Lady Mary Wroth

Lady Mary Wroth (1587–1651/3) was an English poet of the Renaissance. A member of a distinguished literary English family, Wroth was among the first female British writers to have achieved an enduring reputation. She is perhaps best known for having written The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, the first extant prose romance by an English woman, and for Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, the first known sonnet sequence by an English woman. Mary Wroth was born on 18 October 1587 to Barbara Gamage (1563-1621) and Robert Sidney (1559-1626). Wroth's mother Barbara was a wealthy Welsh heiress and first cousin to Sir Walter Raleigh. Her father Robert was first earl of Leicester and Viscount Lisle of Penshurst Place, a poet and governor of Flushing,...