Cecilia Crofts

Last updated

Cecilia Crofts (died 1638), courtier and maid of honour to Henrietta Maria, subject of poems.

Cecilia Crofts was the sixth daughter of Sir John Crofts (1563-1628) of Little Saxham, Suffolk, and Mary Shirley daughter of Sir Thomas Shirley of Witneston or Wiston. [1] Her eldest brother was Henry Crofts.

Cecilia Killigrew, after a portrait by Antony van Dyck Wenceslas Hollar - Mrs Killigrew (State 2).jpg
Cecilia Killigrew, after a portrait by Antony van Dyck

King James I was entertained by Sir John Crofts at Little Saxham with a masque and in February 1620 the "fair sisters" put on or planned another masque for Shrove Tuesday "of their own invention". There was a masque for the king at Little Saxham in December 1621. [2] A masque text survives, known as "The Vision of the Nine Goddesses" performed by the eight Croft sisters including Cecilia Crofts, Dorothy, Lady Bennet, and Anne Crofts, Lady Wentworth. Each of the goddesses was introduced by a verse sung an actor playing Apollo, but the text does not say which sister played which goddess. [3]

Around this time Simonds d'Ewes recorded a rumour that the king had married "Sissilia Crafts", a woman he might have married himself, if he had the means. [4] King James had given one of Sir John Croft's unmarried daughters, probably Cecilia, a carcanet or necklace worth £500 on Shrove Tuesday 1620. [5] James denied the rumour in March 1622, declaring he was "King of the most lying nation in the world". [6]

In 1631 she competed with Richard Forster to gain the profits and rents of four coal mines at Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne; Stumple Wood Head, Crossflatt, Goreflat, and Meadow Fields. Her brother Anthony Crofts and Lord Goring assisted her successful counter-petition. Forster had to settle with Sir Peter Riddell of Gateshead, the entrepreneur who owned the mines. [7]

Cecilia Crofts took part in Walter Montagu's masque The Shepherd's Paradise at Somerset House in 1633. [8] Sir Robert Ayton's poem, Upon Platonic Love: To Mistress Cicely Crofts: Maid of Honour, has been connected with the treatment of neo-Platonism in Montagu's masque, but may have been written in earlier years. Sir John Suckling's To Mrs Cicely Crofts deals with corporality, "You are all ethereal; there's in you no dross".

In 1636 she married Thomas Killigrew a courtier and playwright, son of Robert Killigrew and Mary Woodhouse. [9]

Killigrew wrote that Thomas Carew, a gentleman of the king's chamber, composed a song Jealousy: A Dialogue, after seeing them argue before their wedding, and it was performed in a masque at Whitehall Palace in 1633. Killigrew included the poem in his closet drama Cicilia and Clorinda first published in 1664. Carew also wrote a poem on their wedding, On the Marriage of T. K. and C. C., the morning stormie. [10]

Her nephew William Crofts, known as "mad cap Crofts", was master of horse to Henrietta Maria. His brother was shot in the head by Jeffrey Hudson, the queen's court dwarf, in a duel in France in 1644. [11]

She died on 1 January 1638, leaving a son Henry or Harry Killigrew, baptised 16 April 1637 at St Martin-in-the-Fields. He married Mary Savage, daughter of John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers and died in 1705.

Her portrait by Anthony van Dyck was engraved by Wenceslaus Hollar.

Francis Quarles wrote an elegy, Sighes at the contemporary deaths of those incomparable sisters, the Countesse of Cleaveland, and Mistrisse Cicily Killegrue, daughters of Sir Iohn Crofts Knight of Saxom Hall, in the Countie of Suffolke deceased, and his noble lady now living. Breathed forth by F.Q. (London, 1640).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Davenant</span> English poet and playwright (1606–1668)

Sir William Davenant, also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned both the Caroline and Restoration eras and who was active both before and after the English Civil War and during the Interregnum.

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1633.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Carew</span> English poet

Thomas Carew was an English poet, among the 'Cavalier' group of Caroline poets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Killigrew</span> English dramatist and theatre manager (1612–1683)

Thomas Killigrew was an English dramatist and theatre manager. He was a witty, dissolute figure at the court of King Charles II of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Killigrew</span> English courtier and politician

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.

Sir George Carew was an English diplomat, historian and Member of Parliament.

Aurelian Townshend was a seventeenth-century English poet and playwright.

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.

This is a list of events that occurred in the year 1638 in art.

The Shepherd's Paradise was a Caroline era masque, written by Walter Montagu and designed by Inigo Jones. Acted in 1633 by Queen Henrietta Maria and her ladies in waiting, it was noteworthy as the first masque in which the Queen and her ladies filled speaking roles. Along with Tempe Restored (1632), The Shepherd's Paradise marked a step in the evolution in attitudes and practices that led to the acceptance of women onstage during the coming Restoration era.

Luminalia or The Festival of Light was a late Caroline era masque or "operatic show", with an English libretto by Sir William Davenant, designs by Inigo Jones, and music by composer Nicholas Lanier. Performed by Queen Henrietta Maria and her ladies in waiting on Shrove Tuesday, 6 February 1638, it was one of the last and most spectacular of the masques staged at the Stuart Court.

Cicilia and Clorinda, or Love in Arms is a 17th-century closet drama, a two-part, ten-Act tragicomedy by Thomas Killigrew. The work was composed in Italy c. 1650–51, and first published in 1664.

Sir Henry Crofts was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1660.

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.

William Crofts, 1st Baron Crofts (c.1611–1677) was an English baron and Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles II.

<i>Portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew</i> 1638 portrait by Anthony van Dyck

Portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killgrew is a 1638 Baroque portrait by the Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck. The portrait is twinned with another of the Lady's husband, William Killigrew.

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.

George Kirke was a Scottish-born courtier and Member of Parliament for Clitheroe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Killigrew (lady-in-waiting)</span>

Anne Killigrew was a Lady in Waiting to Queen Henrietta Maria, and the first wife of George Kirke who was Groom of the Chamber to Charles I of England.

Thomazine or Thomasina or Thomasine Carew was an English courtier.

References

  1. ↑ J. Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies (London, 1841), p. 142.
  2. ↑ John Nichols, The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of King James the First (London, 1828), p. 587: Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, vol. 2 (Philadelphia, 1939), pp. 288, 292, 471.
  3. ↑ C. E. McGee,'The Visit of the Nine Goddesses: A Masque at Sir John Croft's house', English Literary Renaissance, 21:3 (1991), pp. 371-84.
  4. ↑ C. E. McGee,'The Visit of the Nine Goddesses: A Masque at Sir John Croft's house', English Literary Renaissance, 21:3 (1991), p. 374: Elizabeth Bourcier, The Diary of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (Paris, 1974), p. 66.
  5. ↑ Martin Butler, 'Jonson's "News from the New World", the "Running Masque," and the Season of 1619–20', Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England vol. 6 (1993), pp. 153-178, p. 175: Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, vol. 2 (Philadelphia, 1939), pp. 292-3.
  6. ↑ Mary Anne Everett Green, CSP Domestic James I: 1619-1623 (London, 1858), p. 361.
  7. ↑ William Douglas Hamilton & Sophia Crawford Lomas, CSP Domestic Charles I: 1631-1633 (London, ), pp. 241, 282: John Bruce & William Douglas Hamilton, CSP Domestic Charles I: 1638-1639 (London, 1871), p. 258: William Douglas Hamilton, CSP Domestic Charles I: 1640 (London, 1880), p. 126-7.
  8. ↑ Sarah Poynting, 'Henrietta Maria's Notorious Whores', Clare McManus, Women and Culture at the Courts of the Stuart Queens (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), p. 167.
  9. ↑ Sarah Poynting, 'Henrietta Maria's Notorious Whores', Clare McManus, Women and Culture at the Courts of the Stuart Queens (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), p. 167.
  10. ↑ W. Carew Hazlitt, The Poems of Thomas Carew (London, 1870), pp. 77-8, 103-4.
  11. ↑ Mary Anne Everett Green, Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria (London, 1857), p. 260.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.