page_title: Anne Stanley, Countess of Castlehaven
section_title: Accusations
hierarchical_section_title: Anne Stanley, Countess of Castlehaven / Accusations
caption_attribution_description: Mervyn Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven (1593-1631)
context_page_description: Anne Stanley was an English noblewoman. She was the eldest daughter of the Earl of Derby and through her two marriages first became Baroness Chandos and later Countess of Castlehaven. She was a distant relative of Elizabeth I of England and for some time was seen as a possible heiress to the English throne.
  In 1630, her second husband, the Earl of Castlehaven, was arrested and charged with being an accomplice to her rape by a servant. He was also accused of sodomy. Lord Castlehaven was found guilty and sentenced to death.
  Anne Stanley's testimony against her husband was crucial in ensuring his conviction and set the precedent that a wife could give evidence against her husband. After the trial Anne Stanley lived a very secluded life; her reputation had been severely damaged by the scandal.
  Since the beginning of the 21st century, there has been a renewal of interest in the Castlehaven affair and in Anne Stanley, especially from the perspective of LGBT and gender studies.
context_section_description: In 1630 Lord Audley, Lord Castlehaven's son, appealed to the Privy Council stating that his father was planning to disown him. Audley claimed that his father had encouraged his (Audley's) wife Elizabeth to have sex with Henry Skipwith, a favorite servant of Castlehaven's. Should Elizabeth become pregnant by Skipwith, Castlehaven planned to make this child his heir, thus depriving his own son of his inheritance. Audley also stated that his stepmother Anne Stanley behaved in a lewd manner and had taken servants as her lovers.
  The Privy Council started an investigation in November 1630 and interviewed family members and servants at Fonthill Gifford. Elizabeth Audley admitted to having been coerced by her father-in-law into having a sexual relationship with Skipwith.  According to Elizabeth Audley, her mother Anne Stanley had been raped by one of the servants at the instigation of Lord Castlehaven. When questioned about this, Anne Stanley testified that soon after their marriage, Castlehaven had declared that as a husband he had absolute control over his wife's body, and that she was obliged to do whatever he demanded. He had ordered her several times to sleep with one of his servants, but she had always refused. Eventually, Castlehaven had ordered the page Giles Broadway to rape her in his presence; he had assisted in the rape by restraining his wife. Anne Stanley stated that she had made a suicide attempt after the rape, but she had never discussed the incident with anyone.
  The inhabitants of Fonthill Gifford told the Privy Council's investigators that Lord Castlehaven had sexual relations with both male and female staff, including the footman Lawrence Fitzpatrick, and that he was a voyeur. He showered sexual partners with gifts and had his eldest daughter marry one of his favorites, who had joined the household as a page. Anne Stanley's account of the rape and her subsequent suicide attempt was confirmed, also by the alleged rapist Giles Broadway. The investigators recorded only the testimony of male servants; women were considered unreliable witnesses, especially if they were of lower class.
  Lord Castlehaven was formally charged with the rape of his wife and sodomy with the servant Lawrence Fitzpatrick on 6 April 1631. He was imprisoned in the Tower and his properties were confiscated by the Crown. Giles Broadway was charged with the rape of Anne Stanley, and Lawrence Fitzpatrick was charged with sodomy. Anne Stanley was ordered by the Privy Council to temporarily take up residence with the Bishop of Winchester. Her younger children from her first marriage were placed in the care of their grandmother, the Dowager Countess of Derby. The Dowager Countess was not prepared to take in her granddaughter Elizabeth, Lady Audley, whom she feared would be a bad influence on her younger siblings.
  Lord Castlehaven denied all charges and claimed his wife and son were conspiring against him. He called his wife a whore, to whose statements no value should be attached, and accused her of having given birth to an illegitimate child during their marriage. The servants who had made incriminating statements against him had done so out of spite and jealousy, he said.
caption: Mervyn Touchet, Earl of Castlehaven, second husband of Anne Stanley. The names of the members of the jury in his trial are listed below the image.
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