Venetia Stanley

Venetia Anastasia Digby (née Stanley) (December 1600 – 1 May 1633) was a celebrated beauty of the Stuart period and a prominent courtier who died a mysterious death. She was a granddaughter of Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland and the wife of Kenelm Digby.

Venetia Anastasia Stanley was the third daughter of Sir Edward Stanley (died 1632), of Tong Castle, Shropshire, a baronet (and grandson of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby), and Lucy Percy (daughter and co-heiress of the Earl of Northumberland who had been imprisoned for treason for his part in a Catholic plot against Elizabeth I). According to The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, "Venetia" is most likely a Latinization of "Gwyneth," and the name was popularized by Venetia Stanley.

A celebrated beauty, Venetia moved to London alone in her early teens and had garnered a licentious reputation well before her twentieth birthday. Rumour noted later by the curious antiquary John Aubrey had it that she was the "concubine" of Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset (died 1624), who had children by her and settled upon her an annuity of £500 per annum. Circa 1625, she eventually married the celebrated scientist and adventurer Kenelm Digby, who, when the earl or his heir withheld Venetia's annuity, sued for it, according to John Aubrey, and won. Sir Kenelm wrote a "private memoir" of their courtship which is one of the major sources of information about her. It uses pseudonyms, Theagenes and Stelliana, and appears to have been revised throughout Digby's life. "This lady carried herself blamelessly," Aubrey note, "yet (they say) he was jealous of her".

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