Lady Bridget Manners (died 1604) was an English courtier, a maid of honour at the court of Elizabeth I.
She was the eldest daughter of John Manners, 4th Earl of Rutland (died 1588), and his wife Elizabeth Charlton.
Court of Elizabeth I
Bridget entered the service of Elizabeth I in 1589 under the tutelage of Bridget Hussey, Countess of Bedford, and Lady Talbot.HMC Rutland, vol. 1 (London, 1888), p. 276. Her mother sent the Countess of Bedford £200 to dress her in suitable fashionable clothes for court.Jane Ashelford, The Art of Dress, Clothes and Society (National Trust, 1996), p. 51. Her uncle, Roger Manners of Uffington, a "squire of the body" at court,Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1791), p. 66. made some of the arrangements for Bridget to join the royal household after her father's death. This Roger Manners wrote her a letter of advice on behaviour and decorum. Her brother, Roger Manners, who was now the Earl of Rutland, confirmed their uncle's "good advice". Another woman in the queen's household, who looked after the queen's jewels, Mary Radcliffe, was a relation.HMC Rutland, vol. 1 (London, 1888), pp. 239, 248, 275-6. Bridget quickly became one of the Queen's favorites and eventually became responsible for her food as the Queen's carver.
In 1593 Barnabe Barnes included a sonnet to "the Beautiful Lady, the Lady Bridget Manners" in his Parthenophil and Parthenophe, as a rose in Cynthia's (Elizabeth's) crown; Rose of the Garland! fairest and sweetest Of all those sweet and fair flowers! Pride of chaste Cynthia's rich crown!Lisle Cecil John, Roger Manners, Elizabethan Courtier, Huntington Library Quarterly, 12:1 (November 1948), p. 75.
In July 1594, her mother, Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland, wrote to Mary Radcliffe hoping that Bridget would be allowed leave from court to see her.HMC Rutland, vol. 1 (London, 1888), p. 321.
Marriage Manners married Robert Tyrwhitt, a son of William Tyrwhitt and Elizabeth Frescheville, secretly in August 1594. She had left court to recuperate from the measles.Susan Doran, Elizabeth I and Her Circle (Oxford, 2015), p. 207.
Elizabeth was angry at Bridget's marriage and requested she come back to court. Lord Hunsdon wrote to Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland, in September wondering why Bridget had not returned to court at Greenwich, and said the Queen might "look further into that marriage than yet she hath done".HMC Rutland, vol. 1 (London, 1888), p. 323. Roger Manners of Uffington wrote, "her Majesty taketh it for a great offence, and so, as I hear, she mindeth to punish".Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1791), p. 69: Robert Philip Tyrwhitt, Notices and remains of the family of Tyrwhitt (London, 1872), pp. 34-5. Bridget went to stay in the country at a house of the Countess of Bedford.Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1791), p. 69. Robert Tyrwhitt was summoned to London. Roger Manners (of Uffington) wrote to Sir Robert Cecil and in favour of Tyrwhitt. He claimed that he himself had no advance knowledge of the marriage, and Bridget and his mother had ignored his advice for the last two years.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 4 (London, 1892), pp. 596-7.
Tyrwhitt was jailed for circumventing the queen. Elizabeth interrupted her plans to travel to Belvoir Castle, the home of the Manners family.Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1791), p. 65. It took a cash settlement from Robert Manners, Earl of Rutland, to secure Tyrwhitt's release. The matter was settled by November 1594.HMC Rutland, vol. 1 (London, 1888), p. 324. In May 1597, she was in Cambridge. It was reported that the couple was happy but Tyrwhitt was in debt and had not fulfilled the agreed marriage settlement.HMC Rutland, vol. 1 (London, 1888), p. 339..
Death She died on 10 July 1604, possibly at Etchingham in Sussex, and is commemorated on a monument at Bigby which names her children as William, Robert, Rutland, and Bridget.Robert Philip Tyrwhitt, Notices and remains of the family of Tyrwhitt (London, 1872), pp. 3-6. Robert Tyrwhitt died in 1617. He came under suspicion after the Gunpowder Plot in 1605.John S. Brewer, Court of James the First, vol. 2 (London, 1839), p. 114 : Patrick Martin & John Finnis, 'Tyrwhitt of Kettleby, Part II: Robert Tyrwhitt, A Main Benefactor of Fr John Gerard SJ, 1600–1605', Recusant History, 26:4 (October 2003), p. 564.
References
External links Bridget Manners Biography