Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex
Frances Radclyffe, Countess of Sussex was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I and the founder of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
She was the daughter of Sir William Sidney, of Penshurst Place in Kent, a prominent courtier during the reign of King Henry VIII, and his wife, the former Anne Packenham. She was the sister of Sir Henry Sidney, and the aunt of both the poet Sir Philip Sidney and the first Sidney Earl of Leicester.
In 1555, she married Thomas Radclyffe, Viscount FitzWalter, who was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in April 1556 and who succeeded his father as 3rd Earl of Sussex in 1557. They left no children.
In her will, Lady Sussex left the sum of £5,000 together with some plate to found a new college at Cambridge University 'to be called the Lady Frances Sidney Sussex College'. Her executors, Sir John Harington and Henry Grey, 6th Earl of Kent, supervised by Archbishop John Whitgift, founded the college seven years after her death. The mascot of the college is the blue and gold porcupine, taken from the Sidney family coat of arms.
Early life
Frances Sidney was born in or around 1531 at Penshurst Palace in Kent to Sir William Sidney and Anne Pagenham. She was their fourth and youngest daughter and thus had a number of siblings including Mary Margaret Sidney, Lucy Sidney, Mabel Sidney, Agnes Fitzwilliam, and Sir Henry Sidney.The Sidneys became wealthy in the mid-fifteenth century as landowners in the Sussex-Surrey region. Frances’ father, Sir Williams Sidney, lived between 1482 and 1554 and was a Courtier to Henry VII and Henry VIII. Consequently, the Sidneys were well known by the Royals.
Marriage
Frances married Thomas Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter, at Hampton Court between 26 and 29 April 1555. The marriage was celebrated by a tournament in which the jure uxoris King Of England, King Felipe, participated in the jousts. By this point, Fitzwalter was in favour with the King as he had been summoned to sit in the House of Lords and had been appointed a member of King Felipe’s Privy Council. Frances was not his first wife; Radcliffe’s first wife, Elizabeth Wriothesley, died childless after ten years of marriage. Thus, it was essential he find a new suitor to produce an heir to his patronage, so much so that he expeditiously married Frances three months after the death of his wife in January 1555.The union of Frances with Thomas Radcliffe immediately sparked tension. Thomas Radcliffe’s father, the 2nd Earl of Radcliffe, had heard the case of the Lady Jane Grey conspiracy and subsequently ordered the hanging, drawing, and quartering of Sir Henry Sidney’s wife, Mary Sidney’s, brother.
Eager to produce an heir, in 1556 Lady Sidney travelled to Ireland with her husband as he had just been appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland. Unfortunately, in all their years of marriage they had no children. Lady Sussex was therefore motivated to devote her estate towards her passion for education and the development a new College at the University of Cambridge, eponymously named Sidney Sussex College.
English Administration in Ireland
Residence
A 24 year old Lady Sidney accompanied a then 30 year old Lord Fitzwalter to Ireland, arriving “upon the quay of Dublin on Whit Sunday” in 1556. Thomas Radcliffe, Lord Fitzwalter, served as the Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1556-1560, earning the title of 3rd Earl of Sussex in 1557, and later as Lord Lieutenant from 1560-1564.When they arrived they were expected to be accommodated in the thirteenth century, vice-regal residence that was Dublin Castle, however, it was immediately determined to be unsuitable.
Alternatively, and following in the example of Lord Deputy Anthony St Leger before them, Lord Fitzwalter and Lady Sidney occupied the priory of Kilmainham. While this property was four kilometres outside of Dublin, it avoided the awful living conditions of Dublin and had been renovated at the price of £100 some years prior. It served the Lord Deputy Sussex well until Sir Henry Sidney later renovated Dublin Castle in order to return the seat of English Government to its traditional position in Ireland.
Absence
The Sussex’s spent a great deal of time away from Ireland, spending nearly 3 years of their 8 year tenure abroad. The Earl and Lady Sussex would often spend half the year in Ireland and the other half in England. The longest period of continuous stay in Ireland was towards the end of the Earl of Sussex’s tenure as Lord Lieutenant, where they spent twenty-two consecutive months in Ireland. Frances remained by the Earl of Sussex’s side for much of this time.Their absence was due to the complete reluctance of English Viceroys, such as the Earl of Sussex, to rule over Ireland. They were absent so frequently, they failed to form in Irish Court at any stage in their tenure. The wives of the Viceroys of Ireland throughout this period, including Frances, failed to make an meaningful connection between Ireland and England due to their frequent absence and difficulty assimilating.
Life in Ireland
Life was difficult for Lady Sidney in Ireland, her lack of children impacted her status in the Irish public eye. The changing monarchs, from Edward IV to Mary 1 to Elizabeth 1, meant there significant changes in religious practice over the years that were the cause of some controversy. This also made daily life difficult for Lady Sidney as the wives of the Viceroys of Ireland were expected to be pious examples of faith.Diplomacy
The Earl of Sussex was widely reputable for his martial governance. The Leicesters were firm critics of the Sussexes contemporaneously, and retrospectively, Brady criticises Lady Sidney’s efforts. When Frances arrived in Ireland she was young and inexperienced. The frequent absence of the Earl and Lady of Sussex significantly impacted their ability to cultivate the relationships fostered with Maguire and O’Neill, two significant powers in Ireland at the time.Diplomatic relations with Maguire
Upon arrival in Ireland in 1556, the Earl of Sussex was met with a number of militant factions, including from the Scots. Notwithstanding, the Earl of Sussex developed a good relationship with Sean Maguire, Lord of Fermanagh, and would go on to form a strong alliance with him. While the specifics are unclear, it is understood that Maguire presented Lady Sidney with two of his finest hawks, a symbolic gift often offered in Anglo-Irish diplomacy. Why he chose Lady Sidney as the recipient is unclear, nor is it clear how this impacted Lady Sidney’s favour of Maguire when petitioning to her husband, but it is a symbolic gesture of solidarity.Diplomatic relations with O'Neill
In 1557 Shane O’Neill, a Gaelic lord, asserted that his half-brother’s claim to succeed the title of Earl of Tyrone was illegitimate. The Earl of Sussex repressed this claim, however, in 1559, upon the death of the incumbent Earl of Tyrone, O’Neill reasserted his claim. The Earl of Sussex protested against the intent of Queen Elizabeth 1 to grant O’Neill the Earldom and instead militated against him. After much conflict, O’Neill was victorious and recognised as the Earl of Tyrone. O’Neill then wrote to Queen Elizabeth 1 and requested to marry the Earl of Sussex’s sister, Lady Frances Radcliffe.Court of Elizabeth I
The Earl of Sussex and the Earl of Leicester were said to be rivals for the favour of Elizabeth 1. Lady Sidney’s brother, Sir Henry Sidney, married Mary Dudley, the eldest daughter of the Duke of Northumberland and sister of the Queen’s favourite, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.There is no reference of Frances fulfilling any role in the Courts of Edward VI or Mary 1. In 1571 however, Frances fell into favour of Queen Elizabeth 1 as her sister in law, Mary, was a chambermaid. Queen Elizabeth 1 visited the Earl and Countess of Sussex at their home in Bermondsey on two occasions in 1571. In this year both Mary and Frances contracted smallpox, an infection that disfigured the Queen and Mary significantly, although Frances recovered well. In 1578 Lady Sussex received her first appointments as a lady of the chamber of Queen Elizabeth 1.
On his deathbed, the Earl of Sussex warned Lady Sidney of the Earl of Leicester:
‘I am now passing into another world, and must leave you to your fortunes and the Queen’s graces; but beware of the ‘Gypsy’; for he will be hard for you all. You know not the beast as well as I do’In the last year of the Earl and Countess of Sussex’s marriage, before his death, their relationship was frustrated by “malicious speeches and unconscionable extremities”; it is thought the Leicesters interfered with the ill Earl of Sussex to deprive Lady Sidney of his affection. The state of the Earl and Lady Sussex’s relationship infuriated Queen Elizabeth 1. In response, Lady Sidney wrote the Queen a desperate letter detailing the external forces that broke the “love of twenty-eight years continuance” even after she followed her husband “in health and in sickness, in wealth and woe”. Later, Lady Sidney also thanked Lord Burleigh for testifying her case to Queen Elizabeth 1. The Queen did not accept Lady Sidney’s letter; in 1585, Lady Sidney wrote to Her Majesty once again offering to substantiate her assertion that she shared a loving marriage with the Earl of Sussex.
Death and Legacy
The Earl of Sussex succumbed to illness at and died on 9 June 1583. On his death, his will is said to have been “equitable, chilling, and legalistic” and he bequeathed Frances “all his jewels, valued at £3,169; 4,000 ounces of gilt plate; and the income from manors in Essex and estates in Norfolk”.Following her husband’s death, Lady Sidney became very bitter and increasingly supportive of Protestantism, adopting the motto “Dieu me garde de calomnie”. Her prudent management of the late Earl of Sussex’s manors mean she became reputably wealthy in this time. In this period, Lady Sidney continued to be persecuted as the MP Arthur Hall, notoriously disreputable, published a vexatious pamphlet about her after she rejected his advances.
Lady Sidney died in her Bermondsey home on 9 March 1589. She was buried in the Chapel of St Paul, Westminster Abbey just over a month later on 15 April 1589.
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Lady Sidney had maintained passion for education throughout her time in the Court of Elizabeth 1. In Thomas Rogers' translation of Niels Hemmingsen's The Faith of the Church Militant, a powerful and scholarly protestant work, Rogers included a dedication to Lady Sidney’s support of education. In her will dated December 6, 1588 Lady Sidney stated she wished to use the estate she had inherited from her husband “to erect some good and godly monument for the maintenance of good learning”. Henry Gray, the Earl of Kent, was the chief executor of her will and the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury was the supervisor. Lady Sidney made arrangements to pay a perpetual annuity of £20 for the appointment of a biweekly lecturer at Westminster Abbey for ever, £100 to be distributed amongst the “godly ministers” of London, and £5000 for the erection and foundation of a new college at the University of Cambridge. The College would be founded as “Lady Frances Sidney Sussex College” with enough money sparing for the maintenance of one master, ten fellows, and twenty scholars.The Earl of Kent and Sir John Harrington encountered considerable fiscal strain when establishing the college, in the event the funds were insufficient for the foundation of a novel college, Lady Sidney had also allowed the funds to go to the improvement of the existing Clare College, Cambridge. Were the latter the case, the college were to be renamed “Clare and Lady Frances Sidney Sussex College”.
Although the will was contested by relatives of Lady Sidney, all were unsuccessful and the college was founded in 1596, seven years after the reading of the will and after the personal intervention of Queen Elizabeth 1, despite her dislike for Lady Sidney immediately prior to her death.
The porcupine appears on her 24 foot high marble and alabaster funerary monument in the chapel of St Paul, Westminster Abbey. In this monument, suspected to have been designed by Ralph Symons and sculpted by Richard Stevens, she is depicted in the coronet of a countess.