Lady Elizabeth Fane born Elizabeth Brydges (c. 1510 – 1568) was an English writer and literary patron.

Life

She was born in about 1510, the daughter of Rouland Brugge, died 1540, and Margery Kelom. She married Ralph Vane and in 1550 they were given

Penshurst Place Penshurst Place is a historic building near Penshurst, Kent, south east of London, England. It is the ancestral home of the Sidney family, and was the birthplace of the great Elizabethan poets and courtiers, siblings Mary Sidney and Philip ...

by the King. Her husband was executed for plotting to kill

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (1504Loades 2008 – 22 August 1553) was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Jane ...

in February 1552. Penshurst Place was given to Sir William Sidney their household goods in their house at Westminster went to Sir John Gate, a follower of Northumberland. She was in a weak position and when Queen Mary came to power she had many Protestants arrested. She risked her own freedom and life by offering the prisoners support.

John Strype John Strype (1 November 1643 – 11 December 1737) was an English clergyman, historian and biographer from London. He became a merchant when settling in Petticoat Lane Market, Petticoat Lane. In his twenties, he became perpetual curate of Theydo ...

states that Fane was a "liberal benefactor" to Protestants under Queen Mary and corresponded with Philpot and

John Bradford John Bradford (1510–1555) was an English English Reformation, Reformer, prebendary of Old St Paul's Cathedral, St. Paul's, and martyr. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London for alleged crimes against Queen Mary I. He was burned at the stak ...

. Her ''12 Certaine Psalms of Godly Meditation'' (1550) contains 102 proverbs. It was published by

Robert Crowley Robert Crowley may refer to: * Robert Crowley (printer) (c. 1517–1588), English Protestant printer, editor, chronicler, social critic, poet, polemicist, and clergyman * Robert Crowley (CIA) (1924–2000), assistant deputy director of clandestine ...

, who went into exile about 1552. Lady Fane was described by

John Foxe John Foxe (1516/1517 – 18 April 1587) was an English clergyman, theologian, and historian, notable for his martyrology '' Foxe's Book of Martyrs'', telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the sufferings of En ...

as a "a speciall Nourse and a great supporter ithinher power of the godly Saintes, which were imprisoned in Q

een Een ːnis a village in the Netherlands. It is part of the Noordenveld municipality in Drenthe. History Een is an ''esdorp'' which developed in the middle ages on the higher grounds. The communal pasture is triangular. The village developed dur ...

Marie's time."Quoted in Susan M. Felch (ed.): Elizabeth Tyrwhit's ''Morning and Evening Prayers'' (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate), p. 49. She died in

Holborn Holborn ( or ), an area in central London, covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part (St Andrew Holborn (parish), St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Wards of the City of London, Ward of Farringdon Without i ...

, London, in 1568.Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy: '' The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present'' (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 355.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fane, Elizabeth 1510s births 1568 deaths 16th-century English women writers 16th-century English writers