WILFUL, WONDERFUL WOMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 177, 28 July 1928, Page 8

WILFUL, WONDERFUL WOMEN.

BESS OF HARDWICKE. • (Copyrighted.) Elizabeth Hardwicke, commonly known as "Bess of Hardwicke," was one of the most remarkable women of her day. In her youth she was a noted beauty and wit, but in later life she developed a fertile imagination and malicious tongue which created many grave scandals. She was married four times, and as each of her husbands left her a large fortune she became the wealthiest subject of l'lidor times. She was born iu IoIS and was the daughter of a Derbyshire squire, from whom she inherited considerable property. Her lirst husband was John Barlow, whom she married when she was fourteen years old, but lie died within a year of the marriage and left her a large estate, so that at the age of fifteen she became a wealthy widow, in which state she remained for the next sixteen years. In 154!) she became the third wife of Sir William Cavendish, who died eight years later and left her with another handsome fortune and 'lie only issue of her four marriages, namely, three suns and three (laughters. She arranged advantageous marriages for all her children, and two of her sons became the respective founders of the ducal familie- of .Newcastle and Devonshire. After a brief widowhood Bess married Sir William de Loe, who owned several estates, -oine of which should have passed to other members of his family at his death, but when this took place the widow seized evervtliing and succeeded in retaining it after several lengthy law suits. Bess was then neariug her fiftieth birthday, but she still possessed much of her cailier beauty and was the wealthiest woman in l.ngland. so that, in spite of her reputation for rapacity and losing husbands, she had no lack of suitors. She finally selected as her fourth husband the Karl of Shrew-bury, who ranked as the louitli greatest subject in the kingdom, and who was entrusted with the custody of Mary Queen ot >cots iluring her long imprisonment in England. Before the marriage took place in MtiS Bess insisted upon arranging a double alliance between her own children and those of the Earl by a former marriage. Her eldest son became the hu-band of Shrcwbury's youngest daughter, and her youngest daughter married the Earl's second >011. 11l I->. f Be-S cjl'ecied a secret and hastv marriage between her daughter Elizabeth and the Karl or Lennox, who stood high in the line of succession to the English throne, and this union aroused the wrath of Queen Elizabeth, who punished the ambitious and designing Bess with a short detention in the Tower of London. This marriage resulted in Bess becoming the frandmother „f the famous Arabella Stuart, who ligured in so many plots and whose daring escapades larasscd the later years of Queen Elizabeth's Bess' fourth marriage was a verv unhappv one especially for the Earl, who made inanv I utile attempts to secure a divorce from his wife, u ho revenged herself by accusing him of on a love atfair with Mary Queen of Scots a charge which -lie was afterwards compelled to admit was without foundation. When the Karl died in IHUO Bess. wllo was then seventy-two years of age. E-d „,anv offers «•! ii.linage, but she decided to remain single . he became obsessed with the idea that she would not die while she was building earthlv residences lor herself, and for eighteen years "she kept a aigt stall of workmen at work continuouslv. making' alterations and additions to her palatial home- at Hardwicke. Oidco.ites and C'hatsworth I'"ring' the winter of 1 (ins there was a severe J l '"-' !"'t a stop to all building- work, and i'} a, strange coincidence she passed awav suddenly very much to the relief of evervone associated with her.

siio ua> laid u. rest in All Saints' Church at Dciby. w here during her lifetime she had taK.-n tii,- precaution t.» prepare an elaborate "in < 'iinl monument ff» r lior-c!t nil which she f ' 1 ;"''- " i"ti for the benefit "t ix.j-teiity. 1- i»r many years the sextons of the -"'<len harvest by permitting moiluil Pistol's to view the remains of Bess of Ha'; u,; k" in her broken lea«len cofliu. but this v,! ~ 11• pJ>ccl in the middle of last ccnturv when the \ Jti.lt was sealed up.