Anne Seymour: "Lady Warwyks Lunacye"
- thedudleywomen
- Jun 17, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: Mar 29
Anne Seymour (born c.1538) was the eldest daughter of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and his second wife Anne Stanhope. She was a highly educated and accomplished young woman, who in June 1550, aged approx. 12-years-old, was married to John Dudley, son of the then Earl of Warwick and later Duke of Northumberland. The wedding was an elaborate spectacle, attended by Edward VI himself at Richmond Palace, in an attempt to forge an alliance between the two families, with Seymour's power starting to wain, having recently forfeited the position of Lord Protector and Head of the Regency Council, with his old friend John Dudley's position on the rise. However, their marriage was fraught with difficulties, with John's imprisonment in the Tower of London in July 1553 (who had since been awarded the Earldom of Warwick), along with his brothers for their role in the attempted coup involving Lady Jane Grey, culminating in his premature death days following his release from the Tower in October 1554 (Paul, 2022).
Six months following the death of her husband, Anne (continuing to style herself the 'Countess of Warwick') entered into her second marriage, This was with Edward Unton, a landowner who had inherited estates, including Wadley Manor near Faringdon, Berkshire, on his father's death in 1547. The couple married in at Hatford in Berkshire on 29 April 1555, in a much smaller ceremony than her previous one. This marriage produced seven children, four of those living to adulthood, including her second (surviving) son Sir Henry Unton, Ambassador to France (History of Parliament Online, 2024).
Despite having a family, Edward Unton was given permission to travel abroad in 1563, and so left his wife and young children to go on his 'Grand Tour', accompanied by his diarist Richard Smith. It is known the pair visited Switzerland and Italy during this trip (History of Parliament Online, 2024).
Edward Unton's status rose as the years passed; in 1559, he was knighted by Elizabeth I, was elected High Sheriff of Berkshire in 1547, and in 1572 was elected as the Member of Parliament for Berkshire. In recognition of this, Elizabeth I visited Sir Edward Unton on her summer progresses of 1572, 1574 and 1576; whilst she was known to have visited Wadley in 1574, it appears that Edward entertained the Queen at his other property in Langley, Oxfordshire on these other occasions, due to his wife Anne's poor health, with her continuing to reside at the family seat of Wadley (History of Parliament Online, 2024).
Following the death of Edward Unton on 16 September 1582, on 25 October 1582, an inquest took place in Burford, Oxfordshire, regarding his widow's mental state. This hearing found that Anne had experienced "bouts of madness" and was "a lunatic enjoying lucid intervals, and the date of her falling into that state was fixed so long before as 1st May 8 Eliz, 1566" (Nichols, 1841, pg. xliv); Anne would therefore have been approximately 28 years old when she first became mentally unwell.
It is not known what caused Anne to first suffer from mental illness, or why she continued to experience repeated and persistent episodes. There does not appear to be any history of mental illness within both sides of her family, a genetic predisposition being a high-risk factor for development of psychiatric symptoms. However, it is known that Anne was greatly affected by her father's death in January 1552, with reports that she physically collapsed following news of his execution (de Lisle, 2008). It could be argued that her father's downfall culminating in his public execution, coupled with her mother's prolonged imprisonment within the Tower of London (she would not be released until May 1553), and her husband's arrest in July 1553, could potentially have caused Anne to experience psychological distress as a result of these multiple traumatic events during her formative years, leaving her at greater risk of experiencing further psychiatric symptoms and crises in later life. There are few descriptions available regarding the symptoms Anne experienced over the years; the term 'lunatic enjoying lucid intervals' may suggest psychotic symptoms, these being experienced by people in a multitude of psychiatric illnesses and psychological disorders. People who experience psychosis can experience delusional beliefs, that being false, fixed beliefs, which in turn impact on their ability to engage appropriately with others and the environment around them and can subsequently react with unpredictable behaviours in response to this. Other people with untreated psychiatric illnesses can experience catatonia, which can be characterised by a number of symptoms, including:
sitting still, with minimal movements or becoming agitated/restless
holding themselves in unusual postures
repeating movements ('stereotypy')
repeating the same movements observed from others ('echopraxia')
repeating the same words and phrases observed from others ('echolalia')
no/minimal speaking, eating or drinking
It is now known that a number of psychiatric illnesses can cause catatonia, including psychosis, mood disorders (including depression and Bipolar Affective Disorder) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2024).
Lancastrian king Henry VI was known to have experienced at least two episodes of catatonia, one lasting fifteen months, in response to stress associated with the ongoing Wars of the Roses in the mid-15th century, there being a strong familial history of mental illness (Jones, 2014). A congenital cognitive disorder, including what is now referred to as 'Learning Difficulties' or 'Learning Disabilities', can be excluded, given Anne's scholarly achievements in her youth; in her childhood and early teens, her skills and knowledge were highly praised, with Anne known to have been fluent in several languages: French, Italian, Latin and Greek. Just prior to her first marriage to John Dudley, in March 1550, aged around 12-years-old, Anne and her two younger sisters, Margaret and Jane, composed the 'Hecatodistichon' - an ambitious 104 couplet poem, in Latin, dedicated to the recently deceased Marguerite de Navarre, of whose work they were likely to have been taught, which was then published by their former tutor (Scard, 2020). Anne was also the first of the Duke of Somerset's children to be married, in a union with a clear political and financial agenda, and the expectation from both families for children, once Anne had reached the age where the marriage would be consummated. This is in contrast to John Dudley's youngest brother Jerome, who appears to have suffered from mental disabilities his whole life; he was never married, and needed full-time care, which was reflected in the wills of sister-in-law Jane Guildford and other brother Sir Andrew Dudley (Paul, 2022). Following the outcome of the hearing, the custody of Anne's personage was granted to her younger son, Henry Unton, who had also been granted the manor of Wadley in his father's will. It appears that Anne continued to reside at Wadley, likely cared for by Henry and his family, including his wife Dorothy, for the rest of her life (The National Archives [1], 2024). Following this ruling, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and Anne's [former] brother-in-law, was granted "the Countess of Warwick's interest in Langley and Wychwood" in 1582, with a separate lease granted for the manor of Whitney in 1583. In a letter written by Robert Dudley, to William Cecil, Lord Burghley (Elizabeth I's Lord High Treasurer) on 08 July 1584, he additionally made requests for the ownership of the manor of Malvern (Collins, 1746, pg. 298):
"...I wold have intreated your Lordship to graunt me, during my Lady Warwycks Lunacye, the keeping and Mastership of the Game of the Chase of Malvern...being once my Fathers, and the auncyent Inherytance of the Erles of Warwick...Ther ys no Boddy now lookes to yt, And Mr. Vmpton left yt out of his Porcyon..."
Her mother, Anne Stanhope, Dowager Countess of Somerset, died on 16 April 1587. At the time of her death, only four of her children were still living, including her eldest daughter Anne. However, the Duchess's will, which was written the previous year, fails to mention Anne; her other children, their spouses and her grandchildren however are all beneficiaries (The National Archives [2], 2024).
Despite this exclusion from her mother's will, and her ongoing inconspicuous life at Wadley, likely due to ongoing incapacitation due to enduring mental ill health, Anne's status as the 'Countesse of Warwike' was referred to on her mother's elaborate tomb in St Nicholas' Chapel, Westminster Abbey. The inclusion on the tomb is likely due to it being commissioned by her eldest surviving son Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, with whom Anne previously shared a close relationship with in childhood, having been made a ward of her first husband John Dudley, following the execution of their father in 1552 (de Lisle, 2008; Westminster Abbey, 2024).
Anne Seymour died in her home at Wadley Manor in early 1588, her specific date of death remains unknown. Her funeral took place at All Saints' Church, Faringdon on 17 February 1588, where her daughter-in-law Lady Dorothy Unton, the wife of her son Henry, was the chief mourner. During the sermon that was preached at her funeral by Bartholomew Chamberlaine (1591), Doctor of Divinity, her illness was alluded to:
"Let your lamentations be mixed with moderation, because she is gone from a vale of miserie, to a hauen of all happines"
"For though her bodie be sowen in corruption, et it shall be raised in incorruption. Though it be sowen in dishonor, yet it shall be raised in glorie. Though it be sowen in weakenes, yet it shall be raised in power".
![Monument to Sir Edward Unton, and wife Anne Countess of Warwick, Faringdon © sheepdog_rex [Flickr]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ed9b82_7061ae86dd814335a05b77a1835df87f~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_1046,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/ed9b82_7061ae86dd814335a05b77a1835df87f~mv2.jpg)
Anne was interred with her husband Edward Unton, in the 'Unton Mausoleum', on the east wall of the transept of the church. A memorial still hangs on that wall portraying the Unton, Seymour and Dudley coat of arms, continuing to highlight her status as the 'Countess of Warwick' by her first marriage to John Dudley ('Dudley quarterly of twelve impaling Seymour quarterly of six').
Anne's social status, as well as her position within the family was alluded to in the sermon delivered at her funeral: "Here is a spectacle, a Ladie by birth, a Countes by mariage, by title right honorable, a widow of a vertuous life, a woman of many yeares, a mother of good children..." (Chamberlaine, 1591).
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