Bridget Norris (née de Vere), Countess of Berkshire (6 April 1584 – December 1630/March 1631) was an English noblewoman, the daughter of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Bridget was brought up by her maternal grandfather, the powerful statesman William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. She was also styled Lady Norris of Rycote and Viscountess Thame. She married Francis Norris, 1st Earl of Berkshire; however, the marriage was not a success, and they separated in 1606.
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Family
Lady Bridget was born on 6 April 1584 at Theobalds House, Hertfordshire. She was one of the three surviving daughters of courtier, playwright, and poet Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, and Anne Cecil, daughter of Queen Elizabeth I of England's chief minister, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. Bridget, along with her sisters, Lady Elizabeth and Lady Susan, remained in the household of her grandfather following the death of her mother on 5 June 1588, when she was four years old.
In 1591, Bridget's father married secondly, Elizabeth Trentham, a Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth. This marriage produced a half-brother for Bridget, Henry who became her father's heir, and later succeeded him as the 18th Earl of Oxford. Bridget already had an older illegitimate half-brother, Sir Edward de Vere, by her father's scandalous affair with the Queen's Lady of the Bedchamber, Anne Vavasour.
Marriage
In 1597, Bridget's grandfather proposed to marry her to William Herbert, heir to the earldom of Pembroke. Burghley offered Herbert £3,000 plus an annuity, the payment of which would begin upon Burghley's death. Herbert, however, wanted immediate payment on the annuity, and when his proposal was rejected, he refused to marry Bridget. Baron Burghley was therefore compelled to settle for a less illustrious husband for Bridget.
