Elizabeth Goldring

The woman who put the Spencer family on the map

Born in 1559, Alice Spencer, a formidable networker, matchmaker and patron of the arts, was the muse of poets including Edmund Spenser and John Milton

Portrait of a lady thought to be Alice Spencer. (Circle of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger) [Alamy] 
issue 01 July 2023
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  • A Woman of Influence: The Spectacular Rise of Alice Spencer in Tudor England

    Vanessa Wilkie

    Atria Books, pp. 245, £18

The first woman to put the Spencer family on the map was not Diana, Princess of Wales, the youngest daughter of the 8th Earl Spencer, nor even Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, the elder daughter of the 1st. Rather, it was their Tudor forebear Alice, Countess of Derby, the subject of this absorbing biography by Vanessa Wilkie.

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