Guest Post: Mistress of Dartington Hall (Daughters of Devon #3) by Rosemary Griggs
- Archaeolibrarian
- 4 hours ago
- 8 min read
Book details:
Book Title: Mistress of Dartington Hall
Series: Book 3 - Daughters of Devon
Author Name: Rosemary Griggs
Publication Date: July 10th, 2025
Publisher: Troubador Publishing
Pages: 292
Genre: Historical Fiction; Women’s Fiction; Historical Biographical Fiction
@ladykatherinesfarthingale @thecoffeepotbookclub
@griggs6176 @thecoffeepotbookclub
1587. England is at war with Spain. The people of Devon wait in terror for King Philip of Spain’s mighty armada to unleash untold devastation on their land.
Roberda, daughter of a French Huguenot leader, has been managing the Dartington estate in her estranged husband Gawen’s absence. She has gained the respect of the staff and tenants who now look to her to lead them through these dark times.
Gawen’s unexpected return from Ireland, where he has been serving Queen Elizabeth, throws her world into turmoil. He joins the men of the west country, including his cousin, Sir Walter Raleigh, and his friend Sir Francis Drake, as they prepare to repel a Spanish invasion. Amidst musters and alarms, determined and resourceful Roberda rallies the women of Dartington.But, after their earlier differences, can she trust Gawen? Or should she heed the advice of her faithful French maid, Clotilde?
Later Roberda will have to fight if she is to remain Mistress of Dartington Hall, and secure her children’s inheritance. Can she ever truly find fulfilment for herself?
Bookshop.org | StoryGraph | Goodreads | Smashbomb | BookBub
My Daughters of Devon novels tell the stories of real people who lived in sixteenth-century Devon. Years of meticulous research underpin them. In my books, I respect the historical record, but inevitably, there are gaps. I fill them by introducing plausible narratives crafted by drawing on my wider research. Those additions help my readers understand not only what happened but also what it felt like to be there.
However, I often find it’s not those passages where I’ve filled the gaps that draw attention. Rather, people often make assumptions and question things that are actually ‘true’. Some of these are based on general misconceptions about life in that time. Some relate specifically to the characters, plot or wider politics of the time.
Here are my top four misplaced assumptions from Mistress of Dartington Hall, which is inspired by the life of a French Huguenot noblewoman, Lady Gabrielle Roberda Montgomery, ‘Roberda’.
Assumption: Women had zero independence and were completely subservient in the patriarchal society of Elizabethan England. Therefore, Roberda could not have managed a vast estate like Dartington. This is fiction, introduced to give Roberda agency relatable to 21st-century readers.
Reality: Despite the constraints and rules of a male-dominated society, elite women had ways of exercising power. Their careers at court and connections brought political and social benefits to the families they married into. They played an important role in local society. And women like Roberda often had to manage their husbands’ affairs when their men were away.
As humanist thinking spread, these women received a much wider education than their mediaeval counterparts. That education might include bookkeeping, accounts, and a smattering of law. Like their brothers, some of them also studied classical texts, and all of them had to gain the skills that made a woman an attractive marriage prospect on the marriage market. They became proficient in music, dancing, and needlework. They understood and operated within the social etiquette of Tudor society.
Standing in for absent husbands, women dealt with tenants, collected rents, adjudicated in disputes, and completed land transactions. They oversaw the agricultural work on the estate, parks and forests, and maintained vast houses employing many servants. All of this was on top of bringing up the next generation. Some of them, like Sir Arthur Champernowne’s sister, Joan Denny, lady-in-waiting to several of King Henry’s queens, they also had to manage their own careers at court.
There are many well-documented examples of women who successfully managed vast estates. For example, while Sir Walter Raleigh was off on his adventures to Guiana in 1594, he left his wife, Bess Throckmorton, in charge of the estate at Sherborne in Dorset. He also left her to oversee the building works on their new home, while also bringing up his children. After Raleigh’s execution, Bess worked tirelessly to have his estates restored for their only surviving son.
The historical record shows that Roberda acted decisively after her husband’s death in 1592. Even though his will did not mention her, she seized control and managed matters for their son, Arthur, during his minority. For example, when she exercised the right of advowson (right to prefer a new priest) at St Mary’s Church, Dartington, jointly with her son in 1594, she did so jointly with young Arthur. Managing the estate in her husband’s absence was part and parcel of her life.
Assumption: England won a glorious victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588. All those references to poor preparation can’t be true.
Reality: England’s victory owed as much to a change in the weather as to the actions of Sir Francis Drake and other naval commanders. Had the Spanish not abandoned their initial plan to secure a foothold in England by landing on the Devon or Cornish coast, the outcome would likely have been very different. Preparations on land to repel an invading army were hopelessly inadequate. While the warning beacons Raleigh introduced were a good idea, the men mustered to fight were ill-equipped and poorly trained.
In addition, the naval battle might easily have turned out differently. Queen Elizabeth is much praised for her valiant speech at Tilbury. However, by then the immediate threat had almost certainly passed. As England prepared, the queen’s reluctance to spend money drew criticism from Lord Admiral Howard and Drake. The men who crewed Drake’s ships waiting in Plymouth harbour had insufficient food, and many became ill. Powder and shot were in short supply. England had a lucky escape.
Assumption: The war with Spain ended in 1588. The Spanish never set foot on English soil.
Reality: While the failure of the Armada was a significant setback for Philip of Spain, the war persisted for another 16 years. An attempted counter-armada by the English in 1589 ended in failure.
In July 1595, a Spanish raid led by Carlos de Amésquita attacked Cornish towns, including Mousehole, Paul, Newlyn, and Penzance. The Spanish ships battered the coast with gunfire while Spanish soldiers landed to sack and burn the villages. Initially, the poorly equipped English militia could not stop them. They even held a Spanish Catholic Mass in a field on the Western Hill outside of Penzance. The raid caused widespread destruction before the Spanish departed, when at last they came under attack when reinforcements arrived. It was a chilling reminder of their vulnerability for the people of the southwest. The Queen and Lord Burghley ordered the defences improved.
A year later, another smaller raid at Cawsand, southeast Cornwall, also failed, the invaders driven off with the loss of only two boats and a few houses. The Spanish commanders had hoped that local people with Catholic sympathies would turn out in his support. However, they were disappointed. Philip of Spain attempted two more full-scale invasions before the war ended. Living in the west of England in the late sixteenth century was dangerous and frightening.
Assumption: The Champernownes were minor gentry living in a rural backwater. People like Drake and Raleigh visiting Dartington is pure fiction.
Reality: Nothing could not be further from the truth. Several Champernownes from the 16th century held positions at the royal court. Their familial ties to prominent families such as the Courtenays gave them access to influential circles. The Marquis of Exeter, who was King Henry VIII’s cousin, was also Sir Philip Champernownes’ second cousin. One of Sir Philip’s daughters was Queen Elizabeth’s childhood governess and became Chief Lady of the Bedchamber on Elizabeth’s accession. Until her death in 1565, Katherine Champernowne/Astley (often called Kat Ashley) was a powerful figure at court. The subsequent successful careers of many of her relatives derive from her close bond with the Queen.
Sir Arthur of Dartington, Sir Philip’s son, felt he could make an ambitious choice of home. He and his wife, Mary (née Norreys, widow of Sir Arthur’s cousin, Sir George Carew), moved to Dartington Hall, a 14th-century manor house built for royalty.
John Holand, half-brother of King Richard II, built the magnificent property, which Sir Arthur upgraded to become a fine Elizabethan manor. The aforementioned Henry Courtenay held the manor prior to his execution in 1539. Two of Henry VIII’s wives and his grandmother Margaret Beaufort had all taken the income from the estate over the years, although they did not live there. It was this highly prestigious manor set in acres of rolling Devon countryside, with its deer parks and woods that Roberda managed.
Another of Sir Philip’s daughters was the mother of Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh visited his cousin and nephew at Dartington. I have yet to locate in the archives a letter he reportedly wrote, suggesting a water feature in the grounds. As for Sir Arthur’s son, Gawen’s friendship with Sir Francis Drake, in his will Gawen left a ring to ‘his friend’, Sir Francis. Sir Walter and Sir Francis visited, and the Champernownes moved in high circles.
Devon was not a rural backwater. It might be some distance from the centre of affairs at Court, but Devon’s long coastline and sheltered harbours were vital to the defence of the realm. Families like the well-connected Champernownes had for generations been ship owners. During the sixteenth century, a crop of accomplished naval commanders and adventurers emerged from those families. The region also contributed strongly to England’s economy, having exported wool and woollen cloth and tin for generations. Whoever sat on the throne was keen to keep West Country landowners like the Champernownes happy. They depended on them.
Finally, alongside my writing, I speak about Tudor life to groups all over the southwest of England. Here is a widespread misconception that comes up regularly.
Assumption: Everyone smelled bad in Tudor and Elizabethan times.
Reality: Although they did not immerse themselves in water often, sixteenth-century people were fastidious and clean. They wore linen shifts or shirts next to their skin and changed their linen often. They washed every day, using linen cloths.
Author and speaker Rosemary Griggs has been researching Devon's sixteenth-century history for years. She has discovered a cast of fascinating characters and an intriguing network of families whose influence stretched far beyond the West Country. She loves telling the stories of the forgotten women of history — the women beyond the royal court; wives, sisters, daughters and mothers who played their part during those tumultuous Tudor years: the Daughters of Devon.
Her novel,A Woman of Noble Wit, set in Tudor Devon, is the story of the life of Katherine Champernowne, Sir Walter Raleigh’s mother. The Dartington Bride, follows Lady Gabrielle Roberda Montgomery, a young Huguenot noblewoman, as she travels from war-torn France to Elizabethan England to marry into the prominent Champernowne family. Mistress of Dartington Hall, set in the time of the Spanish Armada, continues Roberda’s story.
Rosemary is currently working on her first work of non-fiction — a biography of Kate Astley, childhood governess to Queen Elizabeth I, due for publication in 2026.
Rosemary creates and wears sixteenth-century clothing, and brings the past to life through a unique blend of theatre, history and re-enactment at events all over the West Country. Out of costume, Rosemary leads heritage tours at Dartington Hall, a fourteenth-century manor house that was home of the Champernowne family for 366 years.
Author Links:
Website:https://rosemarygriggs.co.uk/
Twitter / X: https://x.com/ragriggsauthor
Facebook:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ladykatherinesfarthingale
Instagram:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/griggs6176/
Threads: Threads: https://www.threads.net/@griggs6176
Bluesky: BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/ragriggsauthor.bsky.social
Amazon Author Page:
Tour hosted by: The Coffee Pot Book Club
Comments