Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby was an English noblewoman and noted patron of the arts. Poet Edmund Spenser represented her as "Amaryllis" in his eclogue Colin Clouts Come Home Againe and dedicated his poem The Teares of the Muses to her. Her first husband was Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby, a claimant to the English throne. Alice's eldest daughter, Anne Stanley, Countess of Castlehaven, was heiress presumptive to Queen Elizabeth I. She married secondly in 1600 Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley. Wikipedia [ - ]

Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby was an English noblewoman and noted patron of the arts. Poet... [ + ]