Marriage
On 15 July 1558, Lady Magdalen married Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, a Privy Counsellor, Knight of the Garter and King Philip's former Master of the Horse, in a ceremony took place at St. James's Palace. Browne was 10 years Magdalen's senior, aged 30 and a father and a widower from his previous marriage to Jane Radclyffe, who died due to childbirth, after the delivery of their twins, Mary and Anthony. Browne's links to the Queen were also impressive, and at Queen Mary's coronation, Browne carried the Queen's train. Due to their links, Mary I attended the wedding. The Browne family, like the Dacres, were also staunch Catholics. Their principal residences were Cowdray Castle and Battle Abbey, both in Sussex. Anthony and Magdalen had ten children.
Following the accession of Queen Elizabeth I to the throne in 1558, Montagu lost his seat on the Privy Council but was made joint Lord Lieutenant of Sussex in 1570. With the return to Protestant Christianity, the Montagus were forced to reveal their stance on the situation: loyalty to the Pope, or to the new Protestant Queen. Browne, along with Lord Dacre (Magdalen's brother), declared that they would support the Pope if he came in peace, but would serve the Queen if he came with war-like intentions. Magdalen found favour with the Queen despite her Catholicism, her former close friendship with the late Queen Mary and later the treacherous behaviour of her Dacre relations, some of whom conspired to depose the Queen and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots. The Montagus entertained the Queen for a week at Cowdray Castle in 1591, and the priests were kept hidden during the visit. Magdalen was very devout and supposedly wore a coarse linen smock underneath her extravagant court costumes.
Magdalen was only once accused of recusancy, and although she allowed a printing press to be set up on her property, she refused to assist or abet treasonous plots against the Queen.
Magdalen Dacre died at Battle Abbey, Sussex on 8 April 1608 at the age of seventy. She was originally buried in Midhurst Church, where a splendid tomb with her effigy was erected. The tomb was moved in 1851 to Easebourne Church.
Read more about this topic: Magdalen Dacre
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