Alice Spencer | |
|---|---|
| Countess of Derby Baroness Ellesmere Viscountess Brackley | |
 Portrait tentatively identified as Alice Spencer, painted by an unknown artist in the circle of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger | |
| Born | 4 May 1559 Althorp, Northamptonshire, England |
| Died | 23 January 1637 (aged 77) Harefield Place, Middlesex |
| Buried | St Mary the Virgin Church, Harefield |
| Noble family | Spencer |
| Spouse(s) | Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley |
| Issue | Anne Stanley, Countess of Castlehaven Frances Egerton, Countess of Bridgewater Elizabeth Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon |
| Father | Sir John Spencer |
| Mother | Katherine Kytson |
Alice Spencer, Countess of Derby (4 May 1559 – 23 January 1637) was an English noblewoman from the Spencer family and noted patron of the arts. Poet Edmund Spenser represented her as "Amaryllis" in his eclogue Colin Clouts Come Home Againe (1595) and dedicated his poem The Teares of the Muses (1591) to her.
Her first husband was Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby, a claimant to the English throne. Alice's eldest daughter, Anne Stanley, Countess of Castlehaven, was heiress presumptive to Queen Elizabeth I. She married secondly in 1600 Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley and thus became a member of the Egerton family.[1]
- ^ Vanessa Wilkie, A Woman of Influence: The Spectacular Rise of Alice Spencer in Tudor England (Simon & Schuster, 2023), p. 17.