Career

Lady Dorothy Sidney (or Sydney) was celebrated not only for her beauty but for wit, charm and intelligence. In about 1635, she rejected a marriage proposal from the poet Edmund Waller, who addressed verses to her under the nickname "Sacharissa" (which he based on the Latin word sacharum, meaning "sugar"). lieutenant seems to have been a love marriage and had her family"s wholehearted approval.

He was killed at the First Battle of Newbury shortly afterwards, leaving Dorothy with two children, and pregnant with a third, who died in infancy.

Their children were:

Lady Dorothy Spencer

Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland

Lady Penelope Spencer (c 1642–1667), died unmarried. In 1652 she remarried to Sir Robert Smythe of Bidborough, Kent, and had a second son, also named Robert.

Her letters show both her intelligence and clear-sightedness, even about those close to her.