Lettice Knollys
Portrait by George Gower, 1585, elizabethan era
Lettice Knollys, Countess of Essex and Countess of Leicester (08.11.1543-25.12.1634) was the daughter of Sir Francis Knollys and Catherine Carey. She was a believer in the Protestant faith.
When Elizabeth I. ascended onto the Throne, her family returned back from exile and Lettice was made a Maid of the Privy Chamber. She married her first husband, Walter Devereux, at age 17 and bore him five children.
He was ordered to go to Ireland and at that point she began an affair with Robert Dudley, who was the Queen's favorite. When her husband died of dysentry some years later, it was rumored that she had poisoned him. Lettice married him 'in secret' thus incurring a great fit of rage and jealousy in Queen Elizabeth I. She was forever banished from her court. Robert Dudley unexpectedly died in 1588 (when she was 45).
Six months later she married her last Husband, Sir Christopher Blount. From then on she led her life, losing one child after another and her husband to execution. Through all of that time she caredf for her siblings, children and grandchildren. She died at age 91 in her chair.
