The Death of Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick - 09 February 1604
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Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick, had been a member of Elizabeth I's household for most of her life; she had joined the queen's household at a 'young age', and was promoted to the position of Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber following her marriage to the older Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick in November 1565. Anne remained in the queen's confidence for the four decades, held in high esteem by Elizabeth and courtiers alike, her niece Lady Anne Clifford later describing her as being "dearly beloved and favoured by hir" (Whitelock, 2013; Google Arts&Culture, 2024).
Anne was one of the select few who attended to the queen in her final months, the monarch having slipped into a "deep depression", refusing to bathe or dress, being aware she was losing her "constant battle with advancing age" (Weir, 1999, p.477). Anne was on those present at Elizabeth's bedside when she died in the early hours of 24 March 1603, and who attended and 'guarded' her corpse following her death, ensuring that her wishes not to be disembowelled were kept. Following the transfer of the queen's corpse from Richmond to Westminster, Anne and her youngest sister Margaret Russell, Countess of Cumberland, were two of those who stood watch, and were part of the magnificent funeral procession held at Westminster Abbey in April 1603. 17th century antiquarian and herald William Camden documented the spectacular event in the 'Funeral of Elizabeth I Procession roll': Anne and Margaret are potentially the two Countesses portrayed accompanying Chief Mourner, Helena Snakenborg, Marchioness of Northampton (Weir, 1999; Clifford, 2003).
Following the death of the elderly Elizabeth, and the accession of the Scottish king James I, there came significant shift in the composition of the royal households, and influences within the royal court. Following her husband's death in 1590, Anne spent more time at court, devoting more time towards the queen, of which her niece described her as being “more beloved and in greater favour...than any other woman in the kingdom”. As such, Anne's influence within the royal household and court grew, given her close relationship to Elizabeth, acknowledged by other staff and courtiers (Clifford, 2003; Whitelock, 2013).
With the elderly queen's death, Anne's influence waned; her 13-year-old niece Lady Anne Clifford, daughter of sister Margaret, recognised "a great change between the fashion of the Court as it is now, and of that in the Queen’s time". The younger Anne, known to be a prolific diarist throughout her life, wrote how after Elizabeth's funeral, she travelled with her mother and aunt to meet the new king and his queen, Anna of Denmark, at 'Theobalds', the Hertfordshire residence of Robert Cecil, Secretary of State "who hated my mother and did not much love my aunt of Warwick". Whilst Anne reflects that the king "used my mother and my aunt very graciously", his queen was not as welcoming (Clifford, 2003, p.). Anna had previously expressed discontent of being pressured or encouraged into taking on English women into her household on her husband's accession to the throne. However, she found herself enjoying the company of young and vivacious courtiers such as Lucy Harrington, Countess of Bedford and Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich; as Varlow (2009, p.229) reflects, she showed "no favour to the elderly ladies", who had previously served Elizabeth, including Anne, with significant changes quickly being made to the queen's household.
In May 1603, shortly after James's and Anna's arrival to London, an outbreak of plague caused alarm amongst the inhabitants of the city, including members of the royal court and household; this latest outbreak lead to significant interferences in the lives of London residents with subsequent restrictions placed upon them, in an attempt to control the virulent spread of the disease, including the closure of theatres. Despite this measures, it was estimated that over 32,000 people, a fifth of London's population, lost their lives during this year's epidemic (Varlow, 2009; History Today, 2026). In early July 1603, the teenage Anne reflects that she herself "fell extremely sick of a Fever, so as my mother was in some doubt it might turn to the Plague" but luckily recovered after a few days. Many courtiers withdrew from court to their country estates, in an attempt to avoid infection, although Anne reported that both her mother and aunt had business that kept them at court; she documented that her "aunt of Warwick...had a suit to follow at Court", and so continued to reside with friends at a property, close to Hampton Court Palace, where she sent her loved ones 'medicines' (Clifford, 2003, p.26).
In the midst of this outbreak, the coronation of James and Anna took place shortly after, on 25 July 1603, at Westminster Abbey. Lady Anne wrote begrudgingly that she had been kept away from the city and celebrations due to the risk of plague, but that multiple senior members of her family were in attendance, including her estranged parents, George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland and his 'Sweet Meg', putting on a united front, as well as "my aunt of Bath and my uncle Russell" - Elizabeth, Countess of Bath and William Russell, newly appointed 1st Baron Russell of Thornhaugh. Notably absent from proceedings was the Dowager Countess of Warwick; with the appointments of young and vicious courtiers into coveted household positions, there was no longer a place for the long-standing loyal and dutiful Anne (Clifford, 2003; Varlow, 2011).
The manor of Northaw, "commonly called North Hall", in Hertfordshire, had been granted to Ambrose Dudley, around 1573; this property became the Warwicks's primary residence in their later years, with the Earl's failing health and reduced mobility preventing his attendance at court and Privy Council meetings. Following his death in 1590, Anne was Warwick's primary beneficiary, being granted "all the Mannors, Lands, Tenements, and Hereditaments", including Northaw (Collins, 1746; Whitelock, 2013). It was "about Michaelmas", 25 September 1603, that Lady Anne Clifford arrived at North Hall and "found my aunt of Warwick something ill and melancholy". Anne writes that her aunt had only been at Northaw "passing a month" after withdrawing from court earlier in the year, due to the "great plague, which was then much about North Hall" (Clifford, 2003, p.28).
On 11 October, whilst at Northaw, Anne, still being of "good memorie" made her last will and testament. Her first request related to her body and spirit after death; in accordance with her Reformist beliefs, Anne commended her soul to "God my creator, hoping that through the death and passion of Christ" her sins are "remitted and wiped clean", in the assurance of eternal salvation. As such, Anne requested that her body be buried in a "decent and Christian burial", at the discretion of her primary beneficiary and executor of her will - her only surviving brother William, Baron of Thornhaugh. As her beloved husband Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick had been buried at St Mary's Church, Warwick, amongst his ancestors, Anne also requested to be buried amongst hers: she requested to be buried at 'Cheynes': the Hertfordshire manor inherited by her grandfather John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford in 1526, and where Anne had been born "at the latter end of December in 1549" (Google Arts&Culture, 2024; The National Archives, 2026).
Anne's will is detailed, at almost six pages; whilst she ensures that her debts are paid following her death; in 1588, her brother-in-law Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester had died a significant amount of debt to the Crown, with her husband Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, inheriting many of his brother's estates and financial arrears. On Ambrose's own death less than 18 months later, many of these debts were passed to his wife, and so the time had come for her to make preparations for repayment. Anne additionally and generously makes a significant number of bequeathments of lands, estates and money to friends and family members, including her surviving siblings and their heirs, including 'Ladie Ann Clifford' (The National Archives, 2026). As the eldest sibling, even from a young age, Anne had adopted a maternal role towards her younger siblings following the premature death of their mother. Having had no children of her own, this role continued throughout her life, her generosity expanding to her nieces and nephews, with Lady Anne describing her aunt as "much bound for her continual care & love of me" (Clifford, 2003, p.21).
The younger Anne recorded in her diary that by Christmas 1603, the extended Russell family had been reunited at North Hall, the Royal Court spending the festive season at the country home of Anna of Denmark's new favourite Lucy Harington, Countess of Bedford, wife of their kinsman and the Warwicks's former ward Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford. The teenage Anne wrote how, 'merrily' reunited with her cousins Frances Bourchier and Francis Russell, they "did use to walk much in the Garden & were great with one another". She also wrote how the young cousins confided in each other of the 'talk' of the Queen and the ladies of the court. Acknowledging the difference in behaviour and perceived standards since the death of Elizabeth I, Anne described the queen's new favourites as having "gotten such ill names that it had grown a scandalous place, & the Queen herself was much fallen from her former greatness & reputation she had in the world" (Clifford, 2003, p. 28).
Lady Anne's diary suddenly stops at the end of 1603, her writings continuing steadily years later from 1616; whilst we are lacking her contemporary description of the next few weeks, it is known that Anne's adored youngest sister Margaret remained at North Hall, likely due to her failing health. On 08 January 1604, Margaret wrote to Mary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, daughter of 'Bess of Hardwick', from North Hall, describing her sister's ongoing illness. Her health having continued to decline, "Anne, Countess of Warwick, widow, late wife of Ambrose late Earle of Warwick deceased" died at Northaw on 09 February 1604, aged 55 years old. At her request, Anne was subsequently buried amongst her ancestors, including her parents, "without pomp", at Cheynes, located only twenty miles west from her place of death. Tragically for Margaret, this would have been somewhat familiar, as following her own's son Robert's death at Northaw in 1591, his body was taken to Cheynes for burial "with his Mother's Ancestors" (Google Arts&Culture, 2024; Early Modern Letters Online, 2026; The National Archives, 2026).
Fifteen years after Lady Warwick's death, in July 1619, her niece Anne Clifford, then the Countess of Dorset, following her marriage to Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset, was primarily residing at Knole House in Kent. Anne's beloved mother Margaret had been dead for three years, being the youngest of her siblings and outliving them all. Anne wrote in her diary that year, on 28 July, "my Coz. Oldworth...shewed me those remembrances which are to be set up at Cheynes for my Great Grand Father of Bedford and my Grandfather of Bedford and my Aunt Warwick" (Clifford, 2003, p.83). The man to whom Anne is referring to is likely Arnold Oldisworth - a politician and lawyer in the employ of the Countess of Warwick by 1587, until her death, and whom she referred to as "her greatest agent and solicitor" (History of Parliament Online, 2026). Inscriptions in the Bedford Chapel confirm that the tomb monuments dedicated to Lady Anne's maternal great-grandfather John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, grandfather Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, and her aunt Anne were commissioned that year by her cousin Francis Russell, who by this time had inherited the Barony of Thornhaugh following the death of his father. The monuments have been attributed to William Cure the Younger, of the Cure Workshop of Southwark, who at the time of these projects, was employed as the King's Master Mason (Middlesex Heraldry Society, 2025).
Anne's tomb continues to stand in The Bedford Chapel within St Michael's Church, the parish church which served the manor of Cheynes. Following the death of John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford in 1555, his widow Anne Sapcote, Countess of Bedford, commissioned the building of a chapel, attached to the northern side of the church, eponymously named 'The Bedford Chapel'. Consecrated in 1556, the chapel became the mausoleum of the Russell family, even after Cheynes was abandoned os the primary residence and seat of the Earls of Bedford, in favour of Woburn Abbey, in the mid 17th century (Wiffin, 1833; Middlesex Heraldry Society, 2025).
Anne's monument continues to stand at the eastern-end of the chapel, facing the chancel, parallel to that of her parents, Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, and his first wife Margaret St John, Countess of Bedford. A coloured alabaster tomb effigy depicts Anne, dressed in countess robes, headdress and coronet, in a state of eternal repose, lying on a black marbled sarcophagus. Around the tomb are heraldic symbols representing not only her heritage, but her marriage to Ambrose Dudley (Middlesex Heraldry Society, 2025),
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