Elizabeth Brydges (c. 1575–1617) was a courtier and aristocrat, Maid of Honour to Elizabeth I, and victim of bigamy. She was a daughter of

Giles Brydges, 3rd Baron Chandos Giles Brydges, 3rd Baron Chandos of Sudeley (c. 1548 – 21 February 1594) was an English courtier in the reign of Elizabeth I. Life He was born at Sudeley Manor, Gloucestershire, the son of Edmund Brydges, 2nd Baron Chandos and his wife Hon ...

, and Frances Clinton, who lived at

Sudeley Castle Sudeley Castle is a Grade I listed castle in the parish of Sudeley, in the Cotswolds, near to the medieval market town of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, England. The castle has 10 notable gardens covering some within a estate nestled within th ...

Life at Court

An entertainment for

Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elisabeth or Elizabeth the Queen may refer to: Queens regnant * Elizabeth I (1533–1603; ), Queen of England and Ireland * Elizabeth II (1926–2022; ), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms * Queen B ...

at Sudeley in 1592 presented Elizabeth Brydges as

Daphne Daphne (; ; , , ), a figure in Greek mythology, is a naiad, a variety of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater. There are several versions of the myth in which she appears, but t ...

, articulate, loyal, and chaste. In the pageant "Daphne" escaped from the laurel tree and ran to the queen. Soon after she joined the royal household as a Maiden of Honour. In December 1593 it was said the "young

Earl of Bedford Earl of Bedford is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of England and is currently a subsidiary title of the Dukes of Bedford. The first creation came in 1138 in favour of Hugh de Beaumont. He appears to have been degraded ...

was paying his addresses to Mrs Bridges, the lord Chandos' heir." At court in the 1590s, she obtained money from Charles Lister of New Windsor (d. 1613) and promised to marry him, and he complained in 1598 that he had loaned her more than £3000 and bankrupted himself. Brydges invested £150 of Lister's money in the

Earl of Essex Earl of Essex is a title in the Peerage of England which was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title has been recreated eight times from its original inception, beginning with a new first Earl upon each new cre ...

's assault on Cadiz. Around this time Brydges may have had some kind of affair with Essex, possibly to be identified as the woman noted by

Rowland Whyte Rowland Whyte (died after 1626) was an Elizabethan official and businessman, whose letters provide important evidence about the latter stages of the life of Queen Elizabeth I and the transition to the rule of James I. The letters were first publis ...

as "his fairest B." One day in 1597 the "fair Mistress Brydges" and "Mrs Russell" (Elizabeth Russell, daughter of

Elizabeth Cooke, Lady Russell Elizabeth Russell, Lady Russell (née Cooke; formerly Hoby; c.1540–1609) was an English poet and noblewoman.Priestland – ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''; She was an influential member of Queen Elizabeth I's court and was known ...

) took physic, perhaps pretending to be ill to avoid their work, and went together through the privy galleries of the palace to watch men "playing at balloon".

was very angry and used "words and blows" against Brydges, and both women were suspended from their duties for three days and had to lodge outside the palace. Rowland Whyte hinted that the queen's storms of anger had arisen from another cause, perhaps Essex's interest in Brydges. In January 1600, as a New Year's Day gift, Brydges gave Queen Elizabeth a

doublet Doublet is a word derived from the Latin ''duplus'', "twofold, twice as much",