Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby, far from being just a name in historical records, played a significant role in the cultural and social life of her time. From her lineage to her patronage of the arts, discover the untold story of this remarkable Tudor woman. Dive deep into the intrigues, alliances, and passions that shaped her world and understand why Alice Spencer deserves her place in the annals of Tudor history.
So in the Elizabethan era, there were luminous figures of Elizabeth I, Walter Raleigh William Shakespeare and they naturally dominated. Yet as with any historical epoch, the richness of the period is not solely in its most famous characters but also in the lives that wove the socio-political fabric of the time. One such life often overshadowed by grander narratives yet deeply interwoven into the very core of Elizabethan politics, culture, and society was Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby.
Born into the influential Spencer family, Alice’s journey is emblematic of the dynamic and often treacherous waters of the Elizabethan court. Her life was not just that of privilege and opulence, but also strategy, acumen, and resilience. As we delve into her story, we’ll discover a woman who navigated the nuances of a time when the course of English history was being vehemently retarded.
Alice was no mere bystander to the unfolding dramas of her age. She was an active participant, a woman of keen intellect, and sharp instincts. Her patronage of the arts hinted at a refined taste while her deft management of her daughter’s marriages and her own fights for her jointer and her legal rights, showcased her astuteness in a world where marital alliances were less about love and more about power, prestige, and political maneuvering.
She reminds me a lot of somebody like Bess of Hardwick who really knew her rights and really fought for her rights and was able to turn coming from not necessarily nobility into becoming a very formidable person. So I really like her for that reason. The Spencer family where she came from, was emblematic of a transformative economic ship that was sweeping through England during the late medieval and early Tudor periods and this was propelled by the phenomenon of land enclosures.
So historically, English agricultural land was organized around the open field system with vast tracts of land divided into strips cultivated by individual peasants. However, as the demand for wool in Europe surged driven by the textile industries in Flanders and Italy, sheep farming in England became increasingly lucrative. Wooled white gold allure promised wealth. For those astute enough to capitalize on the boom, the rewards were substantial.
The Spencers were one such family that astutely navigated this landscape, recognizing the profitability of sheep farming, they began to enclose their lands consolidating the once openly cultivated fields into larger enclosed pastures dedicated to sheep rearing.
This strategy was economically sound but it was not without its controversies. Enclosures led to the displacement of peasants who had traditionally cultivated the land. Also for peasants’ animals, there was no grazing it was an open area where anybody could graze their animals. So now the peasants didn’t have places to graze any animals that they might have.
There was social unrest and dislocations were also a big part of Kett’s Rebellion that was happening in the reign of Edward VI. So land enclosures were a really big deal. The Spencers invested heavily in sheep farming and were a family that benefited from land enclosures and this catapulted them from the ranks of minor gentry into one of England’s wealthiest and most influential families. Their wealth wasn’t tied up just to land and sheep. The proceeds from wool were reinvested into buying more lands, securing advantageous marriages, and even lending money to the cash-strapped monarchs.
By the time Alice was born, the Spencers were not mere sheep farmers, but influential landowners with a vast network of estates and a web of connections that reached into the highest echelons of English society. This privileged background provided Alice with the tools and education typical of her station, preparing her for the significant role she would later play in the Elizabethan Court in politics.
In Alice’s early years, she would have witnessed firsthand the workings of the economic machinery that powered her family’s rise. The lush pastures filled with herds of sheep, the buzz of the markets where wool was traded, and the coin-filled chest that bore testament to the Spencer’s commercial acumen.
Yet as with all stories of great wealth and power, there were underlying currents of tension. Notably, the socioeconomic conflicts that would have been an ever-present backdrop to her youth. Now the Spencer family owned Althorp and those who follow English history today will remember that there’s another Spencer family that lives at Althorp and yes they are related to Alice, many great-grandmothers.
It’s the same line as Diana Spencer, Princess Diana. So she was the first Spencer woman who started to really make it big in the English nobility. Princess Diana’s story goes all the way back to the Tudor period, before as sheep farmers but really starting to get into the higher levels of nobility during this period.
Then Alice Spencer marries into the Stanleys, the Stanleys of course, one of the most fascinating families of the Elizabethan and medieval period as well. This is the Lord Stanley that Margaret Beaufort married, who was the stepfather to Henry VII.
They came from the northwest of England. They rose to prominence during the Wars of the Roses through a combination of strategic alliances and marital connections. They positioned themselves as power brokers eventually playing pivotal roles in the outcome of the Battle of Bosworth and literally supposedly crowning Henry Tudor king.
So Alice married into this family. She married Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby. Beyond this title, he also bore another one the Lord of Mann, so this granted him dominion over the Isle of Man which was a self-governing crown dependency, located between England and Ireland. Parliament had officially ruled that the Isle of Man was not part of England, so the Lord of Mann was actually kind of king of this island by themselves.
When Alice married into this family and became the Lady of Mann, it was like becoming a queen really of this small island. But of course, it was not just their titles and land holdings that made the Stanley so intriguing. It was also their potential claim to the English throne.
Ferdinando Stanley had that Stanley blood which goes back to a tangential relationship with the Plantagenets, but also on his mother’s side, Lady Margaret Clifford, he comes from the Brandon family which of course is the sister of Henry VIII, Mary Brandon was the daughter of Henry VII. So they have a claim to the English throne and for a while, because Elizabeth had not named a successor, there was a lot of thought that they were heir presumptives at that time.
Ferdinando in particular was a figure shrouded in rumors and mysteries. His potential claim to the throne made him both an asset and a target. There were various Catholic plots like the Babington Plot and others that would often whisper his name as a potential Catholic monarch should Elizabeth be overthrown.
These whispers were not without basis there were persistent rumors that Ferdinando and by extension, the Stanley family had Catholic sympathies. Ferdinando seemed to really want to stay the line and stay away from any drama but people in his family would be more open about their Catholic leanings and their faith.
Of course, rumors were dangerous and there had actually been a case where someone had approached Ferdinando and tried to talk to him about potentially being involved in a plot. He reported it right away and actually gave testimony against the people that had talked to him but then Ferdinando suffered a mysterious and untimely death in 1594, which fueled a lot of speculation.
Some believed he was poisoned by Jesuits for refusing to support the Catholic insurrection and giving evidence against people earlier. Others believe he was poisoned by agents of Elizabeth I due to his potential involvement in Catholic plots. The truth is of course elusive but what is clear is that he was very young.
He had young children and this marked a very tragic and dramatic end to a life that was in many ways the personification of the complexities and intrigues of Elizabethan politics/ Alice is there still, she had to navigate all of this and as she was the wife of Ferdinando, she would have been privy to and perhaps even a part of some of these secretive and the perilous world of the court politics.
Her role as Lady Derby coupled with the legacy of the Spencer family, placed her at the heart of some of the most defining events and conspiracies of the era. So as she ascended to the title of Countess of Derby following her marriage to Ferdinando and his father’s death, she found herself thrust into the whirlwind of Elizabethan nobility and the attendant responsibilities.
The position came with vast estates to manage, political intrigues to navigate, and upholding the reputation and influence of the Stanley family. Elizabeth ruled the realm from London but people had called the Stanley’s household Lathom Hall, the great Northern Court. Lathom had been their ancestral home and the family routinely moved between there and Knowsley.
As the mistress of such an impressive estate, Alice would have overseen not just the domestic workings of the household but also the vast lands, tenants, and socioeconomic intricacies that came with them. Alice would have been involved in making decisions on land leases, tenant disputes, agricultural ventures, and even local legal matters that nobility often would have adjudicated.
In her personal life, Alice bore Ferdinando’s three daughters – Anne, Frances, and Elizabeth and these daughters would each play significant roles in the English nobility later. Alice as their mother and matriarch would have been instrumental in guiding their upbringing, education, and their eventual marriages.
It’s also worth noting the cultural contributions that Alice made. Lathom Hall and the other Stanley houses became centers of arts and cultures. They hosted plays, musicians, and poets. The Countess herself was known to be a patron of the arts. There are many dedications from various books that were written around this time to Alice and her three daughters, they really fostered a cultural environment that would influence the Elizabethan and even the Jacobean periods.
So of course her life as Countess was marred by the mysterious death of her husband Ferdinando. This left her in a very precarious position both financially, politically, and personally. The title went to Ferdinando’s brother, however, when Ferdinando died, Alice was pregnant so they had to first wait to see whether that would be a boy or a girl.
Then Alice had the heartbreak of a miscarriage, there was hope before that maybe it would be a boy and he would inherit and everything would be okay. But there was a miscarriage so the title went to Ferdinando’s brother.
Now before he died, Ferdinando had changed his will and added more land to Alice’s jointer which was the piece of land that wives would receive to sustain them like a dowry portion, it was different than that but it was a piece of land that was all theirs or it was money plate, anything that was set aside just for them. Ferdinando had put more into her jointer.
When his brother inherited, they were going to have an argument about that because his brother didn’t like the fact that he inherited the title but really didn’t get that much land because a lot of it had been given to Alice and also a lot had been set aside for dowries for the daughters as well. So Ferdinando’s brother was really upset about this and disputed the will so it turned into a big legal argument.
Alice was busy writing letters that time to any person she could think of who might side with her at court. The heart of the argument really lay in interpreting Ferdinando’s will. But of course, Alice was a woman and there was a new Earl of Derby, so you know whose side are they going to take.
But Alice did wind up winning a lot of her legal battles, which was in no small part thanks to her lawyer Sir Thomas Egerton who was a prominent figure in court. He was the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and then Alice wound up marrying him as her second marriage.
This union was a merger of two very influential families and then they also intertwined their destinies even further when Alice’s daughter was betrothed to Thomas’s son. So the two stepchildren were betrothed, kind of unusual at the time, but not massively.
It gave Thomas a reason to continue fighting Alice’s cause because he knew that anything that she would inherit would go into one of her daughter’s dowries which would then stay in the family so it was calculated but they also just kind of wanted to merge all of the wealth that they had together into one family.
In 1602, Alice and Sir Thomas Egerton received the unique honor of hosting Elizabeth I on a royal progress. This was a testament to Alice’s position in society, in the favor that she and her husband held with the monarchy. Preparations for such an esteemed guest would have been elaborate.
The estate would have been a beehive of activity with new tapestries hung. There was actually I think I mentioned it before in an earlier episode whenever the monarch would visit all of the different nobles from the area would kind of all pitch in and lend things to each other because no one house had enough to sustain a monarch visiting. There would have been carts coming and going bringing pleats and tapestries and everything. Entertainment would have been arranged. Dances, masques, and even theater performances.
One thing I didn’t mention about Ferdinando was that before he became the Earl of Derby, he was Lord Strange which people who follow theater will remember Lord Strange’s Men was a theater troupe. One of those like the Earl of Leicester’s Men. So they had sponsored this theater troupe that then became the Earl of Derby’s men.
So Alice was very much involved with supporting theater productions, being a patron of the arts. So they probably would have had special masques, and special theater productions during this visit as well. Alice’s ability to manage such a grand event emphasized her significant role in the socio-political landscape at the time and it would have reinforced her family’s established position within the courtly hierarchy.
Then Alice had to face the critical responsibility of ensuring advantageous marriages for her daughters. The eldest of Alice’s daughters Anne, carried the weight of the primary share of the Stanley legacy. She was the primary heir. She was also for a while heir presumptive for Elizabeth.
Her marriage was of the utmost importance. She married Grey Brydges, 5th Baron Chandos of Sudeley and that was a significant match. They were an influential family closely associated with the heart of the Elizabethan court. Then he died and she married Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven and this was a terrible marriage.
I’m not going to go into a lot of the details because it’s quite disturbing. Let’s just say that Tuchet was a sadist and he abused Anne it actually became a scandal when it came out. Anne didn’t tell anybody what was going on but his son, actually her stepson made the case public because he was worried that he was going to be cheated out of his inheritance because of some of the things his father was doing and it turned into a whole court case where people had to testify as to what was going on in this household.
Alice probably did not know what was happening with her daughter, that her daughter was trapped in the situation for the years that she was in. As it came out though, you can tell Alice was thinking not just about her daughter and wanting to support her daughter but also about the legacy of their family because she had the big picture to think about as well, which was making sure they all managed to keep their reputations intact.
Alice wrote again to all of her noble friends, tried to explain her side of things, and actually asked for royal pardons, even though Anne hadn’t done anything wrong. Just the idea that they would receive a royal pardon to show that the King, by this point the King James was okay with them, that they were still all right, and they still had their reputations intact.
So that became actually a really big part of the later years of her life, which was taking care of the fallout from the scandal around Anne’s second marriage. Like I said, I don’t want to go into the details, he was very abusive and treated her very very badly and treated the people around him very very badly and that came back to haunt him because he wound up being executed for the whole thing. Anne then moved to the countryside and spent the rest of her life trying to stay as far away from people as possible.
Then Frances married her stepbrother. She was the second daughter. This was of course a strategic alliance fortifying their relationships, the marriage itself was relatively successful and the pair produced a healthy line of descendants so that worked out for her. The youngest Elizabeth married Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon.
Alice Spencer’s engagement with the marital affairs of her daughters and the way she was looking out for the family in the wake of the scandal of her daughter’s second marriage, really emphasized her active role in the high politics of this period.
Her life’s narrative underscores the profound influence wielded by women of the nobility during this period. She wasn’t merely a consort of an influential man but she was actually a force to be reckoned with in her own right.
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.