Maria Thynne

The two were married on the day they first met[3] and for some time kept their marriage secret because their fathers were bitterly opposed to each other,[1] continuing a feud which had begun in the previous generation.

The dispute over the marriage was resolved in 1601 by Daniel Donne who was the Dean of the Court of Arches, who ruled against Joan Thynne's claim.

[5] These events may have provided the impetus (or not[2]), the next year, for Shakespeare to produce the play Romeo and Juliet, based on an earlier Italian story that begins with a similar clandestine marriage between feuding families.

[9] Eventually her husband, who had since been knighted, inherited his father's estates, including Longleat House.

With her he had further sons, including Sir Henry Frederick Thynne, 1st Baronet (1615–1680), ancestor of the Marquesses of Bath.