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Stay up to date with our latest news, offers and events by entering your details below: We use a third party provider to share our email newsletters. Bess travelled to nurse him better, to no avail, as he died on 25 Oct Bess 's interest in Chatsworth and other properties was promoted throughout the rest of her life. Bess was appointed lady-in-waiting to the Queen of England.
The ideal place to find a suitable, wealthy and respectable husband was at court. In , Bess married Sir William St.
He was a wealthy widower that had been married twice previously and had children. He proved to be a most generous husband. Loe called her his ' honest sweet Chatsworth ' and his ' own sweet Bess '. He took on her debts from her previous marriage to William Cavendish.
Queen Elizabeth was a good friend of the St. Loe 's, as he had aided her when her life was threatened. However, all was not well as Bess was sent to the Tower for seven months in This imprisonment occurred due to being involved with Lady Catherine Grey.
Bess refused to break the news to the Queen and wanted nothing to do with the matter. The Queen was most displeased and Bess was punished.
The heir to Sir William St. Loe should have been, by rights, his brother, Edward. William and Edward did not see eye to eye and on one occasion Edward attempted to poison Bess and William. Sir William died five years into the marriage and left all his lands to Bess and her children.
After St. Loe had died, Bess returned to Court. Slander had been spread throughout Court regarding Bess by the tutor of her sons. The Queen ordered that he was to be punished by corporal or otherwise, openly or publicly for his actions. The type of slander is not known, but it was very vindictive for such punishment to take place. He was a widower with six children. He was regarded as the richest nobleman in England. It was not only Bess who was married; the family combined with two other marriages.
In , Shrewsbury was summoned by the Queen of England regarding his Bolsover tenants. They had been causing trouble in the area and written a petition to the Queen. In Oct , lady Shrewsbury received a letter from her sister, Mary, Mrs. That lady husband had taken the Queen a present of some game. Quite casually Elizabeth enquired of Mr.
Richard Wingfield when Shrewsbury was going to put in appearance at Court. She extended the invitation to include the Countess : " I have been glad to see my my lady St. Loe, but am now more desirous to see my lady Shrewsbury ". The Earl took the seemingly casual enquire of his sovereign as a strong hint that he should present himself as the Queen wished to discuss some matter of importance.
Bess was delighted when she heard her husband was to be the Guardian of Queen of Scots ; it was a gesture from the Queen of England that they were in favour. In , Mary Queen of Scots arrived at Tutbury Castle, a dull dwelling which was originally a hunting box. It was damp, cold and half ruined. Mary Queen of Scots remained in the Earl of Shrewsbury 's custody until Each time a threat was made to rescue Mary , or harm her, they changed location.
Bess loathed to leave Chatsworth and longed to return when elsewhere. Bess was jealous that her husband spent so much time with Mary so she decided to become her best friend. They spent much of the day undertaking embroidery, tapestry and chatting. The Earl of Shrewsbury became ill at Wingfield Manor. He needed to be taken to Buxton to recover. Bess did not have time to ask the Queen of England 's permission to leave the Queen of Scots.
Queen Elizabeth was most displeased regarding this matter and demanded that they return to Wingfield Manor. They wrote to the Queen regarding George 's health and in return she sent a physician to Buxton to aid his recovery.
Queen Elizabeth thought they ought to feel disgraced for their actions. Bess wrote to the Queen suggesting that she had no choice, but to choose her husband's life against the consent of the Queen. The Queen played the forgiving sovereign knowing that the couple would not outrightly disobey her wishes again.
The Countess of Lennox fell ill for five days. Bess nursed her to health and Elizabeth and Charles were left to entertain each other. During the five days that the couple were thrown together, Elizabeth fell completely under the spell of the easy manner of the sophisticated Charles.
She was enchanted with him and fell deeply in love. For his part Charles was taken with this naive, unspoiled virgin who obviously adored him. And at the end of five days, by which time Lady Lennox had 'recovered', Elizabeth Cavendish was no longer a virgin. The two Countesses pecked over the situation and felt they could not stand in the way of true love.
They were in agreement that their children should be married at once. The Countess of Lennox wished her son happiness and Bess wanted her family wedded into the Royal Family with or without Queen Elizabeth 's consent. Queen Mary advised them to be married and face the consequences after, which is exactly what happened. Repercussions were immediate and terrible. The Queen 's anger was such that even Lord Burghley feared what she might do; he who had experienced the royal temper at its worst.
She could think of nothing bad enough to say of Lady Shrewsbury , of whom she had once declared, ' Her opinion of that lady, when the Queen heard of the marriage, would not bear repeating.
While her husband and friend penned abject letters, the Countess of Shrewsbury maintained close-lipped silence. Her daughter was legally married to an heir to the throne, and there was not a thing anyone could do to change that. As the Queen of England was furious, she sent for both women, together with the young bride and groom.
A fter a dreadful journey in the worst of the winter weather, shivering in sleeting gales and held up by floods in the Midlands, the disconsolate party limped into London in Dec The Countesses were told to go to their respective houses and given strict instructions to stay there. Of the two ladies the least perturbed was Lady Shrewsbury. She was uneasy, of course, for the crime she had committed warranted a lifetime's imprisonment, and the Queen , in her present mood, was capable of imposing just such a punishment.
But Bess , with some justification, judged that Elizabeth would find it embarrassing to keep the wife of Mary Stuart 's gaoler confined too long. The two offending ladies were summoned to the presence of the Queen Elizabeth , and when the interview ended, as Bess had expected and Lady Lennox feared, with both ladies being consigned to the Tower. Charles and Elizabeth Lennox were placed under house arrest at their house at Hackney and ordered, on pain of close imprisonment, neither to communicate by letter nor to converse with any persons unless authorized by the Council.
Soon after they were married, Shrewsbury was made custodian of Mary Queen of Scots, who remained in his charge for the next fifteen years, moving from one another of his many mansions, including Chatsworth. For the next few years Bess started to construct a new house around her old family home, the building we now know as Hardwick Old Hall.
Even before this new house was finished, however, plans changed. In the Earl of Shrewsbury died and barely a month later the foundations were being dug for Hardwick New Hall. Bess moved into her new house in and four years later compiled an inventory, a list of the contents of the house that emphasises the richness and quality of the interior furnishings of Hardwick.
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