Mary Fitton (or Fytton) (baptised 25 June 1578 – 1647) was an Elizabethan gentlewoman who became a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth.
She is noted for her scandalous affairs with William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Leveson, and others.
She had at least three siblings: her elder sister Anne, who married John Newdigate in 1587 at the age of twelve,[1] and two brothers.
[4] In January 1599, Mary had to quit the court and returned to her father's house at Charing Cross because she was sick and "not well at ease".
[5] She was suffering from a mixture of physical and mental symptoms that Elizabethans called "suffocation of the mother", probably a form of hysteria.
In June 1600 Mary led a dance in the masque celebrating the fashionable wedding of Lady Anne Russell, granddaughter of the Earl of Bedford, with Henry Somerset, later created Marquess of Worcester, at Lord Cobham's residence in Blackfriars.
[6] Led by Mary, the maids performed an allegorical dance and afterwards chose substitutes from the audience.
[10] Mary Fitton was placed with Lady Margaret Hawkins, the widow of Sir John Hopkins, for her confinement.
In March 1601 she gave birth to a baby boy who died immediately (perhaps from syphilis, which it is believed Pembroke may have suffered from).
She had some literary connections; William Kempe, who was a clown in Shakespeare's company, dedicated his Nine Daies Wonder (1600) to "Mistress Anne Fitton", Maid of Honor to Elizabeth.
There is a sonnet addressed to Mary Fitton in Anthony Munday's volume, A Womans Woorth defended against all the Men in the World.