Lady Anne Clifford

Clifford was the only surviving child of Margaret Russell and George, Earl of Cumberland. When he died in 1605, Clifford's father left the familial properties to his brother. Clifford, with the assistance of her mother, fought tenaciously for her inheritance, finally receiving it in 1643. She was also an active writer, keeping a diary and a family history; however, only the years 1603, 1616-1617, and 1619 of her diary survive. The preservation of these years appears to have been an effort to detail her struggles to obtain her inheritance.

Circumstantial evidence suggests that Clifford could have been the writer of "A Chaine of Pearle," a poem memorializing Queen Elizabeth. It is known that her maternal aunt, the Countess of Warwick, was a great favorite of Elizabeth's. Warwick was one of Clifford's chief mentors when she was a young girl, and Clifford counted herself amongst the queen's beloved. In addition, before 1605, much of Clifford's young life was spent at court, suggesting personal experience as a possible source for the details of court scandal recounted in "A Chaine of Pearle."

Clifford was also interested in religion and moral philosophy from a young age, which is reflected in the texts that she valued. (Evidence for Clifford's literary preferences is generally drawn from a portrait of her family [Great Picture of the Clifford Family] by Jan Van Belkamp in which Clifford is depicted standing in front of a bookcase filled with identifiable titles.) Clifford's mother was a great patroness of poets, including Spenser, Thomas Lodge, Samuel Daniel, Robert Greene, and Aemelia Lanyer. Daniel was one of Clifford's tutors; thus Clifford would have had skilled guidance in poetry writing. Clifford's character, as it is revealed through her diaries, was that of a woman who did not depend on men in defining herself. Although she married twice, she always retained a strong familial bond with her Cumberland and Russell ancestors and insisted on her right to inherit, regardless of her gender. These traits are amply reflected in "A Chaine of Pearle," which unapologetically describes and glorifies the virtues of a female monarch.

In Progresses and Public Progressions of Queen Elizabeth, John Nichols suggests that the poem was written in 1603, which might be an error or arguably the actual date when the poem was written. The poem fits nicely in the collection of works that were written in 1603 to commemorate Elizabeth's death; however, if Clifford was the writer, she would have been only 13 when she composed the verses. Clifford was at court when the queen died and the new king was crowned, and her diary indicates that "if Queen Elizabeth had lived she intended to prefer me to be of the Privy Chamber." Although not allowed to join the court in its vigil by the queen's corpse, Clifford was allowed to attend the funeral. It is obvious from Clifford's diary that Elizabeth's death left an impression on the young girl, as did the subsequent changes at court connected with the succession of James I. Thus Clifford's familiarity with the queen and her attendance at her death might have provided the impetus for her to write the memorial.

Regardless of whether Clifford was the writer, the poem may have been written in 1603 and only published in 1630. Elizabeth's death inspired countless poems and memorials dedicated to her memory. Publication in 1630, however, suggests criticism of Charles I, which might argue against Clifford as the author. In June of 1630, she married Philip Herbert, the second son of Mary Sidney and Henry, the Earl of Pembroke and a favorite of both James I and Charles I. Certainly Clifford would not have published a poem that was perceived as a criticism of Charles I's reign just at the time she was marrying a court favorite. Furthermore, although Herbert later became a Parliamentarian, Clifford herself remained a staunch royalist during the Civil War years.

"A Chaine of Pearl" aside, Clifford's diary stands as an example of female scholarship in the early sixteenth century.   In addtions, both she and her mother were patrons of other women writers, particularly Aemelia Lanyer.  Lanyer provides one of the best examples of a woman writer dedicating her works to noble women. Her Salve Deus Rex Judæorum is dedicated "to all vertuous ladies in generall" and to eight specific noble women, including Anne Clifford and her mother Margaret. Susanne Woods argues persuasively that a visit with Clifford and her mother were Lanyer's inspiration in writing "The Description of Cooke-ham" in 1609. Lanyer's collection of poems and her dedications suggest not only a network of female patronage but also a community of learned women.
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Clifford, Anne: The Diary of Lady Anne Clifford. London: William Heinemann, 1923.

Lanyer, Aemilia: Salve Deus Rex Judæorum. Edited by Susan Woods. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Lewalski, Barbara K: "Re-writing Patriarchy and Patronage: Margaret Clifford, Anne Clifford, and Aemilia Lanyer." The Yearbook of English Studies, 21:87-106, 1991.

Lewalski, Barbara Kiefer: Writing Women in Jacobean England. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.

McBride, Kari Boyd: "Diana Primrose." In Hester, M. Thomas, editor: Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol 126: Seventeenth-Century British Nondramatic Poets, second series. Detroit: Gale Research Inc.,1989.

Stephen, Leslie and Lee, Sydney, editors: The Dictionary of National Biography, vol 16. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967-68.