Elizabeth LEYBURNE
(D. Norfolk)
Born: ABT 1536, Cunswick, Westmoreland, England
Died: 4 Sep 1567, Kenninghall, Suffolk, England
Buried: Framlingham, Surrey, England
Father: James LEYBURNE of Cunswick (Sir)
Mother: Helen PRESTON
Married 1: Thomas DACRE ( 4° B. Gillesland / 3° B. Greystoke
Children:
2. George DACRE (5º B. Gillesland / 4º B. Greystoke)
3. Francis DACRE
4. Mary DACRE
Married 2: Thomas HOWARD (4° D. Norfolk) 29 Jan 1567
Elizabeth Leybourne was the daughter of Sir James Leyburne of Cunswick by his wife, Helen Preston. Helen Preston (d. AFT 1567) was the daughter of Sir Thomas Preston of Preston Patrick, Westmorland (d. 1523) and Anne Thornborough. She married first Sir James Leyburne of Cunswick and second, c. 1549, Thomas Stanley, 2nd baron Mounteagle (b. 25 May 1507 - d. 25 Aug 1560). She had two daughters by her first husband, Elizabeth and Anne; and two by her second husband, Margaret and another Anne. She married the first Anne to her second husband’s son, William Stanley, 3rd baron Mounteagle. After the Council of Trent declared (in 1562) that no Catholic could be present at a heretic service and remain a good Catholic, Lady Mounteagle refused to attend services. She does not seem to have been persecuted as a recusant, at least in part because of her family connections.
About 1555 Elizabeth Leyburne married into one of the most important
families of north-western
England, the Dacres of Gilsland and Greystoke. Her first husband,
Thomas,
Lord Dacre, died in Jul 1566 after some months of sickness, leaving her with
four young children. Even before then, when it was clear that Dacre had
not long to live, Thomas Howard,
Duke of Norfolk, was making enquiries about the wardship of George,
the heir, and his sisters and in Aug he had discussed the matter with the Queen,
who agreed in principie that he should become their guardian, though the matter
was not to be settled for many months. 'They say his wardship will be worth
8,000 crowns a year', noted the Spanish Ambassador, for the Dacre
estates in Cumberland, Westmorland and Bedfordshire were extensive; but before
he committed himself Norfolk
took expert legal advice about a supposed deed of entail 'on the most part of
the inheritance' and was encouraged by what he was told by the Master of the
Rolls. But at that time no-one dreamt of his marrying the Dacre widow.
Their courtship had been kept a close secret and the Queen
knew nothing about it until three days before the wedding, when Norfolk
told her himself. It was a quiet wedding, at Lady Leyburne's London house
on 29 Jan 1567, 'without any rejoicing or demonstration'. After three
years Kenninghall again had a mistress. The new Duchess brought with her
a Roman Catholic chaplain and her own set of altar cloths and copes, for she
was, like her mother, a devout Catholic, heard Mass every day, and might soon
convert her husband to the Old Religión, suggested the Spanish Ambassador.
Lady Leyburne, her mother, was installed in a suite of rooms as well as
her children.
There had been close friendship between the Howard and Dacre families of
an earlier generation, for in 1558 the dowager Duchess
Elizabeth had left substantial legacies to Elizabeth, Lady Dacre,
and her daughters.
There were now nine children to be cared for, Norfolk's
own five, and his four step-children, of whom he soon grew very fond. At the
time of his mother's re-marriage George, the young Lord Dacre, was five,
his elder sister Anne was almost ten,
and his younger sisters, Mary three and Elizabeth two; the Duke
called the girls Nanne, Mall and Bess. He was anxious to
settle the matter of their wardship, for two uncles, Leonard
and George Dacre, were scheming to claim their inheritance. Since Norfolk
was their stepfather, he could not tolerate an outsider being their guardian. It
was not until Nov that he was formally granted
Norfolk made remarkable marriage
plans whereby Elizabeths three daughters by Dacre became the wives of the
sons of his own first two marriages. Thus Anne Dacre married Phillip Earl
of Arundel; Mary Dacre married
Thomas who was created
Earl of Suffolk; and Elizabeth Dacre married
William
Howard whose descendant was the ancestor of the present Earl of Carlisle.
In summer of 1567 Norfolk
became ill. The root of the trouble was some form of rheumatism, which had first
troubled him at Berwick in 1560, but it now affected his general health quite
seriously. He had to rest, yet he could not shake it off. He looked forward
anxiously to the safe arrival of the child which his Duchess was
carrying. Childbirth had caused the death of two wives and he would be relieved
when the danger was passed for Duchess Elizabeth. In preparation for her
lying in new 'cradle clothes of crimson satin, quilted' were purchased
and 'a cover for a noble personage lying in childbed, bordered with gold and
powdered ermine'. But once more Kenninghall Palace was plunged in despair,
for on the evening of 4 Sep 1567 Elizabeth died in childbed and her child
died with her. Norfolk
was beside himself with grief.
Depression hampered his physical recovery. He somehow forced himself to
go to the funeral at Framlingham and then retired to Norwich, too low in spirits
and sick of body to return to London at Michaelmas.
After Elizabeth's death, Lady Mounteagle took charge of her grandchildren and provided a Catholic priest to instruct them.
Sources:
Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. X. Sidney Lee, ed.
Williams, Neville:
Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk
(Barrie and Rockliff – 1964 - London)