ABSTRACT
Many historians and literary critics since the sixteenth century have referred to these women merely in the reflections of their politically powerful fathers, husbands, sons, or brothers, each woman in fact wielded considerable influence and authority in her own right, especially in ignoring myths about the boundaries of behavior for early modern aristocratic women. Ironically, each of these women was a true “Essex girl,” which the Oxford English Dictionary calls a “derogatory” and “contemptuous term applied to a type of young woman, supposedly to be found in and around Essex, and variously characterized as unintelligent, promiscuous, and materialistic.” Lettice, Penelope, Dorothy, and Frances were each born into wealth, status, and political power derived from their fathers. The scandal of Lettice’s third marriage only intensified when Blount was tried and executed in 1601 as a conspirator in the rebellion of Lettice’s son Robert Devereux. Leicester seemed similarly ambitious in providing a first husband for Penelope’s sister Dorothy.
