Mistress of Hardwick Read online

  According to the Earl of Shrewsbury's account of the matter: 'The Lady Lennox, being as I hear sickly, rested her at Rufford five days and kept most her chamber, and in that time the young man her son fell into liking with my wife's daughter before intended. And such liking was between them as my wife tells me she makes no doubt of a match.' In fact, by the time the two mothers emerged from the sick room, they apparently found there was nothing else for it. The young couple had *so tied themselves together upon their own liking as they cannot be parted', wrote Shrewsbury, 'and the young man is so far in love that belike he is sick without her'. It seemed that there were few noblemen's sons in England that Bess had not prayed her husband 'to deal for' at one time or another on her daughter's behalf, 'and now' he assured Lord Burghley, 'this comes unlooked for and without thanks to me'.

  The betrothal of Charles Stuart and Elizabeth Cavendish may have been no thanks to the Earl of Shrewsbury. Whether it came entirely unlooked for is another matter altogether. Elizabeth was a gentle, affectionate girl who, until now, had been unaccountably disappointed in the various marriage plans suggested for her - nineteen was a ripe age to be still a spinster. Thrown into the company of a good-looking and eligible young man, it is hardly surprising that she should have succumbed. A Cavendish could scarcely be regarded as an equal match for a royal

  Stuart, but although Charles possessed a full share of the family charm he also showed signs of developing some of the less attractive traits which had been so conspicuous in his elder brother. Lady Lennox may have been quite simply dehghted that her difficult son had fallen in love with a nice girl like Elizabeth Cavendish. There may have been other considerations. The Lennoxes were chronically short of money and the evidence of Shrewsbury and Cavendish wealth clearly visible around them, cannot have failed to tempt. Besides this, Bess could be very persuasive when she chose.

  Elizabeth and Charles were married very quietly at Rufford that autumn - so quietly, in fact, that it was nearly a month before Queen Elizabeth heard about it. When she did, she was furious and the Earl of Shrewsbury hastily took up his pen again to write to Lord Burghley. *My very good lord, I am advertised the late marriage of my wife's daughter is not well taken in the Court, and thereupon are some conjectures brought to Her Majesty's ears in ill part against my wife ... If your lordship meet with anything thereof that concerns my wife or me, and sounds in ill part against us, let me crave of your lordship so much favour as to speak your knowledge and opinion of us both.'

  The newly-weds and their respective mothers had been ordered to present themselves in London without delay, but winter had set in by this time and the shocking state of the roads gave the culprits an excuse for prolonging their journey. The Countess of Lennox, forced to stay for a few days at Huntingdon to rest herself and her *over-laboured mules', appealed to the Earl of Leicester for his intercession. Lady Lennox knew she was in serious trouble. There seemed only one note to strike and she struck it hard. *Now, my lord, for that hasty marriage of my son Charles. After that he had entangled himself so that he could have none other, I refer the same to your lordship's

  good consideration, whether it was not most fitting for me to marry them, he being mine only son and comfort that is left me.'

  The succession was still an extremely sensitive political issue. By their match-making activities Bess and Lady Lennox had trespassed on forbidden ground, inviting the Queen's wrath and all the disastrous consequences which that could bring with it. The Earl of Shrewsbury, unable to leave his charge, now at Sheffield Castle, was only too well aware of this and continued to bombard Burghley, Leicester and the Queen herself with exculpatory letters. *May it please your Majesty, I understand of late your Majesty's displeasure is sought against my wife, for marriage of her daughter to my Lady Lennox's son. I must confess to your Majesty, as true it is, it was dealt in suddenly, and without my knowledge; but, as I dare undertake and ensure to your Majesty, for my wife, she finding her daughter disappointed . . . and that the young gentleman was inclined to love with a few days' acquaintance, did her best to further her daughter to this match without having therein any other intent or respect than with reverend duty towards your Majesty.'

  It all sounded pretty thin. This affecting story of whirlwind romance was hardly likely to impress the Queen, who was well-known to regard such lack of self-control with a notably cold and unforgiving eye. However, it was Shrewsbury's story and he was sticking to it.

  In spite of bad roads, flooded roads, in some places no roads at all, the two Countesses reached London by about December 12 th and Lady Lennox addressed a final plaintive appeal to Lord Leicester from her house at Hackney. 'And surely, my lord, touching the marriage, other dealing or longer practice there was none, but the sudden affection of my son. Therefore, I beg your lordship to be a means unto her Majesty to pity my cause and painful travel, and to have compassion on my widowed

  state, being aged and of many cares.'

  All this time the chief culprit had been maintaining a stony silence. No lame excuses, no pleas for forgiveness or protestations of innocence were heard from Bess. If she had deliberately engineered a marriage between her daughter and one of Queen Elizabeth's closest relatives without the Queen's knowledge or consent - and it looks very much as though she had done just that - then she had been asking for trouble. After her unpleasant experience at the time of the long dead Catherine Grey's secret marriage, no one should have known that better than Bess herself. Possibly she was gambHng on the fact that the government would find it too embarrassing to press charges against the wife of Mary Queen of Scots' custodian. At any rate, she obviously felt the less she said the better. On December 27th the blow fell and she and Lady Lennox were sent to cool their heels in the Tower while their actions were minutely investigated.

  No record appears to have survived of the examination of the ladies themselves, but Francis Walsingham drew up a significant list of questions to be put to Thomas Fowler, Lady Lennox's steward.

  'Whether about midsummer last he was not sent to his mistress's house at Templenewsam.

  *If he was, for what cause.

  'Whether during his being at Templenewsam he went to speak to Lady Shrewsbury . . .

  'Whether about midsummer last he knew, or at least had some conjecture, of the marriage between Charles Stuart and Lady Shrewsbury's daughter . . .'

  But it was not, of course, the marriage alone which was causing Queen Elizabeth and her Council so much concern. The question they really wanted answered was whether this convenient 'romance' perhaps concealed yet another plot in favour of Mary Stuart. According to the French ambassador, 'the Queen of Scots is so subjected to

  calumnies, and her enemies are so prompt in attributing to her all the ills and disorders which happen in this realm, that they have even persuaded this Queen (EUzabeth) that she is the cause of the marriage between Charles, Earl of Lennox, and Ehzabeth Cavendish, daughter of the Countess of Shrewsbury, and that she had leagued the Duchess of Suffolk and the Countess of Lennox with the said Countess of Shrewsbury to do many things for her in this realm. On the contrary, the Queen of Scotland fears more than anything in the world the coUeaguing together of these three ladies (two of whom have always been her decided enemies). She is above all convinced that it will lead to her being roughly torn from the keeping of the Earl of Shrewsbury and consigned to those whom she suspects of seeking her death.'

  The Countess of Lennox had blamed Mary bitterly for being the murderess of her son, Lord Darnley, and it did not, on the face of it, seem very likely that she would go out of her way to help her former daughter-in-law. All the same, the dangerous possibility of a reconciliation between them remained in Elizabeth's mind. As for Bess, her friendship with the Queen of Scots had not gone unobserved. But if Bess had been in collusion with Lady Lennox to arrange the marriage of their son and daughter, she had successfully covered her tracks. The whole affair is a little mysterious. What had prompted Bess to take such an enormous risk? Had she reall
y planned it all in advance, or was it the sudden, spur of a moment seizing of an opportunity ? Most surprising of all, why did she get away with it? It appears that once the government were satisfied that no plot involving Mary Queen of Scots could be traced back to Bess or Lady Lennox they rather lost interest. Lady Lennox was kept in the Tower until the autumn of 1575, but Bess, unscathed and still apparently unrepentant, was back in Derbyshire in good time for the birth of her grandchild.

  The baby was a girl, christened Arbelia - an unusually fanciful choice among so many Elizabeths, Marys and Margarets - amid all the pomp and ceremony proper to such an important occasion. After the child had been sprinkled with consecrated water from the font, the sponsors placed their hands on it and the minister covered it with a white vestment called the chrysom - a token of innocence. The baby was then anointed (a relic of the Catholic service), the godparents offered their gifts of gold and silver plate, and refreshments of wafers, comfits and spiced wine were brought into the church. Then the procession formed up to return to the great house -Arbelia was in all probability born at Ghatsworth and christened in the parish church of Edensor close by - and the rest of the day was given over to feasting and festivity.

  If Bess had been disappointed by the baby's sex, she gave no sign of it. It was enough that she had a grandchild of the blood royal. She herself could expect no further advancement but now her fame and her unquenchable ambition would live on in a third generation. She had gambled a great deal on a single throw. She had survived. She had achieved her immediate objective. Who could tell what the future might hold for the house of Stuart and of Cavendish ?

  Q My Jewel Arbelle

  The birth of Arbella Stuart was to change Bess's whole outlook, giving her new purpose and direction, a new interest in the future. At fifty-five - an age when many of her contemporaries regarded their useful lives as being virtually at an end - Bess was able to look forward to the absorbing task of preparing her grand-daughter to be worthy of a splendid destiny - to be worthy, in fact, to succeed Queen Elizabeth on the English throne.

  The Elizabethans were not given to sentimentality over their children. Childhood was looked upon as a tiresome but unavoidable delay in reaching profitable adult life and one which for everybody's sake should be got over as quickly as possible. Bess was perhaps the least sentimental of her generation, but there was pleasure as well as solid satisfaction in watching the baby Arbella grow into a sturdy, fair-haired toddler, taking her first uncertain steps in the galleries and gardens of Chatsworth, Hardwick Old Hall or Sheffield Castle, and rapidly developing into 'a very proper child'. *She is of very great towardness to learn anything', wrote Bess, imperfectly concealing her grandmotherly pride, *and I very careful of her good education, as if she were my own and only child, and a great deal more for the nearness of blood she is in to her Majesty.'

  Arbella owed her very existence to Bess's talents as a match-maker and such an important little girl must obviously make a brilliant marriage herself. Not even the Countess of Shrewsbury could embark on negotiations with foreign royalty, but looking nearer home there was one especially promising candidate. *A friend in office', observed Lord Paget in a letter to the Earl of Northumberland, *is very desirous that the Queen should have light

  given her of the practice between Leicester and the Countess for Arbella, for it comes on very lustily, insomuch as the said Earl hath sent down a picture of his baby.'

  The Earl of Leicester's son Robert, *the noble impe', was not yet three years old, but the betrothals of children of nursery age were by no means unusual in royal and noble families. A betrothal or spousal - that is, a promise to marry made in the present tense before witnesses was held to be a legal and binding contract. The same promise given in the future tense, Hn verbis defuturo was a rather different matter. This form of betrothal, generally carried out by proxy, was little more than a conditional statement of intent to have a marriage performed at some future date. Portraits and suitably expensive presents were exchanged and, if the children concerned were old enough, formal letters dictated by tutors expressing undying affection; but in fact a ceremony of this kind had no binding force on either side. In the case of little Robert and Arbella any such contract was soon broken with grim finality by the death of the 'noble impe'. Bess made no more marriage plans. She may well have been given a private but unmistakable warning not to try again. At any rate, she now concentrated all her energies on bringing up her grand-daughter as nearly as possible in imitation of the Queen herself.

  Elizabeth's principal tutor had been Roger Ascham, Fellow of St John's College and most famous of the bright young men who had gathered at Cambridge in the early years of the century. Ascham held advanced ideas on education and the Princess Elizabeth had made great strides under his supervision. *She speaks French and Italian as well as she does English', he had written of his famous pupil, 'and has often talked to me readily and well in Latin, moderately well in Greek. She read with me almost the whole of Cicero and a great part of Livy. From these two authors her knowledge of the Latin language has

  been almost exclusively derived. The beginning of the day was always devoted to the New Testament in Greek, after which she read select orations of Isocrates and the tragedies of Sophocles.' Ascham taught Elizabeth by his famous method of double translation, presenting her with a passage of Latin or Greek to be first turned into English and then translated back into the original; a method which was probably copied by Arbella's tutors.

  Formal education began early. The general age of entry into grammar school was six or seven, by which time the 'pettys', as they were called, were expected to be able to read and write and say their Catechism. Like Elizabeth, Arbella studied modern languages as well as the classics, but few children shared her opportunities. The business of the grammar schools - backbone of the educational system - was to teach Latin, still an essential tool for anyone contemplating a professional career in the Church, law, medicine or government service. English was not yet thought of as a separate subject, and any knowledge of English grammar had to be picked up while learning Latin. The same appHed to history and geography. Arithmetic was an extra - taught on Saturdays and half-holidays, which doubtless did not add to its appeal.

  Although the drudgery of parsing, construing and learning rules by rote was occasionally relieved by the performance of a Greek or Latin play, education was regarded as a serious business. The Elizabethans did not expect their sons to find it pleasant. School hours were long - from six or seven in the morning till eleven, and again from one o'clock to four or five in the afternoon -and discipline was harsh, sometimes brutal, so that *many young wits were driven to hate learning before they knew what learning was'. Girls' schools were still unknown. The fashion for learned women, born out of the Renaissance enthusiasm for knowledge for its own sake, affected only a very small group, with royal ladies in the forefront.

  While Arbella was imbibing French and Itahan, Latin and high moral principles, her grandmother was calculating ways and means. Most grammar schools were endowed to offer their somewhat restricted syllabus free of charge, but it cost a lot of money to give a little girl an education fit for a Queen and Arbella unfortunately lacked endowment. Her father had died before she was a year old and Bess, supported by the Queen of Scots, had tried to establish the child's right to inherit his earldom, but without success. The Lennox title and Scottish estates passed to another branch of the Stuart family. Arbella was three when her Lennox grandmother died and the Queen promptly confiscated the Yorkshire estates to pay Lady Lennox's debts. Elizabeth did allow Charles Stuart's widow a modest pension but the jewels which old Lady Lennox had left to her grand-daughter were spirited away into Scotland and never reached Arbella.

  Not long after her sixth birthday, tragedy struck again when young Elizabeth Lennox died. *The poor mother, my wife, takes her daughter's death so grievously and so mourneth and lamenteth that she cannot think of aught but tears', wrote the Earl of Shrewsbury to Francis Wal-s
ingham. Bess wept bitterly for the death of her favourite daughter, but characteristically it didn't take her long to consider the financial implications. A week later she was writing to Walsingham herself. 'My assured trust is that her Majesty of her accustomed gracious goodness towards me, will let the same portion it pleased her to bestow on my daughter Lennox and my jewel Arbelle to go to the child for her better education and training up in all good virtue and learning, and so she may the sooner be ready to attend on her Majesty. The child now growing into more years shall stand in more need of more servants and teachers, and I nothing doubt but upon good mediation, her Majesty will think this portion little nought for the child.'

  But Qiiccn Elizabeth was not in the habit of regarding any sum of money as 'little nought' and Bess, reckoning up the exorbitant cost of the masters who were to train Arbella up in virtue and learning, returned to the attack on behalf of the 'poor infant' who was wholly dependant on the Queen's 'bounty and goodness'. EHzabeth had allowed ;^400 a year to young Lady Lennox and /^200 to Arbella 'for their better maintenance'. 'I am now, my good Lord', wrote Bess to Lord Burghley, 'to be an humble suitor to the Queen's Majesty that it may please her to confirm that grant of the whole six hundred pounds yearly for the education of my dearest jewel Arbell'. Bess was confident the Queen would agree that to bring up Arbella 'every way as appertaineth and so as she may be able the sooner in service to attend upon her Majesty, will hardly be performed with six hundred pounds yearly in money.'