rances Howard, later Countess of Somerset, came from the same ambitious dynasty that produced Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. She wasn’t just connected to Tudor intrigue — she carried that legacy into the next century. Born in 1590, she was pushed into marriage at 16 to Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who was only 15. The match was political, unhappy, and famously unconsummated. When Frances returned to court in her late teens, she drew the attention of Robert Carr, King James I’s favorite. To