family

My father [Henry Stanley] was married 7 Feb 1554 to Margaret, only surviving child of Henry Clifford, 2º Earl of Cumberland, by Eleanor, daughter to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, by Mary, Queen Dowager of France, eldest daughter of Henry VII. The marriage was celebrated in the presence of Queen Mary and Felipe of Spain, in the Royal Chapel at Whitehall palace, in London, prior to the wicked designs of the latter for the Conquest of England. Here

My mother Jane Halsall was English Royalty and French. My grandmother was a natural daughter of the King of England but tried to hide the fact.

I remembered that I was related to the past rulers of both France and England. The person I thought was my stepmother is the only one who has that lineage. She must have been my real mother and she was just trying to protect me when she allowed my father to take me with him when moved in with his 2nd cousin Jane Halsal. This is what my mother Margaret had going for (or against) her.

Her grandmother was the queen of France and she was the oldest daughter of Henry VII of England. So that is why I was in trouble if anyone found out who I was. Actually I had a very strong claim to the throne of England because it was matrilineal which is only way to be certain of having a person who has royal blood (genes). My links, and those of my children by Robert Cecil, to royalty were all through my mothers, mothers, mother so there can be no question that I was King Henry's descendant through his daughter Mary the Queen of France, my great grandmother. If it was through a male member then you could never be certain his genes were involved (until DNA testing came into being).

Royalty often hid if they had no hope of ever ruling. When they were fifth in line the saying was that in order for them to rule there would be too much blood shed and they would never want to rule. Besides that they would likely be next to die.

Since she was both English and French it was horrible. She related her position to me once by saying something to the effect that wherever she was living, if war broke out between France and England then they both would race to get to her first just to imprison and hold her for ransom. However, neither side would have ever pay a copper penny to gain her release and there she would rot until peace was declared and since the last war was the Hundred Years War, well you probably get the idea. Since I would have had the same thing happen to me, since I was her daughter, it was important that her being my mother remain a secret. The same thing with my children by Robert Cecil.

Now you know who taught me to hide behind a mask of aliases and to not let people know who I really was.

Hiding the children and especially the identity of the daughters of royalty was quite common. Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII had a daughter named 'Mary Seymore' who was hidden immediately after her birth. The same thing happened with me.

Also, this was perhaps the only way the child of royal lineage could ever live a half way decent life.

Just look at the hell little princess Elizabeth went through at the hands of her sister Mary. Imprisonment and several times Mary nearly had her head cut off. She issued the order but the scribe put down his quill in the middle of a sentence and explained to her how bad it would be for the court without Elizabeth to be there if anything happened to her while queen. The they explained in a way she understood that she would be dead before she managed to put to death Elizabeth. Then they would leave. At three different times, with different scribes, she ordered her half sister's execution.

How did they explain it in a way that she understood. When she looked away they flipped the quill in such a way that a spot of ink landed expertly on her neck. Then when she used a mirror and she did a lot since she was vain that way she would see that mark and then again and again for about a month or so. Then it reappeared several times during the rest of her reign.

Before executions the doctor would always mark the person's neck (on the back of it though) between the second and third vertebrae so that the executioners sword would go between the vertebrae and not hit one of them. People often wonder why in England they often used swords for executions rather than an axe such as with Anne Boleyn who Mary liked a lot. Now you know it's for the greater accuracy. You can also probably see why the spot of ink worked and worked on Mary keeping Elizabeth alive for years. At the same time for years Elizabeth swung between horrified and petrified every time Mary threatened her with death. Mainly because Anne Boleyn had been her own mother she saw the possibility as her likely eventuality. And Mary all too often used the threats as a form of torture.

Then after Mary died there was an endless line of jerks just messing with her mind to get close to her and/or try to make her totally dependent on them. I just felt nothing but sorry for her for the longest time. And I got to live happily ever after or something close to it.

Actually I (and possibly my children) had almost as strong a claim to the throne of England as King James had.

According to the older standard and that used by many countries it was arguably a better claim and by Flemish (?) and maybe Irish standards it was an even better claim.

It meant nothing as long as England went by those rules.

However, if one of about a dozen countries invaded they would use their rules. Since I would never act as their puppet they would murder me and my children so that they could use someone else. Even if I was not the first contender they would want me dead since I would start a rebellion using their own standards for my claim to the throne. Since take overs were often done by several countries in alliance if I managed to make the rebellion against two or more Catholic countries then it would have reverted to the papal rules which I am pretty certain automatically made me the Queen of England. That is something not even realized or thought through or they would not have involved other countries in their attempts to invade England. It would have given me at least real muscle even within the ranks of the Spanish Army and Navy and could have caused a rebellion within their ranks but for certain it would have allowed other Catholic and non Catholic countries to align with my army. Those were some of the alternate plans if there was an invasion and my position as a maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth was primarily a type of 'Queen in training program'.

Until he was murdered in 1594 my wonderful and kindly brother Ferdinando was the first alternate plan since he was older and had a valid claim to both the English and since he was a man the French throne also. There is even a reference to it and how important his death was in his bio.)

Henry Stanley the 4th Earl of Derby's, my father's, bio in part reads:

By his wife he had four sons and one daughter. Two sons, Edward and Francis, died young; Ferdinando became the fifth Earl, and William the sixth Earl. Finally became fed up with his wife and went to live with his mistress (and 2nd cousin), Jane Halsall of Knowsley, by whom he had two sons and two daughters.

Daddy paid for the theater and the production costs

It's at least a 400 year old con of daughters and sons who want to go into the business to get their well heeled father to buy them a theater, and you thought you were the first one to come up with this idea? He sponsored the entire thing as a playground for all his children.

Due to the disrespectability of the theater at the time and since my brother Ferdinand was a possible heir to the throne of England my families role (including mine) were downplayed tremendiously. If you understand that peerage stuff you can read about Ferdinand's tie in to the throne here and you should understand why my entire families participation was largely kept secret. However, a slight involvement in the theater meant we were sort of mundane and of no real threat to others.

I frankly never thought about our position. In fact I avoided thinking about it since for me the only thing it meant was that my head could get chopped off if one of my brothers got drunk and said the wrong thing and they sometimes drank to excess.

First he had my brother Ferdinando, the 5th Earl of Derby (this is best) form the theater group. He built the theater and got the group legitimized with royal endorsements as the Admiral's Men (then the Derby Men and finally the King's men). He was very active in the day to day operation of the theater. He often came by the theater to help edit the plays. I have always thought faster than I could write and certain people can fill in my missing words accurately. He was one and when he came by he would get happily stuck for about five days or more. He ask me when and how often and what he should write his wife about in order to keep her from worrying. (The theaters had scandalous reputation which we set out to improve...and it worked,)

My other brother was William the 6th Earl of Derby and he actually has been often promoted as a possible candidate for writing my plays:

The case for William Stanley rests on two 1599 documents, one describing him as "busied only in penning comedies for the common players," and the other, by his wife in a letter to Robert Cecil, as "taking delight in the players" Here

When we were short of help he also set up between scenes during the plays and thought of dressing up Falstaff in a hat. He acted in several scenes but he always wore a disguise since he was the first born and had to be in high political office. It was said that it was possible that he would become the next King of England which I don't know about but certainly he was headed for high office so we had to keep his involvement at a low profile.

Father also had to keep his involvement a secret though he was often there wearing a poor disguise. He often got compliments on how his disguise made him look like the Earl of Derby so I don't know if you would say it worked or not.

When I was a young child I asked so many question it was thought that I would learn more and better without a shcool environment and due to my questions without a single teacher. A distant relative were the Royal Breeders and the job of teaching all the children of Europe how to ride England's little ponies. Since those children were the best educated in the world then they would be able to teach me every thing I would need and want to know. They were a hundred percent correct and you can read about my childhood here.