Anne Dowriche facts for kids
Anne Dowriche (born before 1560 – died after 1613) was an English poet and historian from the 16th century.
She was the daughter of Sir Richard Edgecombe and Elizabeth Tregian Edgecombe, a well-known family from Cornwall. In 1580, she married a Puritan minister from Devon. They had several children together.
Dowriche wrote The French Historie, a long poem about the French Wars of Religion. In this poem, she spoke out against unfair rulers and supported the Protestant Reformation. She described how some tyrants were defeated by their people. She also wrote about the death of Charles IX of France, during whose rule the terrible St. Bartholomew's Day massacre happened. After this, she asked Elizabeth I of England to protect her Protestant followers.
Dowriche also wrote Verses Written by a Gentlewoman, upon the Jailor's Conversion. She is believed to have written other poems that have not survived.
Contents
About Anne Dowriche
Her Early Life
Anne Edgecombe was born into a wealthy English family. Her family owned land and had power in politics and money matters. The Edgecombes were strong followers of the Protestant religion. This made them a minority group in England and Europe at the time. They were part of a group of Protestants who used their writing skills, money, and power to help Protestant causes.
Anne received a good education as a girl, which showed her high social class. Some of her writings suggest she might have been able to read Latin. This would mean she had an even better education than most women of her time.
Some members of Anne's family supported Protestant activists who caused controversy. For example, her brother Richard supported Melanchthon Jewell, a Calvinist minister. Jewell preached illegally and was often put in prison for his religious and political beliefs. Despite this religious unfairness, the Protestant faith was very important to Dowriche. She was dedicated to helping Protestant causes. Even though women could not own property back then, Dowriche used her writing talents to share her beliefs.
The writer Anne Locke was another Protestant reformer. She was connected to Dowriche through family members who had married into both families. Like Dowriche, Anne Locke was a female poet who also wrote to support the Protestant faith. Some experts have noticed similarities between Locke’s poem "The Necessitie and Benefite of Affliction" and Dowriche’s "Verses Written by a Gentlewoman, Upon the Jaylor’s Conversion". Both poems encouraged people to become Protestant and follow God. Some experts think that because the women lived close by and shared similar ideas, Dowriche and Locke might have influenced each other's writing.
Her Marriage and Family
In 1580, Anne Edgecombe married Reverend Hugh Dowrich. He was a church leader in Honiton, Devon. Hugh was the second son of Thomas Dowrish of Dowrich in Sandford, near Crediton, Devon. A small painted family shield still exists at Dowrich. It shows the symbols of the Dowrich family combined with those of the Edgcumbe family.
The Dowrish family had lived at Dowrich since before the time of King John (1199–1216). They built a gatehouse there, which is still standing today. Anne and Hugh shared strong religious beliefs. Both were devoted Protestants at a time when most of Europe was Catholic. Anne and Hugh had six children: Elkana, Walter, Mary (born 1587), Elizabeth, Anne (born 1589), and Hugh (born 1594).
Her Political Views
As a Protestant, Dowriche supported Queen Elizabeth I. The Queen faced threats because she led a Protestant country. Dowriche strongly believed that Protestantism was the true path to God. She was linked to other Protestants who also held this strong view.
Anne Dowriche's Writings
Dowriche’s writings mainly focused on the Protestant faith. She wrote about what she believed was the right way to follow God. In her poem The French Historie, Dowriche wrote about the struggles of French Protestants. This religious group faced harsh treatment in the 16th century.
The French Historie
Dowriche published her long poem, The French Historie, in 1589. The poem has about 2,400 lines. It tells a fictional story about the French Wars of Religion. This was a difficult conflict mainly between Catholics and Huguenots from 1562 to 1598. Huguenots were French Protestants who strongly disagreed with the Catholic Church. They were widely persecuted in France. This led many Huguenots to leave France for other countries. Dowriche wrote about the persecution of Huguenots. She told stories of Huguenot martyrs, people who died for their faith. By describing the Huguenots’ brave resistance, Dowriche wanted to inspire English Protestants to stand up for their beliefs.
The French Historie begins with a made-up conversation. It is between an Englishman and a Huguenot refugee from France. Their talk sets the scene for the poem's story. This was a common way to start stories in Elizabethan times. The struggles of the Huguenots in The French Historie are similar to the stories of suffering and hope found in the Old Testament of the Bible. Dowriche’s references to both current events and Bible stories show that she was well-read. This was unusual for most English women at that time.
The French Historie describes three important events from the French Wars of Religion. It starts with an uprising against Huguenots in Paris. The poem then moves to the execution of Anne du Bourg. He was a counselor in Paris who did not agree with using the death penalty for religious crimes. The third major event in the poem is a retelling of the bloody St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. This was an attack against Huguenots that began in Paris in 1572 and spread across France. Dowriche imagined the queen of France, the very Catholic Catherine de Medici, strongly suggesting the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. While the massacre was real, Dowriche invented the detail that Catherine de Medici proposed the killings. Catherine de Medici is a villain in The French Historie. However, Dowriche also gave her and other female characters strengths that were usually only given to men. Dowriche’s portrayal of de Medici’s power and determination went against the usual way women were shown as quiet and obedient.
In The French Historie, Dowriche described the planned murders of Huguenots as the work of evil. She wrote that evil influenced Catherine de Medici and others to commit terrible acts. Dowriche showed Huguenot scholars and preachers who died for their religious beliefs in a sympathetic way. In the end, the French storyteller asks Queen Elizabeth to protect Protestants in England.
The French Historie and Other Books
For historical facts, Dowriche used Thomas Tymme’s The Three Partes of Commentaries, Containing the Whole and Perfect Discourse of the Civill Warres of Fraunce. Tymme’s book was a translation of an earlier history written by Pierre de La Place. He was killed during the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Many experts believe that Dowriche’s The French Historie might have inspired Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta. The Jew of Malta, in turn, influenced William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.
"Verses Written by a Gentlewoman, Upon the Jaylor's Conversion"
Anne Dowriche published her poem "Verses Written by a Gentlewoman, Upon a Jaylor’s Conversion" in 1596. It was part of her husband Hugh’s work, The Jaylor’s Conversion. The Jaylor’s Conversion was a sermon about a story from the Bible (Acts 16:30). In this story, the jailer of Paul and Silas changes his beliefs. Hugh said that this sermon, which he gave 16 years before publishing it, was important again. He felt it was a time when people were losing their spiritual focus.
Anne’s poem "Verses Written by a Gentlewoman, Upon the Jaylor’s Conversion" appears at the beginning of Hugh’s sermon. It follows a ballad rhythm. In her poem, she criticized leaders who hid the truth by calling it "rebellion and plotting." Both Anne and Hugh praised believers who were willing to change and make sacrifices for God. They also stressed the importance of suffering for one’s faith, even through imprisonment. They were strongly against Catholicism. In this way, their writings matched the views of the Puritan group within the church. This group also focused on standing against Catholicism. The Jaylor’s Conversion urged readers to fully accept the Bible’s authority. It also warned against what the Dowriches saw as widespread spiritual laziness. The Jaylor’s Conversion would have been well-received by the group of Protestant activists and believers connected to Anne Dowriche.
See Also
