Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland

Who was Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland?

Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland was an English noblewoman and maid of honor to Elizabeth I. Lady Margaret was born in Exeter, England to Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford and Margaret St. John. On 24 June 1577 she married George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland the son of Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland and Anne Dacre. Her sister, Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick, was married to Ambrose Dudley, brother of Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, and Anne too was a great literary patron and a close friend to Queen Elizabeth I attending her on her death bed.