On 23 September 1584, she married Robert Sidney, later created Earl of Leicester, at St Donat's Castle, the home of her guardian.
He reigned from 1163 until 1214, when he surrendered his fiefs to Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester and leader of the Albigensian Crusade.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth in May 1603, Lady Sheffield's son, Sir Robert Dudley, began trying to claim his father's and his uncle's extinct titles of Earl of Leicester and Earl of Warwick.
She was backed by Sir Robert Sidney, who considered himself the only legitimate heir of his uncles Leicester and Warwick.
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In 1603 Dudley initiated moves to prove that he was the legitimate son of his parents and thus the heir to the earldoms of Warwick and Leicester.
Her sister, Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick, was married to Ambrose Dudley, brother of Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, and Anne too was a great literary patron and a close friend to Queen Elizabeth I attending her on her death bed.
It once belonged to the private collection of the Earl of Leicester (104) along with Minuscule 683.
In 1584, de Sille made up the conditions of homage of Prince William to negotiate with the Earl of Leicester pertaining to control of the Netherlands.
His other grandson, the Viscount De L’isle, was appointed Earl of Leicester in 1618 and it was shortly after this that The Leicester Arms, formerly known as The Porcupine, was renamed in his honour.
Richard Bingham, future commander of Connacht, was present and described events in a letter to the Earl of Leicester, although he claimed the massacre was perpetrated by sailors.
Leicester | James Earl Jones | Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | University of Leicester | Earl | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts | Leicester City F.C. | Earl of Derby | Leicester Tigers | Earl Warren | Earl of Pembroke | Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Warwick | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby | Earl of Shrewsbury | William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham | Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester | Leicester Square | Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick | Earl of Leicester | John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon | Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex | Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester | Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Devon | Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig | My Name Is Earl |
However, through his marriage to Blanche, John of Gaunt became Earl of Lancaster, Earl of Derby, Earl of Lincoln and Earl of Leicester (although Gaunt did not receive all of these titles until the death of Blanche's older sister, Maud, in 1362).
The line had been opposed by the occupant of Holkham Hall, the Earl of Leicester, who feared that it would lead to large scale resort development and an influx of holiday visitors near his home.
Bay appeared in many productions, including the Doctor Who story The Crusade in 1965, playing the fourth Earl of Leicester.
It has been suggested that it included a stint in the Earl of Leicester's company, but there is no good evidence for this.
That he was bold and independent also is apparent from a letter to Lord Burleigh, who had conveyed a message from the queen, complaining of his judgment in a suit in which the Earl of Leicester was a party, wherein he says he "dares not alter the ancient forms of court."
After later troubles with the church authorities, the Earl of Leicester gave him a position as Master of Sherburn Hospital.