“Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth”

Bess of Hardwick, born into the most brutal and turbulent period of England´s history, did not have an auspicious start in life. Widowed for the first time at sixteen, she nonetheless outlived four monarchs, married three more times, and died on of the wealthiest and most powerful women the country has ever seen.

The Tudor age was a hazardous time for an ambitious woman: by the time Frances, Bess´s first child, was six, three of her illustrious godparents had been beheaded. Plague regularly wiped out entire families, conspiracies and feuds were rife. But through all this Bess Hardwick bore eight children and built an empire of her own: the great houses of Chatsworth and Hardwick.