Elizabeth Talbot countess of Shrewsbury

Elizabeth Talbot Shrewsbury, countess of shrōz´berē, shrooz´- , 1520-1608, English noblewoman, known as Bess of Hardwick. At the age of 15 she married Robert Barlow, who died shortly afterward. She was married and widowed twice more, inheriting several large estates, before she was married in 1568 to George Talbot, 6th earl of Shrewsbury. The marriage (1574) of her daughter Elizabeth to Charles Stuart, brother of Lord Darnley , angered Queen Elizabeth I because Stuart had a claim to the throne, and the countess was sent to the Tower of London for three months. The countess quarreled with her husband and accused (1584) him of a love affair with Mary Queen of Scots , whose custodian he was (1569-84), but the couple was nominally reconciled before his death (1590). She built a number of great mansions, including Hardwick Hall.

Bibliography: See biography by M. W. Lovell (2007).

Bess of Hardwick, Elizabeth Talbot, countess of Shrewsbury (c.1520–1608), daughter and coheir of John Hardwick of Hardwick, Derbyshire. She is described as ‘a woman of a masculine understanding and conduct; proud, furious, selfish, and unfeeling’ ( T. Lodge). To her care and to that of her husband, the 6th earl of Shrewsbury, Mary Queen of Scots was entrusted in 1569 at Tutbury. She married her daughter to Charles Stuart, younger brother of Darnley, and was imprisoned in the Tower in consequence. She built Chatsworth (not the present building) and Hardwick Hall.

Shrewsbury, Elizabeth Talbot, countess of (1518–1608). ‘Bess of Hardwick’ was one of the most remarkable women in Elizabethan England. The daughter of a Derbyshire squire, she gained wealth and status through four increasingly ambitious marriages, the last (in 1567) to George Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury. After the earl's death, Bess, intriguer and termagant, was free to concentrate on her building and furnishing at Chatsworth and Hardwick Hall.