Her secret marriage to Sir Walter Raleigh precipitated a long period of royal disfavour for both her and her husband.

In her book, The Life of Elizabeth I (1998), British author and historian Alison Weir states Throckmorton and Raleigh's first child was conceived by July 1591, the couple were married "in great secrecy" in the autumn of 1591, and their son was born in March 1592.

[1] Weir states that Queen Elizabeth first became aware in May 1592 of the secret marriage and of Damerei's birth, despite Bess and Sir Walter's denials.

The couple had married without royal permission, but, significantly, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, was in on the secret and acting as godfather to the Raleighs' son.

Raleigh was released from the Tower in August 1592 and Bess in December 1592, at which time she joined her husband at Sherborne Castle, his Dorset estate.

[2] After the Union of Crowns in 1603, many courtiers travelled to Northamptonshire to greet the new queen, Anne of Denmark, and her children, and to seek royal favour.

An account from 1740 claims that, after Bess's death, Raleigh's head was returned to his tomb in St Margaret's, Westminster.

In later parts of the book, Elizabeth Raleigh is depicted as trying to get Walter to leave the court and live quietly with her at Sherborne, and feeling neglected and abandoned when he returned to the Queen's favor, and as loyally standing by him during his disgrace under King James and voluntarily sharing his twelve years of imprisonment in the Tower.