A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Shrewsbury, Elizabeth, Countess of
SHREWSBURY, ELIZABETH, COUNTESS OF,
Was the daughter of John Hardwick, of Hardwick, a gentleman of ancient family and fortune in Derbyshire. At a very early age she married, not without some suspicions of interested motives, a gentleman of fortune, named Barlow, in delicate health Before his marriage, to prove his devotion, he made a will, in which he secured to her and her heirs almost the whole of his vast estates. A short time after their marriage he died. She soon contracted a second marriage, with Sir William Cavendish, to whom she appears to have been really attached. He was a widower for the third time when he married her, and seems to have returned her affection sincerely, denying her nothing, and anticipating her wishes. To gratify her, he sold his estates in the south of England, and purchased lands in her native county; and here he began, by her desire, the building of Chatsworth, a mansion since one of the most magnificent and celebrated in the kingdom, on which a mine of wealth has been spent at different times. She seems to have had quite a passion for erecting great mansions in every part of her large estates, as Chatsworth, Hardwick, Oldcotes, and others, prove. Tradition has preserved a prophecy that she would not die while she continued to build. Sir William Cavendish did not live to see the finishing of his splendid mansion. Upon his widow this task devolved, as well as the bringing up of their six children, to whom she was fondly attached, and to whose interests she was devoted. Through these children she became the ancestress of more than one noble and distinguished family. Her eldest son died childless; the second, William, became the first Earl of Devonshire; the third, Charles, was the ancestor of the Dukes of Newcastle. Her eldest daughter, Frances, married Sir Henry Pierrepoint, ancestor of the Dukes of Kingston, by which alliance we perceive that "old Bess of Hardwick" was an ancestress of Lady Mary Wortley Montague. Elizabeth, the second daughter, married Charles Stuart, Duke of Lennox, brother of Darnley, who became father of the unfortunate Arabella Stuart, the victim of state policy. Mary, the third daughter married Gilbert, the eldest son of Elizabeth's fourth husband, and arrived at the same dignity of Countess of Shrewsbury.
With a splendid fortune and unimpaired beauty, the attractive widow retained her liberty some time, till at length she was prevailed upon to change her state again. In favour of Sir William St Lo, of Tormarton, in Gloucestershire, captain of the guard; to Queen Elizabeth, and grand butler of England. He was wealthy, and had broad lands in Gloucestershire; and these circumstances weighed with the acute widow and careful mother, who determined, before she ventured to alter her position, to secure as much as possible of his possessions to herself and children. She was successful, and Sir William settled the whole of his fortune upon her and her heirs, to the exclusion of his children by a former marriage. The enamoured captain did not survive long to enjoy his happiness. Elizabeth was for the third time left a widow, with a fortune considerably increased, and no heirs of St. Lo to take anything from her family of Cavendish.
Wealth had been her object in her last match, and as her appetite seemed to "grow with what it fed on," she resolved to give the reins, not only to her desire of pain, but to the ambition which led her step by step till she had established herself in the precincts of the court. It was not long before she made a new selection, George. Earl of Shrewsbury, was no longer a young man, but be was rich, of exalted rank, and the greatest subject in the realm; high in favour with the queen, and trusted beyond any other noble in her court, independent, magnificent, and powerful, and a widower, with sons and daughters unmarried. In an evil day for him, the Earl of Shrewsbury submitted his fate to the guidance of the successful widow. A magnificent jointure was settled upon the bride, and it was agreed, not only that her eldest son should espouse his daughter, but that her youngest daughter, Mary, should become the wife of his heir, Gilbert. The Earl of Shrewsbury's good genius must have forsaken him at this eventful period of his life; for soon after his marriage he voluntarily undertook the guardianship of Mary, Queen of Scots, who, in May, 1568, landed in England. and threw herself upon the protection of Queen Elizabeth, who immediately made her a state prisoner—an act of treachery that has found a parallel in English history of modern times. It appears that both the earl and countess eagerly sought the office of head jailers to the unfortunate Mary.
At this period of their married life, the earl and countess seemed to live on terms of affectionate confidence; but from the first entrance of the Queen of Scots into their family, disturbances began to occur. What the ambitious and dangerous schemes of the countess may have been, cannot now, with certainty, be known; but it is likely that she endeavoured to secure Mary as her friend, in case of a failure with Elizabeth; or, in modern parlance, she deemed it wisest, in the game she was playing, to "hedge!" The earl was accused of a tender leaning towards his captive, "a scandal" which he has himself recorded in his own epitaph. That his wary mistress, Queen Elizabeth, distrusted him somewhat, is evident from the part which she afterwards played when the earl and countess began to quarrel. In 1574, the countess took the daring step of marrying her daughter Elizabeth to the Earl of Lennox, brother of Darnley. This alliance with the family of the royal captive gave great offence to the queen, and we find the Earl of Shrewsbury writing to her and protesting his ignorance of this act of his wife's.
The Earl of Shrewsbury's office of custodian to the royal Mary was prolific of troubles; the queen's suspicions aroused, his wife's jealousy excited, his own liberty necessarily restrained, a responsible office, and expensive establishment, for which he was inadequately paid, to support, all combined to render his situation little to be envied. In the year 1577, the first shade is evident that appears to have clouded the domestic sky of the earl and countess, and henceforth their disunion increased till it amounted to open revilings. The earl's children sided with their step-mother, whose resolute will gave her unbounded sway over all within her influence. Notwithstanding that, the earl accuses her of a desire to gain possession of his estates and revenues for the benefit of her own children. The poor earl seems to have been sorely ill treated by both the women who ruled him; for we find him making application to the queen, "for the hundredth time," for payment of his just dues in keeping the Queen of Scots. At length the sorrows and troubles of the Earl of Shrewsbury were brought to a close. He died in November, 1590. During the following seventeen years of widowhood, Elizabeth of Shrewsbury devoted herself to building; and there is no knowing how many more mansions she would have erected if her life had been spared. The story goes, that in 1607 a hard frost set in, which obliged her workmen to stop suddenly; "the spell was broken, the astrologer's prediction verified, Elizabeth of Hardwick could build no longer, and she died." Her death occurred at Hardwick Hall, in February, 1607, in the eighty-seventh year of her age. During the latter part of her life, the affection which the countess entertained for her grand-daughter, Arabella Stuart, was one of the master passions of her mind. It was well for her proud spirit that she was spared the pain of witnessing the downfall of her ambitious hopes, and the melancholy fate of one so dear to her.
This Countess of Shrewsbury is a remarkable instance of the worldly-wise woman, approaching, both in the powers of her intellect and the manner in which she directed her talents, very nearly the masculine type of mind. Calm, prudent, energetic, but politic, selfish, hard, she stands out from our pictures of true feminine character like an oak among laurels, willows, and magnolias. Happily for the moral welfare of our race, there are few women like "Bess of Hardwick."