Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke, Dorset and Montgomery (1590-1676)

"Lady Anne Clifford was one of the most renowned noblewomen of the Stuart era. Born on 30 January 1590 at Skipton Castle in Yorkshire, she spent much of her life fighting to win the baronial titles and estates in Westmorland and Yorkshire of her famous father, George Clifford, the Queen's champion. Having steadfastly resisted the browbeating of her husbands, the earls of Dorset and Pembroke, and also James I, in 1643 she inherited the estates and in 1649 moved north to take possession. There, she won enduring fame by restoring her ruined castles and churches, founding almshouses and erecting monuments; her philanthropy was legendary. She died at Brougham Castle in Westmorland on 22 March 1676, aged eighty-six, the last of her line."--BOOK JACKET. "In this first full-scale biography for over seventy years and the first ever cirtical study, Lady Anne emerges as a far more fascinating and complex personality than has been supposed."--BOOK JACKET.