Frances Walsingham

Frances Walsingham (also Frances Sidney; Frances Devereux, Countess of Essex; Frances De Burgh (or Burke), Countess of St. Albans and Clanricarde) 1569 - 13 February 1631) was an English countess during the Tudor and Stuart periods.

She was the only child of Sir Francis Walsingham, spymaster for Queen Elizabeth I, and Ursula St. Barbe. A lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, she married Philip Sidney in 1583; although he died three years later in 1586. In 1590 Frances’ father also died and she was left with an annuity of £300.

In 1590 Frances married again, to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, to whom she had been committed by Philip at his death fighting overseas. This match which caused great displeasure to the Queen. Elizabeth was said to have been in love with Essex, who was the stepson of her great love, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Essex was also the great-grandson of two of Henry VIII's mistresses, Mary Boleyn, the sister of Queen Anne Boleyn, and Anne Stafford, Countess of Huntingdon cite book |pages=p.51 |title=Anne Boleyn |author=Joanna Denny] . Some historians believe that Catherine Carey, the daughter of Mary Boleyn and the grandmother of Essex, was fathered by Henry VIII. This would make Frances' children the great-great-grandchildren of England's best-known king.

Robert was executed in 1601 after participating in an attempted coup against the Queen. Frances had three children with her second husband, these were named Frances, Robert and Dorothy. Robert became the third Earl of Essex.

In 1603, she remarried to Richard De Burgh (or Burke), Earl of St Albans and Clanricarde. They had one daughter, Honor, Marchioness of Winchester.

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