Anne Calthorpe, Countess of Sussex

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Anne Calthorpe
Countess of Sussex
Baroness FitzWalter
Viscountess FitzWalter
BornUnknown
Norfolk, England
DiedBetween 22 August 1579 and 28 March 1582
Unknown
Spouse(s) Henry Radcliffe, 2nd Earl of Sussex
Andrew Wyse
IssueEgremont Radcliffe
Maud Radcliffe
Frances Radcliffe
Elizabeth Wyse
Anthony Wyse
FatherSir Philip Calthorpe
MotherJane Blennerhassett
Occupation Lady-in-waiting

Anne Calthorpe, Countess of Sussex (died between 22 August 1579 and 28 March 1582) was an English courtier. She was the second wife of Henry Radcliffe, 2nd Earl of Sussex, who divorced her in 1555 on the grounds of her alleged bigamous marriage to Sir Edmund Knyvet, and her "unnatural and unkind" character.

Contents

She served as a lady-in-waiting in the household of Queen consort Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII, and shared her Reformed beliefs. She was implicated in the heresy of Anne Askew. In 1552, she was sent to the Tower of London for having practised sorcery and having made "treasonous prophecies".

Family

Anne was the daughter of Sir Philip Calthorpe of Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk and his second wife, Jane Blennerhassett. Anne had an older half-brother Sir Philip Calthorpe who married Jane Boleyn, paternal aunt of Queen Anne Boleyn. [1]

First Marriage

Sometime before 21 November 1538, she married as his second wife, Henry Radcliffe, heir to the earldom of Sussex, whose wife, Elizabeth Howard had died in 1537. He was a second cousin of King Henry VIII of England as they shared Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers and Jacquetta of Luxembourg as great-grandparents.

Together Henry and Anne had three children:

Anne had two stepsons, Thomas and Henry from her husband's first marriage.

On 27 November 1542, her husband succeeded as the 2nd Earl of Sussex, and from that date onward, she was styled Countess of Sussex. He also became the 11th Baron of FitzWalter, and the 2nd Viscount FitzWalter. In 1543, she went to court as a lady-in-waiting to the Queen, whose Reformed beliefs she shared. She was one of the Queen's ladies personally named by Anne Askew's interrogators. [2] She was questioned by a commission for "errors in scripture". [3] Her marriage to Radcliffe was not successful as they differed on religious issues. Between 1547 and 1549, they separated after he expelled her from their home, accusing her of having entered into a bigamous marriage with Sir Edmund Knyvet. In a letter written by Anne to her mother, she alleged that Radcliffe had thrown her out of his house without "money, men, women, or meat, and no more than two velvet gowns". [3]

Imprisonment and divorce

In September 1552, Anne was sent to the Tower of London for having practised sorcery and having made "treasonous prophecies". She was released five and a half months later. [3] Following the accession of Mary I to the English throne, Anne fled to the Continent to avoid persecution for her Protestant beliefs. In her absence, Radcliffe had a Bill introduced in Parliament against the "adulterous living of the late Countess of Sussex". [4] It didn't pass. He also attempted to bastardise their children with another Parliamentary Bill, [5] but this also failed to pass despite having been read three times in the House of Commons of England.

In 1555, he tried again with yet another Bill, this time to prevent her from enjoying her dowry or jointure rights which did pass; however, he no longer sought to bastardise her children. He described Anne as having been "unnatural and unkind". [3] They divorced on 13 November 1555. [6]

Return to England

Shortly after Radcliffe's death in February 1557, she returned to England. In his will, Radcliffe styled her as an "unkind wife". By April of that same year she was a prisoner in the Fleet. The following year, a Bill of Parliament settled the matter of her jointure, and by June 1559 she had married Andrew Wyse, a former Royal Officer in Ireland. [7]

By her second husband, Anne bore two more children:

Last years and death

Anne, her husband and their children returned to Ireland in 1564. She died sometime between 22 August 1579 and 28 March 1582. [ citation needed ]

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References

  1. ↑ Copinger, Walter Arthur; Copinger, Harold Bernard (1905). The Manors of Suffolk: The hundreds of Babergh and Blackbourn. p. 307.
  2. ↑ Anthony Martienssen, Queen Katherine Parr, p. 214
  3. 1 2 3 4 Kathy Lynn Emerson, A Who's Who of Tudor Women. Retrieved 12 August 2009.
  4. ↑ "House of Commons Journal Volume 1: 27 November 1553" . Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  5. ↑ "House of Commons Journal Volume 1: 02 December 1553" . Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  6. ↑ Profile, ThePeerage.com. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  7. ↑ CSPD 1547-1580. 1856. p. 131.
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