Elizabeth Stanley

Elizabeth Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon (6 January 1588 – 20 January 1633), formerly Lady Elizabeth Stanley, was an English noblewoman and writer who was third in line of succession to the English throne. She was the wife of Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon. She was also styled Lady Hastings of Hungerford and Lady Botreaux as her husband held both of these titles in addition to the Earl of Huntingdon.

In line to the English throne Lady Elizabeth was born and baptised on 6 January 1588, Lady Elizabeth Hastings (born ca. 1605), married Sir Hugh Calverley; died childless. She was the author of five Huntington Library manuscripts: four copies of prayers, biblical extracts, and meditations, and one volume of sermon notes. Forty-six of her letters (written from 1605 until late 1632), which provide a keen insight into her life and personal sentiments, survive in the Hastings Collection of the Huntington Library. In one of these letters, she described a visit to the royal court where she watched the rehearsals and final production of a masque, at which she was kissed by both King James and Queen Anne. Elizabeth danced in The Masque of Queens which was performed at Whitehall Palace on 2 February 1609. A miniature portrait by Nicholas Hilliard was painted sometime between 1601 and 1610. She was also the subject of a portrait by Paul van Somer painted in about 1614. At the masque in the Great Chamber the moon goddess Cynthia was presented.

Death Elizabeth died on 20 January 1633, shortly after her 45th birthday, at Whitefriars, London, at the home of her brother-in-law, John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater. A procession took her body to the parish church of St. Helen in Ashby-de-la-Zouch where she was buried on 9 February. The minister praised her in conventional terms, but he also mentioned her literary activities. The four manuscripts of her religious writings represented her thoughts right up to her death; in three of her four manuscripts, her final meditation was Of Death. Her husband died 10 years later in 1643.

Ancestry