- Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle
Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle (1599 –
November 5 ,1660 ) was an Englishcourtier known for her beauty and wit. She was involved in many political intrigues during theEnglish Civil War .She was born Lucy Percy, the second daughter of the 9th Earl of Northumberland, the famous "Wizard Earl." She became the second wife of
James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle . Her charms were celebrated in verse by contemporary poets, includingThomas Carew ,William Cartwright , Robert Herrick and John Suckling, and by SirToby Matthew in prose. She was a conspicuous figure at the court of King Charles I. A contemporary scandal made her the mistress successively ofThomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford , and ofJohn Pym , his parliamentary opponent. Strafford valued her highly, but after his death, possibly in consequence of a revulsion of feeling at his abandonment by the court, she devoted herself to Pym and to the interests of the parliamentary leaders, to whom she communicated the king's most secret plans and counsels.Her greatest achievement was the timely disclosure to
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex of the king's intended arrest of the five members of Parliament, which enabled Essex to escape. However, she appears to have served both parties simultaneously, betraying communications on both sides, and doing considerable mischief by inflaming political animosities.In 1647, she attached herself to the interests of the moderate
Presbyterian party, which assembled at her house, and in the Second Civil War showed great zeal and activity in the royal cause, pawning her pearl necklace for £1500 to raise money for Lord Holland's troops, establishing communications with Prince Charles during his blockade of theThames , and making herself the intermediary between the scattered bands of royalists and the queen. As a result, her arrest was ordered onMarch 21 ,1649 , and she was imprisoned in theTower of London , where she maintained a correspondence in code with the king through her brother, Lord Percy, until Charles went toScotland . According to a royalist newsletter, while in the Tower she was threatened withtorture on the rack to gain information. She was released on bail onSeptember 25 ,1650 , but appears never to have regained her former influence in the royalist counsels, and died soon after the Restoration.Alexandre Dumas probably based Milady in his "
The Three Musketeers " on Lucy Hay.ources
* Betcherman, Rose. "Court Lady and Country Wife: Two Noble Sisters in Seventeenth-Century England." New York, HarperCollins, 2005.
*"Carlisle, Lucy Hay, countess of." "Encyclopædia Britannica ". 2005.
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