 Mary seems to have aggravated, if not created, their problems by playing them off against each other.The Countess spread rumors that her husband Shrewsbury had been in a relationship with Mary, a charge which has never been proved or disproved, and in any case which she later retracted, but seems unlikely given Shrewsbury's disposition and increasingly poor health.On his death in 1590, Bess became Dowager Countess of Shrewsbury.