Mary Arundell, Countess of Arundel, was the only child of Sir John Arundell of Lanherne, Cornwall, by his second wife, Katherine Grenville. She was a gentlewoman at court in the reign of King Henry VIII, serving two of Henry VIII's Queens, and the King's daughter, Princess Mary. She was traditionally believed to have been "the erudite Mary Arundell", the supposed translator of verses now known to have been the work of her stepdaughter, Mary FitzAlan, later the first wife of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk.
Mary Arundell came to court in 1536, and served at least two of Henry VIII's Queens, Jane Seymour, and Anne of Cleves, as well as the King's daughter, the future Queen Mary. Mary Arundell's half brother, Sir Thomas Arundell of Wardour Castle, is said to have arranged her first marriage to Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex, and at the same time to have entered into negotiations with Thomas Cromwell, who wished to marry his son, Gregory, to Sir Thomas Arundell's sister, Jane Arundell. In the end, Jane did not marry, but served as a gentlewoman in the household of Queen Mary, and eventually returned to Lanherne, her father, Sir John Arundell, having provided for her financially. Jane Arundell is commemorated in St Mawgan church. Mary Arundell was earlier reputed to be among the learned women of her time as the alleged translator of the Sayings and Doings of the Emperor Severus and the Select Sentences of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. However, according to Grummitt, 'The claims once made for her literary attainments have proved to be unfounded; the translations of classical texts surviving among the royal manuscripts in the British Library, once attributed to her, are children's exercises written by her stepdaughter Mary, later duchess of Norfolk'. It is now known that these four collections of sententiae from Greek and English sources were translated into Latin, not by Mary Arundell, but by Mary FitzAlan, later the first wife of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, and dedicated as New Year's gifts to her father, Mary Arundell's second husband, Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel. According to Hodgson-Wright, two were written before Mary FitzAlan's marriage and two afterwards, the final one having been co-translated with Mary FitzAlan's stepbrother, Sir John Radcliffe, Mary Arundell's only surviving son from her first marriage to Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex. In addition to the confusion concerning her alleged authorship of these translations, Mary Arundell has also been confused with Margaret Acland, Lady Arundell, wife of John Arundell, 2nd Baron Arundell of Trerice, of another branch of the Arundells of Cornwall. Mary Arundell died in London, and was buried at the church of St Clement Danes. A lead coffin, said to contain her remains, was found at Arundel Castle in 1847, and is now buried beneath the floor of the Fitzalan chapel there.
Marriages and issue
Mary Arundell married twice, producing only one surviving son from her first marriage:
Firstly on 14 January 1537, as his third wife, to Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex, thus Mary Arundell became stepmother of Sussex's three sons and two daughters by his two previous marriages. His first wife, whom he married shortly after 23 July 1505, had been Elizabeth Stafford by whom he had three sons His second marriage, before 1 September 1532, was to Margaret Stanley by whom he had two daughters. Mary Arundell bore two sons to Sussex:
*A first-born son baptised 22 March 1538 who died in infancy
*Sir John Radcliffe, younger son
Secondly on 19 December 1545 Mary Arundell married, as his second wife, Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel. There was no issue from the marriage, from which however Mary Arundell became stepmother to her husband's three children by his first marriage to Katherine Grey, second daughter of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset by his second wife, Margaret Wotton.
