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36-461: The hangings were made between the years 1570 and approximately 1585. An accomplished needlewoman , Bess of Hardwick joined Mary at Chatsworth House for extended periods in 1569, 1570, and 1571, during which time they worked together on the hangings. At that time Mary was imprisoned, in the custody of Bess' husband the Earl of Shrewsbury . One of the embroidery panels, signed as the work of Bess of Hardwick,

72-466: A valance . This was probably not the original arrangement of the needlework, and seems likely to be an arrangement sewn together in the late 17th century. There is also another group of 33 embroideries which are the remains of another hanging. The Oxburgh Hangings consist of green velvet hangings, each with a square centrepiece with octagonal embroidered panels of emblems of plants and animals surrounding it. The embroidered panels, of which there are over

108-478: A cushion, embroidered following the pattern of Lady Arundel's bed hangings . Charles Cavendish drew plans for a new house for the couple in May 1607 and wrote to both of them about the design. He told his sister Mary that the great chamber and principal lodgings would all be on the first floor or "first height". There were lodgings for the king and queen. He put the kitchen and hall where noise and smell would not trouble

144-513: A great wit, which yet still remains". In December 1603, Arbella Stuart discussed with Mary the issue of buying New Year's Day gifts for Anne of Denmark . Stuart recommended asking one of queen's chamberers , Margaret Hartsyde , because she was discreet, and would let her "understand the Queenes minde with out knowing who asked it". From time to time, Mary and the Earl of Shrewsbury sent Arbella (when she

180-493: A hundred, were worked in cross stitch on the canvas. The designs of the panels were mostly based on four continental emblem books which Mary owned. The designs were copied from wood-cut illustrations in books by well-known authors such as Claude Paradin , Conrad Gessner , and Pierre Belon . Some of the designs featured exotic and mythical animals copied from the woodcuts of a French book, André Thevet 's Les Singularitez de la France Antartique (Paris, 1558). Details featured in

216-449: A mouse, and is supposed to represent Elizabeth I oppressing Mary. The textile historian Margaret Swain thought the choice of ginger for the cat's fur reflected Elizabeth's red hair. Alternatively, Mary may have had an emblem of Claude Paradin in mind, in which he used the cat as an emblem of liberty and freedom from imprisonment. This panel was once part of the Oxburgh collection and in 1957

252-446: A respectable claim to the throne (by some reckonings she was fourth in line to the throne and he was sixth in line). Arbella and Seymour tried to escape to France in 1611. For this, Mary was imprisoned in the Tower of London . It was said that Arbella remained calm when they were questioned, but Mary cried out, "All is but tricks and giggs". She was tried for her role in the elopement, and

288-551: A screen. Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk was executed in 1572 for treason, his part in the Rising of the North , and planning to marry Mary, Queen of Scots. During the trial it was mentioned that Mary had sent him a cushion with the Latin motto Virescit Vulnere Virtus , Virtue flourishes from its wounds. John Leslie , Bishop of Ross , testified that he had seen Mary's servant Bortwick deliver

324-429: A tree. The meaning was interpreted by Anne Dacre's priest that Mary and Anne both loved members of the same family. The novel complicated device and Latin inscriptions were designed by Mary and her embroiderer. An emblem mentioned by the historian William Camden and recorded by William Drummond of Hawthornden on a bed returned to Holyrood Palace made a similar reference to fruit and the royal succession. The device

360-465: Is dated 1570. Some of the materials for the textile projects came from France. One of Mary's French administrators, Du Verger, sent silks to Bess of Hardwick in 1574, and in 1577, when Mary was at Sheffield , he sent the Queen a range of coloured silk threads for embroidery, which she called soyes de nuances pour mes ouvrages . The embroidered panels have been made into a wall hanging, two bed curtains, and

396-431: The 6th Earl of Shrewsbury in consideration of his settling a large jointure on her, and marrying his second son, Gilbert Talbot , to her daughter, Mary Cavendish , and his daughter Grace to her son Henry Cavendish. These preliminary alliances were duly effected in 1568, one of the brides, Mary , being then not quite twelve years old. The parents were married soon after. She married her stepbrother Gilbert Talbot , later

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432-428: The 7th Earl of Shrewsbury , in 1568. Their children were: In May 1573 Gilbert Talbot hired a "sober maiden" Margaret Butler who had been a servant of Nazareth Newton, Lady Southwell for his wife. In December 1607 the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury and her brother Charles Cavendish went to Hardwick Hall for a day to see Bess of Hardwick . Shrewsbury wrote he "found a lady of great years, or great wealth, and of

468-503: The Howard family. Possibly these relics included a group of Mary's embroideries which had been bought in 1611 from Arbella Stuart (a granddaughter of Bess of Hardwick) by Mary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury , a daughter of Bess of Hardwick and the mother of Alethea Howard, Countess of Arundel . 31 more octagonal panels of embroidery, with emblematic designs, some signed "ES", resembling the slips at Oxburgh remain at Hardwick Hall mounted on

504-485: The Tower. Like her mother, she was one of the few women of the time who was used to getting her own way. Mary was deeply distressed by Arbella's death in 1615, especially since she had been assured that Arbella was on the road to recovery, and remarked that she could think of nothing else. The court physician Théodore de Mayerne treated her for a spell of melancholy in which she imagined she had been poisoned. In 1615, Mary

540-450: The afternoons, evenings, or on Sundays. The types of goods that could be decorated with needlework techniques was limited only by the imagination: knitted boots, embroidered book covers, footstools, lampshades, sofa cushions, fans and on and on. Mary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury Mary Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (1556–1632) (née Cavendish) was the wife of Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury . Born Mary Cavendish , she

576-465: The best lodgings. Mary was not easily intimidated: Dorothy L. Sayers in her novel Gaudy Night described her as "uncontrollable by her menfolk, undaunted by the Tower, and contemptuously silent before the Privy Council ". Francis Bacon remarked that while Lord Shrewsbury was a "great person", there was "a greater than he, which is my Lady of Shrewsbury". There is a brief sketch of her character in

612-418: The borders of some rectangular panels were derived from the engravings of Hans Vredeman de Vries . Some panels include a phoenix (the symbol of Mary's mother Marie of Guise ), and a dragon and a unicorn. The designs were probably devised and first drawn by a professional textile artist at her request and drawn on the canvas. Mary's servant Bastian Pagez was involved in the design process, helping her to pass

648-512: The cushion to the Earl, with the motto and device of a knife cutting vines, "all which work was made by the Scots Queen's own hand". This was interpreted as Mary's signal that she was willing to marry the Earl of Norfolk, perhaps by suggesting that the royal branch needed pruning for new fruit. One of the Oxburgh embroidered panels, signed with Mary's monogram, answers Leslie's description exactly, although it seems likely that Mary made two versions of

684-679: The design and so the surviving panel may not be the work gifted to Norfolk. James Beaton , Archbishop of Glasgow , her ally in France, sent Mary a watch in January 1575/6, and she wrote to thank him for its jolie devises . Although the watch does not survive, the devices or emblems were copied down. Some of these emblems, referring to enduring adversity, were recorded amongst Mary's embroideries. John Leslie served as Mary's secretary, and his copy of Conrad Gessner 's illustrated work on four-footed mammals, De Quadrupedibus Viviparis (Zürich, 1551), survives in

720-426: The keeping of the Earl of Shrewsbury to the custody of Amias Paulet and Drue Drury . At Hardwick Hall a pair of cushion covers include roundels at the four corners and centre, worked in tent stitch, one with Mary's monogram. The designs of the roundels are derived from Gabriello Faerno's Fabulae Centum (Rome, 1563), an Italian version of Aesop's Fables . These designs can be interpreted to mean Elizabeth I, like

756-680: The library of the University of St Andrews . Leslie and his book may have been involved in the production of the embroideries. An embroidered panel featuring a cat is copied from the woodcut in Gessner, and in Leslie's copy an unknown hand has added a translation, "ane catt". However, several other translations used by Mary and Bess as captions differ from those offered in the St Andrew's volume. The embroidered cat panel, labelled "A CATTE", features Mary's monogram and

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792-411: The needle in which she much delighteth and in devising works; and her talk is altogether of indifferent, trifling matters". The nature of the surviving emblems and their apparent reference to Mary's political situation contradicts Shrewsbury's opinion. A visitor at Tutbury Castle , Nicholas White , mentioned embroidery as Mary's indoor pastime in wet weather. The diversity of the coloured silks relieved

828-466: The panels made by Bess have the initials ES. One of the Earl of Shrewsbury's letters mentions the two women working together, with some of Mary's other companions, presenting this as an innocent domestic activity not likely to result in conspiracy or sedition: "This Queen [Mary] continueth daily to resort unto my wife's chamber, where with the Lady Leviston and Mrs Seton , she useth to sit working with

864-500: The parlor was considered beautiful. According to one publication from 1843: "Never is beauty and feminine grace so attractive as, when engaged in the honorable discharge of household duties, and domestic cares." Fancy work was distinguished from plain sewing and it was a mark of a prosperous and well-managed home to display handmade needlework. While plain sewing was often handed over to servants, even in middle class households, fancy work would often be done while entertaining guests, in

900-511: The protagonists of the fables, would receive her just deserts. Needlework Needlework is decorative sewing and textile arts handicrafts . Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework. Needlework may include related textile crafts such as crochet , worked with a hook , or tatting , worked with a shuttle. Similar abilities often transfer well between different varieties of needlework, such as fine motor skill and knowledge of textile fibers . Some of

936-462: The same tools may be used in several different varieties of needlework. According to the Ladies' Needlework Penny Magazine : There are many women who persuade themselves that the occupations particularly allotted to their sex are extremely frivolous; but it is one of the common errors of a depraved taste to confound simplicity with frivolity. The use of the needle is simple, but not frivolous. Needlework

972-627: The staterooms. Although her family was Anglican Protestant , Mary converted to Catholicism as an adult. This may have been one of the reasons why she gave financial assistance to her niece Arbella Stuart , who was also first cousin to the King, in 1610, with the knowledge that the latter was planning to elope to the Continent with her cousin William Seymour . This marriage was certain to enrage King James I of England , since William, like Arbella, had

1008-531: The tedium of the labour of the stitch. Mary gave a speech comparing carving, painting and needlework. The hangings are now part of the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, although they are on permanent long-term loan at Oxburgh Hall . It is thought that the embroideries were once kept at Cowdray Park , and were brought to Oxburgh in 1761 when Mary Browne married Richard Bedingfield. The Browne family seem to have inherited objects and relics associated with Mary from

1044-450: The time, apparently working up images from her books, and the queen bequeathed some of her embroideries and sewing equipment to another of her French servants, Renée de Rallay . In 1586, Mary's embroiderer was Charles Plouvart. Bess of Hardwick had employed professional embroiderers since 1549. The panels made by Mary have her monogram, the letters MA superimposed on the Greek letter phi , and

1080-519: Was acquired by the Royal Collection for display at Holyroodhouse. The son of the Duke of Norfolk , Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel married Anne Dacre . After his father's execution, Philip Howard neglected his wife and attended Elizabeth I, in order to regain royal favour. Mary, hearing of this, sent Anne Dacre an embroidery worked in silks and silver. It depicted two turtle doves eating leaves from

1116-409: Was an apple tree and a thorn with the motto Per Vincula Cresco or Per Vincula Crescit , meaning to flourish in captivity or in chains. This emblem was also engraved on one of Mary's watches with related motifs. Camden wrote that Mary's use of emblems and a motto Veritas Armata meaning "Truth armed" and forming an anagram Maria Steuarta , were regarded with suspicion and resulted in her transfer from

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1152-463: Was an important fact of women's identity during the Victorian age , including embroidery , netting , knitting , crochet , and Berlin wool work . A growing middle class had more leisure time than ever before; printed materials offered homemakers thousands of patterns. Women were still limited to roles in the household, and under the standards of the time a woman working on needle work while entertaining

1188-548: Was at court) gifts of hartshorn (used as a medicine) and red deer venison pies. Bess of Hardwick gave Mary a zibellino , an ermine fur with gilt attachments, in July 1607. Mary described the ermine as lifelike in her thank-you letter: 'with humble thanks for your Ladyship's "fayre and wellwrought Armen", which Godwilling I will keep as a great jewel both in respect of your Ladyship and her from whom your Ladyship had it, There can be nothing wrought in metal with more life'. Mary sent Bess

1224-426: Was heavily fined, but not released. Later, Arbella accused Mary of being involved in a Catholic plot. One of Arbella's biographers remarks that Mary's motives in aiding Arbella are very difficult to understand: even allowing that Mary was a Catholic, and fond of her niece, she was certainly intelligent enough to understand the dire consequences for herself. Perhaps she relied on her husband's influence to save her from

1260-437: Was released from the Tower, partly in recognition of her role in detecting the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury , and partly because her husband was very ill. In 1618, she was called to give evidence in the course of an inquiry into the rumours that Arbella had secretly given birth to a child. Mary refused to testify, saying she had sworn a binding oath not to, and was returned to the Tower, where she remained until 1623, occupying

1296-551: Was the daughter of Sir William Cavendish , who died when she was about a year old, and his wife Bess of Hardwick . Mary inherited her mother's strong will and colourful character. Bess of Hardwick remarried to Sir William St. Loe , who left his wife everything when he died in 1564/5, making her one of the most eligible women in England ; a number of important men began to court her, including George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury . Lady St. Loe consented to give her hand and heart to

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