Magdalen Dacre, Viscountess Montagu was an English noblewoman.
13 Facts About Magdalen Dacre
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Magdalen Dacre was the daughter of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre of Gilsland, and the second wife of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu.
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Magdalen Dacre, despite being Catholic, managed to remain in high regard with Elizabeth I, the Protestant half-sister who succeeded Mary.
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Magdalen Dacre was, according to biographer Lady Antonia Fraser in her historical biography, The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605, a fine example of "how the most pious Catholic could survive if he did not challenge the accepted order".
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Magdalen Dacre had just produced a male heir, Prince Edward, with his third wife Jane Seymour just months prior to Magdalen's birth.
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Magdalen Dacre was very tall, and reportedly stood a head above the other maids of honour at court.
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The story goes that Philip opened a window to a room where Magdalen Dacre was washing her face and caught hold of her, whereupon she had to beat him off with a staff to escape his embrace.
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Magdalen Dacre's father-in-law built a house at Southwark which, for generations, was the London residence of the Viscounts Montague.
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One opinion as to the reason Magdalen Dacre remained on good terms with both Mary and her half-sister Elizabeth, is that Magdalen Dacre was a cousin of Henry VIII's last wife, Katherine Parr, who was a much-loved stepmother to both Henry's daughters.
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Magdalen Dacre was very devout and supposedly wore a coarse linen smock underneath her extravagant court costumes.
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Magdalen Dacre was only once accused of recusancy, and although she allowed a printing press to be set up on her property, she refused to assist or abet treasonous plots against the Queen.
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Magdalen Dacre was originally buried in the church of St Mary Magdalene and St Denys in Midhurst, where a splendid tomb with her effigy was erected.
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Magdalen Dacre appears in Anya Seton's historical romance Green Darkness, which was partially set in 16th-century England.