Magdalen Dacre

Dacre was, according to biographer Lady Antonia Fraser in her historical biography, The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605, a fine example of "how the most pious Catholic could survive if he (or she) did not challenge the accepted order".

[5][unreliable source] The Dacres were powerful Northern Border lords and Roman Catholics, however by the time of her birth, the reigning monarch Henry VIII, had already made the break with Rome by placing himself as the head of the Church of England.

The marriage took place at Winchester Cathedral on 25 July 1554 and Dacre, as a maid of honour, was selected as a bridesmaid and took part in the bridal procession,[3] dressed in purple velvet.

The story goes that Philip opened a window to a room where Magdalen was washing her face (or possibly brushing her hair) and caught hold of her, whereupon she had to beat him off with a staff to escape his embrace.

[10] On 15 July 1558, Dacre married Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, a Privy Counsellor, Knight of the Garter and King Philip's former Master of the Horse, in a ceremony took place at St. James's Palace.

Browne was 10 years Magdalen's senior, aged 30 and a father and a widower from his previous marriage to Jane Radclyffe, who died due to childbirth, after the delivery of their twins, Mary and Anthony.

Browne also owned Byfleet manor (a handsome brick house with a 380-acre park that Queen Elizabeth used for hunting), West Horsley Place, Easebourne Priory, Brede, East Sussex, the town of Hastings, Newark Priory including the Manors of Send, Jury and East Clandon as well as Newark Mill, the chapel and vicarage of St Mary Magdalene in Ripley, Surrey and Chapel Farm behind the church, various farms in West Horsley, Ripley, Ockham, Woking, Pyrford, Wisley, Send Barns Farm in the village of Send and the buildings now known as Cedar House and Tudor House in Ripley.

Prior to leaving Cowdray, the queen knighted several men including Viscount Montagu's 2nd son (George Browne) and his son-in-law (Robert Dormer).

[15] Dacre was only once accused of recusancy, and although she allowed a printing press to be set up on her property,[16] she refused to assist or abet treasonous plots against the Queen.

[15] Despite being Roman Catholic, Magdalen's husband, Anthony Browne, was part of the jury that in 1586 convicted Mary, Queen of Scots of treason at her trial in Fotheringhay Castle.

Its text refers to the parable of the ten virgins in St. Matthew's gospel, and goes on to liken Magdalen's behaviour to theirs, praising her virtue and beauty, and declaring that though her body is now in a tomb, her soul is surely in heaven.

1540–1623) who had turned Roman Catholic some 30 year earlier, composed an elegy to Dacre on the year of her death, With lilies white (1608), which has remained as a famous piece of his consort music[19] Lyrics: With lilies white those virgins fair are crowned, That wed themselves to our great Lord and Saviour, And never were in worldly pleasure drowned, But solely liv’d in chaste and sweet behaviour, Expecting still with lamps of crystal shining, The bridegroom's call to bid them to his dining.

Among these maids fair Mawdlyn, late deceased, May well be plac’d in virgin's weeds attired, Who as in years in virtue still increased And was a flow’r of beauty most admired, Whose corpse in earth in marble tomb reposes, And soul in heaven crown’d with sacred roses.