Elizabeth Danvers née Neville, later Elizabeth Carey by remarriage, was an English noblewoman. She was the mother of Sir Charles Danvers, executed in 1601 for his part in the rebellion of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and of Sir John Danvers, one of the commissioners who tried King Charles I and signed the King's death warrant.
The antiquarian and biographer, John Aubrey, whose ancestor she was, describes her in his Brief Lives, stating that she had Chaucer at her fingers' ends:
Elizabeth Danvers, his mother, an Italian, prodigeous parts for a Woman. I have heard my father’s mother say that she had Chaucer at her fingers' ends. A great Politician; great Witt and spirit, but revengeful: knew how to manage her estate as well as any man; understood Jewels as well as any Jeweller. Very Beautiful, but only short-sighted. To obtain Pardons for her Sonnes she maryed Sir Edmund Carey, cosen-german to Queen Elizabeth, but kept him to hard meate.
Elizabeth married firstly, Sir John Danvers of Dauntsey, Wiltshire, the son of Sylvester Danvers and his first wife, Elizabeth Mordaunt, second daughter of John Mordaunt, 1st Baron Mordaunt of Turvey, and the grandson of Thomas Danvers and Margaret Courtenay, the youngest daughter of Sir William Courtenay of Powderham Castle, Devon, by Cecily Cheney, the daughter of Sir John Cheney of Pincourt. Elizabeth Neville and Sir John Danvers had three sons and seven daughters:
Sir Charles Danvers, who died without issue.
Sir Henry Danvers, who died without issue.
Sir John Danvers, who married firstly, about 1609, Magdalen Newport, the daughter of Sir Richard Newport of High Ercall. At the time of the marriage Magdalen Newport had been for twelve years the widow of Richard Herbert of Montgomery Castle, by whom she had ten children, including Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, and the poet, George Herbert. The year after Magdalen Newport's death Sir John Danvers married secondly, Elizabeth Dauntsey, the daughter and coheir of Sir Ambrose Dauntsey, esquire, by whom he had several children. After remaining a widower for twelve years, he married thirdly, in 1648, Grace Hewes, the daughter of Thomas Hewes of Kemerton, by whom he had a son, John Danvers.
Lucy Danvers, who married, before 1545, Sir Henry Baynton of Bromham, Wiltshire.
On 4 October 1594 Lady Danvers' second son, Henry Danvers, killed Henry Long, the younger brother of Sir Walter Long, in the course of a local feud. Accounts of the murder conflict in some details. According to Lady Danvers' version of events, her husband, Sir John Danvers, in his capacity as a justice of the peace, had learned of two robberies and a murder committed by the servants of Sir Walter Long. Sir Walter, his brothers and his followers had then turned against Danvers, and members of the Long faction had murdered one of Sir John Danvers' men and committed a number of other outrages. Letters were exchanged between members of the Danvers and Long families, and in a letter to Sir Charles Danvers, Henry Long threatened to whip him, and called him 'Asse, Puppie, ffoole & Boy'. Sir Charles and others sought out Henry Long at an 'ordinary' or inn in Corsham, and cudgelled him, but found the door locked when they were ready to leave. Long drew his sword against Sir Charles, dangerously wounding him, and Sir Henry Danvers shot Long. The Danvers brothers fled to Whitley Lodge near Titchfield Abbey, where their friend, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, sheltered them. They were outlawed, and eventually escaped to the continent where they took refuge at the court of King Henri IV. The disaster which had befallen his sons may have hastened the death of Sir John Danvers, who died only two months later, on 19 December 1594, and was buried in Dauntsey church. He is memorialized in verses composed by relative by marriage, the poet George Herbert, after viewing his portrait:
Passe not by. Search and you may Find a treasure Worth your stay. What makes a Danvers Would you find? In a fayre bodie A fayre mind. Sir John Danvers' earthly part Here is copied out by art; But his heavenly and divine, In his progenie doth shine....
In 1598 the widowed Lady Danvers married Sir Edmund Carey, son of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth. It was generally considered she did so in order to obtain a pardon for her sons. Other efforts were made on their behalf as well, and at the end of June 1598 Queen Elizabeth relented, and pardoned both the Danvers brothers on condition that they pay Sir Walter Long £1500 damages for the murder of his brother. On 30 August 1598 John Chamberlain noted that Sir Charles and Sir Henry Danvers had arrived in London. In February 1601 Sir Charles Danvers took part in Essex' short-lived rebellion, and was convicted of treason. He offered to pay £10,000 for his life, but to no avail. He was beheaded on Tower Hill on 18 March 1601. After Essex's execution Sir Henry Danvers served with the English forces in Ireland under Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy, and on 21 July 1603, shortly after his accession, King James I created him Baron Danvers of Dauntsey ‘for his valiant service at Kinsale in Ireland’. In 1604 the verdict of outlawry against the Danvers brothers was reversed. Lady Carey's third son, Sir John Danvers, was a regicide after the First English Civil War. Lady Carey died in 1630, aged 84, and was buried under an altar tomb in St. Michael’s Church at Church Stowe in Stowe Nine Churches, Northamptonshire. The monument by Nicholas Stone, master mason to King James I, was installed about 1620 during her lifetime, and is said to be 'one of the finest pieces of sculpture of the age'.
