Lady Anne Clifford
Lady Anne Clifford, portrait by William Larkin, National Portrait Gallery, London[1]
14th Baroness de Clifford
Reign1605–1676
PredecessorGeorge Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland
SuccessorNicholas Tufton, 3rd Earl of Thanet
Born30 January 1590
Skipton Castle, England
Died22 March 1676(1676-03-22) (aged 86)
BuriedSt Lawrence's Church, Appleby
Noble familyClifford
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1609; died 1624)​
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1630; died 1650)​
    Issue
    • Margaret Tufton, Countess of Thanet
    • Isabella Compton, Countess of Northampton
    FatherGeorge Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland
    MotherLady Margaret Russell
    The Great Picture, a huge triptych measuring 8ft 5" high and 16ft 2" wide, commissioned in 1646 by Anne Clifford, attributed to Jan van Belcamp (1610–1653), formerly hanging in Appleby Castle and now displayed in the Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal, Cumbria. It depicts Anne as a girl at left and as a mature woman at right. The central panel shows her parents and young brothers. The painting is replete with significant elements referring to her life and to her succession to her paternal inheritance, gained after a lengthy legal dispute.[2]

    Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery, suo jure 14th Baroness de Clifford (30 January 1590 – 22 March 1676)[3] was an English peeress. In 1605 she inherited her father's ancient barony by writ and became suo jure 14th Baroness de Clifford. She was a patron of literature and as evidenced by her diary and many letters was a literary personage in her own right. She held the hereditary office of High Sheriff of Westmorland which role she exercised from 1653 to 1676.[4]

    Origins

    Lady Anne was born on 30 January 1590 in Skipton Castle, and was baptised the following 22 February in Holy Trinity Church in Skipton in the West Riding of Yorkshire. She was the only surviving child and sole heiress of George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland (1558–1605) of Appleby Castle in Westmorland and of Skipton Castle, by his wife, Lady Margaret Russell, daughter of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford. Her childhood tutor was the poet Samuel Daniel.[4]

    Inheritance

    On the death of her father on 30 October 1605, she succeeded suo jure to the ancient title Baroness de Clifford, a barony created by writ in 1299, but her father's earldom passed (according to the patent of its creation) as was usual, to the heir male, namely his younger brother Francis Clifford, 4th Earl of Cumberland (1559–1641), to whom he had willed his estates. He had bequeathed to Anne the sum of £15,000. In her young adulthood, she engaged in a long and complex legal battle to obtain the family estates, which had been granted by King Edward II (1307–1327) under absolute cognatic primogeniture, instead of the £15,000 willed to her.[4]

    Her main argument was that she was just 15 years old at the time. In January 1617, the queen, Anne of Denmark, encouraged Anne Clifford to pursue her claim and not accept a settlement promoted by James VI and I.[5] It was not until the death in 1643 without a male heir of Henry Clifford, 5th Earl of Cumberland, the 4th Earl's only son, that Anne Clifford managed to regain the family estates, although she did not obtain possession until 1649.[6]

    Early years

    Her parents' marriage was soured by the deaths of Anne's two elder brothers before the ages of 5 and her parents lived apart for most of her childhood. The strain of the marriage was seen in the public realm as well, especially after the separation. Her father maintained an important position at the court of Elizabeth I, while her mother received no recognition in regard to her husband at court. As her parents were separated, her mother maintained a matriarchal position in her house, for the family was kept under her care.[7] She was brought up in an almost entirely female household—evoked in Emilia Lanier's Description of Cookeham—and received an excellent education from her tutor, Samuel Daniel the poet. As a child, she was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I.

    She danced in masques with Queen Anne of Denmark, consort of King James I,[8] and played the Nymph of the Air in Samuel Daniel's masque Tethys's Festival, and played roles in several of the early court masques by Ben Jonson, including The Masque of Beauty (1608) and The Masque of Queens (1609).[9] In April 1613 she joined Anne of Denmark's progress to Bath.[10]

    Marriages and children

    Lady Anne depicted with her second Husband, Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and his Family by Van Dyck. (Wilton House)

    Lady Anne married twice:

    Both marriages were reportedly difficult; contemporaries cited Lady Anne's unyielding personality as a cause, whilst her cousin Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford, compared her to the River Rhone.[13] A more sympathetic viewpoint would attribute some of the troubles in her first marriage to her husband's extravagance and his infidelities. Her first husband was a prominent figure at court. Her disagreement with her husband over her inheritance claims proved another source of difficulty within their marriage. Lord Dorset believed she should settle the inheritance case rather than pursue it.[14] A central conflict with her second husband lay in her decision to allow her younger daughter to make her own choice of husband.

    A list or catalogue of the household and family of the Earl and Countess of Dorset at Knole survives. It records the names and roles of servants. It includes two African servants, Grace Robinson, a maid in the laundry, and John Morockoe, who worked in the kitchen. Both are described as "Blackamoors".[15] Lady Anne frequently went to London, and met Lady Ruthin. Lady Ruthin was a contact at court, and took Anne Clifford's gifts to the queen Anne of Denmark, including a white satin gown embroidered with pearls and coloured silks.[16]

    Patron of arts

    The title page of a 1923 edition of Clifford's diaries.

    She was an important patron of literature and due to her own writings in the form of letters and the diary she kept from 1603 to 1616, was a literary figure in her own right. John Donne said of her that she could "discourse of all things from Predestination to Slea-silk".

    Anne Clifford attended the royal court in November 1617, wearing a "green damask gown embroidered, without a farthingale".[17] She gave Anne of Denmark an expensive satin skirt with £100 worth of embroidery.[18] She last saw King James in January 1620 at Whitehall Palace after a masque in the Banqueting House. The show was Ben Jonson's News from the New World Discovered in the Moon.[19]

    Jan van Belcamp painted a huge triptych portrait of Anne Clifford to her own design and specifications. Titled The Great Picture, it portrays Lady Anne at three points in her life: at age 56 (right), at age 15 (left), and before birth in her mother's womb (centre). In connection with the painting, Anne Clifford dated her own conception at 1 May 1589, an unusual act of precision.[20] The painting can now be seen in the Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal, Cumbria.

    Anne sent a miniature portrait of herself to her mother the Countess of Cumberland in June 1615, writing, "I have sent you my picture done in little, which some says is very like me, and others say it does me rather wrong than flatters me, I know you will accept the shadow of her whose substance is come from yourself. I hope you will requite me with the same kindness and let me have yours when either you come up to London, or when so ever any that draw pictures comes into those parts where now you are."[21]

    Building works

    In 1656 she erected the Countess Pillar near Brougham, Cumbria, in memory of her late mother. This was the site of her last meeting with her mother in 1616. On the low stone beside it, money was given to the poor on the anniversary of their parting. This is commemorated annually on 2 April.

    She restored churches at Appleby-in-Westmorland, Ninekirks, Brougham and Mallerstang. She was also responsible for the improvement and expansion of many of the Clifford family's castles across Northern England, including Skipton Castle in Yorkshire and Pendragon Castle, Brough Castle, Appleby Castle and Brougham Castle, all in Westmorland (now Cumbria).

    Later life and death

    Tomb effigy of Margaret Clifford, Lady Anne's mother,[22] in St Lawrence's Church, Appleby

    After inheriting her father's estates in Westmorland, when the remaining male heirs (her uncle and his son) died out, Lady Anne thus became a wealthy landowner. She was heavily involved with her tenants to the point of filing lawsuits against them and actively pursuing rents and debts owed to her. This was to be the demeanour of her power in later life, that of a direct landowner calling upon the traditions of the baronial class.[14] After moving north, she rotated her residence amongst her castles, living in various ones for several months to a year at a time. She died aged 86 at Brougham Castle, in the room in which her father had been born and her mother had died.[23] At her death she was the Dowager Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery. Her tomb and monument is in St Lawrence's Church, Appleby-in-Westmorland.[24][25]

    Notes

    1. ↑ Profile, theguardian.com, 3 October 2013; Retrieved 24 March 2014.
    2. ↑ "Abbot Hall".
    3. ↑ Clifford, D.H, ed. (1990). The Diaries of Lady Anne Clifford. Gloucestershire: Alan Sutton Publishing.
    4. 1 2 3 "Clifford, Anne" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
    5. ↑ Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590-1676 (Manchester, 2018), pp. 48, 234: Eva Griffith, A Jacobean Company and its Playhouse: The Queen's Servants at the Red Bull Theatre (Cambridge, 2013), p. 129.
    6. ↑ DeMers, p. 123.
    7. ↑ Seelig, Sharon. Autobiography and Gender in Early Modern Literature: Reading Women's Lives 1600–1680. Cambridge University Press.
    8. ↑ Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590-1676 (Manchester, 2018), p. 100.
    9. ↑ Eva Griffith, A Jacobean Company and its Playhouse: The Queen's Servants at the Red Bull Theatre (Cambridge, 2013), p. 129.
    10. ↑ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 2 (London, 1828), p. 628.
    11. ↑ HMC 7th Report (More Molyneux) (London, 1879), p. 668.
    12. ↑ Courtney Erin Thomas, If I lose Mine Honour I Lose Myself (Toronto, 2017), p 106.
    13. ↑ Richardson, p. 117.
    14. 1 2 Hodgkin, Katharine (1985). "The Diary of Lady Anne Clifford: A Study of Class and Gender in the Seventeenth Century". History Workshop. 19: 148–161. doi:10.1093/hwj/19.1.148.
    15. ↑ D. J. H. Clifford, The Diaries of Lady Anne Clifford (Stroud, 1990), pp. 274-6.
    16. ↑ D. J. H. Clifford, The Diaries of Lady Anne Clifford (Stroud, 1990), p. 64.
    17. ↑ Jane Ashelford, The Art of Dress, Clothes and Society (National Trust, 1996), pp. 63-4.
    18. ↑ Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590-1676 (Manchester, 2018), pp. 3, 69.
    19. ↑ Jessica L. Malay, Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590-1676 (Manchester, 2018), p. 229.
    20. ↑ Snook, p. 1
    21. ↑ HMC 11th Report Appendix Part VII: Lord Hothfield (London, 1888), p. 83 spelling modernised here.
    22. ↑ "Lady Anne Clifford's story, Historic England".
    23. ↑ "Appleby Castle". Castle Explorer. Archived from the original on 24 December 2007. Retrieved 1 December 2007.
    24. ↑ English Heritage Lady Anne Clifford
    25. ↑ Geograph Photograph and description of Lady Anne Clifford's tomb

    References

    • Clifford, Lady Anne (2009). Clifford, D. J. H. (ed.). The Diaries of Lady Anne Clifford. Gloucestershire: The History Press.
    • Demers, Patrica A. (2005). Women's Writing in English: Early Modern England. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
    • Holmes, Martin (1975). Proud Northern Lady: Lady Anne Clifford 1590-1676. Phillimore & Co. (reprinted many times)
    • Richardson, Jerusha D. (1899). Famous Ladies of the English Court. H. Stone.
    • Snook, Edith (2005). Women, Reading, and the Cultural Politics of Early Modern England. London: Ashgate.
    • Williamson, George (1967). Lady Anne Clifford Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery 1590–1676: Her Life, Letters, and Work (2nd ed.). East Ardley: S.R. Publishers.

    Further reading

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