"Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall." Completed in 1599, Hardwick Hall was one of the great houses of the Elizabethan era. The huge windows were a sign of high status, as befitting Bess of Hardwick who had risen from a modest background to become a friend of Queen Elizabeth I and one of the richest women of the time.
Bess was born and raised in Hardwick, as part of a family of respectable but impoverished landowners. She left home at the age of 12 to serve in nearby Codnor Castle. By the age of 15 she was married to Robert Barlow. Robert was the heir to a local gentry family. He was only aged 13 and died the following year. Bess moved on to become a lady in waiting to Frances Grey, mother of Lady Jane Grey, which catapulted her into the top echelons of Tudor society, It was while she was serving there that she met her next husband, twice-widowed Sir William Cavendish who was twenty years her senior.
He had amassed a fortune through his work in the royal court during the abolition of the monasteries and the couple bought the Chatsworth estate in 1549. The marriage produced eight children but in 1557, aged only 30, Bess was widowed again. She soon remarried, this time to the elderly and rich William St Loe who was the captain of Elizabeth I'd guard. He died in 1565.
Bess found the opportunity to marry again, this time to one of the richest and most powerful men in the country, George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury. In the same year that they were married, their relationship was strained when Queen Elizabeth I made her husband the custodian of Mary, Queen of Scots after her forced abdication. For the next 15 years, Mary was shuttled between Shrewsbury's many houses.
In 1584 their marriage broke down and Bess returned to Hardwick from Chatsworth. In the years that followed Bess began to remodel Hardwick Old Hall, where she lived with her sone William and his family. Before it was completed, Shrewsbury died in 1590, leaving Bess with an even larger income than she already had. She had been widowed for the fourth time, was now in her early sixties and was extraordinarily wealthy. She decided to build a new house from scratch, rather than continue to modernise the old hall. The house was completed in 1599 and Bess died in 1608, having become the second most important woman in England, after the Queen.
Bess was born and raised in Hardwick, as part of a family of respectable but impoverished landowners. She left home at the age of 12 to serve in nearby Codnor Castle. By the age of 15 she was married to Robert Barlow. Robert was the heir to a local gentry family. He was only aged 13 and died the following year. Bess moved on to become a lady in waiting to Frances Grey, mother of Lady Jane Grey, which catapulted her into the top echelons of Tudor society, It was while she was serving there that she met her next husband, twice-widowed Sir William Cavendish who was twenty years her senior.
He had amassed a fortune through his work in the royal court during the abolition of the monasteries and the couple bought the Chatsworth estate in 1549. The marriage produced eight children but in 1557, aged only 30, Bess was widowed again. She soon remarried, this time to the elderly and rich William St Loe who was the captain of Elizabeth I'd guard. He died in 1565.
Bess found the opportunity to marry again, this time to one of the richest and most powerful men in the country, George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury. In the same year that they were married, their relationship was strained when Queen Elizabeth I made her husband the custodian of Mary, Queen of Scots after her forced abdication. For the next 15 years, Mary was shuttled between Shrewsbury's many houses.
In 1584 their marriage broke down and Bess returned to Hardwick from Chatsworth. In the years that followed Bess began to remodel Hardwick Old Hall, where she lived with her sone William and his family. Before it was completed, Shrewsbury died in 1590, leaving Bess with an even larger income than she already had. She had been widowed for the fourth time, was now in her early sixties and was extraordinarily wealthy. She decided to build a new house from scratch, rather than continue to modernise the old hall. The house was completed in 1599 and Bess died in 1608, having become the second most important woman in England, after the Queen.