The Women: Bess of Hardwick

Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury (1592).

Portrait by Rowland Lockey.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Moving on to our dear friend, the shrewd Bess of Hardwick. She was born at Old Hardwick Hall to John Hardwick and Lady Elizabeth Leake in 1520 (Digby 1963). At the age of 12, she was sent to London, where she married Robert Bartlow (age 14) who died only a year later, leaving his wealth to her (Digby 1963). She remained a widow until age of 27, when she married the successful and influential Sir William Cavendish in 1547, and within two years had purchased Chatsworth and begun its renovations (Digby 1963).

Sir William Cavendish (1547).

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

With Cavendish she had her first son Henry -- to whom then-Princess Elizabeth was godmother -- and another two sons, the latter of which was godson to Mary Queen of Scots (Digby 1963). Their union was not to last, however, since Cavendish died in 1557 at the age of 39 (Digby 1963). Two years later, in 1559, Bess married her third husband, Sir William St. Loe, who was kind enough to pay outstanding debts left by her previous husband as well as settling "all his lands upon her, thereby excluding his two daughters and younger brother, who bitterly resented this" (Digby 1963:59). Not long after that,  the enterprising Bess -- who was moving up in this world -- had her day at court, since she became a Lady of the Bedchamber to, by this time Queen, Elizabeth  in 1560 (Digby 1963). Her third marriage, although not her most short-lived, was also brief, lasting only five years before St. Loe also passed, leaving Bess a widow once again in 1564 (Digby 1963).

George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury (1580).

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. 

At 48 years of age, Bess married George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury in 1568, “who appeared to the world to be her best match of all” (Digby 1963:59). Unfortunately, “The custodianship of the Scottish Queen proved a severe strain on the Shrewsburys and from a happy marriage it degenerated into bitter personal strife, which became a public scandal that even the intervention of Queen Elizabeth herself proved powerless to heal” (Digby 1963:60). As of 1577, the Earl had ready claimed that his once affectionate wife "'scolded like one that came home from the bank'" (Digby 1963:61). The financial status of the household appears to be a major source of strife, since compensation for his royal hostage was grossly insufficient to cover the Earl's costs, and Bess, having finally finished with her renovations of Chatsworth, was ready to rebuild Hardwick Old Hall, with construction beginning in 1586 (Digby 1963). 

An applique panel from the Oxburgh hangings worked by Bess

(note the initials E.S., Elizabeth Shrewsbury).

Image courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Speaking of her royal ward, the two appear to have been amiable companions, planning, completing, and executing the Oxburgh hangings with one another -- no small feat, giften the proliferation of images featured in these hangings -- until an undisclosed marriage sowed the seeds of discontent in the autumn of 1574 (Digby 1963). The marriage, arranged through the machinations of Bess and t Margaret Stuart, Countess of Lennox (who just so happened to be the neice of Henry VIII and the mother of Darnley), was set to pair Bess's daughter, Elizabeth Cavendish, with the Countess's 18 year old son Charles Stuart (Digby 1963) in a move that would make Elizabeth Cavendish kin to Queen Elizabeth, making Bess's grandchildren heirs to the thrones of Scotland and England both (Klein 1997). Allegedly, “Queen Elizabeth was furious, and the Earl of Shrewsbury was greatly distressed. Bess paid for her indiscretion by spending the winter in the Tower of London, as did Lady Lennox” (Digby 1963:60), so it can be safely said that the marriage took place without the queen’s knowledge or permission (Klein 1997).

Charles Stuart (left) with elder brother Darnley (right).

Portrait by Hans Eworth.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

That year, Bess went to extraordinary lengths to produce a superfluously sumptious New Years gift for Queen Elizabeth (Klein 1997). Confined to rural Darbyshire along with Mary, Bess employed the assistance of Anthony Wingfield, one of the queen’s male ushers, to consult with the ladies of the royal privy chamber about gift ideas (Klein 1997). Lady Sussex suggested an embroidered cloak ornamented with pansies since, “'ye quene lekes byst off that floware'”, and verily did Bess go to great pains in order to produce it (Klein 1997:470). Not only was the design well met, but the cost of the gift was well appreciated by Elizabeth, who was, in light of the preceding events, “reassured of their love and fidelity” (Klein 1997:471) and in late January, Wingfield’s wife wrote to Bess that

her majestie never liked any thinge you gave her so well, the color and stange triminge of the garments with the redie and grat cost bestowed upon yt hath caused her to geve out such good speches of my lord and your ladyship as I never hard of better… if my lord and yow ladyship had geven v hundrd pound, in my opennon yt would not have bene so well taken (Klein 1997:470-471)

Bess may have earned her way out of the doghouse with Queen Elizabeth, but she seems to have earned few, if any, brownie points with Mary after this point. When the young couple bore a daughter, Arabella Stuart, “Bess’s relations with the Scottish Queen rapidly deteriorated, whilst Lord Shrewsbury’s position became more and more difficult” (Digby 1963:60). Bess, imperious, raised the young Arabella as a future queen (Digby 1963:60)

Arabella Stuart as a child.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.  

Her marriage to the Earl was also proving quarrelsome, and by 1584, the strained relationship between Geroge and Bess had disintegrated into open hostility (Digby 1963).  The two were leading very seperate lives, as can be indicated by “A letter sent by the Earl in August 1586 asking for the return of silver and other valuables, as well as beds and certain furnishings from Chatsworth; the demand included the following: ‘First, rich hangings made by Thomas Lane, Ambrose, William Barlow, and Henry, Mr. Cavendish’s man, and had copes of tissue, cloth of gold, and other things toward the making thereof; meat, drink and wages paid to the embroiderers by the Earl during the working of them; and other hangings of green velvet, birds and fowls and needlework set upon the velvet’” (Digby 1963:61-62). To which the Countess replied that she would little acquiesce to him these last, given that “‘His Lordship never gave the worth of five pounds towards the making of them’” (Digby 1963:62). George Whitfield Digby has illustrated the way in which this correspondence is indicative of the numerous avenues by which embroidered works were produed in large households,  since“The Earl feels that his men’s time was consumed with the Countess’s furnishing schemes, whilst she says it was done by her own grooms, women and boys. The embroiderer, who is mentioned apart, must have been a qualified artisan or professional.” (Digby 1963:62). So we have multiple people at work on these furnishings: noblewomen, household staff, and professionals.

Late 16th century velvet bed curtain from Hardwick Hall.

Image courtesy of the Royal School of Needlework: Book of Needlework, pg. 33.

At last, Bess outlived another husband. In 1590, three years after Mary’s execution, Bess was widowed again at the age of 70 (Digby 1963). She used the associated increases in her annual income to not only complete the renovation of Hardwick Old Hall, but erect “an entirely new house only a hundred yards away, in the grandest late Elizabethan style” (Digby 1963:62). The shell of Hardwick New Hall was completed in 1593, and the Dowager Countess took up residence there in October of 1597, where she would live another ten years until the end of her life (Digby 1963). What is fascinating about this residence, outside of its stately and auspicious appearance, is that the hall and its associated furnishings display and unusually high level of preservation due to the “enlightened interest and intelligence of the seventh (bachelor) Duke of Devonshire (Paxton’s patron)" and  "these furnishings were preserved in whole or in part, many of the embroideries and hangings being taken down and framed in the middle years of the 19th century” (Digby 1963:63). We can be thankful for his foresight, for it was this eye towards posterity that allowed for these objects to be examined and exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Hardwick New Hall, as seen today.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Sources Cited

Black, David, and Raymond Kaye, eds.

1986 The Royal School of  Needlework Book of Needlework and Embroidery. London, England: The Oregon Press.

Digby, George Whitfield.

1963 Elizabethan Embroidery. London, England: Faber and Faber.

Klein, Lisa.

1997 Your Humble Handmaid: Elizabethan Gifts of Needlework. Renaissance Quarterly 50(2): 459-493.