Lady Mary Grace Coventry

## Mary Coventry

**Mary "May" Grace Stonor** (née **Coventry**) was the first born child of Elizabeth and Edward Coventry, Baroness Camoys by marriage from 6 June 1650 until her husband's death in 3 June 1689, and a notable writer, though her poems were not published during her lifetime, being found later on by one of her direct descendents, that decided to publish the art of their late ancestor.

## Birth and early life

**Mary "May" Grace Coventry** was born on 27 December 1627, the eldest child of her parents, her father loved her very much from the beginning, and, when questioned if he was unhappy that she was a girl and not a boy, he answered "I am very pleased with Mary's birth, with little time she already taught me so much".

She spent her whole childhood in the Coventry Manor, in London, and later on in her life, after she left France and moved back to England, she again chose to live in the capital, as it was the place where she most felt like home.

### Chilhood

> "I don't want to see Maria!. She told me I was lesser than her last time we went there." Mary cried to her mother and refused to look at her. "Well, then you better tell her next time that you are a lady, the daughter of an Earl, while she's just the younger child of a simpleton Baron."
>
> A conversation between Mary and her mother, in 1633

As the eldest of her family, Mary lived a lonely early childhood even though she had cousins close in age and also lived in London, [[Maria Catherine Leith|Maria Stonor]], three years her junior, and [[Margot Charlotte Petre|Margot Stonor]], four years younger. They were the daughters of her mother's half-sister and her father's ex-fiancee, besides being the legitimate daughter of her grandfather - her mother was the result of an affair, and Margot Stonor, Dowager Baroness Camoys, hated her sister and her children, and tried to make her own kids hate them too.

Later, in 1 June 1635, the Dowager Baroness Camoys passed away after having a fever for weeks, and the children fell to the care of Richard Gladstone, 7th Marquess of Grey, who loved his half-sister Elizabeth very much, and Margot's kids ended up changing their opinions towars their half-cousin, and Mary finally had friends to play with, not only Maria and Margot, but also her three cousins from Richard and his wife, Anna, that moved to London the same year.

The English Civil War, her father’s death, in 1645 traumatized her a lot, and, when she had to run away with her mother and siblings in 1645 to France after the Battle of Naseby, she got sick with smallpox and had scars all over her face for the rest of her life. To hide them, she wore makeup and attractive patches (beauty spots), and never allowed no one to see her without them, later on she permitted her then husband to see her naturally, but only him.

## English Civil War

### The beginning

When the war first broke out in 1642, Mary's mother knew that she would not be safe in London with four kids, because of that she moved to the countryside with her brother’s family, Richard, who by that time was already the new Marquess of Grey. At the end of the same year Richard and Edward had to go back and command their troops and defend the king, with them they took Mary’s fifteen year old cousin, James, and fourteen year old brother, Charles, leaving the women behind, but they had little choice, as they had to defend his country and his king's crown.

Between 1642 and 1646 Mary lived with her family in the countryside, her mother forbade her and her younger siblings to visit London or to even travel at all, Elizabeth was struggling to even live a whole day without breaking down in tears. When Mary’s father died at the Battle of Naseby in 14 June 1645 her mother decided it would be for the best to move out from England, she took with her many of her siblings’ off-springs alongside her own kids, mostly the girls, and settled in France, where they were accepted at the French Court of Louis XIV.

### Life in the French Court

Between September 1645 and June 1651 Mary lived in France with her family, her aunt Anna, younger siblings, Catherine and Edmund, and her counsins, Maria and Margot Stonor and Jane, Anna, Henrietta, William and Charlotte Gladstone, were the ones who traveled to Paris with her. The older girls soon found their place as companions of the exiled queen Henrietta Maria, and William became a friend to Prince Philippe, future Duke of Orléans.

At the beginning, Mary hated Paris. She asked many times for her mother to take her back to England, she would be happy even if it was not London, but Elizabeth refused and, each time Mary repeated the same wish, Elizabeth forced her to go to one more ball she hated. It was the only way the Dowager Countess found to make Mary attend them. Her compannions there were mostly her cousins, Jane and Anna Gladstone, and, later, Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, also joined the trio.

With time, Mary got used to the French Court, but she never felt like home while in Paris. She also rater disliked how different it was for women there than in England, she had to use a great ton of makeup and complicated outfits everyday, all the time. When one of the ladies in court told her that "With a face like yours, I doubt you will ever be able to marry at all!" and laughed, she started to get very self consious about her looks. This reflect how her life would be for the rest of it.

Later on, her uncle, Richard, brother, Charles, and cousins, Henry and David Stonor and James Gladstone, also joined the others in France, most of them arriving in 1649 after Charles I execution. It was during this time that Mary and Henry grew closer, and ended up marrying in 6 June 1650

## Moving back to England

### Married life

   The marriage between Mary and Henry could be considered an arranged one, since both their mothers talked about it even before Henry proposed to his cousin, but, in reality, it was a love match. Both Henry and Mary were devoted to each other, they couldn't stay away from one another for very long, and the enjoyed the other's company.

After the wedding taken on 6 June 1650, Mary automatically became Baroness Camoys as consort of her husband, and she started to do her duties as a noble wife, but, shortly after, the Anglo-Scotish War broke out, and Henry had to go back to Britain, specifically Scotland, to go fight again. Mary's mother was heartbroken, but Mary herself, a fervorous royalist, sided with her husband and moved with him to where the others where.

After the disastrous ending to the Royalists on 3 September 1651, Henry had to flee once again to Paris. Mary had recently lost her first born, a girl named Grace Henrietta, less than a month before, and was still very weak, so she had to stay in Scotland for her own health, and met her husband only in January 1652

### The mourning

Between October and November 1670, in a time span of 21 days,Mary lost two of her children due to smallpox, the disease that almost got herself killed 25 years prior. This troubled her a lot and caused her health to decrease, her husband was afraid that she would die of sadness as she did not eat, walked and barely slept. At the sprint of the next year Mary finally started to recover, but her closet changed drastically, and she never wore vibrant colors anymore.

### Widowhood

The Baron Camoys passed away on 3 June 1689, the date being so close to Mary’s father death anniversary disturbed her, and she relied on her two surviving daughters, Anne and Catherine, the most. The now Dowager Baroness enclosed herself at her house in London, stopped attending the queen and king’s court, many believed she had died shortly after her husband, that’s why she left everything, but her children ensured she was well alive, just heartbroken of her loss. After becoming a widow, Mary was never the same.