Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick
| Anne Dudley | |
|---|---|
| Countess of Warwick | |
 |
|
| Spouse(s) | Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick |
| Noble family | Russell |
| Father | Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford |
| Mother | Margaret St. John |
| Born | 1548/1549 |
| Died | 9 February 1604 Northaw, Hertfordshire |
| Buried | Chenies, Buckinghamshire |
Anne Dudley (née Russell), Countess of Warwick (1548/1549 – 9 February 1604) was an English noblewoman, and a lady-in-waiting and close friend of Elizabeth I. She was the third wife of Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick.
Anne Russell was the eldest daughter of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford and his first wife Margaret St. John. Possibly serving the future Elizabeth I from childhood, she became a maid of honour in 1559, shortly after the Queen's accession. When she was 16 her father and Elizabeth's favourite, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, arranged her marriage to Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, Leicester's elder brother and nearly 20 years his bride's senior. The ceremony was performed on 11 November 1565 in the royal chapel at Whitehall Palace. The wedding was one of the great court festivities of Elizabeth's reign, with tournaments and banquets; it was also of political significance, since it matched two of the major Puritan families in the country. Neither Ambrose, twice a widower, nor Robert Dudley, a widower unlikely to remarry, had as yet any issue, so that to this marriage were pinned the hopes of the Dudley family's dynastic survival. However, no children were born to the couple, and as early as c. 1570 Robert Dudley wrote in a letter: "my brother you see long married and not like to have children". The marriage nevertheless turned out to be happy. During the 1570s and 1580s, the couple's principal residence outside London was North Hall in Northaw, Hertfordshire.
Ambrose Dudley suffered for decades from the effects of a leg injury sustained in military service in 1563. At the end of January 1590 his leg was amputated, as a consequence of which he died at Bedford House in the Strand, London on 21 February. The diplomat Sir Edward Stafford had visited him and his wife two days before; he had found the Earl in great suffering "which lasted him unto his death", and the Countess sitting "by the fire so full of tears that she could not speak".
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