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The Tower and the Dream

Jan Westcott

Bess of Hardwick, also known as Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (c. 1527-1608), was the fourth daughter of a relatively minor gentry family who rose to the highest levels of English nobility through four advantageous marriages to become one of the richest women in English history.

Although this romantic tale emphasizes Bess's life with each of her four husbands and the daily challenges of raising a big growing family — a task that can be compared to running a small kingdom — it is told against the background of Elizabethan life, a brutal and turbulent period of English history. Plague regularly wiped out entire families, conspiracies and feuds were rife, allegiances made and dissolved at a whim, and royal intimates dispatched summarily to the Tower. In fact, Bess was sent to the Tower twice by Queen Elizabeth with whom Bess shared an iron will and intelligence that warranted a lifetime of respect between the two women. But through all this Bess Hardwick bore eight children and built an empire of her own. She loved building houses and by the time she was seventy she had become an extraordinary builder, perhaps one of the greatest women builders ever known. Bess became synonymously associated with the great houses she created, first Chatsworth and, later, Hardwick and Oldcotes.

The list of adventures goes on. She survived a poisoning attempt by her brother-in-law and charges of embezzlement. She negotiated the tortuous Elizabethan laws of succession and inheritance and she even managed to marry each of her children into noble families, in one case to royalty, no mean feat in a climate where it was a treasonable offense to marry without the queen's explicit consent.

She and her fourth husband, George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury were appointed guardians of Mary, Queen of Scots and the author provides many interesting insights into this sensitive and sometimes dangerous responsibility that lasted fifteen years.

Lastly, Bess was an accomplished needlewoman. She embroidered and collected tapestries throughout her life and she even joined her captive charge, Queen Mary Stuart, for extended periods during which time they worked together on the Oxburgh Hangings. In 1601, Bess ordered an inventory of the household furnishings including textiles at her three properties at Chatsworth, Hardwick and Chelsea. The 400-year-old collection, now known as the Hardwick Hall textiles, is the largest collection of tapestries, embroidery, canvaswork, and other textiles to have been preserved by a single private family.

Bess and the events and people of her life whirl by. Fortunately, author Jan Westcott brings to life her extraordinary story and allows us to eavesdrop on the world of this intelligent, ambitious, and accomplished woman.

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