ELIZABETH THROCKMORTON (April 16, 1565-1647)

ELIZABETH THROCKMORTON (April 16, 1565-1647)

Elizabeth Throckmorton was the daughter of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton (1515-1571) and Anne Carew (d. 1587). She lived with her mother until she went to court as a maid of honor. She was sworn in at Hampton Court on November 8, 1584. In June 1591, she secretly wed Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-October 28, 1618). A son, Damerei (March 29,1592-October 1592), was born at Mile End, her brother Arthur's house. He was baptized on April 10, with Robert Devereux, earl of Essex, Arthur Throckmorton, and Arthur's wife, Anna Lucas, as godparents, then sent to Enfield to a Throckmorton relative while Elizabeth returned to court on April 12.The marriage could not be kept secret and the queen imprisoned both husband and wife for daring to marry without permission. She considered it particularly egregious that Elizabeth had returned to her post as a maid of honor after giving birth to a child. In the Tower that autumn, Elizabeth was ill and kept separated from her husband. She wrote to Sir Moyle Finch and his wife (Elizabeth Heneage) hoping they would prevail upon Lady Finch's father, Sir Thomas, the queen's vice chamberlain, to plead her case. Encouraged by the response she got, she then wrote to Heneage himself and to Sir Robert Cecil. She was released on December 22,1592 and wanted to return to court but she was never allowed to. She lived at Mile End or at Sherborne and bore two more children, Walter (1593-1617/18) and Carew (February 1605-1666). By the time Carew was born, Raleigh had been convicted of treason and was being held in the Tower of London, where he remained until 1616. At Elizabeth’s urging, he had backed a conspiracy to put Lady Arbella Stuart on the throne. Elizabeth eventually moved into the Tower with him and her son was born there in February of 1605. Thanks largely to Elizabeth's efforts, King James paid her £8000 in cash and an annuity of £400 for Sherborne in 1608. She was less successful in obtaining repayment of a loan of £500 (Elizabeth's marriage portion) that her mother made to the earl of Huntingdon when Elizabeth was still a child. In 1616, Raleigh was released to lead an expedition to Guiana. When this was a spectacular failure, he was returned to the Tower and executed under his original conviction for treason. Elizabeth is said to have had his head embalmed and to have kept it with her in a red leather bag until her death. Biography: Bess by Anna Beer; Karen Robertson, "Negotiating Favour: the Letters of Lady Ralegh" in Women and Politics in Early Modern England, 1450-1500, edited by James Daybell, and "Tracing Women's Connections from a Letter by Elizabeth Ralegh" in Maids and Mistresses, Cousins and Queens, edited by Susan Frye and Karen Robertson. Portraits: as a young woman, c. 1591; in middle age, c. 1603; in widowhood with her son Carew, c. 1619; others not authenticated.