In portraits, Bess looks powerful. She typically appears forward-facing with her head slightly turned to the side and dressed in rich velvet textiles and intricate pearl jewellery. In some of her portraits, she is turned slightly to the viewer's right, a particularly powerful pose generally reserved for male sitters.)
OK...She married up, but still, she is a girl who skirted disaster and played her life cards with precision. When I think of what was going on around her, it is a little un-nerving. She rubbed elbows with the Who's Who of Tudor England, knew two women who lost their heads fairly well, married four times and was widowed four times, had six of her eight children grow to adulthood and she was Elizabeth I's pen pal. Her trump card was her longevity and her legacy. Her ancestors out length Elizabeth and even, Mary.
Bess was born into a well-connected but unroyal Derbyshire family in around 1527. The family had come to Derbyshire from Sussex in the 13th century, but were still only gentleman-yeomen by the 15th century, farming a few hundred acres mainly in the parish of Ault Hucknall. A gentleman-yeomen is nothing to sneeze at, neither is 300 acres but Tutor wealthy, they were not. 1527...hmm, Peace with France and best of all, Henry VIII announces that he wants his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled, so Charles V flexes to let the Pope, Clement VII, know what he can expect if the annulment is sanctioned by the church. When I compare our long transit day from Dublin to Leeds, the car rental, the quick drive to Chesterfield and our lovely home exchange, I blush at my tiny, convenient, unnoticed life, so easy. Our Bess, in contrast in born in eventful times. Here is photo of our digs for the next 10 days. It is 18th century on the outside with Jetson modern on the inside.
At 12, Bess entered the London household of Queen Anne Boleyn’s former maid-of-honour, Anne Gainsford, Lady Zouche of Codnor Castle. This is about to be some high cotton but I am stating the obvious. I adore this Holbein sketch of Anne Gainsford. In any case, Bess is in for a nickel and she will take life right by the horns.
Anne Gainsford, Lady Zouche of Codnor Castle by Hans Holbein
By the age of 15 she had married Robert Barlow, heir to a neighboring gentry family. He was only 13, and died the following year. Her widow's dowry was 20 pounds per annum, a healthy 20,000 pounds in today money. She had to fight in court for it. In fact, I do wonder if she was ever out of court in her lifetime. In the end, she secure it for life.
At 17, Bess moved on to become a lady-in-waiting to Frances Grey, a shrew and a nightmare in anyone's book, and the mother of Lady Jane Grey, the 9 day Queen who was beheaded ten years later in 1554. She was observing the top echelon of Tudor society.
Bess marries Sir William Cavendish in 1547 and establishes her own household. Billy introduces Bess to London and to the royal court. Cavendish had amassed a fortune and power with the dissolution of the monasteries. Bess persuaded Cavendish to leave Suffolk and together they moved to Derbyshire. Here is the cross roads. Both of them are very aware of the possibilities of losing everything if a Catholic monarch returned to the throne so they sell a fair bit of dodgy monastery real estate and take the money to buy the the great "once and future" pile called Chatsworth House in 1549 for £600. At this point, it was a fixer upper plus they have laundered the monastery money. This was Bess' idea. She was crack with money but is about to get caught in a dangerous, infamous scandal.
William Cavendish
Twice widowed Sir William Cavendish, was twenty years older than Bess. The marriage was happy and resulted in eight children. She was the best investment he had ever made. I have to think that they retreated to Derbyshire to get out of the lime light.
Together they commissioned a new house, the first of Bess' magnificent homes: a quadrangle Tudor mansion built in the 1560s. It no longer exists but a hunting tower built in the 1580s still survives. The huge Palladian house we know today was built later. In 1557 she was widowed again. Bess finds herself burdened with Cavendish's death taxes.
Chatsworth
Bess' third marriage was to William St Loe in 1559. St Loe was Captain of the Guard to Elizabeth I. Bess was, then, in the household of Katherine Grey acting as a Lady of the Privy Chamber.
I want this miniature of Katherine Grey to be by Nicholas Hilliard but I can't find the documentation.
The alliance with Katherine Grey caused a scandal in 1561 when Queen Elizabeth discovered that Grey had in secret married Edward Seymour, Lord Hertford (the nephew of Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour). Katherine had confided in Bess, who had kept the secret from the Queen. Secrets are always the kiss of death, aren't they?
The ill-fated Katherine Grey and her husband, Edward Seymour
(Elizabeth Regina loathed the two of them and proceeded to make their lives a living hell when they married without her consent.)
Fearing that Bess was trying to oust her from the throne, Elizabeth had both Grey, Seymour and Bess arrested and imprisoned in the tower. The Queen only agreed to release Bess several months later, but dismissed her from the Privy Chamber and banished her to Derbyshire...too close to the flame of wrath for my taste, considering the Grey and Seymour family track record.
During the Tudor dynasty (1485, rise of Henry VII-1603, death of Elizabeth), the First Lady of the Bedchamber was called Chief Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber. She had the highest rank among the Ladies of the bedchamber, and their role was to act as the attendants and companions of the royal woman. I had to think about this. Often these ladies were married or widowed. It furthered Bess's connection and contacts to play this role but also caught her in a web. Her loyalty to Katherine Grey would have been a given but to keep it from Elizabeth would be treason..."a damned if you do, damned it if you don't" moment. To be banished to Derbyshire and away from the Tudors, Greys and grasping, plotting Seymours sounds like a gift.
In the background of this raging scandal, St. Loe changed his will and proceeded to die and leaving Bess widowed for the third time in 1565, inheriting St Loe's wealth, a huge fortune of £60,000, which translates to just under £20 million today. It was as close to love match as she would ever know. She lands on her feet, once again, released from The Tower and the machinations of court, with 20 mill in her pocket. The gods were smiling. I like to think this would have been Athena’s doing, in the Greek sense.
Bess married once again in 1568, to George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury. Talbot was her most powerful husband yet, although the marriage was not an altogether a happy one. By becoming his wife, Bess became 'Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury'.
When Mary Queen of Scots escaped Scotland, Elizabeth I put her under the care of Bess and George Talbot. They became the keepers of the Scottish Queen, who was at various times between 1569 and 1584 a prisoner at Chatsworth and Talbot's Sheffield properties. Bess assumed all costs of Mary's court, provided security and surrounded her with a network of people who would watch her every move. How much were the women in each other's company?
There are rumors that Mary turned the couple against each other, causing issues in their marriage and ultimately an estrangement. It is believed that some of the tapestries that sit at Hardwick Hall were worked on by Mary Queen of Scots while imprisoned, with some suggesting that they even hide secret messages. There is also evidence that Bess and Mary embroidered together while spending extended periods in each other's company at Chatsworth. The sixteenth-century Marian hangings, made up of smaller panels of silk gold and silver thread, were worked on by the pair and now sit at Oxburgh Hall. It would make sense that most of this is true. Throughout, this time, Mary was plotting, writing to Elisabeth, sending out messages to her followers, even under the most watchful eyes. Do we see another two-hander for the stage here? I should think so. I would be happy to hear those conversations over needle work, as these political goddesses wove the outcomes of their lives, Athena and Aphrodite.
Mary, Queen of Scots
When Mary was condemned to death, Talbot, who had to vote for her execution, collapses and has to be helped from the room. Whether friends or lovers, they had known each other for many years. He had a complete break down and died shortly after.
Bess was widowed for the last time in 1590, becoming Dowager Countess of Shrewsbury. Although Talbot and Bess had no children together a linage was created, as Bess' daughter Mary married Talbot's son Gilbert, and Bess' son Henry married Talbot's daughter Grace. OK...She married up, but still, she is a girl who skirted disaster and played her life cards with precision. When I think of what was going on around her, it is a little un-nerving. She rubbed elbows with the Who's Who of Tudor England, knew two women who lost their heads fairly well, married four times and was widowed four times, had six of her eight children grow to adulthood and was Elizabeth I's pen pal.
Now, she was free. Between 1587 and 1596, Bess achieved her most famous feat: the building of Hardwick Hall, a prime example of a prodigy house. Hardwick sits proudly upon a hill elevated within a large expanse of land, dominating all its surroundings. Built next to the house she grew up in, Hardwick Old Hall, it reflects Bess' ambition at the advanced age of 70 to create this extravagant masterpiece.
It is, truly, Hardwick Hall, More Glass than Wall. It is an universe unto itself, built by a woman in her 70's, who celebrated the last decade of her life, creating a profoundly beautiful modern home in the Renaissance tradition. Note her initials on the top of the house. ES-Elizabeth Shrewsbury.
Hardwick Hall
Mary, I just love this. I don't know how you manage to assemble so much wonderful information and yet it reads like my favorite gossip columnist--someone in Vogue or Vanity Fair, back in the 16th c.