Elizabeth (Cavendish) Stuart (1555 - 1582)

Born 31 Mar 1555 in Chatsworth, Derbyshire, England

Ancestors

Died 21 Jan 1582 at age 26 in Frome, Somerset, England

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Elizabeth Cavendish

Birth: 31 Mar 1555 Chatsworth, Derby, Eng

Death: Bet 21 Jan 1581 and 1582

Burial: St Peter & Paul, Sheffield

Biography

This profile is part of the Cavendish Name Study.

Elizabeth Cavendish (b. 31 Mar 1555 - d. 21 Jan 1582), is the daughter of Sir William Cavendish (c.1505- 25 Oct1557) and Bess Hardwick (1527 - 13 Feb1608)

"In the autumn [of 1574], Margaret Douglas, countess of Lennox, and her son Charles Stuart, earl of Lennox (1556-1577) were en route to Settringham.

On October 9 they stopped for a few days with the duchess of Suffolk at Huntingdon. Elizabeth’s mother, ... Bess of Hardwick ... by that time married to the earl of Shrewsbury, was at nearby Rufford. She met them between Huntingdon and Sheffield and invited them to stop for the night with her.

According to some accounts, this meeting had been pre-arranged for the purpose of establishing contact between Margaret and her imprisoned daughter-in-law, Mary Queen of Scots, who was in the keeping of the earl of Shrewsbury.

At Rufford, Lady Lennox took to her bed, claiming to be ill, and remained there, with Lady Shrewsbury for company, for the next five days. During that time the two young people were left to their own devices and Charles so “entangled himself” with Elizabeth Cavendish that they had to be secretly married in early November.

On November 17, both mothers and newlyweds were ordered to London by the queen. The blame seems to have fallen entirely on the two countesses, but by March both had been acquitted of “large treasons.”

The cause of the queen’s alarm was Charles Stuart’s claim to her throne, which he would pass on to any children he and Elizabeth produced. Their daughter, Arbella Stuart, was born at Chatsworth the following September.

Charles Stuart died when his daughter was only two and Elizabeth died when Arbella was six." (Emerson, n.d.).^[1]

Marriage

m. Charles Stuart, 5th Earl of Lennox / Levenox NOV 1574 Rufford, NTT

• (1610) Arabella (b. abt. 1577 - bur. 27 Sep 1615).[1]

m. William Seymour

Sources

• Chalmers, Alexander. The General Biographical Dictionary (London, 1813) Vol. 8, Page 475

• Chester, J. L. (1876). The marriage, baptismal, and burial registers of the collegiate church or abbey of St. Peter, Westminster, pp. 112. Archive.org.[2]

• Emerson, K.L. (© 2008). "A who's who of Tudor women: C-Ch." The Women of Sixteenth-Century England.Web.[3]

• Wikipedia: Elizabeth Stuart, Countess of Lennox

1. ↑ Emerson, (© 2008)