Frances Howard, Countess of Kildare (died 1628), was a courtier and governess of Princess Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, and a member of the House of Howard.
Marriages Frances Howard was the daughter of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham and Catherine Carey, Countess of Nottingham. She was a member of the household of Queen Elizabeth as a lady of the Privy Chamber. On New Year's Day 1589, she gave the queen a scarf of black cloth "flourished" with Venice gold and silver, in 1600 she gave seven gold buttons set with sparks of ruby and pearls.John Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 3 (London, 1823), pp. 11, 448.
She was married firstly to Henry FitzGerald, 12th Earl of Kildare (died 1597), and secondly in May 1601 to Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham. Around the same time Cobham's brother George Brooke married Elizabeth Burgh, daughter of Lord Burgh.Norman McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 64. Rowland Whyte reported that the Queen approved their marriage plan in January 1600 and Howard and Brooke had secretly married in August 1600.Michael Brennan, Noel Kinnamon, Margaret Hannay, Letters of Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney (Philadelphia, 2013), pp. 388, 403, 526.
Rowland Whyte mentioned her several times in his newsletters to Robert Sidney. In November 1595, he described how Barbara Sidney was received at court and 'my Lord Admiral and all that tribe were glad to see her' and Lady Kildare was sent especially to keep her company and dine with her in Lady Hoby's chamber.Michael Brennan, Noel Kinnamon, Margaret Hannay, The Letters of Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney (Philadelphia, 2013), p. 94: Arthur Collins, Letters and Memorials, vol. 1 (London, 1746), p. 366. Her husband the Earl of Kildare died, and in November 1598 Elizabeth gave her £700 to compensate the loss of her marriage jointure in Ireland.Norman McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 52: Sarah Williams, Letters of John Chamberlain (London, 1861), p. 27.
In August 1599, Whyte heard that Margaret Radcliffe, a maid of honour, had stayed in her chamber for four days after Lady Kildare had been unkind to her because they were rivals for the affection of Lord Cobham. Radcliffe died in November 1599, after refusing to eat, and Ben Jonson as an epitaph wrote an acrostic epigram.Michael Brennan, Noel Kinnamon, Margaret Hannay,The Letters of Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney (Philadelphia, 2013), pg. 319, 375 610 (Collins, vol. 2 (London, 1746), pp. 117, 140-141).
In August 1602 at the Harefield Entertainment in the lottery she was given a girdle, with the verses, "By fortune's girdle you may happy be: But they that are less happy are more free."Elizabeth Goldring, Faith Eales, Elizabeth Clarke, Jayne Elisabeth Archer, John Nichols's The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth: 1596-1603, vol. 4 (Oxford, 2014), p. 189.
After her second marriage she retained the title "Lady Kildare". She signed an inventory of the wardrobe of Queen Elizabeth in December 1602 as "Frauncis Cobham of Kildare".Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1988), p. 272: British Library, Stowe MS 557, f.26r. Inventory of the Royal WardrobeAnn Rosalind Jones and Peter Stallybrass, Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory (Cambridge, 2000), p. 26. The signature was for a gift from Queen Elizabeth of a black velvet gown embroidered with scallop shells and ragged pearls. The gown had originally been a gift to the Queen from the Earl of Warwick in 1578.Susan M. Cogan, "Flowers and gift culture at the Tudor and Stuart courts", Susannah Lyon-Whaley, Floral Culture and the Tudor and Stuart courts (Routledge, 2025), pp. 243–244. It was altered for Lady Kildare by the queen's tailor William Jones, and the embroiderer John Parr sewed gold spangles and 150 pearls to a new bodice.Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Leeds: Maney, 1988), pp. 98, 272.
A note by one of Lord Cobham's household administrators blames Lady Kildare and her people for extra expenses on food.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 15 (London, 1930), pp. 160-161.
The Succession Lady Kildare became involved in correspondence between English courtiers and James VI of Scotland before his succession to the throne of England.Alexander Courtney, 'The Secret Correspondence of James VI, 1601-3', Susan Doran & Paulina Kewes, Doubtful and Dangerous (Manchester, 2014), p. 143 & fn. 46. In September 1599 her Scottish servant named Dicksoun ingratiated himself with the Scottish diplomat James Sempill, and said she had spoken in favour of the king's succession to the English throne at dinner with her father the Lord Admiral. Sempill wrote that Kildare passed the paper knife to the queen to open the king's letters.William Fraser, Memoirs of the Maxwells of Pollok, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1863), p. 35
Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton tried to break her Scottish connections, and wrote to Edward Bruce, 1st Lord Kinloss, asking if he could find out about three letters she had written to James before the fall of the Earl of Essex in February 1601. One asked if she could have a private cipher to write secret letters to the king, and Northampton heard she had a cipher to write to Sir Thomas Erskine. In the second she had offered to engineer the disgrace of Cecil and Walter Raleigh with Queen Elizabeth. In the third she warned James VI against Raleigh and the Master of Grey.[David Dalrymple], Secret Correspondence with James VI (Edinburgh, 1766), pp. 209-210.
Northampton was keen to thwart Lady Kildare's involvement in international politics, and on 22 November 1601 wrote to the Earl of Mar about his difficulties with 'her entermeddelinge'. Northampton questioned her access to useful information, claiming 'hir owne sexe dare not speake before hir', incidentally giving insight into the political roles of ladies in waiting at Elizabeth's court.[David Dalrymple], Secret Correspondence with James VI (Edinburgh, 1766), pp. 19-23: HMC Mar & Kellie, I London, 1904), pp. 53-6 (misdated to 1610): George Lillie Craik, The Romance of the Peerage vol. 3 (London, 1849), pp. 181-186.
In 1601 Kildare took a letter from Christian Annesley, Lady Sandys, sister of Cordell Annesley, to the queen to plead for Lord Sandys, who was pardoned for supporting Essex.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 14 (London, 1923), p. 193. Lady Raleigh complained to Robert Cecil in March 1602 that Kildare was damaging her reputation with the queen.James Augustus Saint-John, Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, vol. 2 (London, 1868), p. 46: HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 12 (London, 1910).
Lady Kildare was said to have told Dr Henry Parry that on her deathbed, Queen Elizabeth was wearing a ring that Earl of Essex had given her, and not her coronation ring.John Bruce, Diary of John Manningham (London, 1868), p. 159.
Berwick and Edinburgh After the succession Lord Cobham and the Earl of Northampton travelled to Berwick upon Tweed to greet King James on 7 April 1603.Charles Harding Firth, Stuart Tracts (New York, 1903), pp. 23-4, from the True Narration of the Entertainment of His Royal Majesty (London, 1603). The letter writer John Chamberlain said that Lord Henry Howard (Northampton) went to Scotland to "countermine the Lord Cobham", to possess the king's ear and prevent Cobham gaining royal favour.Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, Court and Times of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1848), pp. 6-7.
Frances, Lady Kildare also came to Berwick with other courtiers in an official party to welcome Anne of Denmark. These were chosen by the Privy Council, following the king's order of 15 April 1603.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 14 (London, 1930), p. 56. The group consisted of two countesses, Kildare, and Elizabeth, Countess of Worcester; two baronesses Philadelphia, Lady Scrope and Penelope, Lady Rich; and two ladies Anne Herbert, a daughter of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, and Audrey Walsingham.J. Leeds Barroll, Anna of Denmark, Queen of England (Philadelphia, 2001), pp. 41-3. A Venetian diplomat, Giovanni Carlo Scaramelli, wrote that the six great ladies were escorted by 200 horsemen.Horatio Brown, Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603-1607, vol. 10 (London, 1900), p. 27 no. 40. There were also two maids of honour.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 15 (London, 1930), p. 56.
Kildare, as William, Lord Compton reported to Cecil, left the official party at Berwick on 27 May and travelled on to Edinburgh to meet Anne of Denmark, writing "my lady Kildare would needs quit her companions at Berwick and went to Edinburgh".John Nichols, The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of King James, vol. 1 (London, 1828), pp. 167-8: H. Ellis, Original Letters, 1st series vol. 3 (London, 1824), p. 82; HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 15 (London, 1930), p. 112 (quoted): HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 24 (London, 1976), p. 173, a receipt of 1609 mentions her journey into Scotland with a servant, Elizabeth Laurence. Others made the same journey, hoping to gain the queen's favour, including Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford. The queen came from Stirling Castle to Edinburgh and met a convoy of English ladies, and on 31 May 1603 attended church in Edinburgh accompanied by these would-be companions.'The Diarey (sic) of Robert Birrell', in John Graham Dalyell, Fragments of Scottish History (Edinburgh, 1798), pp. 59-60Leeds Barroll, Anna of Denmark (Pennsylvania, 2001), pp. 28-30, 32. Some of the English ladies were accommodated in John Kinloch's house in the Canongate, near Holyroodhouse, and the cost of their stay was met by the Scottish chancellor, John Graham, 3rd Earl of Montrose.Dawson Turner, Descriptive Index (Great Yarmouth, 1851), p. 134 no. 90, now British Library Add. MS 19401 f.185.
Governess to Princess Elizabeth On 3 June 1603, the queen arrived in England welcomed by the remaining ladies of the official party.J. Leeds Barroll, Anna of Denmark, Queen of England (Philadelphia, 2001), pp. 43-5. Kildare was made the governess of Princess Elizabeth on 5/15 June 1603,Nadine Akkerman, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts (Oxford, 2021), pp. 27-28. despite Northampton's efforts to discredit her, and sworn a Lady of the Queen's Privy Chamber two weeks later. A later memoir, which has a very favourable view of Kildare, states she had a letter from the king to the queen recommending her to "constantly attend Princess Elizabeth, who burst into tears at the news of this change of governess. The memoir also states that Lady Kildare's great affection for Lord Cobham was not reciprocated.[Lady Frances Erskine], Memoirs Relating to the Queen of Bohemia by One of Her Ladies (c. 1770), pp. 42-44, 88-89.
Princess Elizabeth arrived at Windsor Castle in a litter with Lady Kildare and 30 horses in procession on 1 July 1603.Maurice Lee, Dudley Carleton to John Chamberlain, 1603-1624 (Rutgers UP, 1972), p. 34. Kildare's father, the Earl of Nottingham, visited her and Prince Henry and Princess Elizabeth at Oatlands in September 1603. An account of expenses made by Anne Livingstone, one of the ladies-in-waiting, or by Princess Elizabeth herself, mentions Kildare's footman and wagon-man, and that Kildare sent away some male servant when plague was suspected.William Fraser, Memorial of the Montgomeries, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1859), p. 247.
Disgrace