Mary Wriothesley, Countess of Southampton

Mary Wriothesley, Countess of Southampton (22 July 1552 – October/November 1607), previously Mary Browne, became the wife of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, at the age of thirteen and the mother of Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. Widowed in 1581, she was Dowager Countess of Southampton until 1595, when for a few months until his death she was married to the courtier Sir Thomas Heneage, becoming Lady Heneage. In 1598 she married lastly Sir William Hervey, so was known as Lady Hervey until her death.

The daughter of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, by his first marriage to Lady Jane Radcliffe, a daughter of Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex, and Lady Margaret Stanley, Mary Browne had a twin brother, Anthony, but they lost their mother in the childbirth. Before 10 December 1558 Montagu married Magdalen Dacre, by whom he had three sons, Sir George, Thomas and Henry, and three daughters, Elizabeth, Mabel and Jane.

On 19 February 1565/66 at the age of thirteen Mary Browne married, at her father's house in London, Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, a royal ward who himself was aged only twenty, the son of Jane Cheney and the deceased 1st Earl of Southampton. Later in 1566 Southampton reached the age of twenty-one, but he did not gain control of his estates until 7 February 1568. He then found himself with six residences and an income of between £2,000 and £3,000, so "lived in a grand way, maintaining a large and lavish household". However, Mary's life with Southampton was troubled by his political difficulties stemming from his "fervent Catholicism".

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