Bess of hardwick biography
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Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury (c/)
The history of Chatsworth begins with Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, better known as Bess of Hardwick (circa /).
A native of Derbyshire and from a modest background, she grew to become the second most powerful woman in Elizabethan England after the Queen. Bess married four times, and it was with her second husband, Sir William Cavendish (), that the Cavendish line, which continues today, was established.
When Bess married Sir William, she persuaded him to sell the former monastic lands he had amassed and move to her home county. Despite its isolated location and the risk of flooding, they bought Chatsworth manor for £ in , and in began to build the first house on the site. The Hunting Tower, built in the s, still stands on the hill above Chatsworth.
After Sir William died in , Bess married Sir William St. Loe (d) and lastly, in , George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury (c). Queen Elizabeth I appointed Shrewsbury as custodi
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Bess of Hardwick was one of the most remarkable people who lived in England in the late Tudor period. Born a daughter of a relatively humble Midlands family, she was married and widowed four times, on each occasion raising her social status until she ultimately became the Countess of Shrewsbury.
An enthusiast of fine buildings, she left behind Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth House as prime examples of Elizabethan prodigy houses. She also left important genetic legacies in the form of her descendants, and is an ancestress of much of the British aristocracy for the last few hundred years.
Whilst she lived at a time when the laws and customs of the land made it difficult for women to exercise any real form of economic or social independence, Bess succeeded in acquiring a anställda fortune which not only made her the second wealthiest woman in the kingdom after Queen Elizabeth herself, but for generations after her served as the financial bedrock upon which her descendants would continue
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Bess of Hardwick
English noblewoman and businesswoman
Bess of Hardwick | |
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Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury, bygd Rowland Lockey, in the collection of the National Portrait galleri, London | |
| Born | c. |
| Died | 13 February |
| Buried | All Saints Church, Derby |
| Noble family | Hardwick |
| Spouse(s) | Robert Barley &#; &#; (m.&#;; died&#;)&#;Sir William St Loe &#; &#; (m.&#;; died&#;)&#; |
| Issue | Frances Cavendish Temperance Cavendish Henry Cavendish William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire Charles Cavendish Elizabeth Stuart, Countess of Lennox Mary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury Lucrece Cavendish |
| Father | John Hardwick |
| Mother | Elizabeth Leeke |
Elizabeth Cavendish, later Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (née Hardwick; c.&#; &#;&#; 13 February ), known as Bess of Hardwick, of Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, was a notable figure of relaterat till elizabethansk tid English society. By a series of well-made marria