"A dynamic portrait. . . . Bess of Hardwick emerges from Devices and
Desires as a fascinating and influential woman well deserving of many
historians' attention." -- BBC History
The critically acclaimed author of Serving Victoria brilliantly
illuminates the life of the little-known Bess of Hardwick--next to Queen
Elizabeth I, the richest and most powerful woman in sixteenth-century
England.
Aided by a quartet of judicious marriages and a shrewd head for
business, Bess of Hardwick rose from humble beginnings to become one of
the most respected and feared Countesses in Elizabethan England--an
entrepreneur who built a family fortune, created glorious houses--the
last and greatest built as a widow in her 70s--and was deeply involved
in matters of the court, including the custody of Mary Queen of Scots.
While Bess cultivated many influential courtiers, she also collected
numerous enemies. Her embittered fourth husband once called her a woman
of "devices and desires," while nineteenth-century male historians
portrayed her as a monster--"a woman of masculine understanding and
conduct, proud, furious, selfish and unfeeling." In the twenty-first
century she has been neutered by female historians who recast her as a
soft-hearted sort, much maligned, and misunderstood. As Kate Hubbard
reveals, the truth of this highly accomplished woman lies somewhere in
between: ruthless and scheming, Bess was sentimental and affectionate as
well.
Hubbard draws on more than 230 of Bess's letters, including
correspondence with the Queen and her councilors, fond (and furious)
missives between her husbands and children, and notes sharing
titillating court gossip. The result is a rich, compelling portrait of a
true feminist icon centuries ahead of her time--a complex, formidable,
and decidedly modern woman captured in full as never before.
