Elizabeth Hardwick ¹

   Another name for Elizabeth was Bess of Hardwick.

  General Notes:

Elizabeth Hardwick, or Hardwicke, Countess of Shrewsbury, known as Bess of Hardwick, was the daughter and co-heiress of John Hardwicke of Hardwicke in Derbyshire.

At the age of fourteen she was married, the first of four marriages, to a John Barlow, the owner of a large estate. However they were too young, and he too sick, to consummate their marriage before he died. As his estates had been settled on her and her heirs, she became a wealthy widow.

She remained single until the August 20, 1547, when she married the twice-widowed Sir William Cavendish (who had two daughters). To please her, he 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 founder of the ducal family of Devonshire, and another of the ducal family of Newcastle.

Sir William Cavendish having died on the 25th of October 1557, she married in 1559 her third husband, Sir William St. Lo (or St. Loe or St. Lowe), captain of the guard to Queen Elizabeth and owner of an estate at Tormarton in Gloucestershire. She insisted that his lands should be settled on her and her heirs, and when Sir William died without issue in 1564/5, she made good her claim to all his property to the detriment of his sister and cousins. She was also left with responsibility for Cavendish's two daughters from his first marriage, in addition to her own six children and two stepdaughters from her second husband.

Bess of Hardwick was now the wealthiest subject in England. Her income was calculated to amount to £60,000, which was relatively a far more important sum then than it is today. She still retained much of her good looks; her charms and her wealth outweighed her reputation for rapacity, and she was much sought in marriage.

With the approval of Queen Elizabeth, who was not by habit a matchmaker, she was married in 1568 for the fourth time to George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, one of the premier earls of the realm, with seven children from his first marriage; two of his children married two of hers in a double ceremony in February 1568.

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 in a novel.

In 1574 the countess 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 Lord Darnley, the second husband of the Mary Queen of Scots. She acted without the knowledge of her husband, who declined to accept any responsibility. As the Lennox family had a claim to the throne, this match was considered as a proof of the ambition of the countess of Shrewsbury, and she was sent to the Tower of London by the Queen, but was soon released. The child of the marriage was Arabella Stuart, who had a claim to the thrones of Scotland and England. Her grandmother treated at first with favor but later on with cruelty and neglect.

For many years (1569-1584), the Earl and Countess had to keep Mary I of Scotland (aka. Mary, Queen of Scots) 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, the Earl left Bess for good -- they had been separated 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 revenged herself by accusing him of a love intrigue with the Queen of Scots, a charge which she was forced to retract before the council.

A BBC documentary showed that Bess very much desired Arbella to become Queen, but the two women fell out and Bess cut Arbella from her will. Although Arbella never did become royalty, Bess did end up with a descendent on the throne - Queen Elizabeth II.

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 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.

Elizabeth married Sir William Cavendish. (Sir William Cavendish was born in 1505 and died on 25 Oct 1557.)

  Marriage Notes:

Children of Sir William Cavendish and Elizabeth Hardwick:
- Mary Cavendish b. b 1552;
- William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire b. 27 Dec 1552, d. 3 Mar 1625/26;
- Henry Cavendish b. b 1557, d. 12 Oct 1616;
- Sir Charles Cavendish b. b 1557;
- Frances Cavendish b. b 1557;
- Elizabeth Cavendish b. b 1557, d. 21 Jan 1582. ²

Elizabeth next married George Talbot, son of Francis Talbot and Mary Dacre, in 1568. (George Talbot was born in 1528, died on 18 Nov 1590 and was buried in Shrewsbury chapel, Sheffield Parish Church (now Sheffield Cathedral).)