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unusual facts about Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kildare



Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kildare

Her eldest daughter, Elizabeth was sent to the household of Princess Mary at Hunsdon, and it was during that time that the poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey would immortalise the ten year-old girl as "The Fair Geraldine" in his sonnet, The Geraldine which he wrote while he was briefly imprisoned for striking a courtier.

She remained at the French court when Queen Mary's other English ladies were sent home, and stayed on to serve Mary's successor, Queen Claude, consort of the new King Francis I, in the same capacity.


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