Bess of Hardwick: life of the week

Bess of Hardwick fell out spectacularly with Mary Queen of Scots, and was dumped in the Tower of London by Elizabeth I. Yet nothing could get in the way of this extraordinary social climber. In this life of the week episode of the History Extra podcast, Tracy Borman tells Spencer Mizen about a woman who accrued vast wealth, repeatedly rattled the Tudor courts, and ultimately earned the grudging respect of the Virgin Queen. Hello, Tracy, it's great to have you on the History Extra podcast today. day.

So we're here to talk about one of the Elizabethan period's most fascinating characters, I think, a woman who fell out spectacularly with Elizabeth I and also Mary Queen of Scots, who was highly skilled at marrying the right man at the right time. And in the process accrued an extraordinary amount of wealth, so much so that at one point she was, I believe, the richest woman in England after Queen Elizabeth. That is, Bess of Hardwick. Tracy, I wonder if you could start by giving us a kind of a brief introduction. Introduction to to Bess.

Who was she in a nutshell? Well, that was a great intro to her there, Spencer, because she was a quite extraordinary woman of the Tudor and mostly Elizabethan age. So she didn't start out for greatness. I think this is the important thing to say about Bess. We don't exactly know when she was born.

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