Anne Vavasour

Anne Vavasour ( – ) was a Maid of Honour (1580–81) to Queen Elizabeth I of England, a member of the Vavasour family and the mistress of two aristocratic men. Her first lover was Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, by whom she had an illegitimate son – Edward. For that offence, both she and de Vere were sent to the Tower of London by the orders of the Queen. She later became the mistress of Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley, by whom she had another illegitimate son. By 1590, she had married a sea captain by the name of John Finch. She later married John Richardson, while her first husband was still alive; and as a consequence, she was brought up before the High Commission on a charge of bigamy, for which she had to pay a fine of £2000; however, she was spared having to perform a public penance. She was the inspiration, protagonist, and possibly the actual author, of the poem, Anne Vavasour's Echo, though her lover the Earl of Oxford is more commonly identified as its author. Family Anne was born circa 1560, the daughter of Henry Vavasour of Tadcaster, Copmanthorpe, Yorkshire, and Margaret Knyvet. Anne's maternal uncle was Sir Thomas Knyvet, 1st Baron Knyvet. It was this family connection which likely secured her a place at court as one of Queen Elizabeth's Ladies of the Bedchamber. Her younger sister, Frances (1568 – c.1606), was also at court as a Maid of Honour to the Queen (1590–91), and in 1591 secretly married Sir Thomas Shirley. Her younger brother, Thomas, also made a career at court and became embroiled in her scandals, at one point challenging the Earl of Oxford to a duel (which does not appear to have taken place).