That last plaint of George Talbot was in 1582. Previous to this the curious letters quoted from Gilbert Talbot give a pretty graphic notion of the acute irritation between his parents. They still sometimes acted in concert. In 1583 (February 7th) both of them wrote simultaneously to Burghley to desire his good offices in appeasing the Queen anent the marriage of the Countess’s nephew, John Wingfield, to the Countess of Kent. By 1584 the affair seems to have developed into a very unequal family feud of five to two. As in a game of “oranges and lemons” Bess Shrewsbury, already backed by her sons Charles and William Cavendish, seems to have tugged not only her daughter Mary over to her side, but also Mary’s husband. He is no longer Gilbert the go-between, but the declared champion of his stepmother against his own father and his stepmother’s eldest son Henry Cavendish. Family affairs are certainly in a shockingly ungodly condition. William Cavendish is trying to screw his stepfather over a matter of £1800, and the quarrel between the Countess and Earl is so serious that the matter has passed into the hands of the Master of the Rolls and the Lord Chief Justice, who take opposite sides. The Countess has named her husband as “traytor” at Court, and he is resolved to go and exonerate himself. His secret malady is betrayed to Gilbert by a family servant named Steele, whose confidences can only help to complicate matters. He has long conversations with Queen Mary’s secretary, Curle, and seems to have access to all her retinue and to know the attitude of every member of the Earl’s household towards Gilbert. The only redeeming feature is the steadfast loyalty of Henry Cavendish—heir to a portion of the Rufford and Langeford estates—to his stepfather. Gilbert adroitly urges his own poverty and his wife’s “necessite,” but is sharply silenced. Shrewsbury is very jealous of his heir’s long absence at the hated Chatsworth, but at the same time promises to defray the fees of the physician attending Mary—the redoubtable Mary Talbot.

This lady is the true outcome of her mother. Bess Shrewsbury was accustomed to speak of her many building enterprises as her “workes.” One of her most pathetically characteristic “workes” was Mary Talbot. Later on in regard to Arabella Stuart’s career history shows how the mother’s intriguing match-making tactics repeated themselves in the daughter. For the moment it is her pertinacity, her love of possessions, her hot uncontrolled temper, and her vindictiveness which concern us.

Again we must anticipate by some years and include here as explanatory and pertinent an episode which displays the violence and bitterness of Mary Talbot’s nature.

Between the Stanhopes of Nottingham and the Cavendishes there was a deadly feud in the course of which blood was shed on both sides. In the height of this strife Mary Talbot (by that time Countess of Shrewsbury) sent the following deadly message to Sir Thomas Stanhope of Shelford. It was not written, but delivered by two messengers, and the message has come down to posterity in this form, as quoted in Johnson’s Extracts from Norfolk Papers:—