Bess of Hardwick

DOB: 1527 DOD: 13th February 1608

Known for: Rich gentlewoman from the Tudor era, who fought hard to earn her own money, she married 4 husbands and had her name smeared in Parliament

Bess of Hardwick was a noble lady in the Tudor era who went from being a farmer’s daughter to being grandmother to a potential Queen. She married 4 times and built 4 homes, at least two of which still stand and are great examples of architecture from the time. Bess became the second richest and powerful woman of the Elizabethan era, behind only Queen Elizabeth herself. Bess lead a life that would make some envious and others happy it wasn’t theirs.

Bess was born Elizabeth Hardwick in roughly 1527, the exact date is not known. She was the one of five children to John Hardwick a moderately prosperous landowner from a low level gentry family from Derbyshire. Sadly John passed away while Bess was still small but as Bess’ only brother was also still young majority of the lands were taken by the crown to administer until her brother came of age. This meant the Bess grew up with little money and witnessed her own mother do one of the only things widows could do to secure their own and their children’s future, she remarried, an important lesson that she used in her own life.

Initially when still a young girl, Bess worked as a maid for the former maid of honour of Anne Boleyn, it is believed that here is where she got her Protestant inclinations that showed later in life despite her family being Catholic. This would be mirrored later when Bess became a lady-in-waiting for Anne’s daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I.

Bess’ first marriage was before she was 16 years old and the details are few and far between, the groom’s surname isn’t even clear. We know he was the son of a near by farmer and was called Robert B. It is believed they married just before the death of Robert’s father and due to him being only 13 at the time of the marriage, they did not live together as husband and wife. Less than a year later Robert died leaving Bess a widow before she was an adult. The fact that they didn’t live together meant that Bess had to fight for the widow’s inheritance which is about 1/3 of his estate. Bess fought for 8 years to get what was rightfully hers.

Widowed Bess used previous contacts to gain a position in the household of Lady Francis Grey (Henry VIII’s Niece) who was the mother of the first Queen of England, Lady Jane Grey. She famously was only on the throne for nine days before Mary I came to power. Bess and Francis’ relationship were very close, which resulted in Bess being brought into the highest Tudor social circles.

While attending court Bess met Sir William Cavendish who was a highly regarded protégé of Thomas Cromwell, famous for being Henry VIII right hand man who assisted with England’s break from the Catholic Church. William had gained most of his wealth through the land seized from the Catholic Church. Unlike Bess’ first husband William was twice as old than her, he had been married twice before and even had 2 daughters that had survived to see their father marry Bess. Despite this, it is believed that William and Bess were as much of a love marriage as could be expected at the time. While Bess and William were married they worked together to expand their political influence, they also had eight children, two of whom died young. Bess’ last two daughters are believed to be twins as they were recorded as being born in the same year, sadly one did die however to carry twins to a point that one could survive would have added a lot more risk to an already risking event at that time. Bess and William also knew how to walk the political tightrope that was Tutor Court as two of her children had Mary I and Elizabeth I as Godmothers despite the animosity between the two sister Queens. It is believed that Bess had strong influence over William as before marriage his lands focused in the southern England, but he sold a lot of this off and brought the Chatsworth estate in Bess’ home county.

Unfortunately, when William died after 10 years of marriage William had left Bess is extreme debt to the crown. Though Bess’ shrewdness became apparent after William’s death. All the properties that William brought during marriage had Bess’ name attached too which meant that the crown could not claim William’s estates after his death until their son became of age, allowing her to keep the money earned by the estates, Bess clearly learnt this during her own childhood. When Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne, she asked Bess to be her Lady of the Bedchamber, the highest position in court a female could hold.  

While at court Bess met William St Loe, a man who oversaw Elizabeth’s security. William had been married before and had two daughters. Bess’ friendship with the Queen resulted in Elizabeth reducing Bess’s debt and St Loe payed it off for her. Being the Queen’s professional best friend meant that Bess would have seen several scandals, one that history has mixed her up with involves the Queen’s cousin Katherine Grey (Frances Grey’s daughter) becoming pregnant and secretly eloping. This particularly upset the Queen as Katherine and her new husband each had a claim to the throne so any child of theirs would be a threat. It is believed that Katherine turned to Bess, an old friend of her mothers. Katherine was arrested and thrown into the Tower of London. Some historians suggest that Bess joined Katherine but there are no clear records confirming this and if the Queen’s close lady was arrested the gossip would have resulted in many records, Bess also stayed Lady of the Bedchamber after this scandal. After 5 years, St Loe died while staying with his brother. This brother had been nervous about this marriage believing that there could be son and then he would loss his inheritance. Speculation suggests that St Loe’s death and an illness that Bess had suffered earlier in their marriage could be due to poisoning by his brother. The last laugh was Bess’s because even though they did not produce children, St Loe gave Bess everything in his will about £60,000 per year (£18,000,000 in modern money). Bess was widowed again, still in her 30s and now extremely rich both in money and lands, she was in a very good position to provide for her 8 children and 4 step daughters.

Bess waited for a few years to move onto her fourth husband and she spent that time planning for her finance security and independence as well as thinking about her children. Bess eventually married George Talbot, 6^th Earl of Shrewsbury, the head of a major aristocratic family of the time. George had 7 children and Bess married two of them to her own children cementing the union. Bess’ oldest son Henry (aged 18) was married to George’s youngest daughter Grace (aged 8). Bess’ youngest daughter Mary (aged 12) was married to George’s eldest surviving son, Gilbert (aged 16). It is believed that like Bess’ own first marriage they did not live as husband and wife for a few years. This meant that George’s fortune would be past to Bess’ descendants. In the Tudor era, a woman who remarried would forfeit her lands and income to her husband, but Bess learned from her marriage with Cavendish. Before marriage Bess had convinced George to allow her to keep her estates including Chatsworth (that Bess and St Loe had built up to be very profitable) and that those lands and the titles connected to her previous husbands would be passed down to her children and not absorbed into George’s titles. Bess and George appeared to have been in love with letters suggesting that George called Bess “None” and contraction for “my own” that was popular at the time.

The Shrewsbury’s were brought into one of the biggest event of Queen Elizabeth I, when the Queen asked them to hold Mary, Queen of Scots under house arrest. This was because all the estates owned by the Shrewsbury’s were halfway between London and Scotland and not accessible by sea, so were places that were considered safe and secure from any escape attempts. This was not an easy task because while Mary had abdicated her Scottish throne she was still the heir to the English throne and as such expected to be treated well. At the smallest her staff was 16 and at it’s biggest it was about 100 people and 30+ cases of items. There was also the emotional toil as they did not want Elizabeth to think they were treating Mary too well as they may get accused of being involved in the various plots to put Mary on the throne while not wanting Mary to feel like she is being treated badly just encase Mary did eventually become Queen. Bess and Mary got on well to start with, proven by the number of tapestries that survive that were signed by Bess and Mary. But neither George nor Bess expected Mary to stay with them for the 15 years that she was with them, she only spent 19 years imprisoned in total.

Unfortunately, the strain of the royal guest showed on the marriage, it is believed that Mary spread rumours herself, hoping to discredit the couple to be moved to a household that would provide more freedom. Mary would play George and Bess against each other including suggest Bess was stealing from George and may have even hinted that George was cheating on Bess. The hope appeared to work as after a failed escape plan she was moved to the control of Sir Ralph Sadler who turned out to be to light with security so moved in to the care of Amias Paulet who would eventually sit on the council that ordered Mary’s execution. The rumour of Mary and George continued possibly emboldened by Bess who was trying to discredit George by this point.

Bess tried to use this royal connection to conspire a marriage between her daughter Elizabeth and Mary’s brother-in-law Lord Charles Stuart. Charles was the Uncle of King James VI of Scotland and as such had a claim to both the English and Scottish throne, this arrangement angered the Queen but she did let it continue however George could never forgive Bess for going around him to get her daughter such an advantageous marriage. Sadly Charles would die only a couple years into the marriage having only produced one daughter, Lady Arabella Stuart. Arabella now sat as a possible heir to the childless Queen much to Bess’ pleasure.

This, the strains of Mary, Queen of Scots and the fact that Bess liked to spend money on renovating Chatsworth house put too much strain on the Shrewsbury marriage and it became a national scandal, complete with a parliament decree accusing Bess of stealing lands from George. The Queen even got involved trying to reconcile the couple this ultimately failed. The lands discussed by Parliament were the lands that Bess had gained from her previous marriages that were never part of the marriage deal. While Bess’ family sided with her initially, George eventually managed to convince Bess’ son Henry that his mother was controlling land that was his by rights ignoring that Bess’ marriage contact stated that Henry would get the lands of his father, William Cavendish when Bess died. George and Henry gained a private army and ran Bess out of Chatsworth House, a place she had worked so hard on renovating and felt connected to. Bess ran home.

At some point Bess had brought the lands of her birth family from her brother and she returned to the house that she had been born in. Not wanting this betrayal to stop her, Bess immediately started rebuilding her first home. The marriage may be broken but Bess was still a Countess and grandmother to an heir of the throne, and she couldn’t live in the modest farmer’s cottage that was her father’s. Bess started to build what is now called Hardwick Old Hall until 1590 when the Earl died resulting in Bess being widowed for the fourth time and in her mid 60s she officially became the richest widow and 2^nd richest woman in the Elizabethan era (2^nd only to the Queen herself). Bess was said to have the energy of a much younger woman who had not weathered the storms that Bess had. Just after the death of her husband before the Old Hall had even finished, Bess started work on a completely new house over the road known as Hardwick Hall.

While building the Hall, Bess threw herself into raising her granddaughter Arabella, especially after Arabella’s mother died. Bess raised Arabella to believe that she was the heir to the throne, Queen Elizabeth would even imply that herself but would never name Arabella as her heir. Unfortunately, Arabella grew up under her grandmother’s suffocating control and began to resent the domineering nature of Bess causing strife between the two generations resulting in Bess even asking the Queen to take Arabella off her hands. Eventually Arabella rebelled against Bess by running off with William Seymour, 2^nd Duke of Somerset, this caused trouble as William also had a claim to the throne and Queen Elizabeth who was already quite protective of her throne felt that this was part of a large scheme to remove her from power. For once Elizabeth did not blame Bess quoted as saying “There is no lady in this land that I better love and like”. Arabella was assisted in her escape by Bess’ son Henry, and this action destroyed any relationship Bess had with her son and granddaughter, ultimately resulting in both being removed from Bess’ will. Ironically Bess and Arabella’s relationship was destroyed partly because Bess wanted her to be Queen and even though she didn’t take the throne one of Bess’ other children’s descendants is our current Queen Elizabeth II.

Hardwick Hall was designed by architect Robert Smythson, it took 7 years to build, and is one of the first examples of a house that was built symmetrically on an axis. The hall has a couple of unique features, its most famous one is the windows. Glass was the most expensive material in the Tudor era and most houses built at that time have small windows except Hardwick. Hardwick Hall has some of the largest windows and a contemporary poem even says “Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall”. A feature that is not as well known is that the ceilings get higher with each floor, meaning that the shortest rooms are on the ground floor while the top floor walls stretch high, this was to demonstrate the importance of those rooms. The towers have the initials ES at the top, standing for Elizabeth of Shrewsbury, stamping a mark of ownership is a common practice for those who pay for houses but they are nearly always male proprietors, this marks the only surviving (possibly only) example where a woman marks her house. Bess wanted everyone in the local area to know that she still had the wealth and power even if she didn’t have Chatsworth estate anymore.

Bess died on 13^th February 1608, about the age of 81. She survived Queen Elizabeth I by 5 years and sadly saw her granddaughter get looked over for the throne in favour of the son of her former prisoner, James I of England. Bess saw six people claim the English throne and the religion of the country change multiple times. Bess knew that land equaled power, and power meant everything. Bess’ elaborate vault now resides in Derby Cathedral the effigy was designed by Bess herself. She was survived by five children who all shared in Bess’ wealth, the lion share did start with Henry but due to sizable debt he sold it to his brother William (Bess’ favourite son) who became the 1^st Earl of Devonshire, his descendants became and still are the Duke of Devonshire. The Devonshire’s primary seat is still Chatsworth however this has vastly changed since Bess’ time, Hardwick became a secondary home and even a dowager’s house when the family required it until it was given to National Trust who own and operate it now.

 Why is Bess inspiring?

Bess is a woman who was ahead of her time, particularly in being able to earn money and gain power that was not accessible to half the population. You could call her the original feminist. She would see her fourth husband smear her name in the highest places of the country but held her head high to continue a lifelong friendship with the highest people in country including the Queen. Bess’ life and legacy has been affected by men who were intimidated by her. She never gave up on her dream and became an example of a rags to riches tale through her own hard-work and shrewdness, she knew what she could do and did it to an amazing level that resulted in a dynasty that that include the Dukes of Devonshire, and Norfolk and the Earls of Lincolns as well as the Bowes-Lions family which is the birth family of Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mother so the current and future monarchs.

Learn more about Bess in/at
Hardwick Hall	Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth by Mary S. Lovell
The actual Hall that Bess built in her later life is open for anymore to visit thanks to the National Trust. You can walk the same corridor as Bess and learn more about her thanks to various talks/tours/guides that are there.	The only full biography of Bess, detailing her long life, time with Mary, Queen of Scots as well as the building of Chatsworth, Hardwick and Oldcotes.