How did Bess of Hardwick die ?
Hello, It doesn’t look like anyone knows what she died of. Here is the relevant part of her long entry in the Oxford Dictionary of Biograpghy: “Last years In 1601 Bess made her will, in which she bequeathed the contents of the two Hardwicks and also of Oldcotes (another Derbyshire property whose construction she had overseen) to her second and favourite son, William. The contents of Chatsworth she left to her eldest son, Henry. Bess also made provision for her other children, as well as for her grandchildren, her servants, and the residents of the almshouse that she had founded in Derby. On 20 March 1603 she altered her will, thereby disinheriting her son Henry and her granddaughter Arabella, with each of whom she had quarrelled bitterly for decades. Bess died on 13 February 1608, and her body lay in state at Hardwick until her funeral, on or about 4 May 1608, in All Hallows (now All Saints’ Cathedral), Derby. She was at the time of her death one of the richest people in England, and h
