Eleanor Brandon, Margaret Clifford & the Earls of Derby

Thank you all for the Suffolk threads here.

What does anyone know about the decendants of Mary's & Brandon's younger daughter, Eleanor? What role did Lady Margaret Clifford (and her children) play in the reign of her cousin, Elisabeth I?

I'd highly recommend Dulcie M Ashdown's 'Tudor Cousins' on this subject.

Lady Margaret was apparently a flightly, unreliable sort of character, not really taken seriously as a claimant. She was outwardly a Protestant, but apparently had Catholic tendencies, like her husband. Their son, Ferdinando Stanley, was approached by Catholic conspirators about claiming the throne, but he sensibly reported it to the council. When Elizabeth I died, the technical heir to the throne was Lady Anne Stanley, Ferdinando's eldest daughter. I'll read up on this in the 'Tudor Cousins' book and tell you more later. 

Just as an aside, but was Ferdinando a distant ancestor of Diana Princess of Wales, (didn't he marry a Spencer of Althorpe)