Elizabeth Grace Coventry

## Elizabeth Coventry, Countess of Leicester

> I can lose everything, but not you... Oh God, not you...
>
> Elizabeth to Edward Coventry during his death bed

**Elizabeth "Lizzie" Grace Coventry** (née **Gladstone**) is the first Countess of Leicester by marriage to Edward Coventry. The bastard daughter of the 5th Marquess of Grey and Lady Anna Jameson, she was raised with her half-siblings after her mother died at 1613.

## History

### Birth

**Elizabeth "Lizzie" Grace Gladstone** was born on October 23, 1606, to Lord James Gladstone, the 5th Marquess of Grey, and Lady Anna Jameson, daughter of the Baron of Stoneland. She was named after her mothers middle name, a popular thing during that time.

Until the age of 7, Elizabeth grew at her grandparents house, her mother was prohibited of marrying by them and she was locked at the family's house and, as result, young Lizzie barely left her mothers room and her company.

### Chilhood

When her mother passed away and she was sent to live with her father she saw a very distant household that she was used to. Her father was a cold man, who prefered to pay tutors and babysitters than raise his kids by his own, her step-mother was a hard woman to get along, Maria never liked her step-daughter as she was the living result of her husbands affair, and her half-siblings had a very different upbringing, that did not matched hers at all. Adding to all that, her siblings David and Margot despised her, him because he vividely remembered how sad and destroyed his mother became after his fathers affair and blamed Elizabeth, her because she hated sharing her father with a sister after so many years being the only one.

Because of all that, Elizabeth got used to be neglected by most of her family members. The only ones who actualy minded to talk to her were her two brothers, Richard and James. They didn't like how their oldest brother treated their sister and always sided her to whatever happened at the Gladstone house. Their freindship lasted a lifetime, and they were her only family members to attend her wedding, balls and to vist her constantly. Even with her brothers, Elizabeth hardly got any friends, her sister always talked bad abou her and no girl wanted to be close to a bastard.

She only discovered what peace meant again when Margot got engaged in 1621, leaving to London to her aunts house to prepare herself to the wedding, David and Richard had already left home and her step-mother had passed away earlier that year. Everything went perfectly fine for two years, then, in 1623, her sister went back to their house, ready to get married to Edward Henry Coventry, the 1st Earl of Leicester.

### During 1623 to 1625

Elizabeth never truly met her sister fiancee until the ball of fall of 1623 that her family threw. It was a mascared ball, and she was prepared to spend the whole night far away from everyone, it was a day before her 17th anniversary and she really was not in the mood to be happy for her half-sister that hated her, but the fate had a different idea.

At the beggining of the ball she bumped into a tall hadsome man, she had no idea who he was, but she was sure that he was doing the same as her, runing away from the music and guests. They spent the whole ball at the gardens, talking about many different things and having fun, at the end, before she went back inside, he kissed her and gave her his gold pendant, with his initial, and told her that he would never forget her, and, if she shared the same feelings as him, for her to wear his pendant at the next day, during lunch. She did what he asked, and, when Edward realized that the misterious woman who perfectly matched his personality was the half-sister of his fiancee that he never met, the bastard child of a Marquess, he was shocked.

For eight long months Elizabeth and Edward fought to end his engagement to her sister. They felt madly in love with eachother. He even tried to talk to Margot, but they had nothing in commom, she was a cold and traditional woman, while Elizabeth was always smiling warmly and often broke the rules. Edward had promissed himself that he would marry a woman with high status to secure his new earldom, but Elizabeth changed everything to him.

At the end of 1624 Edward finaly broke his engagement, he had to pay a small amount to the Marquess of Grey for all the trouble he caused, but that was not a problem to him, the Coventry family had a wealthy backstory. The young couple didn't wait much time to marry after that, in April of 1625 they said "yes" in a small church, only for close friends and family. Richard and James, Lizzie's brothers, were there for her, and Edward's aunt, Margaret, and only living family member where there for them.

### After Married

The couple lived at the Coventry Manor, in Leicester, but it was commom for them to visit London during summer. They had a happy marriage, they genuinely loved eachother for the rest of their lives and often threw mascarades balls at their house, trying to recreate the first time they met, and Edward always bought expensive gifts for his wife.

Elizabeth was a well known countess, other nobles mostly didn't like her because of her birth, the fact that she was a bastard haunted her during all her years, but she was commonly seen giving donations to churchs and convents, which helped her reputation. Other than that, she didn't quite helped with her husbands work, Elizabeth never enjoyed studing or learning new things, geting used with only the basics, and Edward could take care of the earldom by himself.

A tragedy hitted the Coventry family at the end of October of 1635, the second son of the coupled passed away of measles after weeks sick. Elizabeth secluded herself for a whole year after that, refusing to see anyone but her husband, even her brothers tried to contact her by letters but she never responded them. After that it took some time for Lizzie to completaly come back to society, and she was forever worried for her children health.

The fact that her husband passed away only seven years later also struck her terribly, so many losses changed Elizabeth in a way that was impossible to get better.

### Issue

The Earl and Countess had five children:

 Charles Coventry, 2nd Earl of Leicester | 29 November 1628
 Lord Harry Coventry | 13 January 1630
 Catherine Manners, Duchess of Chandos | 4 August 1634
 Lord Edmund William Coventry | 15 February 1637

### Widowhood

After she became a widow at the tenre age of 35 Elizabeth completly closed herself for the others, her oldest child, Mary, took all the burden of taking care of the family land and house and Charles helped sometimes. The now Dowager Countess stopped going to balls, her brothers and children were the only ones who she corresponded by letters and even visits were hard to get with her.

Elizabeth two daughters tried to, at leats, see their mother twice a year, but, after Catherine passed away on childbirth, she didn't enjoy to see Mary that much anymore. Her two sons gave up on trying to pay visits to her after their sister death too.

The Dowager Countess passed away on March 28, 1671, age 64. She was deeply mourned by her family members even with everything that happened, and her many letters that she exchanged with her husband, friends, kids and siblings were kept in a book at the Coventry Manor, and her descendants loved to read them, her great-granddaughter, Isabel Sophia Coventry, even took as hobby to try to have the same handwriting as her, copying her letters.

## Personality

Elizabeth was know for her shining personality, always wanting to help the others and never saying no to anything. This changed drastically after her husband's death and got even worse after her daughter's. Those who knew her in her twenties and then at her late fortys told how she barely looked like the same woman.

## Relationships

### Love Interests

**Edward Henry Coventry**, the only person Elizabeth got romantically involved was Edward Coventry, her father had strick rules for his daughters and the only moment she actually broke them was when she walked at the gardens of her house with only a man to accompany her. Her life with Edward was calm and peaceful, both kept their vows and were faithful to one another, during her pregnancies he was always by her side and she refused to leave his side when he got ill. Their older children looked after their parents relationship.

### Family

#### Parents

**Lady Anna Elizabeth Jameson**, the relationship between Anna and Elizabeth was great, during the years she raised her daughter it was a great time in Elizabeth memories, and after she died her daughter often visited her mothers gravestone at the Jameson House.

**Lord James Richard Gladstone**, different with her mother, Elizabeth never got along with her dad. He was a cold busy man who didn't bother to try to create a bound with his youngest child. Because of that he wasn't invited to her marriage, and she was not at his funeral when he passed away.

**Lady Maria Catherine Gladstone**, Elizabeth's step-mother hated the child, she never tried to take care of her or to supervisionize her studies, she was always too busy worring about her own daughter and three sons. The relationship between Maria and her two middle children, Richard and James, got very bad after they started to side with their half-sister.

#### Siblings

Elizabeth's relationship with her siblings were only great with **Richard** and **James**, and they remained best friends until their deaths, but with **David** and **Margot** it was impossible to even stay in the same room at some point in their lives.

#### Children

With all her five children, she tried her best to raise them personally, with **Mary Grace** and **Catherine Eleonor** she even taught classes herself on how to be a proper lady. With her sons, she decided it was better to her husband teach them, and, after her passed away, her eldest kids, **Mary** and **Charles**, got their parents' place into raising their siblings.

## Etymology

Her first name, **Elizabeth**, means "God is my oath", while her middle name, **Grace**, means simply "grace". Her maiden surname is a Scottish name.