Anne Seymour (born c.1538) was the eldest daughter of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and his second wife Anne Stanhope. She was a highly educated and accomplished young woman, who in June 1550, aged approx. 12 years old, was married to John Dudley, son of the then Earl of Warwick and later Duke of Northumberland. The wedding was an elaborate spectacle, attended by Edward VI himself at Richmond Palace, in an attempt to forge an alliance between the two families, with Seymour's power starting to wain, having recently lost the position of Lord Protector to his old friend John Dudley. However, their marriage was fraught with difficulties, with John's imprisonment in the Tower of London in July 1553 (who had since been awarded the Earldom of Warwick), along with his brothers for their role in the attempted coup involving Lady Jane Grey, culminating in his premature death days following his release from the Tower in October 1554 (Paul, 2022). Six months following the death of her husband, Anne (continuing to style herself the 'Countess of Warwick') entered into her second marriage, This was with Edward Unton, a landowner who had inherited estates, including Wadley Manor near Faringdon, Berkshire, on his father's death in 1547. The couple married in at Hatfield in Berkshire on 29 Apr 1555, in a much smaller ceremony than her previous. This marriage produced seven children, four of those living to adulthood. Despite having a family, Edward Unton was given permission to travel abroad in 1563, and so left his wife and young children to go on his 'Grand Tour', accompanied by his diarist Richard Smith. It is known the pair visited Switzerland and Italy during this trip (History of Parliament Online, 2024). Edward Unton's status rose as the years passed; in 1559, he was knighted by Elizabeth I, was elected High Sheriff of Berkshire in 1547, and in 1572 was elected as the Member of Parliament for Berkshire. In recognition of this, Elizabeth I visited Sir Edward Unton on her summer progresses of 1572, 1574 and 1576; whilst she was known to have visited Wadley in 1574, it appears that Edward entertained the Queen at his other property in Langley, Oxfordshire, due to his wife Anne's poor health (and her continuing to reside at the family seat of Wadley) (History of Parliament Online, 2024). Following the death of Edward Unton on 16 September 1582, on 25 October 1582, an inquest took place in Burford, Oxfordshire, regarding his widow's mental state. This hearing found that Anne had experienced "bouts of madness" and was "a lunatic enjoying lucid intervals, and the date of her falling into that state was fixed so long before as 1st May 8 Eliz, 1566" (Nichols, 1841, pg. xliv); Anne would therefore have been approximately 28 years old when she first became mentally unwell. Subsequently, the custody of her personage was granted to her younger son, Henry Unton, who had also been granted the manor of Wadley in his father's will (The National Archives [1], 2024). Following this ruling, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and Anne's [former] brother-in-law, was granted "the Countess of Warwick's interest in Langley and Wychwood" in 1582, with a separate lease granted for the manor of Whitney in 1583.
In a letter written by Robert Dudley, to William Cecil, Lord Burghley (Elizabeth I's Lord High Treasurer) on 08 July 1584, he additionally made requests for the ownership of the manor of Malvern (Collins, 1746, pg. 298):
"...I wold have intreated your Lordship to graunt me, during my Lady Warwycks Lunacye, the keeping and Mastership of the Game of the Chase of Malvern...being once my Fathers, and the auncyent Inherytance of the Erles of Warwick...Ther ys no Boddy now lookes to yt, And Mr. Vmpton left yt out of his Porcyon..."
Her mother, Anne [Stanhope], Dowager Countess of Somerset, died on 16 April 1587. At the time of her death, only four of her children were still living, including her eldest daughter Anne. However, the Duchess's will, which was written the previous year, fails to mention Anne; her other children, their spouses and her grandchildren however are all beneficiaries (The National Archives [2], 2024).
Despite this exclusion, which was likely due to ongoing incapacitation due to mental illness, Anne's status of 'Countesse of Warwike' was referred to on her elaborate tomb in St Nicholas' Chapel, Westminster Abbey, commissioned by her eldest surviving son Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (Westminster Abbey, 2024).
Anne Seymour died in her home at Wadley Manor in early 1588, her specific date of death remains unknown. Her funeral took place at All Saints' Church, Faringdon on 17 February 1588, where her daughter-in-law Lady Dorothy Unton (wife of her son Henry) was the chief mourner. During the sermon that was preached at her funeral by Bartholomew Chamberlaine (1591), Doctor of Divinity, her illness was alluded to:
"Let your lamentations be mixed with moderation, because she is gone from a vale of miserie, to a hauen of all happines"
"For though her bodie be sowen in corruption, et it shall be raised in incorruption. Though it be sowen in dishonor, yet it shall be raised in glorie. Though it be sowen in weakenes, yet it shall be raised in power".
![Monument to Sir Edward Unton, and wife Anne Countess of Warwick, Faringdon © sheepdog_rex [Flickr]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ed9b82_7061ae86dd814335a05b77a1835df87f~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_1046,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/ed9b82_7061ae86dd814335a05b77a1835df87f~mv2.jpg)
Anne was interred with her husband Edward Unton, in the 'Unton Mausoleum', on the east wall of the transept of the church. A memorial still hangs on that wall portraying the Unton, Seymour and Dudley coat of arms, continuing to highlight her status as the 'Countess of Warwick' by her first marriage to John Dudley ('Dudley quarterly of twelve impaling Seymour quarterly of six').
Anne's social status, as well as her position within the family was alluded to in the sermon delivered at her funeral: "Here is a spectacle, a Ladie by birth, a Countes by mariage, by title right honorable, a widow of a vertuous life, a woman of many yeares, a mother of good children..." (Chamberlaine, 1591).
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