Elizabeth Cary (Née Tanfield), Countess of Falkland (c.1585-1639)

Abstract According to a herald’s notebook preserved as BL Harley 1754 (fo. 71), Elizabeth was the daughter of Laurence Tanfield of Burford and Elizabeth Symonds of Clay in Norfolk. Her mother’s mother was Catherine Lee, sister of Sir Henry Lee, the lover of Anne Vavasour. Elizabeth Cary was her parents’ sole heir, which made her, regardless of personal temperament, inclination, and the fact that she was short and stout, a marital prize. She married Henry Cary, Viscount Falkland, Lord Deputy of Ireland. Having been brought up as a Protestant, Elizabeth Cary converted to Catholicism from personal conviction. Several of her daughters subsequently became nuns, and one, Dame Lucy Magdalen Cary, wrote a biography of her mother (Lille, Archives du Nord 20H9: see forthcoming edition by Heather Wolfe). She was very well educated, as Dame Lucy testifies: ‘Afterwards, by herself, without a teacher, and while still a child, she learned French, Spanish and Italian (which she always understood quite perfectly).