| Nationality | Rich [née Devereux], Penelope, Lady Rich (1563–1607), noblewoman, was born in January 1563 at Chartley, Staffordshire, the eldest child of Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex (1539–1576), and his wife, Lettice (b. after 1540, d. 1634), daughter of Sir Francis Knollys. She was educated by tutors at home until her father's death in September 1576, then confided to the guardianship of Henry Hastings, third earl of Huntingdon (1536?–1595), living at his house in Leicestershire. She knew French well and her talents in languages and music were later praised, as was her beauty. Before his death her father had sought a contract for her marriage to Philip Sidney, but Sidney did not wish to marry then, although later he regretted his decision. In January 1581 Penelope arrived at court to become one of Queen Elizabeth's maids of honour. Huntingdon soon arranged for her marriage to Robert Rich (1559?–1619) of Leighs, Essex (then Lord Rich, later first earl of Warwick), and the wedding took place about 1 November 1581. The high-spirited young Penelope Rich thereafter frequently visited her mother (now wife of the earl of Leicester) and the court, staying with her brother Robert, earl of Essex [see Devereux, Robert], in London.
About the time of her marriage, Philip Sidney, who was at court during 1581, apparently fell in love with her; his Astrophil and Stella supposedly describes Sidney's own passion for the married Lady Rich. Some of the sonnets depict a conflict between virtue and passion. Many clues suggest that Penelope Rich was the object, especially the riddle which plays on the word rich, applied to a woman at 'Aurora's court', and ending 'hath no misfortune, but that Rich she is' (Sonnet 37). Sonnet 35 includes the words:
long needy Fame
Doth even grow rich, naming my Stella's name.
Hudson argued that other writers of her time believed Penelope Rich was the model for Stella. They included John Harington, who commented that Sidney's sonnets of Stella called her inestimably rich. In 1595 Thomas Campion wrote an outline in Latin for a poem touching 'stella Britanna, Penelope, Astrophili quae vulta incendit amores' ('the British star, Penelope, who sometime kindles the love of Astrophil'). Unfortunately we do not know what Penelope herself thought of Sidney's poems, or even if she saw them. They were probably written in 1582, but did not appear in print until after Sidney died in 1586. There is no evidence that the two became lovers, although many have assumed that they did. Sidney was away from court for much of 1582, and he married in 1583. On his deathbed in 1586 Sidney reportedly told the preacher George Gifford of a vanity in which he had taken delight, of which he must now rid himself, naming Lady Rich (Robertson, 296–7). Sidney's widow, Frances, married Penelope Rich's beloved brother Essex and the two women were often together. This might suggest that if there had ever been an affair between Sidney and Lady Rich it was over before Frances married Sidney in 1583.
The relationship between Lady Rich and her husband was not simple. They had five children, four of whom, two daughters and two sons, survived; the last was born in August 1590. The elder son, Robert Rich, became second earl of Warwick, the younger, Henry Rich, first earl of Holland. But Lady Rich would not stay at home as a country wife, and continued her life at court. At the age of twenty-seven she inspired the love of another prominent Elizabethan: her affair with Sir Charles Blount (1563–1606) was public by 17 November 1590, when he wore her colours for the accession day tournament. It was a lasting devotion. The first of their six children, Penelope, was baptized on 30 March 1592 at St Clement Danes in London (she was not born in 1589 as has been thought), but given the surname Rich and brought up with the other children. Their next child, baptized in 1597 with the Christian name Mountjoy (in 1594 Blount had become eighth Baron Mountjoy), was not included on the Rich pedigree [see Blount, Mountjoy]. Another son was baptized at Essex House, but soon died; two more sons and a daughter followed. Mountjoy's careful trusts and his will provided appropriately for all five, and for any posthumous birth, giving most to the eldest son, Mountjoy. The eldest daughter, Penelope, was to have a £5000 dowry. Yet until 1603 at least Lady Rich still spent some time with Lord Rich—in 1600 she nursed him in a serious illness. He accepted the strange situation for years, with all the children brought up together, perhaps because of her contacts, especially her brother. When Rich's landholdings were threatened in 1599 he importuned his reluctant wife to come to London to use her influence to stop a lawsuit proceeding (Salisbury MSS, 15.175, 179, wrongly dated 1603). Lord Rich had intended to go with Mountjoy and Essex on the islands voyage, but was too seasick to go.
Penelope Rich wielded some power at court. She wrote to Lord Burghley in 1588 for a wardship. People seeking favours, such as a knighthood, asked for her mediation, and she would make their requests to Sir Robert Cecil. In 1595 and 1596 she thanked Cecil for his kindnesses, assuring him of her constancy, and after her brother's execution (discussed below) she continued the correspondence. In 1599 she asked Sir Julius Caesar, a judge of the admiralty court and master of requests, to continue his favour to a Captain Isard, for which she was beholden to Caesar. Rowland Whyte often mentioned her in his reports to Sir Robert Sidney. In order to help Sir Robert, who hoped to become warden of the Cinque Ports, Lady Rich cleverly raised his name when discussing the choice of warden with the queen. Whyte also reported such matters as Lady Rich's agreement to be a godmother to Sir Robert's son (Mountjoy was to be godfather), her efforts to buy hangings for Lord Rich, and her smallpox in April 1597, from which she recovered 'without any blemish to her beautiful face' (De L'Isle and Dudley MSS, 2.268). Her independence in the 1590s derived from her own personal qualities, as well as from Essex's position as the queen's favourite. Brother and sister had a very close, affectionate, and sometimes playful relationship, as shown by his undated 'fantastical' letters to her (printed in A. Freeman, Essex to Stella: two letters from the earl of Essex to Penelope Rich, English Literary Renaissance, 3, 1973, following p. 248; Margetts, “Wayes of mine owne hart”).
But her brother's disgrace in 1599 prompted Lady Rich to overestimate her influence, when she wrote a strong letter to Queen Elizabeth on 1 January 1600, defending Essex, castigating his enemies, and complaining that the queen would not see him to allow him to answer them. Elizabeth was angry. She thought Lady Rich should not meddle in such matters, and must answer for it if she wished to recover the queen's favour. Elizabeth was equivocal, but never fully forgave her for her 'stomach and presumption' in writing that letter (Salisbury MSS, 7.167–8). Worse was to come. Lady Rich was named as one of the chief conspirators in the abortive Essex rising of February 1601 in London; she had dined at Essex House with the leaders the previous night, and went to fetch the earl of Bedford on the morning of the revolt. After the trial, Essex reportedly insisted that she had urged him on by saying that all his friends and followers thought him a coward. She maintained that she had been more like a slave, and that her brother had wrongly accused her. After brief confinement, and examination by the privy council, she was released.
Lady Rich may have owed such leniency to her relationship with Mountjoy, who was then in Ireland at the head of an army sent to defeat the rebels, and vital to English policy; and the queen was fond of Mountjoy. Lady Rich retrieved her influence when James I ascended the throne; she escorted his queen from the border, and performed in court masques by Samuel Daniel and Inigo Jones alongside Queen Anne. In August 1603 James conferred on her the precedence of the earldom of Essex created for Henry Bourchier in 1461. Sir Humphrey Ferrers considered her powerful enough to ask the king or queen to procure him a barony (BL, Stowe MS 150, fol. 192). In June 1603 Mountjoy returned to England, and to Lady Rich, after three and a half years away in Ireland; James created him earl of Devonshire in gratitude for his victory in July. After another two years the marriage of Lord and Lady Rich ended, with a decree in the London consistory court on 14 November 1605, on the ground of Lady Rich's acknowledged adultery, although she named no one. The legal separation did not allow remarriage while the former spouse lived. However, the lovers were married on 26 December 1605 by Devonshire's chaplain, William Laud, at Wanstead House, Essex. Devonshire prepared a long, learned defence of Lady Rich's marriage to him, quoting Old Testament texts, and maintaining that the laws of God did not expressly forbid such unions when the magistrate had made a decree. In a letter to King James he claimed that she had protested during the wedding with Rich, that after it Rich had tormented her, and had now not 'enjoyed her' for twelve years; the last is more likely to be correct (BL, Add. MS 4149, fols. 306–319v; BL, Lansdowne MS 885, fols. 86–7). The claim of an earlier secret pre-contract with Devonshire was not made in these defences, and was probably invented later, possibly by Laud or his biographer to justify his part in the marriage. The king was angry, but just over three months later, on 3 April 1606, Devonshire died. Penelope Rich died at Westminster on 7 July 1607.
Lady Rich was a fascinating and forceful woman. She was celebrated by other writers besides Sidney: in dedications, in panegyrics, in sonnets by Henry Constable, in songs and sonnets by Coperario as 'the starre of honor, and the sphere of beautie', and the happiness of her union with Mountjoy by John Ford in the elegy Fame's Memorial. Many praised her mind as well as her beauty. Such descriptions owe something to literary hyperbole and hope of patronage, yet they indicate her reputation. Nicholas Hilliard painted her (his portrait is now lost), and named his daughter after her. Other pictures were listed in inventories at the time although no definitive portrait of her survives. A picture at Lambeth has on the back 'a countess of Devon', and is taken to be Penelope, with her blond hair and black eyes. |