hardwick hall

• Who was Elizabeth 'Bess' of Hardwick

  Noble woman, who became the wealthiest woman in the Elizabethan Era.
• Who was Robert Barlow


  1st husband married in 1543 (13 years old), he died in 1544.
• Who was Sir William Cavendish


  2nd husband, married in 1547. In 1549 brought Chatsworth Estate.
• Who was Sir William St Loe


  3rd husband married in 1559. He left most of his estate to Bess, which made her wealthy.
• Who was George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury


  4th husband married in 1568. Custodian of MQS, this made their marriage strained leading to their separation until his death.
• How were Bess + MQS linked

  Captive of Bess and Talbot, she drained their resources and rumoured to be having an affair with Talbot.
• Who was Robert Smythson


  England's first Renaissance professional architect who was Employed in 1590 as architect to build New Hardwick Hall.
• Who was Thomas Acres


  Employed as marble worker at New Hardwick Hall
• Location of hardwick hall

  Landlocked

  Near important trade cities - Sheffield, Nottingham, Manchester

  Surrounded by rural land

  Dependent on local trade
• How did Bess get wealthy

  Rise in the gentry

  Marriages

  Estates, coal mines, glassworks, iron foundries and ships from talbot

  Investing in business
• When did Bess buy the old Hardwick Hall?

  1583
• When did Bess start planning a larger house off old hardwick hall?

  1590 after Shrewsbury died
• 4 qualities of Bess?

  Intelligent + ambitious

  Well liked by influential figures - William Cecil, Robert Dudley, walsingham

  Good relationship with the queen

  Gained wealth through business - farming, mining
• Why did the Gentry become more important?

  - Elizabeth didn't trust nobles so relied on the gentry

  - bought and rented out land from monasteries Henry closed

  - involved in growing wool trade
• Common themes in Elizabethan houses

  - Symmetry

  - 3 + floors

  - alot of glass

  - decorative roof designs
• Why did Bess like smythson

  Trusted him to bring her simple ideas into as impressive illustration of wealth; symmetry height and natural light
• What influences did Bess use in hardwick

  - Flemish - chimneys and doorways

  - Italian renaissance - fireplaces + chimneys in drawing room
• Why was there a demand for lead

  For double row roofing
• Where and Bess get her materials from?

  Lead for roof = her foundries

  Glass = wingfields

  Wood = her estate

  Stone = estate quarries
• What was impressive about Hardwicks exterior?

  Large windows → glass = wealth

  Details on roof show influence

  Height could be seen from a distance

  Symmetry = sense of order
• How does Hardwick Halls exterior reflect the divine hierarchy?

  Floors ordered by social class;

  Servants on ground floor

  Bess + family on first floor

  Important guests on second floor
• The logia's;

  On both west and east side

  Sheltered exercise while enjoying view

  Italian renaissance influence

  First loggia without internal courtyard
• What did the move away from a medival central courtyard allow smythson to do

  - Double row house rather than single row

  - M shaped roof over V shaped

  - broad, sloping lead roofs
• What were gardens purpose from 15th century?

  Pleasure + relaxation rather than hunting
• Features of Hardwick halls garden:

  An orchard which supplied the kitchen

  Symmetrical pattern (squares + quarters)

  Shaded areas, ornamental ponds, aviaries
• The entrance of Hardwick hall

  Gatehouse is a symbolic reminder or medival times

  Gatehouse made to impress with its grandeur + wealth

  Flemish inspired crests enclosing E.S show pride
• Why did Bess benefit from the demand for glass?

  Bess inherited the Wingfield Glass works when her son-in-law, Gilbert Talbot, handed over one of third of her late husband's estate as his will required.
• How was symmetry and order with the glass maintained ?

  -chimneys had flues that were inside the building so that their lines did not interrupt the dramatic impression of glass

  -behind several of the great windows was a stone wall
• How did smythson make the windows a feature of comfort?

  -bay windows used in domestic rooms for private conversations + to Enjoy the view

  -On the south side the windows illuminated and warmed Bess's private rooms making them bright and pleasant

  -in Winter, less used rooms were sealed of whist busier rooms were warmed by a fireplace
• How did the use of the great hall change

  - need for and function of a Great Hall was in decline and going out of fashion.

  -In medieval periods the lord of the manor carried out a public duties to his tenants in the Great hall

  - in Elizabethan its function was to impress
• The Great hall

  -entrance was through the Great Hall

  -large space calculated to impress the visitor by its size

  -placed in the middle of the house running from front to back (east to west).

  - This design allowed the hall to be more practical, warmer and, with wall fireplaces, less smoky
• Medieval staircases

  Before the 1580s staircases in great houses were not a single and had to be built in a spiral around a central supporting column or post
• Golden age staircases

  -the central column was removed and replaced with a timber framework

  -in Hardwick a stone staircase led all the way to the top floor

  -ceremonial route for a procession of waiters
• Long gallery significance

  From 1570 until the end of the 1620s owners who wanted fashionable houses to reflect their social status had a gallery measuring at least a hundred feet long
• Long Gallery, Hardwick Hall

  -ran down the whole east side of the house on the second floor

  -provided wonderful views of gardens

  -display Bess's tapestries
• Bess's tapestries

  -She had bought two sets of Flemish tapestries from Christopher Hatton

  -replaced his heraldry with hers

  -were colourful to show wealth

  -one tapestries cost equivalent to £40,000
• How did the portraits in the gallery show Bess's public image?

  - Portrayed her as a powerful mythological woman

  - images of Persian influence show her global Power
• What was Bess's coat of arms?

  Stags + coronet

  Stag = strength

  Coronet = hierarchy ranking

  To show the importance and continuity of her family.
• How did Hardwick Hall's furnishings emphasise Bess' status


  → blue room = Bess' status and wealth

  →house and was arranged like a miniature court with Bess at the centre

  →Bess had her own withdrawing room and bedroom on the first floor where she was less on show to the household (like queen at Hampton court)
• In what ways was Bess' style choices different to her contemporaries?

  → didn't want to be financially extravagant was sensible with money re-using old items and spending carefully

  →had a collection of richly decorated Turkish carpets

  →fine needlework matched her best pieces of furniture (beds and chairs)

  →rather than having decorative wood panneling

  She covered walls with tapestries

  →contained silk or metal thread in the high-status rooms with coarser wool tapestries being used in the lesser rooms