History Behind Mary Herbert's works

We were asked to read Mary Herbert's Countess of Pembroke, but I had no idea who she was. So I researched her, and I found out that she was considered to be a hot-tempered red head, who was somewhat arrogant and conceited. I thought this was an interesting fact that she was born three years before The William Shakespeare and she died maybe five years after he died. Cool huh? I found out that her work along with the work of her family was the source of William Shakespeare's plays. Wow, Shakespeare was and still is considered one of the best writers, and she inspired some of his works. That means she is quite the writer, herself. She was also considered to have sparked the greatest works in the English language and the great thing about it was her works were written in English even though English was not considered the language of prestige since Latin, and French were considered the language of the elite. I was shocked t see that she actullay got credit for her work because during those time, women writers, well the term did not exist. Sometimes when women wrote, their male family members would take credit for their work and I am happy to read that credit is and was given to her for her work.