Magdalen Dacre

Magdalen Dacre was born in January 1538 at Naworth Castle in Eskdale Ward, Cumberland,[2] the fifth child of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre of Gilsland, 2nd Baron Greystoke, and Elizabeth Talbot.[3] The Dacres were powerful Northern Border lords and fervent Roman Catholics, however by the time of her birth, Henry VIII, the reigning monarch, had already made the break with Rome by placing the Protestant denomination on England, and had also just produced a male heir, Prince Edward (later Edward VI), with his third wife Jane Seymour just months prior to the birth of Magdalen. Despite the Protestant Reformation sweeping the country, Magdalen Dacre, along with her siblings, were raised Roman Catholic by her family.

Dacre's paternal grandparents were Thomas Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre, of Gilsland, 1st Baron Greystoke, and Elizabeth Greystoke, and her maternal grandparents were George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, and Anne Hastings, daughter of William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings and Katherine Neville. She had five brothers and five sisters. Her father was the English Warden of the Scottish Marches and Governor of Carlisle.

Dacre served as a gentlewoman to Anne Sapcote, Countess of Bedford when she was 13.

Magdalen Dacre took part in the bridal procession of the wedding of Mary I (pictured) to Philip II of Spain in 1554

In 1553 Edward VI, the boy king who succeeded Henry VIII, died after six years on the throne, aged 15, the same as Dacre. Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, became Queen of England, and England returned to Roman Catholicism. By 1554 Mary had turned her attention to finding a suitor and producing an heir to the Tudor dynasty, and became engaged to Philip II of Spain. The marriage took place at Winchester Cathedral on 25 July 1554 and Dacre was selected as a Maid of Honour and took part in the bridal procession.[1]

In E. S. Turner's The Court of St. James, Dacre was described as having been very pretty and blonde. She was also very tall, and reportedly stood a head above the other maids of honour at court. Turner alleged that she attracted the attention of Philip, whom she had to beat off with a staff when he tried to embrace her.[4]

Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, husband of Magdalen Dacre, in 1569

On 15 July 1558, Dacre married Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, a Privy Counsellor, Knight of the Garter and King Philip's former Master of the Horse, in a ceremony took place at St. James's Palace. Browne was 10 years Magdalen's senior, aged 30 and a father and a widower from his previous marriage to Jane Radclyffe, who died due to childbirth, after the delivery of their twins, Mary and Anthony. Browne's links to the Queen were also impressive, and at Queen Mary's coronation, Browne carried the Queen's train.[5] Due to their links, Mary I attended the wedding. The Browne family, like the Dacres, were also staunch Catholics. Their principal residences were Cowdray Castle and Battle Abbey, both in Sussex. Anthony and Magdalen had ten children.

Following the accession of Queen Elizabeth I to the throne in 1558, Montagu lost his seat on the Privy Council but was made joint Lord Lieutenant of Sussex in 1570. With the return to Protestant Christianity, the Montagus were forced to reveal their stance on the situation: loyalty to the Pope, or to the new Protestant Queen. Browne, along with Lord Dacre (Magdalen's brother), declared that they would support the Pope if he came in peace, but would serve the Queen if he came with war-like intentions.[6] Magdalen found favour with the Queen despite her Catholicism, her former close friendship with the late Queen Mary and later the treacherous behaviour of her Dacre relations, some of whom conspired to depose the Queen and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots. The Montagus entertained the Queen for a week at Cowdray Castle in 1591,[7] and the priests were kept hidden during the visit.[8] Magdalen was very devout and supposedly wore a coarse linen smock underneath her extravagant court costumes.[8]

Dacre was only once accused of recusancy, and although she allowed a printing press to be set up on her property, she refused to assist or abet treasonous plots against the Queen.[8]

Dacre died at Battle Abbey, Sussex on 8 April 1608 at the age of seventy.[9] She was originally buried in Midhurst Church, where a splendid tomb with her effigy was erected. The tomb was moved in 1851 to Easebourne Church.

William Byrd (ca. 1540-1623) who had turned catholic some 30 year earlier, composed an elegy to Dacre on the year of her death, With lilies white (1608), which has remained as a famous piece of his consort music.

Dacre appears in Anya Seton's historical romance Green Darkness, which was partially set in 16th-century England.