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Lady Mary Chatsworth (formerly Stokes, nee Seymour) was born at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire on August 30th 1548. She was the daughter of Queen Catherine Parr (Widow of King Henry VIII) and Baron Seymour of Sudeley (brother of Queen Jane Seymour). As a child, she was brought up in the household of the Duchess of Suffolk who ran what would nowadays be properly referred to as an orphanage. The Duchess was very neglectful of the young girl and was not a mother-like figure that young Mary longed for. However with the execution of her father (when she was one years old) and the death of her mother at such a young age, Mary had little option but to remain in the comfortable if not idealistic life she would have preferred. This comfortable life however was not to last when a power struggle insured that the Duke of Suffolk came close to destroying his entire fortune with intentions to elevate his daughter Lady Jane Grey to the position of Queen. However successful these designs seemed to be, Queen Jane was forced out of office after a mere 9 days reign and Mary’s close acquaintance was now in serious danger and facing charges of high treason. In the heat of this power game, the Suffolks had no further need to entertain the likes of Baron Seymour’s daughter and tried to offload her onto trusted and entrusted acquaintances. However, when these plights failed young Mary was kept in the household of the Duchess until the power game was over. When Lady Jane Grey, the Duke of Suffolk and Lady Jane Grey’s husband were all executed, the Duchess turned to young Mary as a means of comfort, bringing her up as her own. The Duchess and her daughters were pardoned and were granted leave to return to court. The Duchess and her daughters were often seen next to the Queen on state occasions, and Lady Mary Seymour was being raised in the confines of the court. During this time Lady Mary learned the importance of marriages of convenience and strived to achieve that which the Duchess found appropriate. She came to look at the Duchess rather like a mother and the Duchess revealed more and more information about her real and mother and father as she got older. At court, she learned to weave, dance and be dutiful and obedient. She served as a Lady and waiting to the Queen from the early age of fourteen and through her royal connections was offered in matrimony to Sir Thomas Stokes (A great-nephew of the Duchess of Suffolk). However, Sir Thomas Stokes was initially unhappy about the negotiations but with the intervention of the Duchess and with a great deal to gain from the match politically, he asked for young Mary’s hand in marriage for when she reached a suitable age,
Despite the fact that the negotiations were halted due to the death of Queen Mary in 1558 and the Duchess of Suffolk in 1559, the marriage negotiations went ahead and Sir Thomas and young Mary were married in 1565. However, the marriage was an unhappy one as it became apparent that the new Queen Elizabeth did not look favorably upon Lady Mary who was considered no better than a traitor for her relationship with the Duchess of Suffolk who had been an assistant in the elevation of Lady Jane Grey to power. However, the new Queen acknowledged that the late Queen had shown them pardon and therefore she would do the same but she never looked favorably upon young Mary nor any of those who had been connected to the Brandon’s and the Grey’s. Sir Thomas was known for his string of affairs and was once confronted by Lady Mary who was subsequently found tumbling down a winding staircase. Sir Thomas mysteriously disappeared in 1567 (two years after the marriage had taken place) and was found a few weeks later in a cornfield, having been stabbed. Popular theories include that while entertaining one of his many mistresses he was stabbed for not paying for services acquired (in other words he was entertaining prostitutes, and was not the well desired gentleman of legend). Following the death of her husband, she entered a courtship with a mere stable hand that was rumored to have assisted her when she was unwell and neglected by her husband. The union was a happy one and they subsequently married in June 1568. In 1569, Mark Chatsworth and Lady Mary gave birth to a daughter Arabella Chatsworth. In 1571, Lady Mary gave birth to a boy, Jack Chatsworth. Lady Mary’s sudden decline in rank during her marriage to a stable hand made for some undesirable living conditions. All revenue that was acquired by Lady Mary from her previous husband was now being used to pay off huge living debts and by 1577, t he Chatsworths were living in abject poverty in Southampton with Lady Mary going by the name of Elizabeth Tate to work as a flower girl. The uncomfortable situation that Lady Mary was faced with left its mark when she began to suffer from a lung infection in 1578. The following year, Lady Mary was suffered from heart problems, which ultimately led to heart failure on March 25th 1579. Nobody knows for certain where Lady Mary was buried but many historians believe that she is buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Southampton. Others believe, that friends or distant relatives provided a funeral ceremony fit for her rank in London due to the fact that they felt pity for her. However, to this day nobody knows.
[edit] Reference
Kelly, R, National Portrait Gallery; Italic textConfessions of Lady ChatsworthItalic text, Humber Publishing press, 2006
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