The assiduous Stephanie A. Mann had an interesting post the other day on her Supremacy and Survival blog about the in many ways dramatic and tragic life of Katherine Clifton, Baroness Clinton and successively by her two marriages Lady d’Aubigny and then Countess of Abercorn in the reigns of King James I and VI and of King Charles I.
The life of the Countess and her family reads like the narrative of an historical novel - a genre for which I will add I am only occasionally an enthusiast - but does show the possibilities and problems of aristocratic life in the early seventeenth century. This was especially true for a family whose interests lay in both England and Scotland in the decades following the Union of the Crowns, and especially the difficulties facing recusants. Active persecution as in the late sixteenth century had ceased and whilst the King might be friendly, and indeed kin, there was always the risk of hostility from less tolerant groups.
The article can be read at The Unceremonious Burial of A Scottish Recusant Catholic
The two sons of the Countess shown in the Van Dyck painting and who died fighting for the King are, if I recall aright, buried in Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford.
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