Elizabeth Waldegrave, Countess Waldegrave

Elizabeth Laura Waldegrave, Countess Waldegrave (25 March 1760 – 29 January 1816), was a British noblewoman, courtier and society beauty. She served at court as a Lady of the Bedchamber to Charlotte, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of King George III. She married her cousin, George Waldegrave, 4th Earl Waldegrave in 1782.

Lady Elizabeth Laura was born on 25 March 1760, the eldest daughter of statesman James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave and Maria Walpole, the illegitimate child of Sir Edward Walpole by his mistress, Dorothy Clement. She had two younger sisters, Lady Charlotte Maria, later wife of the 4th Duke of Grafton, and Lady Anna Horatia, who would marry Lord Hugh Seymour.

When Elizabeth was three years of age, her father died of smallpox. As he had no sons, the title Earl Waldegrave passed to his brother, John. Elizabeth and her sisters subsequently took up residence with their mother at Ragman's Castle, a house in Twickenham. On 6 September 1766, her mother married secondly, and in secret, Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, a member of the British Royal Family as the younger brother of King George III. It was this marriage, made without the King's consent, which had led to the passing of the Royal Marriages Act in 1772. Elizabeth acquired three half-siblings, Princess Sophia, Princess Carolina (1774–1775), and Prince William Frederick by her mother's second marriage to the Royal duke. She and her sisters then lived at Windsor Castle and Sophia Lodge in Clewer, both in Berkshire.