September 10, 2024 | Christine Tran

42 Cunning Facts About Bess of Hardwick, The Royal Confidante


Bess of Hardwick, The Royal Confidante

Elizabeth I may have had many ladies-in-waiting in her royal court, but she only trusted Bess of Hardwick to do her dirty work.

Bess Of Hardwick Split

1. Where Did You Come From?

Compared to her prolific adulthood, the finer details of Hardwick’s early life are a mystery. We don’t know her birthday or birthplace exactly. However, historians tend to guestimate she was born “Elizabeth Hardwick” in about 1527. In any case, she left home at about 12 years old, as big girls get to do.

Bess of HardwickWikipedia

2. It’s Good to Be Humble

Hardwick was born well-connected but poor, at least by “noble” standards. While the family had landed in Derbyshire lands from Sussex in the 13th century, they were still only “gentleman-yeoman stock” by the 15th century. With “just” a few hundred acres of land to their name, it was hardly the stock portfolio one expected from a Queen’s friend.

Bess of HardwickWikimedia Commons, Barry Skeates

3. Little Orphan Bessie

Hardwick’s father, John, passed away at the age of 40. He left behind a wife, a son, and four daughters, including Bess. She and her brother James would not have control of their humble estate for a long time. They were instead subject to the Court of Wards until James made it to legal age.

Mary Pickford factsShutterstock

4. Royal Connection

In her early teens, Hardwick possibly got her first noble maid “gig” in the household of Queen Anne Boleyn’s own former maid-of-honor, Anne Gainsford, Lady Zouche. It was likely that Lady Zouche shared Boleyn’s penchant for religious reform, which likewise influenced Hardwick’s own Protestant inclinations—despite her family’s conservative Catholic reputation.

Bess of HardwickShutterstock

5. Young Enough to Grow Up

In what she described as her “tender years” (i.e. when she was less than 16 years old), Hardwick made the first of her four marriages. Details about first match are scant. We aren’t sure when or where the nuptials took place…or even the groom’s last name! He was either Robert Barlow or Robert Barley, depending on your source. What’s more certain is that he was barely 13.

Prince Albert FactsShutterstock

6. Paging Florence Nightingale?

Bess of Hardwick’s early life presents big gaps that people have filled with romantic legend. According to lore, she struck up her mysterious relationship to first husband Robert Barlow (or Barley) after Robert fell sick and she nursed him to health.

Bess of HardwickShutterstock

7. Show Me the Money

Sadly, Hardwick’s first husband Robert died before either of them reached the age of majority, so she spent eight years fighting for her first widow’s inheritance. In normal circumstances, Hardwick would have been entitled to one-third of his estate as widow…or, at least, she would have gotten paid right away, if not for her brother-in-law’s refusal to fork it over.

Bess of HardwickShutterstock

8. Finally In With the Cool Kids

Thanks to homelessness, Bess of Hardwick’s career as BFF to the highborn really took off. Left without income as a widow, the young Hardwick entered service again in the manor of Lady Frances Grey, Marchioness of Dorset. The Marchioness happened to be niece to Henry VIII...and mother to the doomed “Nine Days’ Queen” Lady Jane Grey.

Bess of HardwickWikimedia Commons

9. I Prefer Paychecks, But This is Nice

Service under France Grey brought Bess Hardwick into elite Tudor circles. She was a favorite of the royal niece, who gifted Hardwick with a ring of agate that she would treasure for the rest of her life.

Bess of HardwickWikimedia Commons

10. A Royal (Adjacent) Wedding

Unlike her first marriage, Bess’s second match to Sir William Cavendish was a highly recorded event. Taking place on August 20, 1547, at 2 pm, the wedding was officiated in the house of Hardwick’s royal patrons, the Dorsets. Her groom, Sir William, was also connected: he was a former protégé of Henry VIII’s executed advisor, Thomas Cromwell.

Bess of HardwickPxHere

11. Double Down

While Hardwick’s first husband had been barely a teen, her second husband was twice her age and already a father to two older girls.

Bess of HardwickWikipedia

12. Your Loss Is My Gain

Hardwick’s second husband built his fortune from the dissolution of the monasteries. After Henry VIII broke with Rome in the 1530s, Catholic monasteries and nunneries had their wealth seized and distributed among the choice nobles. As such changes of faith worked to her benefit, we’re not surprised that Hardwick was a staunch Protestant.

Bess of HardwickWikimedia Commons

13. Homecoming on His Dime

Bess of Hardwick appears to exert a degree of political influence over her second husband, the wealthy Sir William Cavendish. He sold precious lands in southern England in exchange for the Chatsworth estates based in her less sexy home region of Derbyshire—perhaps at his wife’s bequest.

Bess of HardwickShutterstock

14. The More You Breed, The More It Costs

Hardwick’s second marriage lasted produced eight kids—six of whom survived infancy—and lasted 10 years. In 1557, Sir William Cavendish left his mortal coil, and also his wife—in extreme debt.

Elizabeth Woodville FactsShutterstock

15. Drapes to Last a Five Lifetimes

The Hardwick Hall Textiles are a notorious 400-year-old collection of 16th and 17th-century fabrics. Including slips embroidered by Hardwick’s future captive Mary, Queen of Scots herself, the textiles are a testimony to the material details of Tudor life. Thanks to Bess’s obsessive inventory-taking, the collection has been studied and well-preserved for centuries.

Bess of Hardwick FactsWikimedia Commons, Tony Hisgett

16. New Faith, New Rules

As a lady in the court of Edward IV, Hardwick ran with in-favor Protestant elites like William Cecil, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, and even Lady Elizabeth Tudor. Naturally, when the Catholic Mary I—AKA Bloody Mary—rose the throne, Hardwick and her husband were almost suspected of treason.

Bess of Hardwick FactsWikimedia Commons

17. Take My Son, Please

To save face in the Catholic regime, Hardwick offered to name Queen Mary I as godmother to her youngest son, Charles.

The Most Hated Rulers In World History FactsWikipedia

18. Skim Off the Top?

Right before she was widowed for the second time, Hardwick’s husband was suspected of embezzling funds from the Crown. Thankfully for Bess, he died before the charges could officially be resolved.

Susan B. Anthony factsPixabay

19. The Power of Networking

Hardwick had a talent for staying friendly with the right royals, and it paid off. When her longtime pal Elizabeth Tudor ascended to the throne as Elizabeth I of England in 1558, Hardwick found gainful employment as the Virgin Queen’s first Lady of the Bedchamber.

Wizarding families factsWikipedia

20. When eHarmony Becomes LinkedIn

As an indebted widow and single mom of six kids, Bess of Hardwick wasn’t exactly a “catch” in herself. Nevertheless, she managed to leverage her royal friendship to Elizabeth I and marry a third time to another influential court figure, Sir William St Loe, in 1559. Soon after the marriage, Elizabeth appointed her friend’s third hubby as royal Captain of the Guard.

Margaret Tudor FactsShutterstock

21. A Little Help from My Friends

Thanks to her queenly good friend—and her wealthy third husband—Hardwick was finally cleared of her second husband’s debts. Elizabeth I of England reduced the huge amount that Hardwick owed to the Crown, and her generous hubby #3 paid the rest of balance on his wife’s behalf. Gee, where is the Queen for everyone else with huge loans?

Bess of Hardwick FactsShutterstock

22. Brother-in-Outlaw?

As previously established, Bess’s third husband Sir William St Loe was very wealthy and generous—but he had a rough relationship with his brother. When he died under suspicious circumstances in 1565, it was rumored he was poisoned. In any case, Hardwick was rich and single again.

Constantine The Great FactsShutterstock

23. Between a Rock and a Rich Place

Due to her proximity to Queen Elizabeth, Hardwick’s is named in several royal family scandals. In 1561, the Queen’s cousin, Katherine Grey, became pregnant after secretly eloping. As an old family friend, Bess became a confidante to the defiant royal cousin. It’s been mythologized that Bess was sent to the Tower—alongside Katherine—for not telling the Queen right away about the pregnancy.

However, there’s no firm record that Hardwick was ever arrested. Most biographers think Hardwick had nothing to do with the scandal at all. After all, I think more people would’ve taken notice if the Queen sent one of her best pals to prison.

Bess of Hardwick FactsWikipedia

24. Three Strikes, You’re Rich

Upon the death of her third husband, Beth became one of the wealthiest women in all of England. The late Sir William St Loe bequeathed her £60,000, which is about £18,000,000 in 2018 money! At this point, Hardwick was still pretty too. With this injection of capital, the late-30-something Bess of Hardwick became even more attractive on the marriage market.

Treasure.Getty Images

25. Fourth Time is the Charm

Bess of Hardwick kept leveling up in the marriage game. Her fourth, final, and most fiscally attractive match was with George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury. He was about her age and one of the most prominent men in the English aristocracy.

Bess of Hardwick FactsWikimedia Commons

26. A Good Marriage Is Built on Boundaries

Bess of Hardwick refused to let her fourth husband’s wealth intimidate her. Before tying the knot, she made Shrewsbury guarantee that her family estate in Chatsworth—and most of her lands, in fact—would remain under her control and not sublimated into her husband’s possessions, as so many Elizabethan ladies had to deal with in marriage.

Emily Dickinson FactsShutterstock

27. If You Marry Me, You Marry Us All!

Hardwick’s fourth marriage was a triple-marriage alliance of pseudo-incestuous proportions. In addition to marrying Shrewsbury herself, Hardwick wed her oldest son, Henry Cavendish, to his new stepsister, Grace Talbot. Additionally, her daughter, Mary Cavendish, was wed to Shrewsburys' son, Gilbert Talbot. In other words, Hardwick and Shrewsbury married their step-kids to each other.

Bess of Hardwick FactsShutterstock

28. I Love You, None

Despite their financially-focused marriage, Hardwick and Shrewsbury appeared to be in love (at first). Letters to each other often lamented any missed nights together. Shrewsbury even had a pet name for Hardwick: “None” (an old-timey contraction for “my own”).

Emily Dickinson FactsShutterstock

29. The Price of Friendship

Mary, Queen of Scots put a strain on Hardwick’s fourth marriage. In 1568, Queen Elizabeth gave Shrewsbury and Hardwick the “honor” of being custodians to the exiled Scottish queen/captive. In practice, jailing a Queen in your house—even a disgraced one—is expensive. Shuffling Queen Mary from estate to estate put a drain on the couple’s finances and good will.

Monarchies FactsFlickr

30. Friends in Weird Places

Playing jailer to Mary, Queen of Scots wasn’t all bad, at first. Hardwick and Queen Mary initially got along. Together, the two spent hours sewing beautiful needlework that would make its way into the legendary Hardwick Hall textiles.

Bess of Hardwick FactsPixabay

31. Those Who Live in Glass Houses…

Our lovely lady’s legendary home at Hardwick Hall inspired the rhyme, “Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall.” This was in reference to the huge windows, which seems to outnumber the brick—a big sign of luxury in those precarious times.

Bess of Hardwick FactsPixabay

32. Royal Staycation

In total, Mary, Queen of Scots was detained in Hardwick’s custody for 15 years. (For perspective, Mary was executed just two years after she left the Shrewsburys' holdings.)

Russian Empire quizPixabay

33. Matchmaker’s Surprise

Come 1574, Bess of Hardwick finally managed to push Queen Elizabeth’s goodwill too far. The Countess was caught conspiring with Mary, Queen of Scots’ mother-in-law, Lady Lennox. The two agreed to wed Hardwick’s her own daughter, Elizabeth Cavendish, to Lennox’s son, Lord Charles Stuart. Marrying oneself to a candidate for the English and Scottish throne—as well as the Queen’s frenemies—was a big no-no. Needless to say, Queen Elizabeth of furious at her so-called bestie.

Bess of Hardwick FactsShutterstock

34. Scandal Skips a Generation

In the end, Queen Elizabeth forgave Hardwick for sneaking behind her back. Hardwick’s daughter was allowed to marry Charles Stuart, resulting in the birth of Lady Arbella Stuart.

Bess of Hardwick FactsWikimedia Commons

35. Trouble in Paradise

The almost-fallout with Queen Elizabeth blew over for Hardwick, but it enraged her fourth husband. That, plus Hardwick’s expensive renovation projects at Chatsworth put even more stress on a marriage. Add a royal hostage Scottish Queen to the mix, and we’ve got trouble…

J.D. Salinger FactsShutterstock

36. My Land or My Love?

By the 1580s, the Shrewsburys' marital estrangement was a national scandal. It culminated with Shrewsbury accusing Hardwick of stealing from him. For her credit, Hardwick was aghast and tried to repair the relationship. Her son was also on his mother’s side, calling her “ill-used” by his stepfather.

Bess of Hardwick FactsShutterstock

37. Three Is a Crowd, Even If No One Is Getting Any

What role did Mary, Queen of Scots play in the fallout between Bess of Hardwick and the Earl of Shrewsbury? The Scottish queen alleged Hardwick spread rumors about a love affair between Mary and Shrewsbury. It’s been speculated Mary had political incentive to disrupt the marriage. With the Shrewsbury family having a public breakdown, the Queen might move Mary to a less vigilant set of jailers.

How Cheaters Got Caught FactsShutterstock

38. A Queen Isn’t Cupid

Queen Elizabeth herself stepped in to help Hardwick and Shrewsbury patch up their marriage. Royal magic, however, only somewhat repaired the rift. While Hardwick was re-admitted into her husband’s presence, the two never forgave each other emotionally. For the rest of their lives, the couple rarely lived in the same residence.

Scary FactsShutterstock

39. Nothing Like Money to Inject Youth in Your Step

At 63 years old, Bess of Hardwick became a widow for the fourth and final time. She was officially the richest widow in all of England, although she was rumored to have the energy of someone much younger and less beleaguered by life’s trials.

Real-Life Exorcisms FactsPxHere

40. Grandma Looks Out for #1

Bess of Hardwick didn’t let old age stop her from finding scandal. For a time, Hardwick’s granddaughter Arbella Stuart was considered a probable successor to Elizabeth I. After a lifelong career of social climbing, Hardwick greatly wished to see a grandchild on the throne. Of course, Elizabeth was less enthusiastic about having a pretty, young replacement at her court.

She made her old-time friend keep Arbella at home. Arbella then went into the family business of scandalous marriage, and tried to elope with another throne claimant. This moved earned her a one-way ticket to the Tower—but Hardwick did not come to her granddaughter’s aid. Instead, she disinherited Arbella and begged her royal bestie to rid her of this rebellious grandkid.

Bess of Hardwick FactsWikipedia

41. Leave Them Cold

Aged about 81 years old, Hardwick died on February 13, 1608. After a lifetime of social climbing and achievement, even she couldn’t survive a particularly rough English winter.

Bess of Hardwick FactsWikimedia Commons, Poliphilo

42. Old Blood, New Elizabeth

Only in death did Bess of Hardwick get her lineage on the throne. While the industrious woman is still an ancestor to the current Dukes of Devonshire and Norfolk, as well as the Earls of Lincoln, she is also—most grandly—a 10-times great-grandmother to the current Queen Elizabeth II of England.

Bess of Hardwick FactsShutterstock

Sources:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6


More from Factinate

Featured Article

My mom never told me how her best friend died. Years later, I was using her phone when I made an utterly chilling discovery.

Dark Family Secrets

Dark Family Secrets Exposed

Nothing stays hidden forever—and these dark family secrets are proof that when the truth comes out, it can range from devastating to utterly chilling.
April 8, 2020 Samantha Henman

Featured Article

Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark history—or the chilling secret shared by her and Louis.

Madame de Pompadour Facts

Entrancing Facts About Madame de Pompadour, France's Most Powerful Mistress

Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark history—or the chilling secret shared by her and Louis.
December 7, 2018 Kyle Climans

More from Factinate

Featured Article

I tried to get my ex-wife served with divorce papers. I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life.

These People Got Genius Revenges

When someone really pushes our buttons, we'd like to think that we'd hold our head high and turn the other cheek, but revenge is so, so sweet.
April 22, 2020 Scott Mazza

Featured Article

Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIII’s rejected queen—but few people know her even darker history.

Catherine of Aragon Facts

Tragic Facts About Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s First Wife

Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIII’s rejected queen—but very few people know her even darker history.
June 7, 2018 Christine Tran



Dear reader,


Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? We’re always looking for your input! Please reach out to us to let us know what you’re interested in reading. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from “Life” to “Compact Cars and Trucks” to “A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius.” We’ll get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics you’re interested in. Please submit feedback to contribute@factinate.com. Thanks for your time!


Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? At Factinate, we’re dedicated to getting things right. Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. We want our readers to trust us. Our editors are instructed to fact check thoroughly, including finding at least three references for each fact. However, despite our best efforts, we sometimes miss the mark. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. Please let us know if a fact we’ve published is inaccurate (or even if you just suspect it’s inaccurate) by reaching out to us at contribute@factinate.com. Thanks for your help!


Warmest regards,



The Factinate team




Want to learn something new every day?

Join thousands of others and start your morning with our Fact Of The Day newsletter.

Thank you!

Error, please try again.