Bridget
MANNERS
Died: 24 Jul 1604
Buried: Bigby Church, Lincolnshire, England
Father: John
MANNERS (4° E. Rutland)
Mother: Elizabeth
CHARLTON (C. Rutland)
Married:
Robert
TYRWHITT of Kettelby Aug 1594
Children:
1. William TYRWHITT of Kettelby
2. Robert
TYRWHITT
3. Rutland
TYRWHITT
4. Bridget
TYRWHITT (bur. 25 Aug 1614, Bigby)
Bridget Manners was the daughter of
John Manners, 4th Earl of
Rutland and Elizabeth Charlton, daughter
of Francis Charlton of Apley. They had nine children. The sons were Edward, who died young; Roger,
Francis, and Sir
George, successively
earls of Rutland; and Sir Oliver. Bridget sisters were Frances,
married to William, lord Willoughby of Parham; Elizabeth, to
Emanuel
Scrope, Earl of Sunderland, but died without issue; and Mary, who died unmarried
in Apr 1588.
Roger
Manners, her great-uncle, had
asked his sister-in-law, Bridget
Hussey, widow of Henry Manners,
2nd Earl of
Rutland, and Countess of Bedford at her third marriage,
for a place for Bridget in her train at Woburn Abbey.
But Lady Bridget’s going was delayed by the death of his father John, Earl of
Rutland, who had inherited the title, as well as the debts, of his brother, the third Earl,
only a year before. In Jun, 1588, the Countess
Elizabeth, ill, and harassed in executing the will by the claims of her
sister-in-law Isabel Holcroft, wrote a touching letter to the Countess of
Bedford,
resigning to her all her power over her oldest daughter. Lady Bridget,
with no furniture, few recommendations, and many admonitions to hold up her
head, started off on her journey to Woburn in Bedfordshire, where she arrived
safely without mishap by highway robbery or
accident. The Countess of Rutland said, among other
things, that Lady Bridget had no suitable waiting-woman but the one being sent
with her would serve for the present. This Mary Harding, fortunately, remained
with Bridget both at Woburn and later at Court, for the letters sent in her
name to the Countess are without parallel as showing the actual life of a
lady-in-waiting of the Queen.
Young
Bridget played the lute but was otherwise uneducated; but the Countess of
Bedford, after whom lady Bridget was named, was so charmed
with her step grand-daughter that she decided to sponsor the girl in spite of her
deficient education.
Lady Bedford
did, however, feel some displeasure towards the Countess of Rutland for
having sent her daughter with so few goods and chattels, and at her request Lady
Bridget wrote to her mother:
"My
Lady of Bedford did byd me send to your ladyship for a bed and for
hangings for my chamber and a litel playte to set of my cubbard. She saith
she wold have my chamber fyne when I wear at London, and if it pleas your
Ladyship to send me such things, they shall by the grace of God be very
well loaket too."
The Countess of Rutland was not pleased at having to send the
furniture, thinking "a lady so honourably minded as my Lady Bedford
would have afforded my daughter furniture for her chamber in her house".
Nor did she approve the prospect of a Court appointment, hoping it would "not
as yet fall so, for Bridget has no acquaintance in that place and is therefore
most unfit for it".
After a year in the household at Woburn Abbey, Roger
Manners secured a place as lady - in - waiting to Queen
Elizabeth.
When Lady Bridget’s going to the Court the following year was a
certainty, her mother reminder the Countess of Bedford that her inheritance was
small and that she had no acquaintance at the Court. The Countess of
Rutland sent £200 to buy an outfit, coupled with the dubious hope that Bridget
would "behave herself as shall be pleasing", and not disgrace
her family by stooping at Court. She herself had not expect
the favor of the Queen’s 'gracious
disposition', but, as she had learned
from Mr. Roger Manners that it was the Queen’s pleasure, she hoped her
daughter would conduct herself in a manner that would be pleasing, and that
those who were wise would remember the estate of a fatherless maid and give her
the advice most needful. Perhaps she wrote her uncle Roger in the same vein; at
any rate, that experienced courtier sent Bridget (29 Aug 1589) from
Uffington, advice that Polonius himself might have envied. He spoke
first about daily prayers: "First and above all thinges that you forgett
not to use daly prayers to the Almightie God to endue you with his grace". Next, his grand-niece was to apply herself 'hollye
to the service of her Magestie with all meekness, love, and obedience, wherein
you must be diligent, secret, and faythfull'. He advice her as to how to
treat her superiors, equals, and inferiors. She was not to be a 'medeler in
the causes of others'. She was to use 'moch sylens, for that becometh
maydes, specially of your calling. That your speach and indevars ever
tend to the good of all and to the hurt of none. Thus in breve madam have you
thes rules; which, if you have grace to follow you shall fynd the benefit, and
your friendes shall rejoyce of your well doying', etc., etc. To the above Manners
added a postscript asking to be remembered to Mrs. Mary Radcliffe, and Bridget's
brother, the young Roger, Earl of
Rutland, a Cambridge undergraduate of thirteen, subjoined another:
"My uncle has given you good advice and we will pray that you may
perform it".
To Court went Lady Bridget, with Mary Harding, in close
attendance, to chid her if she stooped, and give careful report of all
concerning her.
Mary Radcliffe, who had known Bridget's uncle so well in
the past, took the new-comer under her kindly wing till the girl grew
more accustomed to the strangeness of her surroundings. The Queen's
"merry guardian", as the Courtiers called Mary
Radcliffe, proved more like a mother than a stranger to Bridget, who
soon settled down to her new duties. She was a great success,
not only with the Queen, who eventually made
Bridget her carver, but also
with the gentlemen. Mary Harding, waiting up night after
night for her young mistress, found "late watchinges and sittinges up are
tedious". She assured the Countess of Rutland that Lady
Bridget was "well liked of all, and endevorethe herself to be
thankfull and to follow the cortely order in all pointes".That Bridget succeeded only too well in all
these things is shown in a letter from the Vice-chamberlain,
Thomas Heneage, in
which, in the Queen’s name, he thanked the
Countess for such a daughter, and
also in the conviction of her waiting-woman that she would never manage to
escape from the Queen’s service.
The surprised Countess of Rutland also received a letter written
by the Queen's express command,
commending "the exceedinge good modest and honorable behaviour and
carriage of my Lady Bridget your daughter, with her carefull and dilligent
attendance of Her Majestie ys to contentynge to her Highness and so commendable
in this place where she lyves-where vyces will hardly receive vysards and
virtues most shyne as Her Majestie acknowledgeth she hath cause to thanck you
for her, and you may take comforte of so vertuouse a daughter, of whose beynge
heere and attendance her majestie hath bidden me to tell your Ladyship, that you
shall have no cause to repent". The Countess of
Rutland expressed herself much honoured at this gratifying news, though she
said she felt sure that "the gracious opinion the Queen has formed of my
daughter's service, is no doubt far beyond what she is able to deserve".
And, even if we discount the conventional flattery of a contemporary
poet, Bridget must have been a beautiful young lady Barnabe Barnes
addressed one of the five dedicatory sonnets of his sonnet sequence Parthenophil
and Parthenophe to 'the Beautiful Lady, the Lady Bridget Manners', and
signed it 'your Beauty’s most affectionate servant, Barnabe Barnes'. She is the rose
of the garland, the fairest and sweetest, of all those sweet and fair flowers
that are the pride of chaste Cynthia’s rich crown. In his sonnets she is to
behold her graces, and all the secret powers of her beauty, there set down. He
continues:
'Here
shalt thou finde thy frowne,
Here
thy sunnie smiling,
Fames
plumes flye with thye love’s which should be fleetest
Here
my loves tempests and showers.
These
read (sweet bewtie) whom my muse shall crowne,
(Of
so devine sentes and colours)
As
is immortal, time beguiling!'
Such verses, however, can have been
only a passing recompense for the difficult life of a lady-in-waiting as
revealed in the letters of Mary Harding. Apparently dictating her
letters, since she said that she herself could not write, and once apologized
for sending so few reports because of her fear in making 'any bodye aquainted
white my leaters', she warned the Countess that life at the Court
will be 'gretly chargeable'. Moreover, it was 'some thinge more painfuller than any wold
judge. And so it will be to me alsoe, for that the late watchynges and sittinges
up are tedious; yet, God be thanked, she [Lady Bridget] liketh
very well and is very heltheful'. She was well thought of by her Majesty and by various ladies
at court, and 'endevorethe herself to be thankfull and to follow the cortely
order in all pointes'. Later, she stated that Lady Bridget carved the
Queen’s meat, Lady Mary Howard being appointed cup-bearer.
Bridget, despite the Queen's
favour, and her own gift of making friends, would gladly have bartered the
glamour and excitement of Court for a quiet home life.
Mary Harding knew that her charge could carve the
Queen’s
meat all her days with no more tangible reward than the Queen’s mere
satisfaction, and wrote that a husband must be found. The Countess was
told that 'offers' must be made to eligible widowers or others; Mary’s candidate of
the moment was Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland,
but she dared not 'make Mr. Roger Manners acquainted in thes matters because
I think him so slowe'. Mr.
Manners,
it must be admitted, got another black mark not long after from Mary Harding,
who next proposed Lord Phillip Wharton, a widow of Lady Frances
Clifford —whose many children she left sure Lady Bridget
could learn to love— but if her Ladyship 'aske Mr. Manners his advice, he will
speak stryghte of my Lorde of Bedforthe or my Lorde of Southampton'. Lady
Bridget thought she had no chance there, but even so, she would prefer
Lord
Wharton, for Edward Russell, Earl of Bedford and Henry
Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton
'be so youge and fantastycall and woulde
be so caryed awaye' that she 'doutith ther carridge of themselves' if any
ill fortune befell her mother. Time, of course, was to show Lady Bridget
that not only they, but her three brothers as well, would be 'caryed away' by
Essex and his grievances. Mary Harding continued: 'If
your Ladyship did know how weary my Lady wer of the Courte, and what little
gayne there is gotten in this tyme, Her Majestie’s favorabell countenance
ekcepted, which my lady haithe, your honour would willingly be contented with a
meaner fortun to helpe her from hence'. Mr. Manners would have the
most 'conynge' to get her
away; Mary’s own plan was to have her 'fayne the messelles',
get leave to come to the country for a month to 'ayre her', marry
Lord Wharton, and then
sue for the Queen’s mercy.
Lady Bridget’s mother, however, had consulted Roger Manners about
marrying her daughter to Robert Tyrwhitt of Kettelby (b. 1573 - d.
1617), who was Elizabeth
Charleton’s ward. Roger approved and was willing to help
speed Bridget’s coming to her; he had thought of divers courses and
conferred with his friends of most discretion —a nice behind-the-scenes glimpse—
but could arrive at no plan better than her own (not mentioned). She was to send
her horses and servants; he himself would willingly attend, but for his health’s
sake must go to Buxton at his appointed time. He had, as she wished, acquainted
the Lord Treasurer
with the matter; he 'liketh and alloweth therof, so as your ladyship in my
opinion shall not doe amisse to make his lordship acquainted with the rest and
to require his firthherans to obtain leve of her Majestie for my lady dawter’s
coming unto your honor'. This implies
that Burghley’s approval was for the marriage at some indefinite date.
Manners’ advice for fuller confidence was not followed, and caused all their
later troubles. It was suggested by Mary Harding that Bridget
should feign having measles in order to separate herself from her duties, but it
was dangerous. The Countess merely asked two ladies at court to help secure
leave for Lady Bridget on the grounds of her five years’ absence and her own
sickness. (Nor did the Countess exaggerate here, for she died the following
year.) Mary Radcliffe could manage to get most things she wanted
from the Queen, and by her advocacy
the girl received permission to leave Court for a month. The request was made
and granted. The two young people were not unknown to each other, for Mr.
Tyrrwhitt had been one of the Queen's
pages when twelve-year-old Bridget first went to Court, and they very
willingly fell in with their elders' plan for a marriage between them. The marriage was
performed
at Belvoir Castle in Jul 1594.
The Queen, of course, was in a fine Tudor rage. Since
Lady Bridget was
not at hand, she could not treat her as she had Mary Shelton when she
had married without her consent—when she had 'telt liberall bothe with bloes
and yevell wordes'. But she could and did demand the immediate return of the
couple to the Court. The unfortunate Countess pled her ignorance of the plans
for the marriage, but Elizabeth was not deceived.
Thomas Screven wrote that Mr. Tyrwhitt was to come to London where he faced imprisonment;
Lady Bridget was to be committed, not to a 'common prison', but
to the custody of some lady: 'What more may follow, God knoweth, for her
Majestie is highly offended, and principally against your ladyship'. The demands from London continued until
Henry Carey, Lord Hundson, at the
Queen’s command, wrote so sharp a note demanding
Bridget’s return into the custody of the Countess of Bedford, that he had to
be obeyed. The young husband, in the Tower, was ill from grief and worry. But Manners, however annoyed over the way in which he felt the
Countess had
mismanaged the matter, and disturbed by the Queen’s anger, had been writing
from Uffington to Robert Cecil, and then came back to London, or there is no knowing
how and when the matter might have ended. His letter to Cecil
(29 Aug 1594) was, in fact, two letters under one cover—one to him 'to show' at the
Court. Manners protested 'in the truth of a honest man' that he was never
made acquainted with this sudden marriage—but this surely must be an
equivocation as referring to the actual day or date, which he really seems not
to have know. He told Cecil that the young husband, at Uffington on his way to
London, had so moved him to pity that he could not but write in his behalf: Tyrwhitt’s folly came from his mere ignorance of duty to
her Majesty and a
passion of love for Bridget, fearing to lose her if she returned to the
Court. Manners begged Cecil not to let the worst be made of the case, but to
favor Tyrwhitt as he may: 'God knows he is very young, and committed
not this offence through willfulness but of mere ignorance. And if by punishment
he once mislike of his match they both be undone forever'. The letter 'to show'
said much the same thing, especially that he knew of the marriage only when it
was publicly known, and that he was not at Belvoir at the time by forty miles.
When he returned to London, he made suit indirectly to the Queen through the
Lord Chamberlain, who promised to mover her Majesty for him at his next going to
the Court.
Cecil did not fail his friends, and the plea to
Hunsdon must have helped,
for in Nov Hunsdon wrote the
Countess that because of the 'mediation of
fryndes' and of Mr. Tyrwhitt’s sickness, he had been freed from the Tower,
and that her Majesty had also 'graciously considered' of her daughter, and
likewise set her free. The Queen blamed the
Countess, despite Lady Bridget’s
wish to assume all the responsibility. But, now that they were at liberty, there
remained only her sending for Lady Bridget at Lady Bedford’s
London house, and —final rebuke— 'the sooner the better, for my Lady of
Bedford hath byn long burthened with her'.
Manners’ resentment toward the Countess for failing to confide the
entire plan to Burghley is implied in a letter he wrote from Uffington to
Shrewsbury, dated 20 Sep 1594, in which he protested, as he had to Cecil,
that he had known nothing of the actual marriage—it was a good matter, but
marred with ill handling. 'But', he added, 'where youth and woman bare
the sway and deal without advice, such accidents commonly happen'. A second letter to him says much the
same. Perhaps he distrusted Shrewsbury’s discretion and went out of his way to
conceal his early part in the transaction. The real Manners is shown,
however, in the same letter: 'Yet my Lady Bridget, in her journey to my Lady
Bedford’s took a lodging at this poor cottage, wher she was to me very welcome', and in his saying that in a fortnight he would go to London and go
to Lady Bedford’s to see her.
'I most humbly thank your
Lordship and my Lady for this fat stag, which is very well baked; but that
the pasties be so great that I have no dish that will hold them Mr.
Bucknall thanketh your Lordship for the stag's head, which he is contented
shall be placed on his head whensoever he doth marry; in the meantime he
will place it not in the stables, but upon the entry of his house instead
of a porter, and so he saith it shall be monument.
Touching the matter of my Lady Bridget's marriage, Her Majesty
taketh it for a great offence, and so as I hear, she mindeth to punish,
according to her pleasure, fiat. I am now not so discontented that my
credit is no greater with the Countess (of Bedford), unless her Ladyship
would be advised; she hath almost marred a good cause with evil
handling, and truly she never vouchsafed to send to me in that cause,
nor once to speak to me thereof when I was last with her Ladyship, so as
I am ignorant of what course she holdeth therein; and yet my Lady
Bridget, in her journey to my Lady of Bedford's, did vouchsafe a lodging
in this poor cottage, where she was to me very welcome, and when it
shall please them to command me I shall be ready to do them service. I
thank your Lordship for your Irish news. I am so long a countryman as I
am clean forgotten in Court, and, seldom hear hence, wherewith I am
nothing displeased, and yet about a fortnight hence I mean to go towards
London, and to go by my Lady of Bedford's to see my Lady Bridget. Thus
recommending my duty to your Lordship and my honourable good Lady, I
wish to both all honour and contentation.'
Bridget, the favourite, came back to Court in disfavour as with
saddened face she passed through the presence chamber for an interview with her
former mistress. Elizabeth
had worked herself into one of her tantrums, but when Bridget, quiet,
brave and straightforward, stood before her, not seeking to excuse her action,
only anxious to take all the blame on her own shoulders so that others might not
suffer, the Queen's anger
melted. Bridget obtained forgiveness and her husband's release, Elizabeth
ordered Lord Hunsdon to
make it perfectly clear to the Countess of Rutland "that she doth
not impute the fawlte so much to the young couple as to your Ladyship; for
though my Lady Bridgett hath taken the fawlte upon herself to excuse your
fawlte, yet her majesty is well assured that my Lady Bridget would never have
married without your consent and speciall commandment, so as she thinkes your
Ladyship more fawlteworthie than they".
Although the fact that her brother Roger,
the young Earl of Rutland, agreed to pay £1300 of her £2500 marriage
portion to the Crown may have been a factor of winning
Queen Elizabeth’s
forgiveness.
According to the monument her husband erected in Bigby Church, Bridget was
“of speech affable, of countenance amiable, nothing proud of her place and
fortunes, and usynge her grace rather to benefit others than herself”.
Sources:
Lisle
Cecil John: Roger
Manners, Elizabethan Courtier
Wilson, Violet A.:
Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honour and Ladies of The Privy Chamber
(E.P. Dutton and Co. – 1931 - New York)
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