I think most people would
agree that Elizabeth Hardwick was one of the most remarkable women of the
Elizabethan age. She was born as a respectable but fairly poor. At the age of
12 she was sent to be a lady in waiting to a couple who moved in the other
circles of the court. She met her first husband Robert Barlow who she married
at fifteen, but unfortunately he died a year later and left her with a modest
income of her own. In 1545 she entered the household of the niece of Henry VIII,
where she met her second husband William Cavendish who was twenty years older
than her. She was now entitled to be called Lady Cavendish and they had 8
children before Sir William died leaving Elizabeth (Bess) as a very wealthy
widow still only aged 30 years old. Her third marriage was to Sir William Loe,
who the queen held in very high regard and Queen Elizabeth chose the date of
her wedding and probably attended. The Queen made Bess a lady of her privy
chamber, where she moved in the royal circle and became very close to the Queen herself. After only six years, Sir William died leaving
everything to Bess. She was a wealthy woman, but she wanted not just wealth,
but the status that came with high social rank, so she married her fourth
husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury, who was one of the richest and most powerful men
in England.
They were trusted friends of the Queen who asked
them to look after Mary Queen of Scots who she thought may be plotting to
overthrow her. However Bess accused her husband of having an affair with the
Scottish queen and others. Their arguments became so bitter that Queen
Elizabeth stepped in, but could not stop the bickering. Even the queen could
not bring the warring couple together, however. The bickering was so bitter and
so persistent that the word 'shrew', short for Shrewsbury, became slang for an
“unpleasant woman who is easilyannoyed and who argues a
lot”.
Bess managed to stay separated from her husband until
he died, so she went back to her childhood home and started to build a new
showpiece home that showed off her new status and wealth. Glass was very
expensive to make in those days and most windows were just holes in the wall
with wooden shutters, so the hall that Bess had built was a supreme statement
of her importance and wealth with its massive windows made up of hundreds of
diamond shaped panes of glass joined together by lead.
Hardwick Hall – “more glass that wall”
She personally supervised the building and records show
the names of 375 men who helped to build this hall. She moved in before the
hall was completely finished on what was probably her seventieth birthday. She
made her mark on Hardwick Hall by placing her initials in stone on each of the
towers and in history as one of the closest women to Elizabeth I, and who
survived four husbands to become one of the most powerful and wealthiest women
of her time, and her decedents include many of the titled families of Great
Britain including Prince William and Prince Harry on both their father and
their mother’s side.
This portrait of Elizabeth wearing a dress decorated
with land and sea creatures appears to have been acquired by Elizabeth Talbot
(‘Bess of Hardwick’), Countess of Shrewsbury (c. 1527 – 1608) and was almost
certainly on display at Hardwick Hall in the Queen’s lifetime. It is thought
that it was Bess herself who masterminded the design of the embroidery on the
Queen’s dress, and possibly worked on it herself, intending it to be a
spectacular New Year’s Day gift to the Queen. It is typical of the extravagant
and sometimes bizarre late-Elizabethan style of embroidery which mixed together
images taken from the natural world. Flowers, including roses, irises and
pansies, are joined by images of insects, animals and fish.
Bless of Hardwick Hall is the charictor i have chosen to base my looks on including makeup and hair design.
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