Mistress of Dartington Hall
(Daughters of Devon, Book #3)
By Rosemary Griggs
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?
Publication Date: July 10th, 2025
Publisher: Troubador Publishing
Pages: 292
Genre: Historical Fiction
An interview with, Rosemary Griggs.
What inspired you to start writing?
I’ve been writing in one form or another all my life, but it’s only in my retirement that I’ve been able to indulge my lifelong passion for history. After a career in the Civil Service, writing briefings and speeches for government ministers, it’s remarkably freeing to write about the women of Tudor and Elizabethan Devon.
I first became interested in these remarkable women through my costume work; I create and wear sixteenth-century clothing at my talks all over the west of England. I was looking for a character I could bring to life from Devon’s past and stumbled on Katherine, mother of Sir Walter Raleigh. She had such a fascinating life, but few people had heard of her. So my first novel, A Woman of Noble Wit, was born. My background in the Civil Service has given me a good skill set for research, which I love. Delving into the history of the Champernowne family has introduced me to many other fascinating women whose stories I’m itching to tell.
What was the hardest part about writing this book?
It wasn’t easy to find Roberda, or any of the women of Devon, in the historical record during the time of the Spanish Armada. I wanted to portray her as a strong woman in what seems to us a very patriarchal society. That meant a lot of careful, in-depth research, and a bit of lateral thinking. I’ve imagined her behaving much as the resilient women of the First and Second World Wars did.
Another difficulty was accurately picturing Dartington Hall in Roberda’s time. I aim to transport my readers into the sixteenth-century world. That means having a good idea of the layout and features of the buildings my characters live in. I’m very lucky to spend a lot of time at Dartington, listening to the birdsong, the wind in the trees and the rain on the windows. However, there has only been one full-scale architectural study of the property, detailed in Anthony Emery’s Dartington Hall, written in the 1960s. Emery was an eminent architectural historian, and his research has proved invaluable. Yet, it was still difficult to unpick the changes Sir Arthur Champernowne made when he arrived just before Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, and see the fourteenth-century manor house through Roberda’s eyes.
Does one of the main characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
I’d have to choose Roberda herself. She had a dreadful childhood and became a rather annoying, rebellious child. In my story, she becomes a strong and independently minded woman, whose valiant struggles to help others less fortunate really struck a chord with me. Having worked my way up in the Civil Service, somewhat against the odds, while bringing up three boys, I also empathise with her struggles as a wife and mother. I’v been fortunate to have a wonderfully supportive husband, who is nothing like the stern, cold Gawen.
If your book was to be made into a movie, who are the celebrities that would star in it?
I’m not a great movie buff, so I’ve enlisted the help of a friend to come up with my top picks to play Roberda, Gawen and Thomas. We have had such fun with this!
Roberda: Jessie Buckley would be an engaging choice, and she’s played women searching for a way of living and surviving in a society that has its own ideas of how she should act and behave. I think she’d balance the flaws in Roberda’s character well with the good stuff with no sugar-coating. I can’t wait to see her in Hamnet! Alternatively, since Roberda is French, we might go with Marion Cotillard.
Gawen: Matthew Rhys, because he’s quite good looking, but can also play a charismatic baddie. I think he’d bring out all the complexities of Gawen’s character, with all its underlying uncertainty, concealed under a tough skin.
Thomas: My friend favours Alan Rickman, but I have a sneaking preference for a very smooth, silver-haired Pierce Brosnan.
What do you hope your readers take away from this book?
Firstly, I hope readers will enjoy reading about a Tudor woman who was not one of Henry VIII’s wives and spent little time at the royal court. It is such a fascinating period in history, and I love the stories of Anne Boleyn as much as anyone. But affairs at court dominate our thinking about life in Tudor England. There was a lot going on in the rest of England, with some fascinating characters living interesting lives. Roberda is just one of them.
Secondly, I hope they will understand Roberda as a compassionate woman of her time, struggling against the odds, and trying to do her best for her family. Perhaps they might also find parallels with women’s lives today.
Thirdly, I hope many readers will visit beautiful Devon to see Roberda’s world.
Buy this Book
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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