Book contents
- Front matter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Bess of Hardwick, a life
- 2 Money, marriage and remembrance: Telling stories from the Cavendish financial accounts
- 3 Bess’s use of language
- 4 Upper servants’ letters and loyalties in the Shrewsbury–Stuart domestic politics of the 1580s
- 5 Hardwick Hall: Building a woman’s house
- 6 Elizabeth Hardwick’s material negotiations
- 7 Bess of Hardwick’s gynocracy in textiles
- 8 A difficult and volatile alliance: The countess of Shrewsbury and the Lady Arbella Stuart
- Conclusion
- Selected bibliography
- Index
4 - Upper servants’ letters and loyalties in the Shrewsbury–Stuart domestic politics of the 1580s
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 March 2026
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Book contents
- Front matter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Bess of Hardwick, a life
- 2 Money, marriage and remembrance: Telling stories from the Cavendish financial accounts
- 3 Bess’s use of language
- 4 Upper servants’ letters and loyalties in the Shrewsbury–Stuart domestic politics of the 1580s
- 5 Hardwick Hall: Building a woman’s house
- 6 Elizabeth Hardwick’s material negotiations
- 7 Bess of Hardwick’s gynocracy in textiles
- 8 A difficult and volatile alliance: The countess of Shrewsbury and the Lady Arbella Stuart
- Conclusion
- Selected bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter analyses how the Shrewsburys’ servants’ letters represent the micropolitics of their employers’ combined or dispersed households throughout the turbulent 1580s, revealing that they used a range of rhetorical techniques, such as positive and negative characterisation, deferential and emotional language, strongly worded advice and practical problem-solving to perform their duties and demonstrate their allegiance at all costs. It concludes with reflections on the significance of servants’ emotional, political and epistolary engagements.
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- Bess of HardwickNew perspectives, pp. 100 - 120Publisher: Manchester University PressFirst published in: 2026
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