Alethea Howard, 14th Baroness Talbot, 17th Baroness Strange of Blackmere, 13th Baroness Furnivall, Countess of Arundel (1585 – ), née Lady Alethea Talbot (pronounced "Al-EE-thia"), was a famous patron and art collector, and one of England's first published female scientists. She was the wife of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel with whom she built one of the most important art collections in 17th-century England. She was the youngest daughter of Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife Mary Cavendish; and the sister of two other countesses: Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke and Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent.
Marriage and issue
Lady Alethea Talbot was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire in 1585. In September 1606, she married the courtier Thomas Howard. They had six children; their first son died as a youth aged 17; three died in infancy: James Howard, Baron Maltravers (1607–1624) Henry Frederick Howard, 22nd Earl of Arundel (1608–1652) William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford (c. 1614–1680)
Thus, she survived all but one of her children.
Life at court
Along with her sister Elizabeth and cousin Arbella Stuart, she performed in The Masque of Queens, written to Royal order by Ben Jonson, with costumes by Inigo Jones. The masque was originally planned to celebrate Christmas 1608 and was eventually performed at court on 2 February 1609. On 5 June 1610, she danced as the "Nymph of Arun" in the masque Tethys' Festival. In 1612, the English diplomat in the Netherlands, William Trumbull sent trees for her house in Highgate, shipped from Vlissingen.
Overseas travel
Lady Arundel wished to join her husband abroad but was dissuaded from doing so. Alethea and her husband accompanied the Elector Palatine Frederick V and his bride Princess Elizabeth Stuart to Heidelberg on their marriage in 1613.
Lady Arundel used her own money to buy back Arundel House and financed their trip to Italy in 1613–1614, travelling with Inigo Jones. The Earl of Arundel was one of the first Englishmen to buy antique statues. She met him in Siena. Then they travelled to Rome, Naples, Padua, Genoa, Turin, and Paris. They reached England in November 1614. Alethea's father died in 1616; she inherited a third of the estate and her husband's serious collecting started.
On 30 August 1618 Anne of Denmark provided a grand reception for the Venetian ambassador Piero Contarini at Oatlands Palace. Arundel sat next to the ambassador and talked of her time in Venice. At the end of the dinner there were sweetmeats, then they stood and toasted Elizabeth, Electress Palatine and Frederick V.
Around 1619 Lord Arundel sent his two elder sons to Padua. In 1620 Rubens painted Alethea Talbot, and her retinue, jester, dwarf and dog in Antwerp when she was on her way to Italy. (The male figure, called lord Arundel, was added many years later by an unknown hand.) He wished to visit his sons but decided that Lady Arundel should go alone. Lady Arundel was accompanied by Francesco Vercellini. She stayed in Spa and engaged apartments. Lady Arundel moved to Milan and Padua.
In 1622 she lived in Venice in the Palazzo Mocenigo facing the Canal Grande, and also in a villa at Dolo. Antonio Priuli's election to office as Doge of Venice began a brutal process of ferreting out individuals suspected of plotting against Venice. Hundreds were arrested, with or without cause, with attention specially focused on foreign soldiers and sailors. The manhunt led to the arrest of many actual plotters, but also of many innocent victims, such as Antonio Foscarini, a patrician and Venetian Ambassador to England (1611–15), who was executed on 21 April 1621, after attending an event at the English Embassy.
The hysteria ended in 1622, and on 16 January 1623, the Venetian government issued an apology for Foscarini's execution, thus marking a scaling back of the manhunt. Sir Henry Wotton warned her to leave Venice. She declined the advice and went straight to Venice. Insisting on appearing the next day, with Wotton, before Doge Priuli and the Senate she was completely justified. Lady Arundel left Venice with letters from Priuli ordering every favour to be shown to her on her journey through Venetian territory. She spent the winter in Turin together with her two sons. She met with Anthony van Dyck, the painter. Together they went to Mantua.