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 tells the story of Katherine Champernowne, Sir Walter Raleigh’s mother, and features many of the county’s well-loved places. The Dartington Bride, published March 2024, is the extraordinary tale of Lady Gabrielle Roberda Montgomery who travelled from France to Elizabethan England to marry into the prominent and well-connected Champernowne family.  Her third book, Mistress of Dartington Hall set in the time of the Spanish Armada, is due for publication July 2025 

Rosemary's first work of non-fiction, a biography of Katehrine Chameprnopwne, later the wife of John AStley, Queen Elizabeth's Governess will be  publicished by  Pen and Sword Books in 2026.

Rosemary also creates and wears sixteenth-century clothing, a passion which complements her love for bringing the past to life through a unique blend of theatre, history and re-enactment. Her appearances and talks for museums and community groups all over the West Country draw on her extensive research into sixteenth-century Devon, Tudor life and Tudor dress, particularly Elizabethan. An Audience with the Lady Katherine includes a full demonstration of the costume of a wealthy sixteenth century woman. 

Out of costume, Rosemary leads heritage tours of the gardens at Dartington Hall, a fourteenth-century manor house and now a historic visitor destination, events venue and thriving community of businesses, colleges and more.