The 'Lady of the farme': The Context of Lady Russell's Entertainment of Elizabeth at Bisham, 1592

Abstract

Elizabeth Cooke, Lady Hoby and subsequently Lady Russell was one of the key women in the protestant establishment that surrounded Queen Elizabeth. She was also a mother who was anxious to establish her daughters at court. The paper suggests that entertainment for Elizabeth at the Hoby country house at Bisham, Berkshire, (1592) ascribed to Edward Hoby by conventional scholarship, was actually written by Lady Russell to bring her daughters, Elizabeth and Anne, to the queen’s attention as potential maids of honour.