Magdalen Dacre

Magdalen Dacre, Viscountess Montagu^[1] (January 1538 – 8 April 1608) was an English noblewoman.^[2] She was the daughter of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre of Gilsland, and the second wife of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu. Magdalen, a Roman Catholic, was a Maid of Honour to Mary I of England and was bridesmaid at Mary's wedding to Philip II of Spain in Winchester Cathedral. Dacre, despite being Catholic, managed to remain in high regard with Elizabeth I, the Protestant half-sister who succeeded Mary. Dacre was, according to biographer Lady Antonia Fraser in her historical biography, The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605, a fine example of "how the most pious Catholic could survive if he (or she) did not challenge the accepted order".^[3]

Magdalen Dacre was born in January 1538 at Naworth Castle in Eskdale Ward, Cumberland,^{[4][unreliable source]} the fifth child of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre of Gilsland, 2nd Baron Greystoke, and Elizabeth Talbot.^{[5][unreliable source]} The Dacres were powerful Northern Border lords and Roman Catholics, however by the time of her birth, the reigning monarch Henry VIII, had already made the break with Rome by placing himself as the head of the Church of England. He had also just produced a male heir, Prince Edward (later Edward VI), with his third wife Jane Seymour just months prior to Magdalen's birth. Despite the Protestant Reformation sweeping the country, Magdalen, along with her siblings, was raised Roman Catholic.

Dacre's paternal grandparents were Thomas Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre, of Gilsland, 1st Baron Greystoke, and Elizabeth Greystoke, and her maternal grandparents were George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, and Anne Hastings, daughter of William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings and Katherine Neville. Her great, great uncle was Warwick the Kingmaker and she was cousin to Queen Catherine Parr. She had five brothers and five sisters and her father was a Warden of the Western March and Governor of Carlisle.

Aged 13/14, Dacre was sent to serve as a gentlewoman to twice-widowed Anne Sapcote, Countess of Bedford then aged about 72, who was married to her third husband John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford.^[6] Anne was one of Princess Mary's attendants when Mary was in her teens and twenties and later took over the upbringing of Magdalen, when Magdalen's mother died in 1552. It's likely that Anne introduced her to Princess Mary, with Magdalen then becoming one of Mary's maids of honour at the age of 16.

In 1553 Edward VI, the boy king who succeeded Henry VIII, died after six years on the throne, aged 15, the same age as Dacre. Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, became Queen of England, and England returned to Roman Catholicism. By 1554 Mary had turned her attention to finding a suitor and producing an heir to the Tudor dynasty, becoming engaged to Philip II of Spain. The marriage took place at Winchester Cathedral on 25 July 1554 and Dacre, as a maid of honour, was selected as a bridesmaid and took part in the bridal procession,^[3] dressed in purple velvet.

As a gentlewoman at Mary's court, she was mentioned in verses by Richard Edwardes,^[7] who compared her height to the legendary Andromache:

Dacre is not dangerous, her talk is nothing coy,
Her noble stature may compare with Hector's wife of Troy.^[8]

Hector's wife's name "Andromache" in Greek means "man-fighter" and this comparison may allude, not only to Dacre's height, but also to her having to fight off the attentions of Philip of Spain. Dacre was described as being very attractive and blonde. She was also very tall, and reportedly stood a head above the other maids of honour at court.^[9] According to her biography by Richard Smith, she attracted the attention of Philip. The story goes that Philip opened a window to a room where Magdalen was washing her face (or possibly brushing her hair) and caught hold of her, whereupon she had to beat him off with a staff to escape his embrace.^[10]

• Thomas Dacre, 4th Baron Dacre of Gilsland (1527/1530- 1 July 1566), married firstly Elizabeth Neville, and secondly Elizabeth Leyburne, by whom he had five children, including George Dacre, 5th Baron Dacre of Gilsland, 4th Baron Greystoke, and Anne Dacre, later Countess of Arundel (21 March 1557 – 19 April 1630). When Thomas died, his widow remarried Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk.
• Leonard Dacre (died 12 August 1573). He joined the Northern Rebellion and had to flee England.
• Frances Dacre (b. 1523)
• Anne Dacre (1521- July 1581), married Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland by whom she had six children.
• Dorothy Dacre (b. 1533), married Sir Thomas Windsor by whom she had one daughter, Anne Windsor.
• George Dacre (b. 1534)
• Eleanor Dacre, married Henry Jerningham, Esq., of Cotesby Hall by whom she had issue.
• Mary Dacre (b. 1539), married Sir Alexander Culpepper of Bedgebury, by whom she had one son, Sir Anthony Culpepper of Bedgebury.
• Edward Dacre (d. 1579). He joined his brother in the Northern Rebellion.
• Sir Francis Dacre (d. 1632), married Dorothy Radcliffe by whom he had issue.

On 15 July 1558, Dacre married Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, a Privy Counsellor, Knight of the Garter and King Philip's former Master of the Horse, in a ceremony took place at St. James's Palace. Browne was 10 years Magdalen's senior, aged 30 and a father and a widower from his previous marriage to Jane Radclyffe, who died due to childbirth, after the delivery of their twins, Mary and Anthony. Browne's links to Queen Mary went back a long way, particularly having championed her during her half-brother's reign. After her accession to the throne in 1553, Browne was appointed to several positions in the royal household and, at her coronation, he carried her train. In April 1554 he was appointed Master of the Horse to Queen Mary's consort, Philip II of Spain. He met Philip on his arrival in Southampton in July 1554, a few days prior to the royal wedding at Winchester Cathedral.^[11] Due to both Anthony and Magdalen being in the royal household, Mary attended their wedding in 1558. The Browne family, like the Dacres, were Catholics. Anthony and Magdalen's principal residences were Cowdray House and Battle Abbey, both in Sussex. However they also owned many other properties and land, most inherited from Magdalen's father-in-law. Along with Battle Abbey they owned St Mary Overy in Southwark which had been confiscated in 1538 as part of the dissolution of the monasteries. Magdalen's father-in-law built a house at Southwark which, for generations, was the London residence of the Viscounts Montague. Browne also owned Byfleet manor (a handsome brick house with a 380-acre park that Queen Elizabeth used for hunting), West Horsley Place, Easebourne Priory, Brede, East Sussex, the town of Hastings, Newark Priory including the Manors of Send, Jury and East Clandon as well as Newark Mill, the chapel and vicarage of St Mary Magdalene in Ripley, Surrey and Chapel Farm behind the church, various farms in West Horsley, Ripley, Ockham, Woking, Pyrford, Wisley, Send Barns Farm in the village of Send and the buildings now known as Cedar House and Tudor House in Ripley.

The couple had ten children between them (although several are assumed to have died young), but twelve in total with Anthony's two children from his first marriage.

Following the accession of Queen Elizabeth I to the throne in 1558, Montagu lost his seat on the Privy Council but was made joint Lord Lieutenant of Sussex in 1570. With England's return to Protestantism, the Montagus were forced to reveal their stance on the situation: loyalty to the Pope, or to the new Protestant Queen. Browne, along with Lord Dacre (Magdalen's brother), declared that they would support the Pope if he came in peace, but would serve the Queen if he came with war-like intentions.^[12] Magdalen found favour with the Queen despite her Catholicism, her former close friendship with the late Queen Mary and later the behaviour of a few of her Dacre relations, some of whom conspired to depose the Queen and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots. One opinion as to the reason Magdalen remained on good terms with both Mary and her half-sister Elizabeth, is that Magdalen was a cousin of Henry VIII's last wife, Catherine Parr, who was a much-loved stepmother to both Henry's daughters. Although Magdalen as a Catholic would have naturally been within Mary's circle of trusted confidantes, she was also a second cousin to Queen Anne Boleyn and therefore related to Elizabeth. It's also possible that Elizabeth thought well of the Brownes due to Magdalen's father-in-law, Anthony Browne, being her, and her half-brother, Edward's, guardian when her father died. As a sign of her affection to the Brownes, Elizabeth was sumptuously entertained^[13] by them for a week at Cowdray House in 1591,^[14] which was a highlight of Elizabeth's progress. The visit consisted of feasting (on the first day breakfast consisted of three oxen and 140 geese), plays and, hunting. One of the main hunts included bucks being herded towards the Queen and other ladies in a paddock, so they could shoot the deer with a cross-bow. This was supposed to have taken place under the Queen Elizabeth Oak. Prior to leaving Cowdray, the queen knighted several men including Viscount Montagu's 2nd son (George Browne) and his son-in-law (Robert Dormer). During the visit the outward signs of the family's faith, including the priests, were kept hidden.^[15] Magdalen was very devout and supposedly wore a coarse linen smock underneath her extravagant court costumes.^[15]

Dacre was only once accused of recusancy, and although she allowed a printing press to be set up on her property,^[16] she refused to assist or abet treasonous plots against the Queen.^[15]

Despite being Roman Catholic, Magdalen's husband, Anthony Browne, was part of the jury that in 1586 convicted Mary, Queen of Scots of treason at her trial in Fotheringhay Castle.

Magdalen died at Battle Abbey, Sussex on 8 April 1608 at the age of seventy, having never fully recovered from a stroke she had in January that same year.^[17] The day prior to her death, five of her priests came to her house to say Masses for her.^[18] She was originally buried in the church of St Mary Magdalene and St Denys in Midhurst, where a splendid tomb with her effigy was erected. The tomb was moved in 1851 to Easebourne Church. After her death, King James I's Privy Council actively pursued and punished her tenants and servants for their adherence to Roman Catholicism .

Shortly after her death, William Byrd composed an elegy, "With lilies white", to her. Its text refers to the parable of the ten virgins in St. Matthew's gospel, and goes on to liken Magdalen's behaviour to theirs, praising her virtue and beauty, and declaring that though her body is now in a tomb, her soul is surely in heaven.

William Byrd (ca. 1540–1623) who had turned Roman Catholic some 30 year earlier, composed an elegy to Dacre on the year of her death, With lilies white (1608), which has remained as a famous piece of his consort music^[19]

Lyrics:

With lilies white those virgins fair are crowned,

That wed themselves to our great Lord and Saviour,

And never were in worldly pleasure drowned,

But solely liv’d in chaste and sweet behaviour,

Expecting still with lamps of crystal shining,

The bridegroom's call to bid them to his dining.

Among these maids fair Mawdlyn, late deceased,

May well be plac’d in virgin's weeds attired,

Who as in years in virtue still increased

And was a flow’r of beauty most admired,

Whose corpse in earth in marble tomb reposes,

And soul in heaven crown’d with sacred roses.

Dacre appears in Anya Seton's historical romance Green Darkness, which was partially set in 16th-century England.