On my blog today, I am delighted to be hosting ROSEMARY GRIGGS once again, sharing news of her latest publication, Mistress of Dartington Hall. This is the third novel in Rosemary’s series, Daughters of Devon, about forgotten women of history who played their part during the tumultuous 16th century.
You can find out more about Mistress of Dartington Hall below together with a fascinating post from Rosemary about the historical background to the novel.
What is the book about?
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?
Now read more about the history behind the story
My novel, Mistress of Dartington Hall, continues Roberda’s story. Roberda, the daughter of a French Huguenot general, married Gawen Champernowne, son of Queen Elizabeth’s Vice-Admiral of the Fleet of the West. She has been in charge at Dartington Hall while Gawen has been away on the Queen’s business. We join her in the autumn of 1587.
England had been at war with Spain for over two years. Rumour had it that the Spanish king was preparing the largest fleet of warships ever seen. Everyone expected them to first 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.
We join Roberda during a false alarm. This was just one of many panic-inducing alerts before the Spanish Armada’s arrival in July 1588.
Relations between England and Spain had been tense for a long time. After his wife, Queen Mary, died childless in 1558, Philip of Spain proposed to her sister, the new Queen Elizabeth. She declined the offer, and Philip married elsewhere. His marriage to Elisabeth of Valois, the daughter of King Henry II of France, cemented the end of a long war between France and the Habsburgs. During the celebrations in Paris, Gabriel de Lorges, later Comte de Montgomery, accidentally killed King Henri II in a jousting accident.
Via Wikimedia Common, in the public domain
That accident set off a chain of events that led to Roberda marrying Gawen.
As a devout Catholic, Philip considered it his duty to return England to the Catholic faith after Queen Elizabeth I established a Protestant church. However, it was a mixture of religious conflict, political rivalry, and economic competition that really fuelled his ambition to conquer England.
King Philip began his preparations, amassing a massive fleet and gathering supplies. In 1570, Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth. The Pope supported Philip’s plan by promising forgiveness to those who took part in the invasion. Audacious English privateering raids on Spanish ships led by people like Sir Francis Drake made King Philip even more determined. The frequent attacks on Spanish ships and colonies significantly disrupted Spanish trade and wealth. But Philip was cautious, gradually building his strength.
When Spain gained Portugal in 1580, King Philip had access to the Portuguese navy. That bolstered his naval power. But still he waited.
The Treaty of Nonsuch, signed in 1585, which confirmed England’s support for the Protestant Dutch rebels against Spanish rule, finally prompted Philip to launch his attack. It’s interesting that it was not religion, but economic and territorial threat that finally provoked him to act.
Meanwhile, England prepared. John Hawkins, the treasurer of the Navy, had pioneered new, more advanced, ship design. The new English ships were faster and more manoeuvrable than the cumbersome Spanish galleons. However, the men who would crew the ships needed food and arms. But Queen Elizabeth was notoriously parsimonious. Her reluctance to spend money frustrated her advisors and the commander of the English fleet, Charles Howard.
Lack of food and unsanitary conditions on board the ships that Sir Francis Drake had assembled at Plymouth meant many sailors fell ill and died. More men had to be conscripted from the surrounding towns to replace them. The fleet was short of powder and shot.
Sir Walter Raleigh oversaw the construction of a network of warning beacons to signal the approach of the Spanish fleet. They reinforced Plymouth’s defences. Should the Spanish make landfall, a ‘Dad’s Army’ of poorly equipped, untrained militia-men, and a few cavalrymen from the local nobility, would form the first line of defence.
English preparations would likely have proved inadequate had the invaders stuck to their initial plan. Luckily, the Spanish changed their strategy. Their commander decided to rendezvous with the Duke of Palma, rather than first landing in the southwest. Drake pursued the Spanish fleet up the English Channel. At Gravelines, he used fire-ships to disrupt their formation. But it was bad weather that finally defeated King Philip’s attempt on England. The ‘Protestant Wind’ scattered them, driving them around the coast of Scotland. Some foundered on rocks; a few limped home to Spain. On land, Gawen Champernowne, who was to have led a cavalry troop against the expected attack, went home, having seen no action.
Via Wikimedia Commons, in the public domain
The Armada failed in 1588, but the conflict continued for another sixteen years. In August 1595 the Spanish raided and burned villages in Cornwall. They 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 not free of the fear of invasion. Her life as Mistress of Dartington Hall, her difficult marriage, her struggle to secure her children’s inheritance, played out against that uncertain background.
Meanwhile, in France, Roberda’s brothers sought to reclaim the estates they lost when their father died on the executioner’s block in Paris in 1574.
The French Wars of Religion escalated into the War of the Three Henrys. Henry of Navarre’s ascension as King Henry IV followed the assassinations of both the Duke of Guise and King Henry III. During the 1590s, Roberda’s brothers supported Henry IV in his campaigns to assert his authority. He faced opposition from the Catholic League, which Spain supported. Eventually, Henry IV publicly converted to Catholicism, and in 1594 he entered Paris, weakening the Catholic League. A year later, Henry IV formally declared war on Spain.
The Edict of Nantes, issued in 1598, ended the religious wars in France. Catholicism became the state religion, but 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.
© Rosemary Griggs
Book details
Mistress of Dartington Hall was published on 10th July 2025 by Troubadour Publishing, and is available as an eBook and in paperback from Amazon and other retailers.
Buy Link
About the author
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 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.
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Thank you so much for hosting Rosemary Griggs today, with such an interesting article linked to her fabulous new novel, Mistress of Dartington Hall.
Take care,
Cathie xx
The Coffee Pot Book Club