[YouTube Drop] Susan Bertie

Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the Tudors

Heather Teysko

History

4.6 • 624 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The countess who raised a poet: Susan Bertie helped shape Aemilia Lanyer while dodging royal side-eye and surviving two widowhoods. Quick story, big ripples. Born in 1554 to Katherine Willoughby and Richard Bertie, Susan Bertie’s childhood began in Marian exile and continued in a Protestant household at Grimsthorpe under Miles Coverdale. At sixteen she married Reginald Grey, recognized as Earl of Kent in 1572; widowed in 1573, she later married soldier Sir John Wingfield, lived in the Low Countries, and returned after his death at Cadiz in 1596. Remembered as Aemilia Lanyer’s “Mistress of my youth,” Susan’s quiet patronage shaped an early woman poet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you know anything about Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, you probably know that she was one of the most unconventional women of Tudor England.
0:09.0	She had a dog named Gardner after Stephen Gardner because she disliked him so much.
0:13.6	She was a Duchess who shocked the court by marrying her gentleman Usher for love, and she was a zealous Protestant reformer who fled into exile under
0:22.8	Mary the First. But less well known is her daughter, Susan Bertie, who grew up in the shadow of
0:30.1	her very famous mother. She was twice widowed by her mid-40s, caught between royal disapproval
0:36.0	and personal conviction.
0:42.2	Susan lived a life that may not have made the headlines of her age,
0:47.6	but left an imprint that shaped one of England's earliest women writers.
0:52.1	So grab your coffee, my friend, or your water, settle in and get cozy,
0:53.9	and let's talk about Susan Bertie.
1:04.5	Hey friend, welcome back to the YouTube channel for the Renaissance English History podcast. I am your host, Heather. I've been podcasting on Tudor England since 2009 with my
1:09.7	show, which makes it the original Tudor History
1:12.4	podcast. I am, as always, delighted that you're here with me today talking about Susan Bertie.
1:19.6	Susan was born in 1554, the first child of Catherine Willoughby's second marriage to Richard
1:26.3	Bertie. The time could not have been more dangerous.
1:30.3	Queen Mary came to the throne the same year, and her parents' Protestant faith put them at
1:36.9	immediate risk. In 1555, the Bertie's fled England, carrying baby Susan with them. They passed through Geneva, where
1:46.8	John Calvin's reformed church was flourishing, and eventually they landed in Poland, where the king
1:53.9	granted them protection and even semi-autonomy in Samogishaf, a part of modern Lithuania. Susan's younger brother,
2:04.3	Peregrin, was born there. He was born a child of exile. The family returned to England in 1559
2:11.7	after Elizabeth I accession. Susan grew up at Grimsthorpe Castle. She was surrounded by a household steeped in
2:19.9	Puritan, Protestant devotion. Her tutor was Miles Coverdale, the man who had translated the Bible
	...

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