Elizabeth Raleigh

Full-sized portrait of Elizabeth Raleigh, ca. 1600 by Robert Peake the Elder (ca. 1551–1619)

Elizabeth Raleigh (16 April 1565 – circa 1647), née Throckmorton, was Sir Walter Raleigh's wife, and a Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth I of England. Their secret marriage precipitated a long period of royal disfavour for both her and her husband.

History

Elizabeth, known also as "Bess", was the daughter of the diplomat Sir Nicholas Throckmorton and Anne Throckmorton née Carew. She and her brother Arthur were courtiers to Elizabeth I, and Bess is said to have been intelligent, forthright, passionate, and courageous. In due course, she and Raleigh, at least 11 years her senior, fell in love.

In her 1998 book, The Life of Elizabeth I, the British author and historian, Alison Weir states Throckmorton's and Raleigh's first child was conceived by July 1591. She states the couple was married "in great secrecy" in the autumn of 1591, and the child was born in March 1592. The child, a son, was christened Damerei, after Sir Walter's claimed ancestors, the D'Ameries. Damerei is also believed to have died of the plague during infancy.

Weir states that Queen Elizabeth first became aware in May 1592 of the secret marriage, and the birth of a son, despite both Bess and Sir Walter's denials. The couple married without royal permission, but, significantly, the Earl of Essex, for one, was in on the secret, acting as godfather to the Ralegh's son. Once the queen found out, she moved first to place both husband and wife under house arrest, and then sent them to the Tower of London in June 1592. Sir Walter was released from the Tower in August 1592. Bess was released in December of 1592, at which time she joined her husband at Sherborne Castle, his Dorset estate. Elizabeth expected the couple to sue for pardon, but they refused and Raleigh remained out of favour for five years.

The couple remained devoted to each other, although, according to Weir, Bess proved to be a domineering wife. Beer, Lady Ralegh's biographer, offers a different perspective, pointing out that due to Sir Walter's frequent absences, whether on expeditions, diplomatic duties, or indeed in prison, Bess had to shoulder an unusual level of responsibility for a woman of her time. Their second son, Walter was born in 1593, at Sherborne. The couple's third son was born in January 1605, by which time Sir Walter was a prisoner in the Tower of London. Named Carew, which was both Bess' mother's maiden name and the name of one of Walter's brothers, he was christened within the walls of the Tower, in the church of St Peter ad Vincula. After Raleigh's execution in 1618, she worked tirelessly to re-establish his reputation, and in 1628, saw a Bill of Restitution restore the Ralegh name 'in blood', allowing her one surviving son to inherit.

Bess is said to have had her husband's head embalmed, and carried it around with her for the rest of her life, although the only reference to Ralegh's head is from the day of his execution, when it was noted that Lady Ralegh and her ladies left the scene carrying Sir Walter's head in a red bag. An account from 1740 claims that, after her death, Raleigh's head was returned to his tomb in St. Margaret's Church.[1] but, even if this were true, it remains unclear where Ralegh's body was buried: it may have been released to Bess, as per her request, or even sent to Exeter, where his parents were buried.

Through both her parents, Elizabeth "Bess" Throckmorton had connections to Henry VIII. Her father, Nicholas Throckmorton, was the cousin of Henry's sixth wife, Queen Catherine Parr. Anne Carew, Elizabeth's mother, was the daughter of Nicholas Carew and Elizabeth Carew née Bryan. Nicholas had been a close friend of Henry's, from childhood until his execution in 1539. Alison Weir, in the book cited earlier, alleges that Elizabeth Carew had earlier been the mistress of Henry VIII, and that he had even given her jewels that should technically have belonged to the queen when she gave birth to her son. However, there exist no contemporaneous references to a possibility that any of Elizabeth's children were fathered by Henry.

Fictional depictions

Bessie Throckmorton is a major character in Edward German's 1902 operetta "Merrie England".

Elizabeth Throckmorton is the subject of Rosemary Sutcliff's novel Lady in Waiting (1956). Sutcliff usually refers to her as "Bess".

Elizabeth Throckmorton was a featured character in the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), and was played by Abbie Cornish. The movie shows her and Raleigh marrying prior to the Spanish Armada (1588), when in fact they married in 1591.

In the film The Virgin Queen (1955), Elizabeth Throckmorton (referred to as Beth Throgmorton in the film) is portrayed by Joan Collins. Bette Davis portrays Queen Elizabeth.

She appears briefly in A Dead Man In Deptford, Anthony Burgess's speculative fictional account of the life of playwright Christopher Marlowe.

Elizabeth Throckmorton appears briefly in the book "Shadow of Night" by Deborah Harkness as Queen Elizabeth's lady in waiting, and Walter Raleigh's lover.

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ Llyod, J & Mitchinson, J. The Book of General I.
  2. ↑ Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 103-104.

Further reading

External links

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