Jacobean Peeress: Lucy Countess of Bedford (?), circa 1603.

Lucy was a friend of Queen Anne and a Lady of her Bedchamber. From 1603 to 1620 she was very influential in England: talented and lively, she performed (supposedly bare-breasted) in court masques by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones. She entertained many writers and wits, including John Donne, who wrote a poem titled Twicknam Garden, after her country house called Twickenham Park, and another called "A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day, Being The Shortest Day" probably alluding both to her death and that of his daughter Lucy, named after the Countess as her god-daughter. An extravagant woman, in 1627, she died soon after her husband, "having no belongings."

Shakespeare was familiar with her social milieu (including the Earl of Essex, and poets such as Jonson and Drayton) and some scholars conjecture that she and her husband may be the couple celebrated in his poem, The Phoenix and the Turtle. Certainly she illustrates the kind of dynamic woman appearing in many of his plays. National Portrait Gallery: Courtesy of Grand Ladies at http://www.gogmsite.net/the_late_farthingale_era_fr/ca_1603_peeress.