So did all the world sponge upon the once wealthy George Talbot.
Another letter from Henry Talbot is a sort of amplification of the attitudes of his Queen and wife, and though he could not but be flattered by that of the first there was everything to torture him acutely in her professions after the treatment he had received:—
“May it please your Honour to be advertised that I came from Court upon the 20th of this present where I left all things very well, and her Majesty saith she doth marvel greatly that she hath received but one letter from your Lordship since your going down. Moreover she herself told me that she marvelled she heard no oftener from you, whom it pleased to term her love, declaring further what care she had of your health, and what a trouble your sickness was unto her; whereunto I answered that your Lordship’s chiefest comfort, and speedy recovery of your health, proceeded from her Majesty’s so gracious favour and countenance bestowed upon you; whereat her Majesty smiled, saying, “Talbot, I have not yet shewed unto him that favour which hereafter we mean to do.””
Words, words! This was the coin in which Elizabeth paid the faithful among her subjects, her kinsmen included. But to resume the letter: “As touching your wife’s causes, she lieth still in Chancery Lane, and doth give out that she meaneth to continue there and not to go into the country. My Lord, my brother’s wife, and her brother, the Knight”—meaning Sir Charles Cavendish—“do attend very diligently at Court, and little respect there is had of them; nevertheless they cease not to follow, to the end the world may say they are in credit.”
The nearest approach to a final and reasonable settlement was suggested by the Earl’s proposal to settle £1500 a year on his wife, with Chatsworth House and other lands, under certain conditions, a document which raised a good deal of discussion on both sides. Out of this cauldron of anger, misery, and sordidness emerged at last once more the royal order, final and distinct: The Earl was to receive his wife, and take probation of her obedience for one year, and if she proved forgetful of her duty was to place her in her house at Chatsworth. Rents and assurance of lands were also clearly set forth, and it was ordained that all actions for plate, jewels, and hangings were to be stayed.
The Countess had the last word on this, for her practical instinct prompted her instantly to request that her Majesty should appoint someone to be an eye-witness “in house” with the Earl and herself. Further, she begged that she might not, failing their final agreement, be confined to Chatsworth House only, and besought her Majesty “to conclude her honourable and godly work” as speedily as possible.
Early in August, 1586, the Queen passed this final order of reconciliation. Assured of the willingness of the couple to cease their strife, she summoned them to her presence, and “in many good words showed herself very glad thereof, and the Earl and Countess in good sort departed together very comfortably.” Wingfield was their destination, and was named in the original order drawn up already in March.
THE QUEEN’S ORDER.
“An order pronounced by her Majesty between the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Countess his wife in the presence of the Secretary (Walsingham).
“That the said Earl shall give present order for the conveying of the said Countess to some one of his principal manor houses in Derbyshire, furnished for her to remain in, with liberty to go either to Chatsworth or Hardwick, and to return to the Earl’s house at her pleasure.