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Talbot spirit neither to be overawed nor corrupted.' Sixteen years of service, during which he combined an absolute loyalty to Elizabeth with an avoidance of unnecessary sternness towards his captive, approved the choice.

Shrewsbury received his ward at Tutbury on 2 Feb. 1569, but in the following June he removed to Wingfield Manor, whence a rescue was attempted by Leonard Dacre [q. v.] In September the household was back again at Tutbury, where an additional guard, or rather spy, temporarily joined the family in the person of the Earl of Huntingdon [see, third ]. In November took place the revolt of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, who purposed to march upon Tutbury, whereupon Mary was for the time being removed to Coventry, and did not return until the following January. In May 1570 Shrewsbury conducted her to Chatsworth, where he foiled another cabal for her release. Cecil and Mildmay visited Chatsworth in October, and the removal to Sheffield Castle (Shrewsbury's principal seat), which took place shortly afterwards, was then concerted. At Sheffield, apart from occasional visits to the baths at Buxton, to Chatsworth, or to the old hall at Hardwick, she remained under Shrewsbury's guardianship for the next fourteen years. During the winter 1571-2 the earl was in London, the queen during his absence being left in charge of Sir Ralph Sadler [q. v.] He had been created a privy councillor in 1571, and he was appointed high steward for the trial of the Duke of Norfolk, whose sentence to death he pronounced 'with weeping eyes' on 16 Jan. 1572; Shrewsbury succeeded the duke as earl marshal. By 1574 he was already anxious to be released from his post as keeper, but Elizabeth would not hear of his request. He was greatly perturbed by the reports which reached the queen from spies in his household and by the conflicting instructions which he received. The regulations which he drew up from time to time for the conduct of the Scottish queen's attendants (who varied in number from about thirty to fifty) were, however, generally approved. In 1577 the Countess of Shrewsbury was very desirous that her husband should move permanently with his captive from Sheffield to Chatsworth, where she was engaged upon her usual building and planting operations. From about this date the altercation with his wife which embittered the remainder of the earl's life seems to have commenced. In 1579 his allowance from the treasury was reduced by about a quarter. A report had been rife among his enemies that he had amassed an enormous sum (Mauvissière named two hundred thousand crowns) by his custodianship. In August 1584 he was vastly relieved upon being allowed to hand over his charge to Sir Ralph Sadler. On 6 Sept. he took leave of Mary. He did not see her again until October 1586, when he went to her trial at Fotheringay; and afterwards in February 1587, when he was appointed to preside at her execution. From Sheffield he went straight to the court, where he was seen for the first time after an absence of many years. On 15 Sept. a minute of the council expressed the queen's satisfaction with the manner in which he had borne his trust, and shortly afterwards he obtained his complete discharge. The Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, detailed to Philip the earl's expressions of gratitude to Elizabeth 'de 1'avoir deliver de deux démons, savoir, sa femme et la reine d'Écosse' (cf., Relations Politiques, 1862, v. 344; , i. 108).

The complicated quarrel between the earl and his second wife had by now reached an acute stage. It seems to have been due, in part at least, to a refusal of the earl to listen to some plan for the better disposition of his property, in the interest, no doubt, of his wife's children by her former husband, Sir William Cavendish. Matters came to a head in 1583, when the countess caused to be repeated by her sons and by her agent, Henry Beresford, a scandal to the effect that an improper intimacy existed between Shrewsbury and the Queen of Scots (see v. 391 sq.) These calumnies so enraged Mary that in November 1584, after several menaces, she wrote Elizabeth a letter in which she boldly charged Lady Shrewsbury with having uttered a number of the coarsest and most outrageous scandals that were current about the English queen (, vi. 50 sq.); but it is probable that this curious epistle, if it were ever despatched, was intercepted by Walsingham. Eventually Lady Shrewsbury thought fit to repudiate any knowledge of or connection with the scandal against the Scottish queen. In the meantime, towards the close of 1583, she definitely left her husband and settled at Chatsworth, where she continued to intrigue against her husband's influence at court. Writing to Walsingham in July 1584, the earl complained that she had carried off a large amount of his property from Chatsworth, and had conveyed it to her son's house at Hardwick. He endeavoured at the same time, though without much success, to prevent his own children from obtaining access to her. The climax was not arrived