Susan de Vere, Countess of Montgomery

Susan de Vere, Countess of Montgomery (26 May 1587–1628/29) was an English noblewoman and the youngest daughter of Elizabethan courtier, poet, and playwright Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.

Family and early years

Lady Susan was born on 26 May 1587, the youngest daughter of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford and Anne Cecil, the daughter of statesman William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, Queen Elizabeth's chief advisor and leading member of her Privy Council. She had two older sisters, Lady Elizabeth and Lady Bridget. She also had an illegitimate half-brother, Edward, born out of wedlock to Anne Vavasour, who had an intimate relationship with the Earl.

Following the death of Anne Cecil on 5 June 1588, a year after her birth, Susan and her sisters remained in the household of their maternal grandfather William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, owner of the Burghley estate, where they received an excellent education. In 1591 Susan's father married for the second time to Elizabeth Trentham. The second Lady Oxford gave birth to a son, Henry, who later succeeded as 18th Earl of Oxford.

Marriage

Shortly after the death of her father, on 27 December 1604, Susan married Philip Herbert, Knight of the Garter (1584–1649). Herbert was an English courtier and politician active during the reigns of James I and Charles I; he was the son of Mary Sidney. A year after their marriage King James created him Baron Herbert of Shurland and 1st Earl of Montgomery; in 1630, after Susan's death, he would succeed his older brother as 4th Earl of Pembroke. Philip Herbert and his older brother William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke were the "incomparable pair of brethren" to whom the First Folio of Shakespeare's collected works was dedicated in 1623.

Issue

• Lady Anna Sophia Herbert, married Robert Dormer, 1st Earl of Carnarvon and had issue.
• Sir Charles Herbert (c. 1619–1635), married Mary Villiers, daughter of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and had no issue.
• Philip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembroke (c. 1621–1669)
• Hon. James Herbert (c. 1623–1677), of Kingsey, Buckinghamshire^[1]

Death

She died in 1628 or 1629, and was interred at Westminster Abbey, London.

References

1. ↑ "Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke". The Peerage. 25 April 2011.