Elizabeth's Rival by Nicola Tallis

Author:Nicola Tallis [Tallis, Nicola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
Published: 2018-01-21T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

My Sorrowful Wife

THE EARL OF Leicester’s primary residences were Leicester House, Wanstead and Kenilworth, and it was at the former two that Lettice spent the majority of her time. In the years that she was married to Leicester, there is evidence of her having visited Kenilworth just the once, as part of a holiday in 1585. Leicester’s surviving accounts show that all three households were in constant communication with one another, and items were regularly moved between residences.1 Though Lettice and Leicester were married for ten years, it is just for the years from 1584 to 1586 that the accounts survive, but much can be gleaned.2 Eleven volumes of his household inventories are still available to us, a staggering number and the largest surviving collection of any Elizabethan.3 They provide unique and illuminating glimpses into the luxury in which Lettice and her family lived, and the ways in which they spent their time.

Although Lettice does feature in her husband’s accounts, her appearances are not as frequent as one might expect. The most logical explanation for this is that her household was maintained by the income she received as dowager Countess of Essex, but it is likely that her accounts would have contained some similar entries to those that can be found in her husband’s. For example, members of the nobility were expected to be charitable, and Leicester’s accounts reveal regular payments to the poor; on 24 October 1584, he gave money to the poor people of Witney, Abingdon and Burford Bridge, and Lettice would have distributed money in a similar way. Certainly after her death, her epitaph praised the fact that in her later years ‘the poor that lived near, death nor famine could not fear’.

Leicester’s payments also record items that Lettice would have enjoyed, such as white wine, the services of a harpist, and rewards to Leicester’s Players for performing at Leicester House.4 On the occasions that she does appear, it was often when her husband covered her travel expenses. In 1584 and 1585 she travelled fairly regularly by water, and Leicester’s waterman was often rewarded for transporting her in her husband’s barge. On 26 September 1585, for example, he was paid for ‘carrying my lady to Baynard’s Castle and back again to Leicester House’.5 Though she had been forbidden from attending court, this did not prevent Lettice from mixing with other friends and members of high society in the capital, and Baynard’s Castle was the London residence of the Earl of Pembroke, one of the witnesses at her wedding.6

Lettice’s life with Leicester was full of luxury. She was mistress of an expanding household, with 150 people working at both Leicester House and Wanstead. There were gardeners, musicians and a fisherman at Wanstead.7 In addition, Lettice had her own footman, whose duties would have included admitting Lettice’s visitors into her presence. He was known only as Dampard.8

At Leicester House she was surrounded by a variety of gold and silver objects, including gold plate, bowls, cups, spice boxes, spoons and candlesticks, most of which were engraved with Leicester’s bear symbol.

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