Five Minute History - by Rosemary Griggs

 

Five Minute History - by Rosemary Griggs

Mistress of Dartington Hall continues the story of a French Huguenot noblewoman, Lady Gabrielle Roberda Montgomery, ‘Roberda’, in Elizabethan Devon.

In The Dartington Bride we followed Roberda as she survived a traumatic childhood during the Wars of Religion in France, where her father was a leading Huguenot general. 

Gabriel de Lorges, Comte de Montgomery, image sourced via Wikimedia Commons

An appallingly difficult marriage dashed Roberda’s hopes of happiness in England.

In Mistress of Dartington Hall, we join Roberda in the autumn of 1587. England is waiting for the arrival of the Spanish Armada. In the absence of her husband, Gawen Champernowne, Roberda has been in charge at Dartington Hall.

Dartington Hall, Devon, England

England had been at war with Spain for over two years. The people of Devon wait for King Philip of Spain to send the largest fleet of warships ever seen. The enemy might land at Falmouth, Plymouth or Dartmouth to establish a foothold on English soil. Thousands of Spanish soldiers would then disembark and rampage through the countryside. It must have been a terrifying time for the people of Dartington, only sixteen miles upriver from the port of Dartmouth. Many false alarms caused panic.

Queen Elizabeth 1 had established a Protestant church in England. As a devout Catholic, King Philip of Spain considered it his duty to return England to the Catholic faith. A mixture of religious conflict, political rivalry, and economic competition fuelled his ambition to conquer England.

 Elizabeth I of England and Philip of Spain, images sourced via Wikimedia Commons

King Philip amassed a massive fleet and gathered supplies. After he excommunicated Queen Elizabeth in 1570, Pope Pius V promised to forgive anyone who took part in the Spanish invasion. Sir Francis Drake led audacious raids on Spanish ships. After Queen Elizabeth supported the Protestant Dutch rebels against Spanish rule, King Philip launched his attack. A fast English ship, the Golden Hind, spotted the Spanish fleet off the coast of Cornwall July 19 1588, near the Lizard Point.

England had a lucky escape in 1588. The men of Dartington who joined Gawen’s cousin, Sir John Gilbert, on Warborough Common to repel the invaders did not have to fight. The Spanish Armada sailed on, intending to rendezvous with the Duke of Parma and his 16,000 soldiers. 

Sir Francis Drake’s more nimble ships pursued them. Drake used fire ships to disrupt the Armada’s formation. Then, a chance change in the wind drove the Armada round the coast of Scotland and away.

Meanwhile, in France, Roberda’s brothers were trying to reclaim the estates they lost when their father died on the executioner’s block in Paris in 1574. While England had been fighting Spain, the French Wars of Religion between the Protestant Huguenots and the Catholics had continued.

The conflict in France escalated into the War of the Three Henrys. After the assassinations of both the Duke of Guise and King Henry III, Henry of Navarre became King Henry IV. However, as a Protestant, his hold on power was weak.

Henry IV of France, image sourced via Wikimedia Commons.

In the 1590s, Roberda's brothers supported Henry IV in his campaigns to assert his authority. The Catholic League, which Spain supported, fought against his rule. Eventually, Henry IV publicly converted to Catholicism and, in 1594, he entered Paris. A year later. Henry IV formally declared war on Spain.

The Edict of Nantes, signed in 1598, ended the religious wars in France. Catholicism became the state religion. However, the Huguenots had substantial rights and religious freedoms. Roberda’s family reclaimed their lands. After her mother’s death, Roberda received her share, and her younger brother, Gabriel, eventually rebuilt the family home at Ducey.

Philip of Spain’s Armada failed in 1588, but the conflict continued for another sixteen years. In August 1595, the Spanish raided and burned villages in Cornwall. King Philip attempted two more full-scale expeditions in 1596 and 1597. The war finally ended with the Treaty of London in 1604. Until then, Roberda and the people of the west were never free of the fear of invasion.

Like many women of her time, Roberda had a powerful sense of duty. She struggles to choose between her own happiness and her children's needs. When Gawen returns to Dartington, she has to decide if she can trust him. 

Later, Roberda acts decisively to outwit others who hope to profit from the inheritance that should be her son’s. Defying the constraints of England’s patriarchal society, she seizes control. 

Roberda’s life as Mistress of Dartington Hall and her fight to secure her children’s future played out against the uncertain background of Elizabethan England at war.

Publication Date: July 10th, 2025

Publisher: Troubador Publishing

Pages: 292

Genre: Historical Fiction

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?

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Rosemary Griggs

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 1, due for publication 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.

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