Bess of Hardwick
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Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (27 July 1527–1608), known as Bess of Hardwick, was the third surviving daughter of John Hardwick, of Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. She was married four times, firstly to Richard Barlow, who died in his teens; secondly to the courtier Sir William Cavendish; thirdly to Sir William St Loe; and to lastly to the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, sometime keeper to the captive Mary, Queen of Scots. An accomplished needlewoman, Bess hosted Mary at Chatsworth House for extended periods in 1569, 1570, and 1571, during which time they worked together on the Oxburgh Hangings.[1] In 1601, Bess ordered an inventory of the household furnishings including textiles at her three properties at Chatsworth and Hardwick, which survives, and in her will she bequeathed these items to her heirs to be preserved in perpetuity. The 400-year-old collection, now known as the Hardwick Hall textiles, is the largest collection of tapestry, embroidery, canvaswork, and other textiles to have been preserved by a single private family.[2]
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[edit] First marriage
Born Elizabeth Hardwick, at the age of twelve she was sent to live in the London household of Lady Zouche[1], where she contracted the first of four marriages, to 14-year-old Robert Barlow, heir to a neighbouring estate, and became Elizabeth Barlow. However, they were too young, and he too sick, to consummate their marriage before he died. As Robert's widow she was entitled to one-third of the revenues of the Barlow estate.
[edit] Second marriage
She remained single until August 20, 1547, when she married the twice-widowed Sir William Cavendish, Treasurer of the King's Chamber,[1] who had two daughters and was more than twice her age, and became Lady Cavendish. Probably acting on her advice, Sir William sold his lands in the south of England and purchased the Chatsworth estates in Derbyshire. Eight children were born of the marriage, two of whom died in infancy. Of the six who survived were three sons and three daughters. One of the sons was the forebear of the Dukes of Devonshire, and another of the Dukes of Newcastle. Queen Elizabeth I was godmother to their first son, Henry, and Queen Mary I was godmother to their third son.[1]
[edit] Third marriage
Sir William Cavendish died on 25 October 1557, and in 1559, Bess married her third husband, Sir William St Loe (or St Lowe, or Saintlowe, or Sentloe), Captain of the Guard to Queen Elizabeth I, Chief Butler of England,[1] and owner of large West country estates at Tormarton in Gloucestershire and Chew Magna in Somerset, whose principal residence was at Sutton Court in Stowey, and became Lady St Loe. When Sir William died without male issue in 1564/5, in suspicious circumstances (probably poisoned by his younger brother)[citation needed], he left everything to Bess, to the detriment of his daughters and brother.[1] In addition to her own six children, Bess was now responsible for the two daughters of Sir William Cavendish from his first marriage, but Sir William St Loe's two daughters were grown up and already well provided for.
Sir William St Loe's death left Bess one of the most eligible women in England. Not only was she a Lady of the Bedchamber with daily access and the favour of the Queen, but her income was calculated to amount to £60,000, which had the buying power of millions today. She still retained her looks and good health, and a number of important men began courting her.
[edit] Fourth marriage
With the approval of Queen Elizabeth, who was not by habit a matchmaker, Bess was married in 1568 for the fourth time to the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, one of the premier aristocrats of the realm, with seven children from his first marriage, and became Countess of Shrewsbury; two of his children married two of hers in a double ceremony in February 1568. Bess's daughter Mary Cavendish (aged 12) married Shrewsbury's eldest son Gilbert, Lord Talbot (aged 16), and Bess's son, Henry Cavendish (aged 18), married Shrewsbury's daughter Lady Grace Talbot (aged 8).
[edit] Her pearls
The famous pearls worn by Bess in her portraits were bought by Bess, one pearl at a time, as her early account books show. An assertion that these were 'the Talbot pearls' is incorrect and seems to have originated speciously in a novel.
[edit] The Stuart connection
In 1574 Bess took advantage of a visit of the Countess of Lennox to marry her daughter Elizabeth to Charles Stuart, the younger son of the Lennoxes and brother of Henry, Lord Darnley, the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. The marriage ceremony took place without the knowledge of Shrewsbury, who — though he was well aware of the suggested match some time prior to this event — declined to accept any responsibility. As the Lennox family had a claim to the throne, the marriage was considered potentially treasonable as no royal assent had been obtained. The Countess of Lennox, mother of the bridegroom, went to the Tower for several months, and Bess was ordered to London to face an official inquiry, but she ignored the summons, and remained in Sheffield until the row died down. The child of the marriage was Arbella Stuart, who had a claim to the thrones of Scotland and England. Her grandmother worshipped her, but willful and spoilt Arbella would prove to be the source of great pain and distress to Bess in her last years.
For many years (1569–1584), the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury acted as 'guardians' to Mary, Queen of Scots, when the Queen was imprisoned on one or another of their estates, but it was not until Mary was removed to another jailer, Sir Amias Paulet, that she got into the trouble that cost her life. Around the same time Mary was removed from his custody, Shrewsbury and Bess separated for good — they had been apart off-and-on since about 1580, and even Queen Elizabeth had tried to get them to reconcile. Mary seems to have aggravated, if not created, their problems by playing them off against each other. The Countess believed he had been in a relationship with Mary, a charge which has never been proved or disproved, but seems unlikely given Shrewsbury's disposition and increasingly poor health. On his death in 1590, Bess became Dowager Countess of Shrewsbury.
A BBC documentary [1] claimed that Bess very much desired Arbella to become Queen, but it is fact that Bess was forced by order of the Queen to keep the girl away from Court and closely supervised in rural Derbyshire. Arbella blamed her grandmother for this, and the two fell out irrevocably when Arbella attempted to run away and marry a man who also had claim to the throne. Bess cut Arbella from her will and begged the Queen to take her granddaughter off her hands. Arbella's royal claim was never recognised but Bess eventually ended up with a descendant on the throne: Queen Elizabeth II.[citation needed]
[edit] Buildings
Bess became famous for her building projects, especially two of them: Chatsworth, now the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire (whose family name is still "Cavendish," because they are descended from her children from her second marriage), and Hardwick Hall, of which it has been said for more than 400 years now: "Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall," because of the number and size of its windows. She was interred in a vault in Derby Cathedral, where there is a memorial to her. All three sites are popular with visitors, as is Old Hardwick Hall, Bess' birthplace.
[edit] Notes
[edit] Bibliography
- Digby, George Wingfield (1964). Elizabethan Embroidery. New York: Thomas Yoseloff.
- Durant, David N. (1977). Bess of Hardwick: Portrait of an Elizabethan Dynast. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-77305-4.
- Durant, David N. (1977). Bess of Hardwick: Portrait of an Elizabethan Dynast, American Edition, New York: Atheneum. ISBN 0-689-10835-4.
- Eisenberg, Elizabeth (1985). This Costly Countess: Bess of Hardwick. Derby: Hall. ISBN 0-946404-95-X.
- Hubbard, Kate (2001). Material Girl: Bess of Hardwick: 1527-1608. London: Short Books. ISBN 0-571-20800-2.
- Kettle, Pamela (2000). Oldcotes: The Last Mansion Built by Bess of Hardwick. Cardiff: Merton Priory Press. ISBN 1-898937-39-7.
- Levey, Santina; Peter Thornton (2001). Of Houshold Stuff: The 1601 Inventory of Bess of Hardwick. London: National Trust. ISBN 0-7078-0329-2.
- Levey, Santina (1998). An Elizabethan Inheritance: The Hardwick Hall Textiles. London: National Trust. ISBN 1-905400-21-7.
- Lovell, Mary S. (2006). Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth: 1527-1608. New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-06221-X; ISBN-13 978-0316724821.
- Lovell, Mary S. (2005). Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth: 1527-1608, British Edition, London: Little-Brown. ISBN 0-316-72482-3.
- Pearson, John (1984). The Serpent and the Stag. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston. ISBN-13: 978-0030554315.
- Plowden, Alison (1972). Mistress of Hardwick. London: BBC. ISBN 0-563-10664-6.
- Westcott, Jan (1974). The Tower and the Dream. New York.: Putnam. ISBN 0-399-11128-X. [Biographical fiction]
- Williams, Ethel (1977). Bess of Hardwick. Bath: Chivers. ISBN 0-85997-238-0.
