George Talbot, 6th Earl Of Shrewsbury
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George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, 6th Earl of Waterford, 12th Baron Talbot, KG,
Earl Marshal Earl marshal (alternatively marschal or marischal) is a hereditary royal officeholder and chivalric title under the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign of the United Kingdom used in England (then, following the Act of Union 1800, in the U ...
(c. 1522/1528 – 18 November 1590) was an
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
magnate and military commander. He also held the subsidiary titles of 15th Baron Strange of Blackmere and 11th Baron Furnivall. He was best known for his tenure as keeper of
Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of S ...
between 1568 and 1585, his marriage to his second wife Elizabeth Talbot (Bess of Hardwick), as well as his surviving collection of written work.


Life and career

Talbot was the only son of
Francis Talbot, 5th Earl of Shrewsbury Francis Talbot, 5th Earl of Shrewsbury, 5th Earl of Waterford, 11th Baron Talbot, KG (1500 – 25 September 1560) was the son of George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, and Anne Hastings. He also held the subsidiary titles of 14th Baron Strange o ...
and Mary Dacre. In early life he saw active military service, when he took part in the invasion of Scotland under the
Protector Somerset Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (150022 January 1552) (also 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp), also known as Edward Semel, was the eldest surviving brother of Queen Jane Seymour (d. 1537), the third wife of King Henry V ...
. He was sent by his father in October 1557 to the relief of
Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, 1st Baron Percy, KG (152822 August 1572), led the Rising of the North and was executed for treason. He was later beatified by the Catholic Church. Early life Percy was the eldest son of Sir Thomas ...
pent up in
Alnwick Castle Alnwick Castle () is a castle and country house in Alnwick in the English county of Northumberland. It is the seat of the 12th Duke of Northumberland, built following the Norman conquest and renovated and remodelled a number of times. It is a G ...
. He then remained for some months in service on the border, with five hundred horsemen under his command. :s:Talbot, George, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury (DNB00) In 1560, he inherited the Earldom of Shrewsbury, the Barony of Furnivall and the position of Justice in Eyre, which had been his father's. He also took over his father's position of
Chamberlain of the Exchequer Chamberlain may refer to: Profession *Chamberlain (office), the officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign or other noble figure People *Chamberlain (surname) **Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), German-British philosop ...
. One year later, he was created a
Knight of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George ...
. Shrewsbury was selected as the keeper of
Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of S ...
, who was imprisoned by
Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...
in 1568 after she had escaped to England from Scotland following the disastrous
Battle of Langside The Battle of Langside was fought on 13 May 1568 between forces loyal to Mary, Queen of Scots, and forces acting in the name of her infant son James VI. Mary’s short period of personal rule ended in 1567 in recrimination, intrigue, and disast ...
. Shrewsbury received his ward at
Tutbury Castle Tutbury Castle is a largely ruined medieval castle at Tutbury, Staffordshire, England, in the ownership of the Duchy of Lancaster and hence currently of King Charles III. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. People who have stayed in the castle ...
on 2 February 1569, but in June he removed to
Wingfield Manor Wingfield Manor is a ruined manor house left deserted since the 1770s, near the village of South Wingfield and some west of the town of Alfreton in the English county of Derbyshire. There is a working farm that forms part of the old manor. It is ...
, whereupon a rescue was attempted by
Leonard Dacre Leonard Dacre (by 1533 – 12 August 1573) was an English nobleman, one of the promoters of the Northern Rebellion against Queen Elizabeth. Life He was the second son of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre of Gilsland and brother of Thomas Dacre, 4t ...
. The Earl had several houses and castles in the interior of the kingdom, in any of which Mary might be kept with little danger. In September the household was back again at Tutbury, where an additional guard or spy, temporarily joined the family in the person of
Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, KG, KB (c. 153514 December 1595) was an English Puritan nobleman. Educated alongside the future Edward VI, he was briefly imprisoned by Mary I, and later considered by some as a potential successor to E ...
. In November took place the
Northern Rebellion The Rising of the North of 1569, also called the Revolt of the Northern Earls or Northern Rebellion, was an unsuccessful attempt by Catholicism, Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with M ...
, with the revolt of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, who planned to march on Tutbury. Mary was for the time being moved to
Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...
, and did not return until the following January. In May 1570 Shrewsbury conducted her to Chatsworth, where he foiled another cabal aiming for her release. Cecil and Mildmay visited Chatsworth in October, and agreed on Mary's removal to
Sheffield Castle Sheffield Castle was a castle in Sheffield, England, constructed at the confluence of the River Sheaf and the River Don, possibly on the site of a former Anglo-Saxon long house, and dominating the early town. A motte and bailey castle had been ...
(Shrewsbury's principal seat), which took place shortly afterwards. At Sheffield, apart from occasional visits to the baths at
Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level. Meanwhile, in 1571, Lord Shrewsbury was appointed
Lord High Steward The Lord High Steward is the first of the Great Officers of State in England, nominally ranking above the Lord Chancellor. The office has generally remained vacant since 1421, and is now an ''ad hoc'' office that is primarily ceremonial and ...
(the premier
Great Office of State The Great Offices of State are senior offices in the UK government. They are the Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary or, alternatively, three of those offices excluding the Prime Minister. Current ...
) for the trial of
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, ( Kenninghall, Norfolk, 10 March 1536Tower Hill, London, 2 June 1572) was an English nobleman and politician. Although from a family with strong Roman Catholic leanings, he was raised a Protestant. He was ...
(regarding the
Ridolfi plot The Ridolfi plot was a Roman Catholic plot in 1571 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots. The plot was hatched and planned by Roberto Ridolfi, an international banker who was able to travel betwee ...
). Finally, in 1572, Lord Shrewsbury was appointed
Earl Marshal Earl marshal (alternatively marschal or marischal) is a hereditary royal officeholder and chivalric title under the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign of the United Kingdom used in England (then, following the Act of Union 1800, in the U ...
, a position that he held (along with the aforementioned position of Justice in Eyre) until his death in 1590. After the conviction of Mary for her role in the
Babington Plot The Babington Plot was a plan in 1586 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, a Protestant, and put Mary, Queen of Scots, her Catholic cousin, on the English throne. It led to Mary's execution, a result of a letter sent by Mary (who had been imp ...
, Shrewsbury participated in her trial and was one of the official witnesses to her execution at
Fotheringhay Castle Fotheringhay Castle, also known as ''Fotheringay Castle'', was a High Middle Age Norman Motte-and-bailey castle in the village of Fotheringhay to the north of the market town of Oundle, Northamptonshire, England (). It was probably founde ...
on 8 February 1587.


Personal life, illness and death

Upon the death of his first wife, Gertrude Manners, Shrewsbury was immediately taken by Bess of Hardwick. In early 1568 he married her in a double wedding with their two eldest children from previous marriages. Elizabeth Shrewsbury, ''Bess'', commemorated her new initials in magnificent style, her house at Hardwick is topped with a balustrade within which the scrolling letters ''ES'' appear four times. He sent a servant Ralph Barber on a shopping trip to Rouen in 1575. Barber bought wine, vinegar, damask and diaper linen for napkins, silk, canvas, caged live quails, and sugar confitures, which he delivered to the earl in London. Queen Elizabeth had imposed the responsible task of guarding Mary on Shrewsbury, and did not allow him to resign the charge for over 15 years. For this and other reasons (such as disputes over property distribution) his marriage with Bess of Hardwick, while initially successful, became rocky, and began to deteriorate around 1583, as detailed by surviving letters between the two. Slowly but increasingly poor health ( rheumatism) causing chronic pain and the money issues that inevitably came about during his time as keeper of the Queen of Scots, further making him caustic. Elizabeth attempted to reconcile Shrewsbury and Hardwick between 1586 and 1589; however while the latter was in support of this, Shrewsbury seems to have remained indignant and spent his final years without her, instead seeking the comfort of Eleanor Britton, one of his servants. George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury died on 18 November 1590, survived by his wife Bess of Hardwick. He was buried in the Shrewsbury chapel at Sheffield Parish Church (now Sheffield Cathedral), where a large monument erected to him can still be seen.


Marriages and children

He married twice: *Firstly to Gertrude Manners, a daughter of
Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, 12th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG (c. 1497{{snd20 September 1543), of Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire (adjacent to the small county of Rutland), was created Earl of Rutland by King Henry VIII in 1525. Ori ...
. Their children included: **Francis, Lord Talbot, eldest son and
heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
, who predeceased his father, having married, in 1563, Anne Herbert, a daughter of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1501–1570). He was known as "Lord Talbot", a courtesy title, being one of his father's lesser titles. **
Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury, 7th Earl of Waterford, 13th Baron Talbot, KG (20 November 1552 – 8 May 1616), styled Lord Talbot from 1582 to 1590, was a peer in the peerage of England. He also held the subsidiary titles of 16th Baron ...
, second but eldest surviving son and heir. **Henry Talbot (1554–1596), who married Elizabeth Rayner (1556–1612). Amongst his daughters were Gertrude Talbot, wife of
Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull (6 August 158425 July 1643) was an English nobleman who joined the Royalist side in the English Civil War after some delay and became lieutenant-general of the counties of Lincoln, Rutland, Hunt ...
and Mary Talbot (1594–1676), who married firstly her step-brother Thomas Holcroft (1596 – c. 1626) of Vale Royale, and secondly (in 1628) Sir William Airmine (or Armyne), 1st Baronet (1593–1651) of Osgodby, Lincolnshire. Elizabeth Rayner survived her husband and in 1595 remarried to
Thomas Holcroft Thomas Holcroft (10 December 174523 March 1809) was an English dramatist, miscellanist, poet and translator. He was sympathetic to the early ideas of the French Revolution and helped Thomas Paine to publish the first part of ''The Rights of Ma ...
. ** Edward Talbot, 8th Earl of Shrewsbury (1552-1616), who succeeded his elder brother in the earldom. **Catherine Talbot, who in 1563 married Henry, Lord Herbert, afterwards 2nd
Earl of Pembroke Earl of Pembroke is a title in the Peerage of England that was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title, which is associated with Pembroke, Pembrokeshire in West Wales, has been recreated ten times from its origin ...
. Queen Elizabeth gave her many tokens of friendship. **Mary Talbot, who married
Sir George Savile, 1st Baronet Sir George Savile, 1st Baronet of Thornhill (1551 – 12 November 1622), was an English politician and the lineal ancestor of the Marquesses of Halifax. He was born in 1551, the eldest son of Henry Savile and Joan Vernon. The Saviles were an ...
of Barrowby, Lincolnshire; **Grace Talbot, who married her step-brother
Henry Cavendish Henry Cavendish ( ; 10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was an English natural philosopher and scientist who was an important experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. He is noted for his discovery of hydrogen, which he termed "infl ...
(1550–1616), son and heir of Sir William Cavendish of Chatsworth in Derbyshire by his wife Elizabeth Hardwick. *Secondly he married Elizabeth Hardwick (c. 1527 – 1608), (''Bess of Hardwick''), of
Hardwick Hall Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is an architecturally significant country house from the Elizabethan era, a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. Built between 1590 and 1597 for Bess of Hardwick, it was designed by the architect ...
in Derbyshire, widow of Sir William Cavendish of Chatsworth in Derbyshire; without progeny.


Letters and papers

Shrewsbury left behind much written documentation including letters and papers. Generally, these cover the time between his succession to the earlship in 1560 and his death. Many of Shrewsbury's surviving papers found their way in the
College of Arms The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the British Sovere ...
and were re-united with others in the Lambeth Palace library in 1983 as the "Shrewsbury-Talbot papers". This historical resource was first published in 1791 by
Edmund Lodge Edmund Lodge, KH (1756–1839), herald, was a long-serving English officer of arms, a writer on heraldic subjects, and a compiler of short biographies. Life and career Lodge was born in Poland Street, London on 13 June 1756, the son of Edmund Lo ...
, and all the letters were more recently summarized in calendar form. * Lodge, Edmund, ed.,
Illustrations of British History
', 3 vols., London (1791) * Lodge, Edmund, ed.,
Illustrations of British History
', 3 vols., Oxford, (1838) * Bill, E. G. W., ed., ''Calendar of Shrewsbury papers in the Lambeth Palace Library'', Derbyshire Record Society (1966) * Batho, G. R., ed., ''Calendar of the Shrewsbury and Talbot manuscripts in the College of Arms'', HMC (1971) In addition to these, letters by Talbot to and from his second wife Bess of Hardwick survive in the
University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...
's collection and have been digitized by them online. Despite the wealth of surviving written material Shrewsbury's handwriting is notorious among scholars for its illegibility. For example, an 1875 article in the Sheffield Independent Press declared his handwriting "the despair of all transcribers" (a view still held by scholars and paleographers to this day), which is worsened by the non-standard spelling of the time. It is accepted that Shrewsbury suffered from rheumatism ("
gout Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intens ...
") in his hand; indeed, Shrewsbury himself once referred to his pen-hand as "my evil favoured writing".


In fiction

George Talbot is a primary character in the historical fiction novels ''The Captive Queen of Scots'' by
Jean Plaidy Eleanor Alice Hibbert (née Burford; 1 September 1906 – 18 January 1993) was an English writer of historical romances. She was a prolific writer who published several books a year in different literary genres, each genre under a different pen ...
and ''
The Other Queen ''The Other Queen'' is a 2008 historical novel by British author Philippa Gregory which chronicles the long imprisonment in England of Mary, Queen of Scots. The story is told from three points of view: Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots; Elizabeth Ta ...
'' by Philippa Gregory. He is also a recurring character in Friedrich Schiller's play Mary Stuart (as Lord Shrewsbury) and in the tragic opera inspired by it, Gaetano Donizetti's
Maria Stuarda ''Maria Stuarda'' (Mary Stuart) is a tragic opera (''tragedia lirica''), in two acts, by Gaetano Donizetti, to a libretto by Giuseppe Bardari, based on Andrea Maffei's translation of Friedrich Schiller's 1800 play '' Maria Stuart''. The ope ...
(as Giorgo Talbot).


Notes

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Shrewsbury, George Talbot, 6th Earl of 1528 births 1590 deaths 16th-century English nobility Earls Marshal Knights of the Garter Lord High Stewards Lord-Lieutenants of Derbyshire Lord-Lieutenants of Nottinghamshire Lord-Lieutenants of Staffordshire
George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...
Earls of Shrewsbury Earls of Waterford
Talbot Talbot was an automobile marque introduced in 1902 by English-French company Clément-Talbot. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot ...
Barons Talbot Barons Strange of Blackmere