Compare How Mary de Vere Defied Her Brother, a Duchess, and Queen Elizabeth I to Choose Her Own Husband
- Mar 24
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 27
In Cymbeline, Shakespeare weaves a tale that resonates with Tudor realities. young noblewoman is told by her father whom she must marry. His heroine, Imogen, boldly refuses and risks everything.
Her defiance feels so genuine that we can't help but root for her. How did Shakespeare capture that emotional intensity? The charged exchanges between Imogen and her father reveal a woman willing to risk exile, even ruin, rather than marry a boastful fool, no matter how illustrious his lineage.
It’s almost too vivid to be fiction.
Unless it was inspired by a real woman from Elizabeth I's court.
In my last post, I promised to explore more Shakespearean heroines inspired by real Tudor noblewomen. 👉Shakespeare Was a Feminist. Really. Among these noblewomen, was there one whose story mirrors Imogen's closely enough to spark our curiosity?
Indeed, there was. Her name was Mary de Vere.
🍎 Avoiding the Rotten Apple
In Cymbeline, Imogen is intelligent, loyal, and politically savvy. Yet, her father, the King of Britain, plans to marry her to Cloten (rhymes with “rotten”), the boorish son of his second wife. Just how rotten is Cloten? He’s a gambler, arrogant, cowardly, dishonorable, hotheaded, foolish, and prone to crude sexual innuendos. Quite the catch, right?
Naturally, Imogen has other plans. Her heart belongs to a court outsider named Posthumus Leonatus. While brave, honorable, and accomplished, Posthumus is not the son-in-law her father envisioned for his little princess.
💓 A Real Love Match That No One Wanted Except the Lovers
You might already know Lady Mary de Vere, the young woman who received passionate, smuggled love letters. 👉 Love in Lockdown: How Peregrine Bertie Wrote a Secret Love Letter to Mary de Vere; and 👉 Canterbury Cathedral, Tudor Heroines, and My Writing Life.
Like many noble families, after their parents' deaths, Mary’s brother, Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, inherited the right to arrange her marriage. And he had someone in mind. But, like Imogen, Mary had her heart set on someone else.
His name was Peregrine Bertie.
Peregrine, like Posthumus, was a court outsider. He was born in Germany due to his parents' exile during Mary I’s reign. His formidable mother, Katherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, was one of England’s two remaining duchesses. His father, Richard Bertie, came from humble beginnings, rising through the Duchess’ household by marrying her after her first husband died.
It’s a bit like a reverse Cinderella story. (The Duchess ignored the scandal because she could—she was a duchess, after all.)
Despite their own love match, Peregrine’s parents had betrothal plans for him. Peregrine refused that match just as Oxford betrothed Mary to Gerald Fitzgerald, Lord Garret, heir to the Irish Earl of Kildare.
When the romance between Mary and Peregrine leaked, Peregrine found himself exiled from Mary, under house arrest at home, and writing passionate letters reminiscent of what Posthumus penned to Imogen.
Just a pile of historical coincidences? Perhaps. Keep them in mind.
⚔️ Four People Who Could Stop Her
Mary de Vere wasn’t just any earl’s daughter. She had been sworn in as a Lady of the Queen’s Privy Chamber, a prestigious position that kept her close to the Queen. This meant her marriage required approval from the highest levels.
Four people stood between Mary and her desired husband. At least three of them were fierce adversaries:
The Queen
Her brother
The Duchess
The Duchess’ husband (though we suspect Master Bertie agreed with whatever the Duchess wanted)
But Mary de Vere possessed tactical instincts worthy of a military commander. She wasn’t going quietly to Ireland.
👫 “You Bred Him as My Playfellow”
One of the most striking exchanges in Cymbeline occurs when the king confronts Imogen about her refusal to marry Cloten:
“Though took’st a beggar, wouldst have made my throne a seat for baseness.”
Compared to the Earl of Kildare’s heir, Peregrine looked socially thin and financially fragile—at least until his mother passed away.
Imogen reminds her father that Posthumus was raised at court alongside her.
“It is your fault that I have loved Posthumus. You bred him as my playfellow…”
Oxford, Peregrine, and Mary also grew up in close proximity, within the same Protestant, humanist circles, under the watchful eye of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, his wife Mildred Cooke Cecil, and her sister, Elizabeth Cooke Hoby. Mary and Peregrine’s attraction wasn’t sudden; they had been fond of each other for years.
Add more coincidences to the pile.
🦅 Knowing Your Falcons from Your Puttocks
The words Imogen then hurls at Cymbeline are very telling, especially if you know a thing or two about birds of prey. Shakespeare’s court audience certainly did, as they hunted with them.
“I chose an eagle, And did avoid a puttock.”
A puttock is a scavenger, aptly describing Lord Garret as well as rotten Cloten.
In 1594, Queen Elizabeth I wrote to her Lord Deputy in Ireland, instructing him to use “all good means” (i.e., force) to deal with Lord Garret (by then, Earl of Kildare). She wanted him to “let him know how the world speaks of him” (i.e., the court’s gossip was not flattering) and to end the “ill-usage” that his wife “had long endured” at his hands in Ireland. (Spoiler alert: Garret had married Frances Howard, not Mary, and he was truly rotten to her).
The Queen commanded that long-suffering Frances be sent home to her parents in England until her husband mended his ways. Her Majesty had heard enough of Kildare’s mistreatment of his wife.
On the other hand, an eagle, like a peregrine falcon, was a royal bird, trained to hunt, swift and noble in bearing.
Elizabethan audiences would have understood this symbolism immediately.
Peregrine.
In other words, Mary was right to choose Peregrine over Lord Garret, just as Imogen was right to choose Posthumus over Cloten.
Another coincidence? Or is something more deliberate at play?
📜 Calculated Courage
Imogen defies her father. She accepts exile and wanders in search of Posthumus rather than submit to marrying Cloten.
Mary, too, risked everything to marry Peregrine. If she lost, it would be a public spectacle.
We know how Mary escaped her unwanted betrothal from three extraordinary letters written in 1577 by the Duchess, a woman who married for love the second time around. She wrote to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, a man who understood the dire consequences of marrying for love (or was it lust?) against his father’s wishes. 👉 Cecil, In Love!
Mary de Vere did not act on a romantic whim. She acted on calculated courage. That is what heroines do.
🤨 Did Shakespeare Base Imogen's Details on Mary de Vere, or Is This Just Another Coincidence?
Imogen, as brave, intelligent, and steady under pressure as Shakespeare crafted her, is no passive victim.
Mary emerges from the historical record with similar qualities. Courageous, intelligent, and politically astute, she also had the risk tolerance to try to control her own future.
Was Mary de Vere the inspiration for details about Imogen?
History rarely provides tidy answers to Elizabethan secrets. Yet, it does present us with two more “coincidences.”
Imogen, exiled and weary, is overjoyed when she discovers two brothers she’d never met.
After her parents' death, Mary moved in with Elizabeth Cooke Hoby, sister to Burghley’s wife, Mildred Cooke Cecil. Elizabeth Hoby had lost her own two daughters and felt so warmly towards Mary that she referred to her as “my daughter.” Her two sons became as close as brothers to Mary.
How do we know?
The elder, Edward Hoby, later named his only child “Peregrine,” just like Mary’s husband.
And Shakespeare named Imogen’s husband “Posthumus,” after Elizabeth Hoby’s younger son.
Neither “Peregrine” nor “Posthumus” is a common English name. The fact that they appear together, within an intimate circle of Elizabeth I’s courtiers and closely associated with both Imogen and Mary de Vere, is rare indeed.
Is the stack of "coincidences" high enough to suggest that Shakespeare infused Imogen's story with details from Mary de Vere's life?
You decide. Let me know.
💋 The Scandal and the Next Secret
Next, the Duchess herself will unveil the scandalous part of Mary’s story. Once you spend a little time with the Duchess, you’ll understand why she was a formidable opponent and how much was required of Mary to win her over.
For an extra twist, we’ll explore whether the Duchess’ role in Mary’s affair inspired another unconventional Shakespearean heroine in The Winter’s Tale, or if it’s just another coincidence.
But for now, the battlefield positions are set.
The stakes are as high as Peregrine’s and Mary’s hearts.
He is locked up. His parents hold the key.
Mary is alone, surrounded by three powerful adversaries standing between her and her happy ending.
How will our heroine secure the man she desires?
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