Mary Middlemore

Mary Middlemore (died 1618) was a Courtier and Maid of Honour to Anne of Denmark, subject of poems, and treasure hunter.^[1]

Family background

Mary Middlemore was the eldest daughter of Henry Middlemore of Enfield, a groom of the privy chamber to Queen Elizabeth, and Elizabeth Fowkes from Somerset. Henry Middlemore had been sent as a messenger in 1568 to Mary, Queen of Scots at Carlisle Castle and to her half-brother Regent Moray in Scotland.^[2]

Mary's brother Robert Middlemore (d. 1629) was an equerry to King James.^[3] A monument to Robert and his wife Dorothy Fulstow or Fulstone (d. 1610) can be seen at St Andrews, Church, Enfield.^[4]

Career

After her father died, her mother Elizabeth married Sir Vincent Skinner (d. 1616) an ambitious MP.^[5] An ordinance for establishing the English household of Anne of Denmark made on 20 July 1603 allowed for six maids of honour and a supervisory mother of maids, with four chamberers.^[6]

Middlemore was appointed a Maid of Honour to the queen in December 1603.^[7] Her companions were Anne Carey, Mary Gargrave, Elizabeth Roper, Elizabeth Harcourt, and Mary Woodhouse.^[8][9]

Rowland Whyte mentioned the maids of honour and others dancing at Hampton Court in the presence chamber of Anne of Denmark, with a French visitor, the Count of Vaudémont.^[10]

In 1608 her younger sister Elizabeth married Edward Zouche of Bramshill, or perhaps Edward Zouch of Woking, Knight Marshall.^[11] She died shortly afterwards and was buried in Westminster Abbey in March 1610.^[12] Her brother Robert Middlemore of Thornton married Dorothy Fulstowe who also died in 1610.^[13] She was a daughter of Richard Fulstowe a servant of Lord Willoughby.^[14]

In 1609, an Italian poet, Antimo Galli published a book of verse, including a description The Masque of Queens performed in 1608. He included a stanza praising Mary Middlemore, with a near anagram of her surname name, "La Bella Dea D'Amore".^[15]

Around Christmas time 1609/10, Sir Edward Herbert fought with a Scottish gentleman who had snatched a ribbon or "topknot" from her hair in a back room of the queen's lodgings at Greenwich Palace.^[16][17] Herbert would have followed up by fighting a duel in Hyde Park, but the Privy Council prevented it.^[18] John Chamberlain recorded that the Scottish man was an usher to the queen named "Boghvan".^[19] Subsequently, Edward Herbert became involved with another lady-in-waiting, Dorothy Bulstrode, and was beaten up by husband, John Eyre.^[20]

The identity of "Boghvan" is unclear. There was a musician recorded as "Jacques Bochan".^[21] There was a violin player at court in 1609 called "James Bochan".^[22] "Mr Bochan" taught the ladies of Anne of Denmark's household dance steps for masques. Bochan, however, was described as a French violer, attached to the household of Prince Henry from 1608 to 1610.^[23] A man called "Baughan" is mentioned in the Lincoln's Inn accounts of the masque The Memorable Masque of the Middle Temple and Lincoln's Inn in 1613 as a Marshal not a musician, and perhaps he was Anne's Scottish usher.^[24]

The queen's secretary William Fowler dedicated poems to her in 1609, possibly for a third-party,^[25] including the Meditation upon Virgin Maryes Hatt, and Aetna which includes her name; "My harte as Aetna burnes, and suffers MORE / Paines in my MIDDLE than ever MARY proved", and devised an Italian anagram "Madre di mill'amori", the mother of a thousand loves.^[26]

Middlemore was given mourning clothes on the death of Prince Henry in 1612.^[27] On 20 August 1613 Anne of Denmark was received at Wells, Somerset, during her progress to Bath. The mayor William Bull hosted a dinner for members of her household including the four maids of honour.^[28]

Anna of Denmark had a portrait of Mary Middlemore at Oatlands.^[29][30] In July 1615 she was bought a bay ambling gelding horse to replace her lame grey horse.^[31] After Vincent Skinner's death, her mother Elizabeth Foukes seems also to have joined the queen's household.

On 29 April 1617 Middlemore was granted a licence by the king to have workmen seek treasure in Glastonbury Abbey, St Albans Abbey, Bury St Edmunds Abbey, and Romsey Abbey.^[32] She died later in the year, and perhaps did not profit from prospecting in the ruins.^[33] The gift has sometimes been assumed to be intended for the queen, but it may be connected with the financial ruin and death of her step-father Sir Vincent Skinner, who had been building a country house at Thornton Abbey.^[34] Around this time, her mother joined the queen's household.^[35]

Mary Middlemore died of consumption on 3 January 1618 at Whitehall Palace and was buried the next day at Westminster Abbey.^[36]