Sir Walter's ladies...

 

Elizabeth Throckmorton, was affectionately known as Bess. She was a maid to Queen Elizabeth I.  She was a wife to Sir Walter Raleigh.  However before she was his wife she was to be faithful to Queen Elizabeth. The Queen was not the type to give a blessing to a man who was already in her favor to marry one of her courtiers.  The Queen lavished Walter with riches and expected him to remain at her beck and call. However Bess was in love with him and didn’t back away. Quite the contrary Bess continued to go after the man she loved and in effect “won” in every sense of the word. 

Bess was described as being intelligent, passionate and courageous; all of these would not be typical of a Renaissance woman. She was not the chaste woman she was expected to be.  This is obviously proven by her child with Sir Walter conceived in the summer of 1591 when she hadn’t married him until that fall. The marriage was a very secret affair. All of these attributes seem very unbecoming a woman of such times.   

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

Queen Elizabeth I: [during a briefing with Walsingham and Bess] We shall have to look out a husband for you soon, Bess.
Elizabeth Throckmorton: Not too soon, my lady.
Sir Francis Walsingham: There are husbands to be had.
Queen Elizabeth I: [to Bess] Don't you want to be married?
Elizabeth Throckmorton: I'll want the marriage if I want the man.

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0055971/quotes

This is very uncharacteristic of a woman in the Renaissance. Typically marriage is the goal. She is portrayed as not wanting a marriage unless the man makes it worth the step.