Helena Snakenborg
[1] By all accounts, Helena was a beautiful woman, with large brown eyes, red hair, and a pink and white complexion.
Contrary to claims presented in some genealogies, Helena's ancestry has not been proven to include medieval Viking Earls of Orkney (she was related to, but not descended from, Erengisle Sunesson, who held the title).
Helena was one of six young Swedish noble ladies who were Maids of Honour in the retinue of Princess Cecilia of Sweden, Margravine of Baden, second-eldest daughter of King Gustav I. Cecilia and her retinue departed Sweden in Autumn 1564 on a voyage to England, at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth I.
It was rumoured that Cecilia was journeying to England to press the suit of her half-brother King Eric XIV of Sweden to marry Queen Elizabeth.
[4] The wedding took place on 6 May 1571 in Elizabeth's presence in the queen's closet at Whitehall Palace, and for the few months of their marriage, the couple divided their time between their houses in Guildford, Surrey, and at Stanstead Hall, Essex.
Nothampton had not yet provided Helena with a jointure, and his estate reverted (escheated) to the crown, so she was left with little financial support.
[5] Helena's second husband was Thomas Gorges, of Longford, Wiltshire, a second cousin of the late Anne Boleyn, and descended from the first Howard Duke of Norfolk.
When Elizabeth learned of their clandestine act,[4] Helena was exiled from the court, and Thomas was incarcerated in The Tower of London for a brief period.
However, Helena was later reinstated, possibly with the help of her influential friend, Lord Chamberlain Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex.
The mansion had been damaged by fire when he acquired it and a replacement was completed at great expense by 1591, under the final supervision of John Thorpe.
[7] Helena was the chief mourner in the royal funeral procession as senior peeress because Arbella Stuart refused to undertake the role and King James had not yet arrived in London.
Sir Thomas Gorges died on 30 March 1610 at the age of seventy-four, after which Marchioness Helena increasingly retreated from public life.
Most of the time she resided at her house of Sheen, near the Court, but in the end retreated to Redlynch in Somerset, the manor of her son Sir Robert Gorges.
In April 1604 she had a fashion doll dressed in the latest styles in London to send to her sister Karin in Sweden.
[10] Marchioness Helena's last preserved letter, dated 8 September 1634, to her grandson, is signed with a clearly wavering hand.
