Elizabeth Stanley (née de Vere), Countess of Derby, Lord of Mann (2 July 1575 – 10 March 1627), was an English noblewoman and courtier. She was the eldest daughter of the Elizabethan courtier and poet Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
She was the Lord of Mann from 1612 to 1627, and prior to holding the title, she had taken over many administrative duties appertaining to the Isle of Man's affairs. Elizabeth was the first female to rule as the island's head of state.
Elizabeth Vere was born on 2 July 1575 at Theobalds House, Hertfordshire, the eldest surviving daughter of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, and Anne Cecil, the daughter of statesman William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, Queen Elizabeth I's chief advisor and leading member of her Privy Council. Anne's mother was Mildred Cooke, Burghley's second wife, and Elizabeth was baptised on 10 July.
As Elizabeth's birth had occurred while her father was abroad on Grand Tour in France and Italy, upon his return to England he suspected her mother of adultery, and separated from her. They were later reconciled in January 1582, when Elizabeth was acknowledged as her father's child.[2]
Elizabeth had two younger sisters, Bridget and Susan. Her brother, Lord Bulbecke, died in 1583 as an infant, and she had another sister, Frances, who died in 1587. She also had an illegitimate half-brother, Edward Vere, by her father's notorious affair with Anne Vavasour, the Queen's Lady of the Bedchamber. The birth of this child in March 1581 caused the arrest of both her father and his mistress.
Following the death of Anne Cecil on 5 June 1588, Elizabeth and her sisters remained in the household of their maternal grandfather, Lord Burghley, where they received an excellent education. In 1591 Elizabeth's father married secondly, Elizabeth Trentham, who on 24 February 1593 gave birth to a son, Henry, who would later succeed as 18th Earl of Oxford.
Lady Elizabeth went to court where she served as one of Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honour.[3] Burghley gave her a gold angel worth ten shillings to play at cards, to debut her career.[4] She held this position until her marriage.
Lord Burghley soon found Elizabeth another husband. On 26 January 1595, she married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby (1561 – 29 September 1642), at Greenwich Palace in the presence of Queen Elizabeth.[6] It has been claimed that William Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream for the occasion of their wedding, and that the play was first performed at the wedding banquet,[3][7] though the wedding of Sir Thomas Berkeley to Elizabeth Carey is the most popular candidate.[8] In the early years of their marriage, the couple's relationship was tempestuous and there were persistent rumours that Elizabeth had had affairs with Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Walter Ralegh.[6] The allegations concerning her relationship with Essex were particularly strong in 1596 and 1597.[3] Whether there was any truth in the rumours remains unknown.
Henry Lok wrote a sonnet to Elizabeth, published with Lok's other sonnets by Richard Field in 1597. Her husband was described as penning comedies for common players in 1599, and in 1601 she wrote to her uncle Robert Cecil against a ban on her husband's involvement in plays.[9] The principal home of the Derbys was Knowsley Hall. Elizabeth returned to court as a Lady of the Drawing Chamber to Anne of Denmark in 1604, and introduced her younger sister Susan de Vere, later Countess of Montgomery, to the queen's household. Elizabeth was the queen's chief mourner in 1619.[10]
As the Earls of Derby were the hereditary heads of state of the Isle of Man, Elizabeth's husband took up the title of Lord of Mann in 1609 following an Act of Parliament. Elizabeth began taking over many administrative duties relating to the Isle's political affairs. She attempted to influence business on behalf of the Isle, and wrote a letter on 15 September 1609 to her uncle Robert Cecil, regarding the shipment of money from the Isle of Mann.[11] In 1612, Elizabeth was appointed the first female Lord of Mann, a title she held until her death in 1627. She was succeeded by her eldest son, James.
Elizabeth died on 10 March 1627 at Richmond, Surrey, and was buried the next day in Westminster Abbey, London. On her tomb, which she shares with her mother, grandmother, and sisters, is her effigy.
^Lawrence Manley & Sally-Beth MacLean, Lord Strange's Men and their Plays (Yale, 2014), p. 326.
^J. Leeds Barroll,'The Arts at the English Court of Anna of Denmark ', in S. P. Cerasano & Marion Wynne-Davies, Readings in Renaissance Women's Drama: Criticism, History, and Performance(London, 1998).
^1609 Chronology 15 September 2009, retrieved on 18-12-09 (probably from HMC Salisbury Hatfield)
^ abc"Main Page". thepeerage.com. Archived from the original on 14 April 2003. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
References
Akrigg, G.P.V. (1968). Shakespeare and the Earl of Southampton. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
