Anne Seymour, Countess of Warwick: "Lady Warywcks Lunacye"
Following the death of her second husband Sir Edward Unton in Sep 1582, an inquest was held the following month, on 25 Oct 1582, relating to his widow Anne Seymour, Countess of Warwick's mental state.
The inquest heard how Anne had been suffering from "bouts of madness" since 1566, when she was approx 28 years old. However, at the time of the inquest, she was described as being "a lunatic enjoying lucid intervals", with her former brother-in-law Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester also writing 2 years later to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, expressing his concerns about "my Lady Warwycks Lunacye".
The inquest deemed her to be incapacitated, and subsequently granted custody of her person to her second son, Henry Unton. Anne was to continue to reside at the family's main residence of Wadley, Oxfordshire, which had also been granted to Henry in his father's will, until her death in Feb 1591. The eulogy delivered at Anne's funeral declared that “she is gone from a vale of miserie, to a haven of all happines”.
Following Henry's own death in Mar 1596, his widow Dorothy (who had been Anne's chief mourner at her own funeral 5 years previously) commissioned a memorial portrait, commemorating his heritage and multiple significant life events. Henry's Seymour ancestry was highlighted, including that of his paternal grandfather, as well as the bond shared with his mother: Anne is portrayed as a loving and attentive mother to the infant Henry, who is depicted lying contently in her arms.
Anne Seymour (born c.1538) was the eldest daughter of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and his second wife Anne Stanhope.
