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Emilia Bassano was baptised on January 25, 1569. We know the details of her youth through the notebooks of the astrologer Simon Forman, whom she consulted a number of times, starting in 1597. Thus, we learn that she lost her father at about the age of seven, then her mother, at the age of 18. Her father, Baptista Bassano, was one of the six brothers mentioned above. Her mother was Margaret Johnson, Baptista’s concubine. Shortly before the passing of her mother, Emilia became lady-in-waiting for the Countess of Kent, thus coming into contact with the Court, where her great beauty, dark complexion, and black hair (unusual in England) made her stand out. Numerous conquests are attributed to her, but she was officially the recognized mistress of the old Lord Henry Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain, who kept her in sumptuous fashion. She had a son by him, also named Henry. To make the birth more respectable, Emilia was married off to Alphonso Lanier, musician of the Queen, in October 1592. From their union Odillia was born, to die at the age of nine months.
The Lanier family was already linked to the Bassano family, since Nicholas Lanier, court musician, had married in his second marriage Lucretia Bassano, daughter of Anthony, and thus Emilia’s cousin. Huguenot, originally from Rouen, the Lanier family arrived at the court (represented by Nicholas, flutist and cornettist) in 1561. Nicholas also had six musical sons (the parallel between the two families is fascinating), including Alphonso, born in 1563 from his first marriage. Alphonso Lanier tried unsuccessfully to have himself ennobled, particularly after accompanying the Count of Essex on his Irish Campaign. This permanent barrier to a higher social rank, and thus a better financial situation, would make Emilia say (to her dear astrologer) that her husband had ruined her and obliged her to ply the trade of courtesan in order to survive. Whatever the case, the poor Alphonso Lanier would never be more than Captain of Arms.... Alphonso, who died on September 20, 1613, used far more energy in attracting the attention of his protectors to his feats of arms, and in seeking financial support, than he did in plying his subaltern trade of flutist. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, he no longer appeared on the lists of musicians of her successor, James I.
Emilia began her confidences with Simon Forman in 1597, on the occasion of one of the military expeditions of her husband, this time to the Azores. Simon Forman was reputed to be attentive to his clients, the relationship being part of the treatment which he advertised. What exactly would he have received from Emilia? We do not know very much: perhaps she let herself be drawn in by the astrologer, but not to the point of becoming his mistress. What is certain is that in 1600 all relations between them ceased, Forman addressing her very amiably as sorceress. Unfortunately for us, from this date on it becomes rather more difficult to trace the existence of Emilia Bassano. It is known that she stayed for a while with the Countess of Cumberland at Cookham. Then, four years after the death of Alphonso, she obtained authorization to open a school in the parish of St-Giles-in-the-Fields, from which she obtained some income toward living expenses. (The passing of her husband had given rise to a long lawsuit between Emilia and the Lanier family.) She lived the rest of her life in relative poverty, was arrested and evicted from her school-home in 1619 for non-payment of rent, and was buried on April 3, 1645, at St. James Clerkenwelle at the age of 66. Her son, Henry, who had in turn become flutist at the court, predeceased her in 1633.
Such an existence, interesting but scarcely unusual from the point of view of the women of her time, does not justify her posterity. A beautiful courtesan, from a lineage of musicians, adored, then abandoned, Emilia is first and foremost the author of an undisputed masterwork of English poetry, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, published in 1611, when she was 42. The first woman published at the end of the English Renaissance, she reveals in this work not only an effective pen but also a strong character, which one would describe today as proto-feminist.
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