[citation needed] On 30 August 1598, Elizabeth married Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (1573 – 1624), who has been suggested as the dedicatee of Shakespeare's Sonnets.

Later, when Elizabeth was pregnant she wrote to her husband asking him to buy her a stomacher of scarlet cloth lined with plush to keep her warm while riding, and bring his portrait 'very finely done'.

[3] Elizabeth and Henry had several children, including: Both her husband and eldest son died in November 1624 from illnesses which struck them while they were on a military expedition in the Netherlands.

A German professor of English, Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel, has proposed a theory, mainly based on an apocryphal sonnet that she claims was written by William Shakespeare, and evidence from portraits, that Elizabeth Wriothesley was a lover of the poet.

[4] Questions have been raised about this theory, namely why the Earl of Southampton would have risked certain royal displeasure from the Queen by marrying Elizabeth if she was pregnant with somebody else's illegitimate child.