Hardwick Hall (grid reference SK463637), in Derbyshire, is an architecturally significant Elizabethan country house in England. Built between 1590 and 1597 for the formidable Bess of Hardwick, it was designed by the architect Robert Smythson, an exponent of the Renaissance style of architecture. Hardwick Hall is one of the earliest examples of the English interpretation of this style, which came into fashion having slowly spread from Florence. Its arrival in Britain fortuitously coincided with the period when it was no longer necessary or legal to fortify a domestic dwelling.