Embroidered Encounters: Travel, Religion, and the Household at Hardwick Hall

Bess of Hardwick was a redoubtable woman who built her magnificent house during one of the most turbulent periods of English history. Despite its isolated position, high on a Derbyshire hillside, Hardwick Hall was caught up in the swirling currents of the Reformation, Catholic plots and counter-plots, magic and murder attempts, the rumblings of atheism, and encounters with Islam. In this lecture, I will explore the history of the Hall, and Bess’s own colourful life, and use the sumptuous objects which still decorate Hardwick to show how one great household can be understood as a microcosm of English society in the Elizabethan age.

This lecture is the last in a series entitled Cultural Encounters: Travel, Religion, and Identity in the Early Modern World, which explores the findings and implications of the research coming out of the Conversion Narratives in Early Modern Europe project.

Cultural Encounters poster (PDF , 738kb)