the Earl's death and had been known then as the Earl of Derby's Men. On 20 October 1600, she married her second husband Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley, who on 21 July 1603 became Baron Ellesmere, and on 7 November 1616 Viscount Brackley. Less than two years after his own marriage to Alice, Thomas's son John (by his first wife, Elizabeth Ravenscroft) married Alice's second eldest daughter Lady Frances. Together Alice and her new husband founded the Bridgewater Library. In 1601, Thomas Egerton bought Harefield Place in Middlesex, and in July 1602, the Queen was entertained at Harefield by the Egertons. In August 1607 she was welcomed at Ashby de la Zouch Castle with the Masque at Ashby Castle. In April 1613 she joined Anne of Denmark's progress to Bath. Lady Alice had Haydon Hall in Eastcote built in 1630 after she became concerned that Lord Castlehaven would attempt to claim her estate in the event of her death. After she died in 1637, her eldest daughter reverted to her first married name, Lady Chandos, and became owner of the house. Alice was known as the Dowager Countess of Derby until her death. Edmund Spencer Alice was a noted patron of the arts, along with her sisters, Anne, Baroness Mounteagle and Elizabeth Spencer, Baroness Hunsdon. Poet Edmund Spenser was a distant relative of hers; in his pastoral poem, Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, he represented her as "Amaryllis", whereas her sisters, Anne and Elizabeth were "Charillis" and "Phyllis", and Alice's husband was "Amyntas". "Amaryllis" was described as "the highest in degree". Spenser also dedicated his The Teares of the Muses to her. Poet and author John Milton lived close to her Harefield Place residence. She also acted as a patroness in the political sphere: it was through her influence that Geoffrey Osbaldeston, another distant relative of hers, obtained a judicial post in Ireland. Death Alice died on 23 January 1637 and was buried on 28 January in St Mary the Virgin Church, Harefield. A monument dedicated to the memory of Alice and her three daughters was built at St Mary the Virgin, to her own specifications, before her death. In art Dr Roy Strong identified Alice as the subject of an engraving displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in London. He has also tentatively identified a portrait by a painter in the circle of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger to be