Anne Killigrew | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Baptised | 7 September 1607 |
| Died | 6 July 1641  |
| Spouse(s) | George Kirke |
| Children | Charles Kirke |
| Parent(s) | |
Anne Killigrew (baptised 7 September 1607, died 6 July 1641) was a Lady in Waiting to Queen Henrietta Maria, and the first wife of George Kirke (d. 1675) who was Groom of the Chamber to Charles I of England. [1]
Anne Killigrew was the eldest daughter of Sir Robert Killigrew and Mary Woodhouse. Her parents had twelve children, seven of them girls. Anne Killigrew was baptized on 7 September 1607 at Hanworth, in what was then Middlesex. [1]
Charles I of England may have helped to arrange her marriage to George Kirke, his Groom of the Chamber. The king attended their wedding, on 4 January 1627, [1] and gave the couple an 80-year lease on the royal manor of Sheriff Hutton, Yorkshire. George Kirke retained the tenancy until 1650. [2]
Anne's children include:
A number of Anne's relatives held positions in the royal household, and Anne herself became a maid-of-honour to Queen Henrietta Maria in 1631. [1] In January 1633 Anne took the part of Camena in Walter Montagu's Shepherd's Paradise , an amusement in which the Queen and a number of her ladies took speaking parts. [3] [1] [4]
Anne Kirke was appointed a dresser to Henrietta Maria in April 1637, [1] Sophia Carew had been a rival for the position. [5]
She is known to have been painted twice by Anthony van Dyck, once standing by herself [1] and once seated with a fellow lady-in-waiting, variously suggested to be Anne Dalkeith [6] or Charlotte, Lady Strange, Later Countess of Derby. [7] [8]
Anne Kirke drowned at London Bridge on 6 July 1641, in an accident in which the royal barge capsized. [2] The rest of the passengers were rescued, including Lord Denbigh, his daughter Elizabeth, Lady Kinalmeaky, and Lady Cornwallis. [9] Thomas Wiseman wrote, "The Court is very sad by reason of a great mishap happened to a barge coming through London Bridge, wherein were diverse ladies, and amongst the rest Mrs Kirke drowned. The barge fell on a piece of timber across the lock, and so was cast away. Lady Cornwallis, it is thought will not live". [10] Some reports explained the barge was "shooting the bridge" a phrase used for traversing the rapid water. [11]
Anne was buried in Westminster Abbey on 9 July 1641. [12] [13] It was reported that Queen Henrietta Maria, who had not been on the royal barge at the time of the accident, had "taken very heavily the news, and, they say, shed tears for her." [1]
This tragedy was the subject of several poems including; Robert Heath's Epicedium on the Beautiful Lady Mrs A. K. unfortunately drowned by chance in the Thames in passing the Bridge, [12] [14] Henry King's An Elegy upon Mrs. Kirk unfortunately drowned in Thames, [15] and elegies by Henry Glapthorne [16] and Constantijn Huygens. [17]
Anne Killigrew's brother Henry Killigrew (1613–1700) named his daughter, the future poet and painter Anne Killigrew (1660-1685). She composed the poem On my Aunt Mrs A. K. drown'd under London-bridge in the Queen's Bardge Anno 1641, published in Poems (1686). [18]
Anne Stuart was the daughter of King Charles I and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France. She was one of the couple's three children to die in childhood.
Sir Robert Killigrew (1580–1633) was an English courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1601 and 1629. He served as Ambassador to the United Provinces.
Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of Saint Albans was an English Royalist politician, diplomat and courtier.
William Feilding, 1st Earl of Denbigh was an English courtier. As brother-in-law of the royal favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, he became involved in major political, military and diplomatic events during the latter part of the reign of James I and under Charles I.
Anne Killigrew (1660–1685) was an English poet and painter, described by contemporaries as "A Grace for beauty, and a Muse for wit." Born in London, she and her family were active in literary and court circles. Killigrew's poems were circulated in manuscript and collected and published posthumously in 1686 after she died from smallpox at age 25. They have been reprinted several times by modern scholars, most recently and thoroughly by Margaret J. M. Ezell.
A maid of honour is a junior attendant of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts.
Emilia Butler, Countess of Ossory, born Æmilia van Nassau-Beverweerd, was an Anglo-Dutch courtier.
Anne Stanley, Countess of Ancram was an English aristocrat.
Killigrew is a surname of Cornish origin. Notable people with this surname include:
Elizabeth Boyle, Countess of Guildford, was an English peeress. She was created 1st Countess of Guildford for life at the Restoration on 14 July 1660, which became extinct upon her death c. 3 September 1667. She held the office of Groom of the Stole and Lady of the Bedchamber to the queen dowager, Henrietta Maria.
The Prisoners is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Thomas Killigrew. It was premiered onstage c. 1635, acted by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre; and was first printed in 1641. Killigrew's first play, The Prisoners inaugurated its author's playwriting career.
Honouring individuals buried in Westminster Abbey has a long tradition. Over 3,300 people are buried or commemorated in the abbey. For much of the abbey's history, most of the people buried there besides monarchs were people with a connection to the church – either ordinary locals or the monks of the abbey itself, who were generally buried without surviving markers. Since the 18th century, it has become a prestigious honour for any British person to be buried or commemorated in the abbey, a practice much boosted by the lavish funeral and monument of Isaac Newton, who died in 1727. By 1900, so many prominent figures were buried in the abbey that the writer William Morris called it a "National Valhalla".
Charlotte Jemima Henrietta Maria Paston, Countess of Yarmouth was one of the many acknowledged illegitimate children of Charles II of England.
Sir William Killigrew of Hanworth, Middlesex, was a courtier to Queen Elizabeth I and to her successor King James I, whom he served as Groom of the Privy Chamber. He served as a member of parliament at various times between 1571 and 1614 and was Chamberlain of the Exchequer between 1605 and 1608. Several of his descendants were also royal courtiers and many were buried in Westminster Abbey.
Sir Thomas Stafford was an English courtier, politician, and historian of the Irish Wars. He sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1593 and 1625.
Mary Woodhouse, Lady Killigrew, musician and correspondent of Constantijn Huygens, was the daughter of Henry Woodhouse (MP) of Hickling and Waxham, and Anne Bacon, daughter of Sir Nicholas Bacon. She may have been the "Woodhouse" appointed Maid of Honour to Anne of Denmark in December 1603.
Cecilia Crofts, courtier and maid of honour to Henrietta Maria, subject of poems.
George Kirke was a Scottish-born courtier and Member of Parliament for Clitheroe.
Thomazine or Thomasina or Thomasine Carew was an English courtier.
Mother of the Maids was a position at the English royal court. The Mother of the Maids was responsible for the well-being and decorum of maids of honour, young gentlewomen in the household of a queen regnant or queen consort.