without the Queen’s permission were summarily dismissed and banished; the number of Maids that remained dwindled. One lucky courtier, Thomas Sherley, shared their fate, while both young Robert Dudley and chivalrous, but none-too-bright Thomas Vavasour cooled their heels and ardor in the Tower of London. Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex skedaddled to the wars before the truth of his paternity leaked out. But neither the Maids nor the year is finished yet, and we have not yet addressed the surprise pregnancies, so let’s see what happened next!
Pregnancy, Marriage and . . . the Tower of London?
Maid #4, Catherine Leigh was “brought to bed in the court” for delivery of a daughter during this same infamous year. Unlike the Earl of Essex, Sir Francis Darcy, owned up to his role honorably and married Catherine surreptitiously. She, he, the baby and the soon-to-be-Ex-Mother of the Maids-of-Honor, Mrs. Elizabeth Jones, were all sent to the Tower for the indiscretion. When their first marriage was declared invalid, Catherine and Darcy married a second time in August of 1592 while both remained prisoners in the Tower.
Catherine was not the first Maid-of-Honor who managed to keep her pregnancy under wraps until delivery of her baby in one of the royal palaces without the Queen’s having noticed she was pregnant. This pattern of Maids successfully concealing their pregnancies until literally the last moments lets us in on a few sub-sub-rosa Elizabethan secrets: these young women, who lived together dormitory-style in a room dubbed “the Maidens’ Chamber” wherever the Queen held her court, slept, dressed and lived closely together. They must have had their own internal code of honor, because they protected each other and their most private confidences from the Queen. Some of them must have been very clever with their needles to disguise full blown pregnancies with ever-expandable fashions. Yet no Maid seems to have betrayed another Maid for misconduct. Only they know how many more trysts, pregnancies, miscarriages and closeted births have not yet come to light.
To the disgrace (so far) of four Maids-of-Honor in 1591, let’s add a former Maid-of-Honor, Elizabeth Throckmorton. She covertly wed Sir Walter Raleigh in the autumn of that same infamous year while she was a Lady of the Privy Chamber to the Queen. The reason for their legal union, which lacked the Queen’s blessing, was exposed when their daughter was born in March 1592. Predictably, the news gave the overwrought Queen apoplexy in May when she heard of it. She sent Elizabeth Throckmorton, Raleigh and their baby (guess where!) to the Tower.
To her credit, in 1591, Maid #5, Elizabeth Vere was a model Maid-of-Honor. She delayed her own scandalous affair until after her 1595 marriage blessed by the Queen to William Stanley, 6th Earl of Darby. Her choice of extra-marital lover and the reason for her fall from grace? Well, what else but the irresistible dark ringlets of one of the three serial seducers from the last post (all of whom were named “Robert”), Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex back from the wars.
Was Love Also “Banished” from Elizabeth’s Court in 1591?
If it seems that affairs and bastard babies were the only outcomes of 1591’s whirlwind of passion fueled by the English translation of Orlando Furioso, what of love itself? Did love have no place of honor at Elizabeth’s court that year? Richard Brackenburg wrote Essex in October of 1591 on that very topic: “Love here is almost banished, and some flieth over the seas, as from Mistress Cavendish’s mind.”
But, I promise that not all love’s labors were lost in 1591. There is still that little word “almost” before “banished” in Brackenberg’s epistle. We will see what happened to the two remaining Maids in the next post!
Curious to learn details about the Maids “that were” who are not covered in this post? Be sure to check out the other parts of this series and stay tuned for the final installment.
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