There are some incredible women from history connected to our sites and also who have blue plaques dedicated to them. On this page we've gathered together some of their stories – find out who they were, what they did, and why we should remember them today.
Eleanor de Montfort
Lived: 1215–1275
Key fact: Held Dover Castle against a siege in 1265
Eleanor de Montfort had an important family. She was the sister of King Henry III, and was married to Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, a powerful baron. But it wasn't a happy family. When the Second Barons' War started between the barons and the king, Eleanor ended up on her husband's side, fighting against her brother. After her husband and eldest son were killed in the war, Eleanor could have given in and surrendered. Instead, she decided to use Dover Castle to protect her surviving family members. She kept her daughter safe at Dover, and helped her younger son escape to Europe.
In October 1265, prisoners inside Dover Castle who supported the king persuaded their guards to release them. After he heard what had happened, Prince Edward besieged the castle too, so that Eleanor was under attack from inside and outside the castle at the same time. She couldn’t win the battle, but she did negotiate an agreement. Eleanor was exiled to Europe, and her daughter went with her. All goods inside the castle other than personal clothes and weapons were given to the king, but all of Eleanor’s supporters were pardoned and free to go. Eleanor became a nun at an abbey in France. She died there in 1275.
Bess of Hardwick
Lived: 1527–1608
Key fact: Built two magnificent and innovative houses side by side at Hardwick
Bess came from a modest family but became very rich and important – she was even friends with Elizabeth I! By 1568, Bess had been widowed three times, and was very rich. Her fourth and final marriage was to one of the richest and most powerful men in the country, George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, but they soon fell out. Bess decided to move back to Hardwick in Derbyshire, where she was born, living in the medieval manor house which is now called Hardwick Old Hall, with her son William and his family. At the same time, Bess gradually remodelled the old house with grand and luxurious updates.
Then in 1590, Bess’ husband died, leaving her with an even bigger income: she was now enormously rich! With the money to start a brand new project, Bess built an even grander house at Hardwick, next to the Old Hall. It had huge windows, and a great hall that was two storeys high! Bess and her family moved into the new house, and the old one was used as extra accommodation for guests and servants. Bess spent the last years of her life building at Hardwick, leaving the two great houses to her son William when she died.
Margaret Cavendish
Lived: about 1623–1673
Key fact: Published books about philosophy, gender studies and religion
Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, was an author and philosopher. She lived during the 17th century, which saw lots of political change, including the English Civil War and the Restoration of the monarchy. Margaret was known for being eccentric – she was confident and liked to wear flamboyant clothes. People later called her ‘Mad Madge’, but Margaret was intelligent and ambitious. She published her first book of poetry, Poems and Fancies, in 1653. It included descriptions of her scientific theory of atomics, told through poems. A critic dismissed her work, and said it was even more extravagant than her clothes, but Margaret kept writing. She wrote about sex and gender, and about gender inequality.
After the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Margaret’s husband William Cavendish came back to England and Margaret helped him to run his estates, including Bolsover Castle. In the years after, Margaret wrote books about philosophy and religion, and also published plays, essays, criticisms and poetry, and well as early science fiction. In 1667, Margaret became the first woman to attend a meeting of the Royal Society – which was not repeated for other women afterwards for centuries. Lots of the writing about Margaret focuses on criticising her personality rather than talking about her work, but her books are still available today, over 300 years later.
Dido Elizabeth Belle
Lived: 1761–1804
Key fact: Challenging prejudices about race in Georgian Britain
Dido Belle was the daughter of a black woman called Maria Bell and a Royal Naval officer called Sir John Lindsay. She was raised by her great-uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield at Kenwood House in London. At this time, it was very unusual for a mixed-race child to be raised as part of an aristocratic British family, but we know that Dido was taught to read, write and play music. She also received an annual allowance of money, and supervised the dairy at Kenwood, which was a common hobby for Georgian ladies. When Lady Mansfield died, and Dido’s cousin Elizabeth was married, Dido stayed at Kenwood to care for her great-uncle in his old age. He treated her with affection and care, and Dido received a gift on her birthday each year.
Dido lived at a time when Britain’s wealth depended on the transatlantic slave trade. We don’t know whether she changed what Lord Mansfield thought about the slave trade, but it is recorded that he described it as ‘odious’ (very unpleasant). In his work as a judge, Lord Mansfield had to stick strictly to the law. He made an important ruling in court that helped a former slave called James Somerset, but this didn’t end the slave trade. It was finally abolished 35 years after James Somerset’s case. Another 26 years after that, the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 ended slavery across the British Empire.
When he died, Dido’s great-uncle left her £100 a year in a kind of pension, plus £500 (about £40,000 in today’s money). She married a French steward (a senior servant) called John Davinier, and they had three sons. The family lived in London until Dido died, in 1804.
Ada Lovelace
Lived: 1815–1852
Key fact: The world’s first computer programmer
Ada was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron. Her parents separated and she was brought up by her mother, Annabella, who encouraged her interest in mathematics and science. Ada married William, Baron King, who became Earl of Lovelace. When she was 17, Ada met Charles Babbage, the inventor of the first computer. It was designed to calculate lots of sums without the mistakes that people sometimes make. Ada started to work with Charles on his designs for an Analytical Engine, and because of this work, she is often called the world’s first computer programmer.
In 1843, Ada wrote to Charles Babbage, saying,
‘I do not believe that my father was (or ever could have been) such a Poet as I shall be an Analyst’
She was talking about her successful work, and had a good reason to be proud. At the same time, Ada was working on a translation of an Italian essay about Charles Babbage’s new machine. In one of her notes, she suggested an algorithm (a set of rules that a computer can follow to calculate sums or solve problems), which has been called the world’s first piece of computer code. Ada’s important work on computing has been recognised, and in 1979 the United States Department of Defense chose to name its new software Ada, in her honour. Today, Ada is commemorated with a blue plaque on her former home in St James's Square, London.
Emmeline Pankhurst
Lived: 1858–1928
Key fact: Campaigned for women to have the right to vote
Emmeline was born in Manchester in 1858 and went to her first women’s suffrage meeting with her mother when she was 14. In 1879, she married a barrister called Richard Pankhurst, who supported her cause. They had five children, and Christabel and Sylvia, the two eldest, joined the campaign for women’s right to vote. Emmeline and Christabel founded the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, and its members were called ‘suffragettes’. Their motto was ‘deeds not words’, and the suffragettes chained themselves to railings, disrupted meetings and damaged public property. Emmeline was a very active campaigner and this led to her being arrested and sentenced to three years in prison. She refused to eat, sleep or drink, so she was released, only to be arrested again. She was in prison for 30 days in total.
At the start of the First World War in 1914, Emmeline stopped campaigning to support the war effort. She adopted four babies, and then opened a nursery and adoption home for orphaned girls in 1917. In 1919, Emmeline left Britain and went to live in Canada. A limited number of women were given the right to vote in 1918, and when Emmeline returned to England in 1926, she was celebrated. She was chosen to run as a candidate to become an MP, but sadly died before the election in 1928. A few weeks afterwards, all women over the age of 21 were finally given the right to vote. Emmeline is commemorated with her daughter Christabel on a blue plaque on their former home in Notting Hill, London.
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