Elizabeth Spencer, Baroness Hunsdon was an English noblewoman, scholar, and patron of the arts
Background
Her first husband was George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, grandson of Mary Boleyn, elder sister of Anne Boleyn, mother of Queen Elizabeth I.
Elizabeth Spencer was born 29 June 1552 at Althorp, Northamptonshire, the second eldest daughter of Sir John Spencer of Althorp and his wife Katherine Kitson, the daughter of Sir Thomas Kitson of Hengrave, Suffolk.
Career
She was the inspiration for Edmund Spenser"s Muiopotmos, was commemorated in one of the poet"s dedicatory sonnets to the Faerie Queene, and was represented as "Phyllis" in the latter"s pastoral poem Colin Clouts Come Home Againe. She herself translated Petrarch. Elizabeth was a noted patron of the arts and a scholar.
Elizabeth was also commemorated in one of Spenser"s dedicatory sonnets to the Fairie Queene: "Ne may I, without blot of endless blame, You, fairest Lady leave out of this place, Remembrance of your gracious name Wherewith that courtly garlond most ye grace And deck the world." Besides Edmund Spenser, to whom she was distantly related, she was a patron of Thomas Nashe and composer John Dowland.
Elizabeth"s miniature portrait was painted by Nicholas Hilliard on an unknown date. Elizabeth died on 25 February 1618, and was buried on 2 March in Westminster Abbey, London.
Membership
In the year of her birth, Elizabeth"s father held the office of High Sheriff of Northamptonshire, and the following year was Member of Parliament for Northamptonshire.