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TO MY HUSBAND
TO MY HUSBAND
To you belongs, for many a reason, this, my first essay in history, which I have carried to its end with many misgivings, but with much delight in the matter itself. The orthodox may be affronted at two brief incursions into fiction which they will find in it. Let them skip these judiciously, magisterially. For my own part, I needed consolation at times for certain hard and bitter facts of the history. Therefore, since the way was sometimes long, and the wind, in my imagination, very cold—as it
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
AUTHOR’S NOTE
All complete letters herein quoted have been put into modern spelling. These, with the exception of one or two fragments and when the source is not otherwise indicated, have been selected from the transcripts in Lodge’s Illustrations of British History , from the originals amongst the Talbot, Howard, and Cecil MSS. The Author gratefully acknowledges the special permission of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire to include in this work reproductions of many of the fine pictures at Hardwick Hall, as w
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CHAPTER I THE RED-HAIRED GIRL
CHAPTER I THE RED-HAIRED GIRL
Among the hills and dales of Derbyshire, that great county of august estates, there came into the world in the year 1520 a certain baby girl. Her father, John Hardwick of Hardwick House, and her mother Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Leake of Hasland, in the same county, christened the child Elizabeth, naturally enough after her mother. Like the great Queen of England to whom she was senior, and with whom in after years she had so much traffic of a highly dramatic kind, this Elizabeth has come dow
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CHAPTER II THE MISTRESS BUILDER
CHAPTER II THE MISTRESS BUILDER
Upon this scene of household importance and intimate family life, making, if not for happiness in the fullest sense of the word, at any rate for prosperity and success, fell for a second time upon the married life of Bess Hardwick the great shadow. Sir William Cavendish, so accomplished in business, so doughty a husband, so excellent a host, died in 1557. His wife made a note of the event in her own hand:— “Memorandum, that Sir William Cavendish, Knight, my most dear and well beloved husband, de
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CHAPTER III “A GREAT GENTLEMAN”
CHAPTER III “A GREAT GENTLEMAN”
The fourth husband of “Building Bess” was no less a person than George Talbot, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury. Though the name does not appear in the great roll of the prominent soldiers at the battle of Hastings, the first Talbot—then Talebot—of whom anything noteworthy is recorded, won the first title, a barony, for his family at the close of the career of William the First. Thenceforward the Talbots march magnificently through the history of England—great gentlemen, castellans, commanders, governor
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CHAPTER IV HUBBUB
CHAPTER IV HUBBUB
Scene : The presence chamber of Tutbury Castle on a raw day of February, 1569. A casement flapping in the wind. Crimson velvet drapery lies on the floor, and two women squat there, stitching at it. Beyond, through an open door, a suite of smaller rooms full of furniture. First Sewing Woman. You tug too much of the velvet over to you, Mary. Let be, and be content with your share. Second Sewing Woman. I only desire to help you, Richardyne. I scarcely can hold my needle for the cold. 1st S.W. Then
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CHAPTER V MAKE-BELIEVE
CHAPTER V MAKE-BELIEVE
All the mighty fuss and preparation aforesaid sufficed only to make Tutbury barely habitable. The airy, pleasant impressions of the French Ambassador were literally castles in the air compared with the fastness itself to which Mary of Scotland travelled. To begin with, her retinue numbered sixty persons, and Heaven knows where they all slept that first night. Mary’s own rooms were small enough, and she complained bitterly of them and of the condition of the whole building. Here is her descriptio
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CHAPTER VI PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT
CHAPTER VI PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT
The move to Sheffield was now abandoned because of the desperate excitement aroused in Elizabeth’s mind by the disclosure of the love affair which was brewing between Mary and the Duke of Norfolk. This matter for some time was not entirely a secret. A certain number of influential English nobles agreed with those of Scotland that such a marriage would be an excellent solution of the entire Scottish question. Even Leicester himself, adored of Elizabeth, joined his opinion to theirs. And these gen
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CHAPTER VII FAMILY LETTERS
CHAPTER VII FAMILY LETTERS
The following letters carry on the story of the Shrewsburys in domestic and official detail for the next year. The second stepson of Bess was by this time not only a married man, but a member of Parliament and a courtier. He and his eldest stepbrother and brother-in-law, Henry Cavendish, represented their own county. His brother, Francis Talbot, the Earl’s heir, who was also at Court, had been entrusted with diplomatic duties, and had already managed to get into mischief. Neither he nor Gilbert,
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CHAPTER VIII A CERTAIN JOURNEY
CHAPTER VIII A CERTAIN JOURNEY
It was now the autumn of the year 1574. The Shrewsburys had for the time being come triumphantly out of official complications, and despite their grave responsibilities lived as comfortably as might be, though they were often separated, because the wife, at any rate, had other duties besides that of gaolership. What social life was permitted to them by the restraint entailed by this charge could obviously be enjoyed only by the Countess, and even she must have found it difficult to meet her cron
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CHAPTER IX LOVE AND THE WOODMAN
CHAPTER IX LOVE AND THE WOODMAN
Scene : A parlour in Rufford Abbey, October, 1574. Elizabeth Cavendish bending over her embroidery frame. The Countess of Shrewsbury seated writing. A man’s voice [ calling outside the window ]. Mistress! Mistress Elizabeth! Come out! Countess [ apparently stern ]. Say that I have set you a task. Now do not go to the window! Elizabeth [ checking herself half-way to the window ]. Nay, my Lord, I cannot come indeed. [ Drops her voice. ] Oh! mother, if it were one of the grooms or only my brother!
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CHAPTER X AFTERMATH
CHAPTER X AFTERMATH
There was, as the two mothers agreed, but one way out of it all—a speedy marriage. No time to invite the blessing of the bride’s stepfather, no time for signing of deeds, or for collecting bride-gear, or for endowing boy and girl with house and lands. These things would as well be done afterwards as now, and a pompous family wedding in the Shrewsbury household would just now have been attended with all sorts of difficulties. Without more ado the matter was settled, and the actual wedding seems t
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CHAPTER XI VARIOUS OCCURRENCES
CHAPTER XI VARIOUS OCCURRENCES
The Shrewsbury pair started the year 1575 in different fashion. She was in the Tower and not at all in a happy mood. He also in a fortress—Sheffield—but as warder and not prisoner, and more unhappy, because in the larger things he was always the more conscientious, yet bestirred himself to send a diplomatic present of rich gold plate to Lord Burghley, and was himself in the usual manner the recipient of bounties from his friends and tenants. Burghley acknowledges the present and his indebtedness
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CHAPTER XII MY LORD LEICESTER’S CURE
CHAPTER XII MY LORD LEICESTER’S CURE
My Lord of Leicester was to have his cure. The physicians insisted upon it. It is chronicled in Gilbert Talbot’s letter with all the importance which would attend the bulletins of the health of a king. The Queen never resented a fuss of this kind made over her pampered darling. In his stuffed and padded Court costume, his feathered head-dress, and his jewels one cannot detect in him one of the virile qualities which so dominated her imagination. His treacheries were winked at, his vices condoned
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CHAPTER XIII THE DIVIDED WAY
CHAPTER XIII THE DIVIDED WAY
Seeing that my Lady of Shrewsbury had triumphantly surmounted one of the greatest dangers she had ever drawn upon herself and hers, one can safely assume that after the foregoing letter she was in a tolerably prancing and jovial temper. Socially she really was for the moment a much more important item to be reckoned with than Mary Queen of Scots herself. All the difficulties of the past two years had only served to bring her into closer touch with both queens. Meantime she was a rich and honoure
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CHAPTER XIV “BRUITS”
CHAPTER XIV “BRUITS”
In a letter quoted in the previous chapter Lord Burghley had told Lord Shrewsbury that the Queen herself would write to him on the subject of the new-old rumours about Mary’s escape. Elizabeth, of course, did write, and very seriously, about these reports “from sundry places beyond the sea,” and in that letter (of September, 1577) she gave her servant full powers to use his own discretion in making things secure. But by the spring of 1578 she was not quite so sure of him. The mischief-making at
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CHAPTER XV RUTH AND JOYUSITIE
CHAPTER XV RUTH AND JOYUSITIE
The dashing suitor of Mary of Scotland, Don John of Austria, was dead. Her rival was on the edge of a marriage with a son of Mary’s stoutest champion—France. It was a bad moment for the prisoner. It was not a pleasant time for the Talbots. Life at Sheffield could be varied only by letters from Gilbert, though his parents must to some extent have been cheered by the prospect of his speedily having another heir. His wife was attended by no less a person than the famous physician of my Lord of Leic
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CHAPTER XVI VOLTE FACE
CHAPTER XVI VOLTE FACE
The death of her daughter Elizabeth Lennox proved a heavy blow to Bess Shrewsbury. At first she did not realise the full force of it. Everything possible had been done to secure puissant support and interest for Elizabeth and her child Arabella immediately on the death of her husband and mother-in-law. The will executed by Queen Mary in 1577 specially named Arabella Stuart as heiress to her father’s earldom, in the clause: “ Je faitz don à Arbelle, ma niepce, du compté de Lennox, tenu par feu so
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Gilbert and Mary Talbott to the Countess of Shrewsbury (1583).
Gilbert and Mary Talbott to the Countess of Shrewsbury (1583).
“My bounden duty, duty, etc.—On Friday at night my L. sent to me to be with him the next morning early. I came to Worsop about 9 o’clock, and found the two earls together, but saw them not till dinner was on the table. After ordinary greeting at the board, my L. speaking of Welbeck, my L. of Rutland said he was sure my L. would pay for it, and ‘so,’ quoth he, ‘you promised me yesternight,’ which my L. denied; ‘but,’ said my L., ‘your L. was exceeding earnest with me so to do’; whereat they were
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CHAPTER XVIII “FACE TO FACE”
CHAPTER XVIII “FACE TO FACE”
A free man, a free agent! But at what a price was Shrewsbury free! His honour was undermined by his own family, his fortunes impaired by his Queen’s penuriousness, his prime was past, his best given in return for apparently naught. Even the gratitude of his captive—and she never seems to have been regardless of such leniency as he was permitted to show her—had it been emphatically expressed, would have been no real reward to him, for it would only have placed him under suspicion. He had but one
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THE QUEEN’S ORDER.
THE QUEEN’S ORDER.
“An order pronounced by her Majesty between the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Countess his wife in the presence of the Secretary (Walsingham). “That the said Earl shall give present order for the conveying of the said Countess to some one of his principal manor houses in Derbyshire, furnished for her to remain in, with liberty to go either to Chatsworth or Hardwick, and to return to the Earl’s house at her pleasure. “That the said Earl shall allow to the said Countess towards the defraying of the c
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Sir Henry Lee to Lord Talbot.
Sir Henry Lee to Lord Talbot.
“On Monday last I received your letter; on Thursday I went to Sheffield, my Lord, your father’s, where I found him much amended, after his physic, of the gout, which took him at Brierly, and troubled him until then. My being there made him much better disposed, of whom I received many sundry kindnesses and more favours than I have or ever may deserve. Acknowledgment is small requital, but that I do and will, to him, yourself, and yours, in as sundry ways as by my wit, will, and fortune I may. Di
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The Earl of Shrewsbury to Sir Henry Lee.
The Earl of Shrewsbury to Sir Henry Lee.
“I have perused that enclosed letter you sent me within yours, and do account you most faithful and forward to do good where you profess friendship. Neither can the eloquence of the one, nor the earnest desire of the other, persuade me to do otherwise in that matter than I have already, upon good consideration, determined. My son compares my words with his own conceits, and means to save his credit as shall content me, but when he sealeth I will assure. I proposed to leave him in better case tha
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The Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry to the Earl of Shrewsbury.
The Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry to the Earl of Shrewsbury.
“I am bold according to my promise, to put you in remembrance of some matters already passed between us in talk. It is an old saying, and as true as old, a thing well begun is half ended. It pleased your good Lordship, at my late being with you, to confer with me about divers points touching the good estate of this our shire, whereof yourself, next under her Majesty, is the chief governor; and I hope, as you then begun them in good time, so very shortly they will be brought to very good perfecti
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The Countess of Shrewsbury to Lord Burghley: representing her care of the Lady Arabella.[86]
The Countess of Shrewsbury to Lord Burghley: representing her care of the Lady Arabella.[86]
“My honourable good Lord,—I received your Lordship’s letter on Wednesday towards night, being the 20th of this September, by a servant of Mr. John Talbott, of Ireland. My good Lord, I was at the first much troubled to think that so wicked and mischievous practices should be devised to entrap my poor Arbell and me, but I put my trust in the Almighty, and will use such diligent care as I doubt not but to prevent whatsoever shall be attempted by any wicked persons against the poor child. I am most
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CHAPTER XXII ARABELLA DANCES INTO COURT
CHAPTER XXII ARABELLA DANCES INTO COURT
The death of Mary Queen of Scots was the signal for the Countess to insure that Arabella should be as near the Court as possible. She was kept hard at her lessons, but, though the various members of the family were at variance over property, the Dowager was far too wise to spoil the girl’s prospects by forbidding her intercourse with her “Court-like” aunt, Gilbert’s Mary. As regards the young Shrewsbury pair she was, of course, at once a possible stumbling-block and a possible stepping-stone to
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CHAPTER XXIII MY LADY’S MANSIONS
CHAPTER XXIII MY LADY’S MANSIONS
It is universally conceded by our nation that the French have a sense of the theatre which we shall never possess. The only set-off we can produce is a pre-eminent “sense of the house.” In France this has to a great extent died out. In French and in most continental cities the greater number of people live like pigeons in large cotes. It is the tendency of all towns, though in England the notion takes hold slowly. In the country the sense of the house is as strong as ever, with this change—that
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