Audrey Walsingham Audrey Walsingham Lady Audrey Walsingham, née "Shelton" (1568-1624), was an English court office holder. She served as Lady of the Bedchamber to queen Elizabeth I of England, and then as Mistress of the Robes to Anne of Denmark from 1603 until 1619. She was born to Sir Ralph Shelton and married Sir Thomas Walsingham, cousin of Sir Francis Walsingham. She served as Lady of the Bedchamber to queen Elizabeth I. In 1603, she was selected to be in the English entourage who met the new queen at the Scottish border, and accompanied her to London. She was appointed Mistress of
Francis Walsingham was among those tortured and found guilty on the basis of extracted evidence; he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn in 1581. Walsingham could never forget the atrocities against Protestants he had witnessed in France during the Bartholomew's Day massacre and believed a similar slaughter would occur in England in the event of a Catholic resurgence. Walsingham's brother-in-law Robert Beale, who was in Paris with Walsingham at the time of the massacre, encapsulated Walsingham's view: "I think it time and more than time for us to awake out of our dead sleep, and take heed lest like mischief as