Lucy Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon

Though her husband, then the 6th Earl of Huntingdon, was outwardly neutral during the English Civil War, other members of the family, including his brother Henry Hastings, were ardent Royalists.

[1] Three of the sons predeceased their father; when the family's heir (another Henry Hastings) died of smallpox in June 1649, his passing inspired a collection of elegies titled Lachrymae Musarum ("Tears of the Muses"), edited by Richard Brome and containing verses by John Dryden, Andrew Marvell, Robert Herrick, and others.

When the sixth Earl died on 13 February 1656, he was succeeded by Theophilus Hastings, the couple's fourth and sole surviving son.

Lucy Hastings' poetry remained unpublished during her lifetime, a fate common among women writers of her historical period.

However, in the contemporary era's renewed interest in rediscovering women writers from past centuries, her work has received increased critical attention.