Anne Clifford's Autobiographical Writing, 1590–1676

Lady Anne Clifford (1590–1676) lived a long and rich life, experiencing the courts of Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I, as well as the dangers of the civil wars. She was an aristocrat, historical scholar, Sheriff and Lord of Westmorland, daughter, mother and wife. Her autobiographies tell the dramatic story of her battles to gain the inheritance of her father’s vast Northern lands, and her later attempts to protect her rights in these lands against antagonistic tenants, hostile military administrations, and the vagaries of wars and political movements. She describes her often unhappy marriages to Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset and Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. We see her joy in the lives of her daughters and their children, and her friendships with a wide circle of aristocratic and more humble people. And always there is the backdrop of the daily affairs of her life. 

Anne Clifford’s autobiographies provide one of the most comprehensive descriptions of life in the seventeenth century. They creatively engage and innovate with a variety of narrative forms within the emerging genre of autobiography. They tell a dramatic story, and will attract readers interested in the seventeenth century, the lives of individuals in times of conflict, and certainly those already interested in the life of Anne Clifford. Scholars of early modern culture, history and literary studies will find this material invaluable.