Anne Stanley

Anne Stanley (May 1580 – c. 8 October 1647) was an English noblewoman. She was the eldest daughter of the Earl of Derby and, through her two marriages, became Baroness Chandos and later Countess of Castlehaven. She was a distant relative of Elizabeth I of England and for some time was seen as a possible heir to the English throne.

In 1630, her second husband, the Earl of Castlehaven, was arrested and charged with being an accomplice to her rape by a servant. He was also accused of sodomy, found guilty and sentenced to death.

Anne Stanley's testimony against her husband was crucial in ensuring his conviction and set the precedent that a wife could give evidence against her husband. After the trial, she lived a very secluded life; her reputation had been severely damaged by the scandal.

Possible heir to the throne

Anne Stanley was the daughter of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby, and Alice Spencer.

The earls of Derby were among the most influential and prominent noble families in England. Ferdinando Stanley was a great-grandson of Mary Tudor, the younger sister of King Henry VIII. Henry VIII had stipulated in his will that in the line of succession Mary's descendants would follow immediately after his own children. In doing so, he excluded the Kings of Scotland, descendants of his elder sister Margaret. By 1580, it was obvious that Queen Elizabeth I would have no children, and this focused attention on the Earl of Derby as a possible future king. After his death in 1594, opinion in the matter of the succession began to favour King James VI of Scotland who, in 1603, indeed succeeded Elizabeth I. However, some believed that this succession was contrary to the will of Henry VIII, and therefore illegal. Anne Stanley herself never made a claim to the throne.

Childhood, family and first marriage

Anne Stanley was the eldest of three daughters. When Ferdinando Stanley died, they inherited his considerable fortune. The title Earl of Derby went to his younger brother William. For Anne and her sisters Frances and Elizabeth prestigious husbands were sought. Frances married John Egerton, who became the 1st Earl of Bridgewater; Elizabeth married Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon. There were plans for Anne to marry a son of the Tsar of Muscovy. This marriage did not come about, and in 1607 she married the very wealthy Gray Brydges, Baron Chandos of Sudeley, who was known as the King of the Cotswolds. She lived with him in great style in Sudeley Castle. They had at least five children.

The Earl and Countess of Castlehaven lived mainly in Fonthill Gifford, the country seat of the Touchets in southern England.

Accusations Mervyn Touchet, Earl of Castlehaven, second husband of Anne Stanley. The names of the members of the jury in his trial are listed below the image.In 1630 Lord Audley, Lord Castlehaven's son, appealed to the Privy Council stating that his father was planning to disown him. Audley claimed that his father had encouraged his (Audley's) wife Elizabeth to have sex with Henry Skipwith, a favorite servant of Castlehaven's. Should Elizabeth become pregnant by Skipwith, Castlehaven planned to make this child his heir, thus depriving his own son of his inheritance. Audley also stated that his stepmother Anne Stanley behaved in a lewd manner and had taken servants as her lovers.

The trial of Lord Castlehaven was remarkable in that the judges explicitly ruled that a woman could testify against her husband in criminal proceedings, especially if she was a victim. This had previously not been clear under English law and set an important precedent. In response to a question by Lord Castlehaven whether it could legally be called rape if the victim was a woman of loose morals, the judges responded that the reputation of the woman did not matter. They also ruled that it was irrelevant that Anne Stanley herself had never spoken out about the rape by Broadway.

Children Anne Stanley and her first husband Gray Brydges, 5th Baron Chandos of Sudeley, had the following children: Elizabeth Brydges, deceased March 1678/79 Robert Brydges, deceased on 20 June 1611 Anne Brydges, believed to have been born in 1612 and married to gentleman described as Mr. Torteson. Few facts about her life but many older genealogies show her. George Brydges, 6th Baron Chandos of Sudeley, 9 August 1620 – February 1654/55 William Brydges, 7th Baron Chandos of Sudeley, circa 1620 - August 1676.

Ancestry