Mabel Browne

Mabel Browne, Countess of Kildare (c. 1536 – 25 August 1610) was the wife of Gerald FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, Baron of Offaly (25 February 1525 – 16 November 1585). She was born into the English Roman Catholic Browne family whose members held prominent positions at the courts of the Tudor sovereigns for three generations. Mabel served as a gentlewoman of Queen Mary I's Privy Chamber, and enjoyed the Queen's favour.

Mabel was born in Sussex, England in about 1536, to Sir Anthony Browne, Knight of the Garter, Master of the Horse, and his first wife Alice Gage. Her paternal grandparents were Sir Anthony Browne, Standard Bearer of England and Governor of Queenborough Castle, and Lucy Neville. Mabel's maternal grandparents were Sir John Gage and Philippa Guildford. She had five brothers, including Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, and two sisters. One of her aunts was Elizabeth Browne, a lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn.

Mabel's mother died in 1540. When Mabel was about seven years of age, in 1543, her father married Elizabeth FitzGerald, an Irish noblewoman celebrated as The Fair Geraldine in a sonnet by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. The Brownes were Roman Catholics, but even after the Dissolution of the Monasteries Mabel's father enjoyed the favour of King Henry VIII when he was granted the estate of Battle Abbey in East Sussex. Mabel spent her childhood there and at Cowdray House in West Sussex, which had come into Sir Anthony's possession in 1542.