Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

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Robert Dudley
Robert Dudley Leicester.jpg
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, c. 1564. In the background are the devices of the Order of Saint Michael and the Order of the Garter, of both Robert Dudley was a knight.
Born 24 June 1532
Died 4 September 1588 (aged 56)
Cornbury, Oxfordshire
Resting place Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick
Title 1st Earl of Leicester
Tenure 1564–1588
Other titles 1st Baron of Denbigh
Known for Favourite of Elizabeth I
Nationality English
Residence Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire
Leicester House, London
Wanstead, Essex
Locality West Midlands
North Wales
Wars and battles Ket's Rebellion
Campaign against Mary Tudor, 1553
Battle of St. Quentin
Dutch Revolt
Spanish Armada
Offices Master of the Horse
Lord Steward of the Royal Household
Privy Councillor
Governor-General of the United Provinces
Spouse(s) Amy Robsart
Lettice Knollys
Issue Sir Robert Dudley (illegitimate)
Robert Dudley, Lord Denbigh (died as a child)
Parents John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland
Jane Guilford

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester KG (24 June 1532 (?)[1] – 4 September 1588), was a favourite and close friend of Elizabeth I of England from her first year on the throne until his death. For many years he was a suitor for the Queen's hand, she giving him reason to hope. He was widely believed to be her lover.

Dudley's youth was overshadowed by the downfall of his family in 1553 after his father, the Duke of Northumberland, had unsuccessfully tried to establish Lady Jane Grey on the English throne. Robert Dudley was condemned to death but was rehabilitated with the help of Philip II of Spain, then England's king consort. On Queen Elizabeth's accession in November 1558 Dudley was appointed Master of the Horse. In October 1562 he became a privy councillor and in 1587 was appointed Lord Steward of the Royal Household.[2] In 1564 Dudley became Earl of Leicester and from 1563 one of the greatest landowners in North Wales and the English West Midlands by royal grants.

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was one of Elizabeth's leading statesmen, involved in domestic as well as foreign politics alongside William Cecil and Francis Walsingham. As patron of the Puritan movement he supported non-conforming preachers, but tried to mediate between them and the bishops within the Church of England. A champion also of the international Protestant cause, he led the English campaign in support of the Dutch Revolt from 1585–1587. His acceptance of the post of Governor-General of the United Provinces infuriated Queen Elizabeth. The expedition was a military and political failure and ruined the Earl financially. Leicester was engaged in many large-scale business ventures and a main backer of Francis Drake and other explorers and privateers. During the Spanish Armada the Earl was in overall command of the English land forces. In this function he invited Queen Elizabeth to visit her troops at Tilbury. This was the last of many events he organized over the years, the most spectacular being the festival at his seat Kenilworth Castle in 1575 on occasion of a three-week visit by the Queen. Dudley was a principal patron of the arts, literature, and the Elizabethan theatre.[3]

Robert Dudley's private life interfered with his court career and vice versa. When his first wife, Amy Robsart, fell down a flight of stairs and died in 1560 he was free to marry the Queen. However, the resulting scandal very much reduced his chances in this respect. Popular rumours that he had arranged for his wife's death continued throughout his life, despite the coroner's jury's verdict of accident. For eighteen years he did not remarry for Queen Elizabeth's sake and when he finally did, his new wife, Lettice Knollys, was permanently banished from court. This and the death of his only legitimate son and heir were heavy blows.[4] Shortly after the child's death in 1584 a virulent libel known as Leycester's Commonwealth was best-selling in England. It laid the foundation of a literary and historiographical tradition that often depicted the Earl as the Macchiavellian "master courtier"[5] and as a deplorable figure around Elizabeth I. More recent reasearch has led to a reassessment of his place in Elizabethan government and society.

Contents

[edit] Youth

Edward VI in 1547. Robert Dudley served as one of his companions.[6]

[edit] Education and first marriage

Robert Dudley was the fifth son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland and his wife Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Guilford.[7] The Dudleys were a "happy family" with thirteen children.[8] These were educated in Renaissance Humanism, having such instructors as John Dee,[9] Thomas Wilson, and Roger Ascham.[10] Roger Ascham thought that his pupil Robert had an uncommon talent for languages and writing, "exceed[ing] almost all other by nature", and regretted that he had done himself harm by preferring "Euclid's pricks and lines" (mathematics).[11] The craft of the courtier Robert learnt at the courts of Henry VIII and Edward VI.[12] "My bringing-up has been too long about Princes to misuse anything towards them.", he would summarize his lessons.[13]

In 1549 Robert Dudley participated in crushing Ket's Rebellion and probably first met Amy Robsart, whom he was to wed on 4 June 1550 in the presence of the young King Edward.[14] She was of the same age as the bridegroom and the daughter and heiress of Sir John Robsart, a gentleman-farmer of Norfolk. [15] It was a love-match and the young couple depended heavily on both their fathers' gifts, especially Robert's. John Dudley was now the most powerful adult in England. What made the situation palatable to him was that it strengthened his influence in a county where he had so far had little of it.[16] Lord Robert, as he was styled as a duke's son, became an important Norfolk gentleman and a Member of Parliament. His court career went on in parallel.[17]

[edit] Condemned and pardoned

On 6 July 1553 King Edward VI died and the Duke of Northumberland attempted to transfer the English Crown to Lady Jane Grey, his daughter-in-law, who was married to his second youngest son, Guilford Dudley.[18] Robert Dudley led a force of three hundred into Norfolk where Mary Tudor was assembling her followers. After some ten days in the county, securing several towns for Queen Jane, he took the town of King's Lynn, proclaiming her on the market-place.[19] The next day, 19 July, the reign of Queen Jane was over in London. Soon, the townsmen of King's Lynn seized Robert Dudley and the small rest of his troop and sent him to Framlingham Castle before Queen Mary.[20]

He was imprisoned in the Tower of London, attainted, and condemned to death, along with his father and four brothers. His father went to the scaffold.[21] In the Tower, Dudley's stay coincided with the imprisonment of his childhood friend,[22] Princess Elizabeth, who had been sent there on the orders of her half-sister, the Queen. It cannot be ruled out that they met in the Tower, even if not on the leads of the Bell Tower, as popular legend would have it.[23] Yet, Robert Dudley and his brother Guilford were allowed to walk on "the leads in the Bell Tower".[24] Guilford Dudley was executed in February 1554. The surviving brothers were released in the autumn; working their release, their mother (who died in January 1555) and their brother-in-law, Henry Sidney, had befriended the Spanish nobles around the new king consort, Prince Philip of Spain.[25] Robert Dudley later frequently acknowledged that it was King Philip "to whom he owed his life".[26]

The Dudley brothers were only welcome at court as long as King Philip was there,[27] otherwise they were even suspected of associating with people who conspired against Mary's regime.[28] In January 1557 Robert and Amy Dudley were allowed to repossess some of their former lands, but Dudley was already heaping up considerable debts.[29] In March of the same year he was at Calais where he was chosen to deliver personally to Queen Mary the happy news of her husband's return to England.[30] Ambrose, Robert, and Henry Dudley, the youngest brother, fought for Philip II at the Battle of St. Quentin in August 1557.[31] Henry Dudley was killed in the battle, before Robert's own eyes, as he said.[22]

[edit] Relationship with Elizabeth

Elizabeth I Coronation Miniature

Robert Dudley was associated with Princess Elizabeth in 1557–1558,[32] and he was counted among her special friends by Philip II's envoy to the English court a week before Queen Mary's death. He was quite possibly with Elizabeth when she first received news that she was Queen of England.[22] She immediately made him Master of the Horse, an important court position entailing close attendance on the Queen. The post suited him, as he was an excellent horseman and showed great professional interest in royal transport and accommodation, horse breeding, and the supply of horses for all occasions. Dudley was also entrusted with organizing and overseeing a large part of the Queen's coronation festivities.[33]

In April 1559 Dudley was elected a Knight of the Garter in the good company of England's only duke and an earl, causing great wonder.[34] The ambassador of the neutral Republic of Venice, by his office the most detached of the foreign envoys,[35] soon wrote home: "My Lord Robert Dudley is ... very intimate with Her Majesty. On this subject I ought to report the opinion of many but I doubt whether my letters may not miscarry or be read, wherefore it is better to keep silence than to speak ill."[36] Philip II had already been informed shortly before Dudley's decoration:

Lord Robert has come so much into favour that he does whatever he likes with affairs and it is even said that her majesty visits him in his chamber day and night. People talk of this so freely that they go so far as to say that his wife has a malady in one of her breasts[fn 1] and the Queen is only waiting for her to die to marry Lord Robert ... Matters have reached such a pass ... that ... it would ... be well to approach Lord Robert on your Majesty's behalf ... Your Majesty would do well to attract and confirm him in his friendship.[37]

Within a month, the Spanish ambassador de Feria counted Robert Dudley among those three persons who "rule everything".[fn 2] Visiting foreigners of princely rank were bidding for his goodwill. He acted as official host on state occasions and was himself a frequent guest at ambassadorial dinners.[38] Soon the talk among these circles was that Elizabeth and Dudley had secretly agreed to marry once Amy Dudley had been sent "into eternity".[39] "Lord Robert", the next Spanish ambassador, de Quadra, was convinced, was the man "in whom it is easy to recognize the king that is to be ... she will marry none but the favoured Robert."[40] Many of the nobility would not brook Dudley's new prominence, as they could not "put up with his being King."[41] Dudley's chief enemy at the time, the Duke of Norfolk,[42] threatened that Dudley "would not die in his bed",[43] and the Imperial envoy marvelled that he had "not been slain long ere this."[39] Rumours of plots to kill Dudley abounded; he took them seriously, taking to wear a light coat of mail under his clothes.[44] Among all classes, in England and abroad, gossip got under way that the Queen had children by Dudley; the rumours never quite ended for the rest of her life.[45]

[edit] Amy Dudley's death

Already in April 1559 court observers noted that Elizabeth never let Dudley from her side.[46] Lady Amy Dudley was living in different parts of the country since her ancestral manor house had been uninhabitable for years.[47] Her husband visited her for four days at Easter 1559 and she spent a month around London some weeks later;[48] it is unknown whether they saw each other ever again. Dudley was considering to establish himself in the region where she had moved; apparently he had been planning a visit to her for months, postponing it for court duties, when she was found dead at her home near Oxford on 8 September 1560. Dudley was with the Queen at Windsor Castle.[49]

Lord Robert Dudley c.1560

As it appeared Amy Dudley had been killed "by a fall from a pair of stairs".[50] Her widower was "much perplexed" and immediately aware of "the malicious talk that I know the wicked world will use".[51] Staying near London, away from the putative crime scene, he pressed for an impartial inquiry which had already begun in the form of an inquest. According to the verdict she had died from an accident.[52] It was widely believed, however, that Dudley had arranged his wife's death to be able to marry the Queen. The scandal played into the hands of those nobles and politicians who desperately tried to prevent Elizabeth from marrying him.[53] Some of these, as William Cecil and Nicholas Throckmorton, made use of it,[54] but did not themselves believe Dudley to be guilty of murdering his wife.[55] Throckmorton apparently thought, as did other colleagues, that Lady Amy had "by chance broken her neck."[56]

Modern historians consider murder to be very unlikely.[57] In 1956 it was suggested in the English Historical Review by Ian Aird, a professor of medicine, that Amy Dudley might have had breast cancer which, through metastatic cancerous deposits in the spine, might have caused her neck to break by even a small shock.[58][fn 3] This explanation has become widely accepted.[59] Suicide has also often been considered since the 19th century.[60] Thus, David Loades argues that Amy Dudley, mortally ill, might have planned to kill herself, while her husband knew of this.[61]

[edit] Marriage hopes and proposals

Elizabeth remained close with Dudley and he pursued his suit for the Queen's hand in an atmosphere of political intrigue.[62] His wife's and his father's shadows haunted his prospects. Pope Pius IV explained to one of his cardinals:

the greater part of the nobility of that island take ill the marriage which the said queen designs to enter with the Lord Robert Dudley ... they fear that if he becomes king, he will want to avenge the death of his father, and extirpate the nobility of that kingdom.[63]

In October 1562 Elizabeth fell ill with smallpox and, believing her life to be in danger, she asked the Privy Council to make Robert Dudley Protector of the Realm and to give him a suitable title together with twenty thousand pounds a year. There was universal relief when she recovered her health; Dudley was made a privy councillor.[64] He was already deeply involved in foreign politics, including Scotland.[65] In 1563 Elizabeth suggested Dudley as a consort to the widowed Mary Queen of Scots; this would be ideal to achieve firm amity between England and Scotland, diminishing the influence of foreign powers.[66] Her proposal was also to be a compensation for not marrying Dudley herself, "whom, if it might lie in our power, we would make owner or heir of our own kingdom."[67] Mary of Scotland at first inquired if Elizabeth was serious, wanting above all to know her chances of inheriting the English crown.[68] Elizabeth let it be known, repeatedly, that she was only prepared to declare Mary her acknowledged heir on condition that she marry Dudley, "and ... none else".[69] Mary's advisors warmed much to the prospect of having Dudley as their prince.[70] In September 1564 Elizabeth bestowed on him the earldom of Leicester, a move, in planning for years, which made him more acceptable to Mary.[71] Cecil hinted to the Scots that more was to follow.[72] In early 1565 Thomas Randolph, the English ambassador to Scotland, was told by the Scottish queen that she would accept the proposal.[73] To his amazement, Dudley was not to be moved to comply:

But a man of that nature I never found any ... he whom I go about to make as happy as ever was any, to put him in possession of a kingdom, to lay in his naked arms a most fair ... lady ... nothing regardeth the good that shall ensue unto him thereby ... but so uncertainly dealeth that I know not where to find him.[74]

Dudley indeed made it clear to the Scots at the beginning that he was not a candidate for Mary's hand and forthwith behaved with passive resistance.[75] He also worked in the interest of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Mary's eventual choice of husband.[76] Elizabeth herself had wavered as to declaring Mary her heir;[77] still she finally told the Spanish ambassador that the proposal fell through because the Earl of Leicester refused to cooperate.[78]

By 1564 Dudley had realised that his chances of becoming Elizabeth's consort were small.[79] At the same time he could not "consider ... without great repugnance", as he said, that she chose another husband.[80] Confronted with other marriage projects, Elizabeth continued to make the impression that she still very much would like to marry him.[81] Dudley was seen as a serious candidate until the mid-1560s and later.[82] To remove this threat to Habsburg and Valois suitors, between 1565 and 1578, four German and French princesses were mooted as brides for Leicester, as a consolation for giving up Elizabeth and his resistance to her foreign marriage projects.[83] These he had and would continue to sabotage.[84] In 1566 Dudley formed the opinion that Elizabeth would never marry, recalling that she had always said so since she was eight years old; but he still was hopeful—she had also assured him he would be her choice in case she changed her mind (and married an Englishman).[85] He was not alone in this assessment; the previous year, Philip II had written: "and after all, she will either not marry or else marry Robert, to whom she has always been so much attached ... the Queen is in love with Robert".[86]

Sir Christopher Hatton, favourite of Elizabeth I, and a friend of the Earl of Leicester. Both men were important in organizing court life.

[edit] Life with the Queen

Even as she did not marry him, Dudley's intimacy with the Queen gave him a type of influence that other councillors hardly had.[87] His apartments at court adjoined the Queen's, in every residence.[88] Another side of such privileges was Elizabeth's extreme possessiveness of his person and company. For more than two decades he would not be allowed to go abroad and even short absences from court were taken offence with.[89] Dudley's presence was crucial to the smooth functioning of the court and Elizabeth's well-being.[90] When the Earl was absent for a few weeks in 1578, Sir Christopher Hatton reported a growing emergency: "This court wanteth your presence. Her majesty is unaccompanied and, I assure you, the chambers are almost empty."[91]

Personally, Elizabeth's "surrogate husband",[92] Dudley was an unofficial consort on many ceremonial occasions, sometimes acting in the Queen's stead.[93] In a personal letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury, an old friend of Leicester's, Elizabeth said she considered Leicester as "another ourself".[94] Dudley largely assumed charge of court ceremonial[95] and organized hundreds of small and large festivities,[96] being responsible for entertaining Elizabeth's guests.[97]

[edit] Ancestral and territorial ambition

Kenilworth Castle: the gatehouse built by the Earl of Leicester[98]

After the Duke of Northumberland's attainder the entire Dudley inheritance had disappeared. His sons had to start from scratch in rebuilding the family fortunes, as they had renounced any rights to their father's former possessions or titles when their own attainder had been lifted in 1558.[99] In the first years of the new reign Dudley's financial situation was very precarious and he could only finance the lifestyle expected of a royal favourite by large loans from City of London merchants. With time Elizabeth's material generosity towards Dudley proved singular, his most important sources of income deriving from monopolies and export licences.[100] In 1563, in anticipation of his peerage,[101] the Queen granted Dudley Kenilworth Manor, Castle, and Park, a large Warwickshire possession of the Crown, together with the lordships of Denbigh and Chirk in North Wales. Other grants were to follow.[102] All in all, Leicester and his elder brother, Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, presided over the greatest aristocratic interest in the West Midlands and North Wales.[103]

[edit] North Wales

At the time Robert Dudley entered his new Welsh possessions there had existed a tenurial chaos for more than half a century. Some leading local families benefitted from this to the detriment of the Crown's revenue. To remedy this situation, Dudley effected compositions with the tenants.[104] In exchange for newly agreed rents all tenants that had so far only been copyholders were raised to the status of freeholders at one stroke. Additionally, all tenants' rights of common were secured as were the boundaries of the commons, striking a balance between property rights and protection against enclosure.[105] The increase in revenue Leicester achieved for himself was much lower than traditionally thought.[106] Simon Adams, who has researched Dudley's Welsh connections in depth,[107] concludes: "the tenurial reformation he undertook in the lordships of Denbigh and Chirk reveals an administrative ability that has often been overlooked. This was an ambitious resolution of a long-standing problem ... without parallel in Elizabeth's reign."[108]

Within Denbighshire Leicester challenged and checked the complete domination of the county by the Salusbury family, a situation which pleased other families.[109] Dudley set about developing the town of Denbigh with large building projects;[110] the church he planned, though, was never finished, being too ambitious. It would not only have been the largest,[111] but also the first post-Reformation church in England and Wales built according to a plan where the preacher was to take the centre instead of the altar, thus stressing the importance of preaching in the Protestant Church. In vain Leicester tried to have the nearby episcopal see of St. Asaph transferred to Denbigh.[112] He also encouraged and supported the translation of the Bible and the Common Prayer Book into Welsh.[113]

Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, Robert Dudley's brother

[edit] Warwick and Kenilworth

Ambrose and Robert Dudley were very close, in matters of business and personally;[114] they even shared the same London town mansion.[115] Through their paternal grandmother, they descended from the Hundred Years War heroes, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.[116] Robert Dudley was especially fascinated by the Beauchamp descent and, with his brother, adopted the ancient heraldic device of the earls of Warwick, the bear and ragged staff,[117] displaying it wherever he could.[115] Due to such genealogical aspects the West Midlands held a special significance for him.[118] He went to great lengths and spent absurd sums to acquire specific lands in his attempt to rebuild and perpetuate the House of Dudley.[119] The town of Warwick felt this during a magnificent visit by the Earl in 1571 for a celebration of the feast of the order of Saint Michael,[120] with which he had been invested by the French king in 1566. His graceful figure made such an impression that he was accounted "the goodliest [best looking] male personage in England" by the flattered city fathers.[121] By these festivities Leicester celebrated himself as the heir of the Beauchamps. Lord Leycester's Hospital, a charity for aged and injured soldiers still functioning today, he founded shortly afterwards in the same spirit.[122]

Kenilworth Castle was the centre of Leicester's ambitions to "plant" himself in the region.[123] He holidayed at the castle almost every year from 1570.[108] In July 1575 he staged a final allegorical bid for the Queen's hand in the form of a nineteen-day-festival. There were a Lady of the Lake, a swimming papier-mâché dolphin with a little orchestra in its belly, fireworks, masques, hunts, and popular entertainments like bear baiting.[124] The whole scenery of landscape, artificial lake, castle, and renaissance garden was ingeniuosly used for the entertainment.[125] When Elizabeth arrived, time stood literally still, as the great tower clock of the castle was stopped for the time of her visit.[126]

[edit] Private life

[edit] Personal traits

Confronted by Puritan friends with his lifestyle and certain rumours about it, Dudley defended himself:

I stand on the top of the hill, where ... the smallest slip seemeth a fall ... I may fall many ways and have more witnesses thereof than many others who perhaps be no saints neither ... for my faults ... they lie before Him who I have no doubt but will cancel them as I have been and shall be most heartily sorry for them.[127]

Prone to sulking and with a short temper, Robert Dudley was yet of a warm and cheerful character.[128] His friends, not least his Queen, noted his "very good ... nature, not given by any means to seek revenge of former matters past".[129] He was a generous if demanding master,[130] and gave to poor people, petitioners, and prisons on a daily basis. His accessibility was well-known.[100]

Somewhat fastidious and averse to bad smell, Leicester inspired John Harington to construct a water closet while talking with him about sanitary problems.[100] Dudley displayed his tall[fn 4] and handsome appearance in the finest apparel and was consistently overspending.[131] He collected beautiful, costly things, including model ships and technical instruments,[132] and he was among the first to use Oriental carpets as floor coverings as opposed to window hangings.[115] In foods and wines his taste was exquisite, with a predilection for exotic fruits and salads—and French cooks; he disliked banquets and drinking, however. Like all the court Dudley constantly lost sums in play. Nevertheless, he had a sense for economizing in his household. Dudley was always a sportsman, riding, hunting, a jouster in the tiltyard and an indefatigable tennis-player.[100] To relax and be with himself he would go fishing; in the Thames, or even in the Zuiderzee.[133]

[edit] Love affairs

Robert Dudley had to be secretive in any love life he had.[134] With Lady Douglas Sheffield of the Howard family, he had a serious relationship from either before she became a widow in 1568,[135] or shortly afterwards.[136] He explained to Lady Sheffield that he could not marry, not even in order to beget a Dudley heir, without his "utter overthrow":[137]

You must think it is some marvellous cause ... that forceth me thus to be cause almost of the ruin of mine own house ... my brother you see long married and not like to have children, it resteth so now in myself; and yet such occasions is there ... as if I should marry I am sure never to have [the Queen's] favour".[138]

Although in this letter Leicester said he still loved her as he did at the beginning, he offered her his help to find another husband for reasons of respectability, if she so wished.[139] In 1573 it was reported that Douglas and her sister Frances were fighting over the Earl, being "very far in love with him, as they long have been ... the queen thinketh not well of them, and not the better of him."[140] In 1574 Lady Douglas gave birth to a son, also called Robert Dudley.

Lettice, Countess of Leicester by George Gower c.1585

Lettice Knollys was the beautiful wife of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex and first cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth on her mother's side.[141] Leicester had flirted with her in the summer of 1565, causing a prolonged outbreak of jealousy in the Queen.[142] When Lord Essex went to Ireland in 1573, they probably became lovers.[143] This caused much talk, and "great enmity between the Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Essex", when the latter came home in December 1575.[144] Leicester was in support of sending Essex back to Ireland,[145] where he died soon of dysentery. Rumours of poison, administered by the Earl of Leicester, were soon abroad. An official investigation conducted by Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland and Leicester's brother-in-law, did not find any indications of foul play but "a disease appropriate to this country ... whereof ... died many".[146] The rumours continued.[147]

The prospect of marriage to the Countess of Essex on the horizon, Leicester wished to end his relationship with Lady Douglas Sheffield. She accepted his offer to provide for her only after a stormy meeting in the gardens of Greenwich,[148] and refused to surrender custody of their son. Later young Robert was in his father's custody, however he came there.[149] Leicester was very fond of him and gave him an excellent education; he often made a trip to visit him,[150] and bequeathed to him the bulk of his estate after Ambrose Dudley's death.[151] In 1579 Douglas Sheffield remarried. In 1603, Elizabeth I having died, the younger Robert Dudley tried unsuccessfully to prove that his parents had married thirty years earlier in a secret ceremony. In that case he would have been able to claim the earldoms of Leicester and Warwick.[152] His mother supported him, but maintained that she had been strongly against raising the issue.[153] Leicester himself had consistently treated the boy as illegitimate, having styled him "my base son" throughout.[154][fn 5]

[edit] Married life

On 21 September 1578 Leicester married Lady Essex at his house at Wanstead with only a handful of relatives and friends present.[155] He did not dare to tell the Queen of his marriage; nine months later, Leicester's enemies at court acquainted her with the situation, causing a furious outburst.[156] Nevertheless, she already had been aware of his marriage plans a year earlier.[157] Leicester's hope of an heir was fulfilled in 1581 when another Robert Dudley, styled Lord Denbigh, was born.[158] The child died aged three in 1584, leaving behind disconsolate parents.[159] Leicester found comfort in God, since, as he wrote, "princes ... seldom do pity according to the rules of charity."[160] The Earl turned out to be a devoted husband:[161] In 1583 the French ambassador wrote of "the Earl of Leicester and his lady to whom he is much attached", and "who has much influence over him".[162] To all of his four stepchildren, who also lived in Leicester's houses,[163] he was a concerned parent, though not their legal guardian.[164]

The marriage of her favourite hurt the Queen deeply. She never accepted it,[165] humiliating Leicester in public: "my open and great disgraces delivered from her Majesty's mouth".[166] In 1583 she told ambassadors that Lettice Dudley was "a she-wolf" and her husband a traitor and a cuckold.[167] Then again, she would be as fond of him as ever.[168] Lady Leicester's social life was much curtailed.[169] Even her movements could pose a political problem, as Francis Walsingham explained: "I see not her Majesty disposed to use the services of my Lord of Leicester. There is great offence taken at the conveying down of his lady."[170] The Earl stood by his wife, asking his colleagues to intercede for her—to no avail:[171] "She [the Queen] doth take every occasion by my marriage to withdraw any good from me", Leicester wrote still after seven years of marriage.[172]

[edit] Colleagues and politics

Robert Dudley in 1576, aged 44, as is stated in the margin. Miniature by Nicholas Hilliard[173]

As a privy councillor Robert Dudley was one of the most conscientious and most frequently attending, heavily involved in day-to-day business.[174] In 1578 the Spanish ambassador Bernardino de Mendoza described Elizabeth's government: "although there are seventeen councillors ... the bulk of the business really depends upon the Queen, Leicester, Walsingham and Cecil".[175] The last three have been called "the triumvirate" by Alan Haynes;[176] while, for the first thirty years of Elizabeth's reign, Simon Adams sees William Cecil and Robert Dudley as the most important councillors, working intimately with the Queen.[177]

In 1560 the diplomat Nicholas Throckmorton advocated vehemently against Dudley marrying the Queen, but Dudley won him over in 1562.[178] Throckmorton henceforth became his political advisor and intimate. After Throckmorton's death in 1571 there quickly evolved a political alliance between the Earl of Leicester and Sir Francis Walsingham, soon to be Secretary of State. Together they worked for a militant Protestant foreign policy.[179] There also existed a family relationship between them after Walsingham's daughter had married Philip Sidney, Leicester's favourite nephew.[180] Leicester, after some initial jealousy on his part, also became a very good friend of Sir Christopher Hatton, himself one of Elizabeth's favourites.[92]

Robert Dudley's relationship with William Cecil, Lord Burghley was complicated. They have traditionally been seen as enemies, and Cecil behind the scenes sabotaged Dudley's political moves to obtain the Queen's hand.[181] Yet they were on very friendly terms,[182] having an efficient working relationship[183] which never broke down.[184] On the whole, Cecil and Dudley were in concord about policies, while disagreeing much about some issues, such as the Queen's marriage and some areas of foreign policy.[185] Cecil much favoured the suit of Francois, Duke of Anjou in 1578–1581 for Elizabeth's hand, while Leicester was among its strongest opponents,[84] even contemplating exile in a letter to Burghley.[186] The Anjou courtship, at the end of which Leicester and several dozen noblemen and gentlemen escorted the French prince in triumph to Antwerp,[187] also touched the question of English intervention in the Netherlands to help the rebellious provinces. This debate stretched over a decade until 1585, with the Earl of Leicester as the foremost interventionist. Burghley was more cautious of military engagement, while in a dilemma over his Protestant predilections.[188] In 1572 the vacant post of Lord High Treasurer was offered to Leicester; he declined and proposed Burghley, stating that the latter was the much more suitable candidate.[189] In later years, being at odds, Dudley felt like reminding Cecil of their "thirty years friendship".[190]

Sir Francis Walsingham, he trapped Mary Queen of Scots in the Babington Plot. Leicester corresponded intensely with him for decades.[191]

[edit] Turning against Mary Stuart

Until about 1571/1572 Dudley supported Mary Stuart's succession rights to the English throne.[192] He was also, from the early 1560s, on the best terms with the Protestant lords in Scotland thereby supporting the English or, as he saw it, the Protestant interest.[193] After Mary Stuart's flight into England (1568) Leicester was, unlike Cecil,[194] in favour of restoring her as Scottish queen under English control, preferably with a Protestant English husband—as long as he himself would not be the intended bridegroom (which had been suggested).[195] "For there is danger from delivering of her to her Government, so is there danger in retaining her in prison",[196] he wrote in 1571. Shortly after the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572 Cecil, Leicester, and Elizabeth engaged in a top-secret plan to extradite Mary to the Scottish regency government, who would then immediately execute her.[197] The scheme failed due to the unexpected death of the Scottish regent. In 1577 Leicester had a courteous meeting with Mary, lending a sympathetic ear to her complaints of captivity.[198] As Mary might be their future sovereign Elizabeth's ministers had cause to show their goodwill towards the captive Queen now and then;[199] Leicester's was at an end in 1584. He was stung by the publication of the Catholic anti-Leicester libel, Leycester's Commonwealth, thinking that Mary was involved in its conception. "Leicester has lately told a friend that he will persecute you to the uttermost", she was informed. [200]

Dudley was probably behind the Bond of Association, which the Privy Council gave out in October 1584. Being circulated in the country, the subscribers swore that, should Elizabeth be assassinated (as William the Silent had been a few months earlier), not only the killer but also the royal person who would benefit from this should be executed.[201] In 1586 Walsingham uncovered the Babington Plot; after the Ridolfi Plot (1571), and the Throckmorton Plot (1583), this was a further scheme to assassinate Elizabeth in which Mary was involved. Following her conviction, Leicester, then in the Netherlands, vehemently urged her execution in his letters; he despaired of Elizabeth's security after so many plots.[202] Back in England, he met James VI's delegate in his coach. The Scot had been sent to demand that Mary's life be spared.[203] After having bluntly emphasized how desireable Mary's death would be to James, Leicester was left with the impression that the King would not try to avenge his mother's execution, his succession to the English Crown provided. King James' own tacit, but important, approval followed between the lines in a sophisticated letter to the Earl.[204]

[edit] Patronage

Sir Francis Drake. Leicester was happy to invest in his ventures and invite him to play cards.[205]

[edit] Exploration and business

Robert Dudley was a pioneer of new industries; interested in many things from tapestries to mining, he was engaged in the first joint stock companies in English history.[206] The Earl also concerned himself with relieving unemployment among the poor.[207] Due to his interests in trade and exploration, as well as his debts, his contacts with the London cityfathers were intense.[100] He was an enthusiastic investor in the Muscovy Company and the Merchant Adventurers.[208] English relations with Morocco were also handled by Leicester. This he did in the manner of his private business affairs, underpinned by a patriotic and missionary zeal (commercially, these relations were a loosing business).[209] Much interest he took in the careers of John Hawkins and Francis Drake, from early on, and he was a principal backer of Drake's circumnavigation of the world. Robert and Ambrose Dudley were also principal patrons of Martin Frobisher's 1576 search for the Northwest Passage.[210] Later Leicester acquired his own ship, the Galleon Leicester, which he employed in a luckless expedition under Edward Fenton, but also under Drake. As much as profit, English seapower was on his mind and accordingly, Leicester became a friend and leading supporter of Dom António, the exiled claimant to the Portuguese throne after 1580.[211]

[edit] Learning, theatre, the arts, and literature

Apart from their legal function, the Inns of Court were the Tudor equivalents of gentlemen's clubs.[212] In 1561, grateful for favours he had done them, the Inner Temple admitted Dudley as their most privileged member, their "Lord and Governor".[213] He was allowed to build his own apartments on the premises and organized grand festivities and performances in the Temple.[214] As Chancellor of Oxford University Dudley was highly committed,[215] if somewhat authoritarian. He frowned much upon widespread truancy, the dangerous play of football and the unseemly clothing of students.[216] Leicester enforced the Thirty-nine Articles and the oath of royal supremacy at Oxford, and obtained from the Queen an incorporation by Act of Parliament for the university.[217] He was also instrumental in refounding Oxford University Press.[218] He installed the pioneer of international law, Alberico Gentili, and the exotic theologian, Antonio del Corro, at Oxford; over del Corro's controversial case, Leicester even sacked the university's Vice-Chancellor.[219]

From at least 1559 Lord Robert Dudley had his own company of players,[220] and in 1574 obtained for them the first royal patent that was ever issued to actors, so that they could tour the country unmolested by the authorities. In 1577 he helped James Burbage, the former joiner and now head of Leicester's Men, to erect the first permanent English theatre building, called: The Theatre.[221] Again in 1559 Robert Dudley suggested to the tailor John Stow to become a chronicler, according to Stow's own words in 1604.[222]

Queen Elizabeth at Wanstead House. The figures in the background may include representations of Robert and Lettice Dudley.[223] Painting by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder

Leicester possessed one of the largest and finest collections of paintings in Elizabethan England,[224] being the first great private collector.[225] He was a principal patron of Nicholas Hilliard,[173] a garden design enthusiast, and interested in all aspects of Italian culture.[226] The Earl's circle of scholars and literary men included, among others, his nephew Philip Sidney, the astrologer and Hermeticist John Dee (his former tutor), his secretaries Edward Dyer and Jean Hotman, as well as John Florio and Gabriel Harvey.[227] Through Harvey, Edmund Spenser found employment at Leicester House on the Strand, the Earl's palatial town house; there he wrote his first works of poetry.[228] Many years after Leicester's death, Spenser wistfully recalled this time in his Prothalamion,[229] and in 1591 remembered the late Earl with his poem The Ruins of Time.[230]

[edit] Religion

Robert Dudley's religion, which had always been Protestant, showed apparent inconsistencies during the early years of Elizabeth's reign.[231] He was the most significant patron to returning Puritan exiles,[232] and protected as well radical Protestants as Catholics from the church authorities.[233] Dudley supported the French Huguenots but also had excellent contacts with the papacy.[234] By the later 1560s he was fully identified with advanced Protestantism;[235] in 1568 the French ambassador described him as "totally of the Calvinist religion".[236] After the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572, this trait in him became the more pronounced, and he continued as the chief patron of English Puritans and a champion of international Calvinism.[237]

Dudley troubled himself considerably with supporting non-conforming preachers, while warning them against too radical positions, which, he argued, would only endanger what reforms had been hitherto achieved.[238] He would not condone the overthrow of the existing church model because of "trifles",[239] he said: "I am not, I thank God, fantastically persuaded in religion but ... do find it soundly and godly set forth in this universal Church of England."[240] Accordingly, he tried to smooth things out and, among other moves, initiated several disputations between the more radical elements of the church and the episcopal side so that they "might make reconcilement".[241] Dudley's influence in ecclesiastical matters was considerable until it declined in the 1580s under Archbishop John Whitgift.[242] Dudley had been instrumental in preferring at least six of the earliest Elizabethan bishops, all exiles, to their sees; among them Edmund Grindal, Edwin Sandys and Thomas Young.[243] All these bishops felt themselves obliged to him.[244] Many of the highest clergy had been and considered themselves as his servants. The Earl expected them to follow his orders and, in 1578, he scolded Bishop Edmund Scambler and his colleagues for forgetting formerly held ideals: "The care of this world truly hath choked you all, yea almost all".[245]

Leicester was especially interested in the furtherance of preaching, which was the main concern of moderate Puritanism.[246] He backed this brand of Puritanism in counties where he had influence and habitually appeared at public preaching exercises when travelling in the country.[247] On the other hand, in his household Leicester employed Catholics like Sir Christopher Blount, who held a position of trust and of whom he was personally fond. The Earl's patronage of and reliance on individuals was as much a matter of old family loyalties or personal relationships as of religious allegiances.[248] Such ties explain Leicester's concern for Edmund Campion,[249] who had been the Earl's protégé at Oxford University and in his service for a time, before he went abroad to become a Jesuit.[250] After his arrest in 1581, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London in a tiny cell where he could neither stand nor lie down. Leicester and the Earl of Bedford examined him in Leicester House, offering him his life and liberty if he returned to the Protestant faith. Campion would not do that. A contemporary Italian account reports: "The Earls greatly admired his virtue and learning ... and said it was a pity he was a papist ... They ordered his heavy irons to be removed and that [he be given] a bed and other necessaries".[249]

[edit] Governor-General of the United Provinces

During the 1570s Leicester built an excellent relationship with Prince William of Orange and became generally popular in the Netherlands. Since 1577 he pressed for an English military expedition to succour the rebels, led by himself (as the Dutch strongly wished).[251] In 1584, the Prince of Orange was murdered, political chaos ensued, and in July 1585 Antwerp fell to the Duke of Parma.[252] An English intervention was inevitable. It was decided that Leicester would go to the Netherlands and "be their chief as heretofore was treated of", as he phrased it in August 1585.[253] He was alluding to the recently signed Treaty of Nonsuch, in which his position and authority as "governor-general" for the Netherlands had only been vaguely defined.[254]

At the end of December 1585 Leicester was received in the Netherlands, according to one correspondent, in the manner of a second Charles V; a Dutch town official already noted in his minute-book that the Earl was going to have "absolute power and authority".[255] After a progress through several cities and so many festivals he arrived in The Hague,[256] where he was urged to accept the title governor-general by the States General of the United Provinces. He accepted after a fortnight of negotiations,[257] and became their ruler with a Council of State to support him (the members of which he nominated himself).[258]

Leicester as Governor-General, c.1586–1587

The Earl remained a loyal subject of Elizabeth, making it possible to contend that she was now sovereign over the Netherlands. According to Leicester, this was what the Dutch desired.[259] From the start such a position for him had been implied in the Dutch propositions to the English and in their instructions to Leicester, as it was consistent with the Dutch understanding of the Treaty of Nonsuch.[260] The English queen, however, in her instructions to Leicester, had expressly declined to accept offers of sovereignty from the United Provinces, while still demanding of the States to take the "advice" of her lieutenant-general in matters of government.[261] Her ministers on both sides of the Channel hoped that she would accept the compromise as a fait accompli and that she could even be persuaded to add the rebellious provinces to her possessions.[262] Instead her fury knew no bounds, and Elizabeth sent Sir Thomas Heneage to read out her letters of disapproval before the States General, Leicester having to stand nearby.[263] Elizabeth's "commandment"[264] was that the Governor-General immediately resign his post in a formal ceremony in the same place where he had taken it.[263] After much pleading with her and protests by the Dutch, it was postulated that the governor-generalship had been bestowed not by a Sovereign, but by the States General and thereby by the people.[265] Still, the damage was irreversible: "My credit hath been cracked ever since her Majesty sent Sir Thomas Heneage hither",[266] Leicester recapitulated in October 1586.

Elizabeth demanded of her Lieutenant-General to refrain at all cost from any decisive action with Parma, which was the opposite of what Leicester wished and what the Dutch expected of him.[267] After some initial successes,[268] the unexpected surrender of the strategically important town of Grave was a serious blow to English morale. Leicester's fury turned on the town's governor, Baron Hemart, whom he had executed despite all pleadings. The Dutch nobility was astonished at such a treatment of one from their midst: even the Prince of Orange would not have dared such an outrage, Leicester was warned; but, he wrote, he would not be intimidated by the fact that Hemart "was of a good house".[269]

The great Dutch statesmen, who were mostly politiques, became disenchanted with Leicester by his enthusiastic fostering of what he called "the religion".[270] His greatest friends were the Calvinists at Utrecht, a city and province in constant opposition to Holland and Zeeland.[271] These provinces engaged in a lucrative trade with Spain which was very helpful to either side's war effort. Encouraged by the poorer sections of Dutch society, Leicester enforced a ban on this trade with the enemy, thus alienating the wealthy Dutch merchants. He also effected a fiscal reform. In order to centralize finances and to replace the highly corrupt tax farming with direct taxation, a new Council of Finances was established, which was not under supervision of the Council of State. The Dutch members of the Council of State were outraged at these bold steps.[272] English peace talks with Spain behind Leicester's back, which had started within days after he had left England, further undermined his position among the Dutch leaders.[273] Elizabeth denied to send promised funds and troops, much aggravating the lot of her soldiers.[274] "They cannot get a penny; their credit is spent; they perish for want of victuals and clothing in great numbers ... I assure you it will fret me to death ere long to see my soldiers in this case and cannot help them.",[275] Leicester wrote home. Four months later, mass desertions occurring, he commented: "I do but wonder to see they do not rather kill us all than run away, God help us!"[276]

In September 1586 there was a skirmish at Zutphen, in which Philip Sidney was wounded. He died a few weeks later. His uncle's grief was great.[277] In December Leicester returned to England. In his absence, William Stanley and Rowland York, two Catholic officers whom Leicester had placed in command of Deventer and the fort of Zutphen, respectively, went over to Parma, along with their key fortresses—a disaster for the Anglo-Dutch coalition in every respect.[278] His Dutch friends, as his English critics, pressed for Leicester's return to the Netherlands. Shortly after his arrival in June 1587 the English-held port of Sluis was lost to Parma, Leicester being unable to assert his authority over the Dutch allies, who refused to cooperate in relieving the town.[279] After this blow, Elizabeth, who ascribed it to "the malice or other foul error of the States",[280] was happy to enter into peace negotiations with the Duke of Parma. By December 1587 the differences between Elizabeth and the Dutch politicians, with Leicester in between, had become insurmountable; he asked to be recalled by the Queen and gave up his post.[281] He was irredeemably in debt because of his personal financing of the war.[282]

Leicester's performance in the Netherlands has always been condemned as a failure.[283] So much of a failure, that it triggered the formation of the Dutch Republic as a new form of self-government.[284] The Earl misread the nature of the Dutch political situation; he was not up to the complicated and faction-ridden reality.[285] The unity within the English troops was risked by the commanders' quarrels with Sir John Norris, who was Leicester's deputy and difficult to get on with.[286] Leicester was sincerely committed to the Dutch Protestant cause as he saw it,[287] nor did he lack personal courage in the field;[283] and he faced, with few and heavily underfunded forces, the most formidable army in Europe.[288]

The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I, painted after Leicester's death. She possibly wears the necklace of six hundred pearls the Earl bequeathed to her in his will.[289]

[edit] Armada and death

In July 1588, as the Spanish Armada came nearer, the Earl of Leicester was appointed "Lieutenant and Captain-General of the Queen's Armies and Companies".[290] At Tilbury on the Thames he erected a camp for the defence of London, should the Spaniards indeed land. Leicester vigorously counteracted the disorganization he found everywhere, having few illusions about "all sudden hurley-burleys", as he wrote to Walsingham.[291] When the Privy Council was already considering to disband the camp to save money Leicester held against it, setting about to plan with the Queen a visit to her troops. On the day she gave her famous speech he walked beside her horse bare-headed.[292]

After the Armada the Earl was seen riding in splendour through London "as if he were a king".[293] For the past weeks he had usually dined with the Queen, a unique favour.[293] On his way to Buxton in Derbyshire to take the baths, he died at Cornbury Park near Oxford on 4 September 1588. A man named Smith claimed to have bewitched the Earl into eternity; the Privy Council decided on malaria and let Smith go free.[294] Apart from malaria,[100] historians have considered stomach cancer, as his health had not been good for some time.[295] Mary S. Lovell has opted for a heart condition.[296] Only a week before his death, Leicester had said farewell to his Queen. Elizabeth was devastated, locking herself in her apartment for a few days, until Lord Burghley had the door broken.[297] Her nickname for Dudley was "Eyes", which was symbolized by the sign of ôô in their letters to each other.[298] Elizabeth kept the letter he had sent her only six days before his death in her bedside treasure box, writing on it "his last letter." It was still there when she died fifteen years later.[299]

The tomb of Robert and Lettice Dudley, erected by the Countess. Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick

Leicester was buried, as he had requested, in the Beauchamp Chapel in Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick—in the same chapel as Richard Beauchamp, his ancestor, and the "noble Impe", his little son.[300] Countess Lettice was also buried there when she died in 1634, alongside the "best and dearest of husbands", as the epitaph, which she commissioned, says.[301]

[edit] Historiography

[edit] Legend

Leycester's Commonwealth was written by Catholic exiles in Paris and printed anonymously under another title in 1584.[302][fn 6] Smuggled into England, it became a best-seller with underground book sellers,[303] and the next year was translated into French.[304][fn 7] In this magisterial propaganda piece Leicester is portrayed as a lecherous monster, terrorizing the Queen, while the whole country is groaning under this "perpetuall Dictator".[305] Meanwhile, he is engaged in a long-term conspiracy to destroy the rightful heirs to the English throne (the House of Stewart, it turns out) and to snatch the Crown from Elizabeth in favour of his brother-in-law, the Earl of Huntingdon; having achieved thus much, he will settle the Crown on himself. Leicester's private life is no less monstrous. He appears as an expert poisoner of innumerable high-profile personalities, wife and cuckolded husbands included.[306]

The origin of the Leicester legend lies with this influential classic.[307] In the 1590s Leicester was the "honour of England"[308] and "Earl of Excellence" to the lexicographer John Florio;[309] at the same time he was about to become the most accomplished intriguer at court, and a model, worth copying, for manipulating the Queen.[310] William Camden's Robert Dudley was a "new upstart ... raised out of the dust" by Elizabeth,[311] as well as "the complete courtier, magnificent, liberal",[312] with an all-pervading sinister influence.[313] Some of the most often-quoted characterizations of Leicester, such as that he "was wont to put up all his passions in his pocket", his supposed nickname of "the Gypsy", and Elizabeth's "I will have here but one mistress and no master"-reprimand, were contributed by Henry Wotton and Sir Robert Naunton almost half a century after the Earl's death.[314] Another element, his utter incompetence, was added by Tobias Smollett in the 18th century.[315] Throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries there prevailed the image of the criminally inclined intriguer and the fool in one person.[316]

For James Anthony Froude, the Victorian, Robert Dudley was Elizabeth's soft plaything, combining "in himself the worst qualities of both sexes. Without courage, without talent, without virtue".[317] The habit of comparing him unfavourably to William Cecil[318] was continued by Conyers Read in 1925: "Leicester was a selfish, unscrupulous courtier and Burghley a wise and patriotic statesman".[319] In 1955, in his widely-read England under the Tudors, Geoffrey Elton saw Dudley as "a handsome, vigorous man with very little sense."[320]

[edit] Reassessment

Since the 1950s academic assessment of the Earl of Leicester has changed considerably.[321] His is a good case to study the everyday life of the most prominent Elizabethans; of no other survive so many relevant documents.[100] Leicester's importance in literary patronage was established by Eleanor Rosenberg in 1955. Elizabethan Puritanism has been thoroughly reassessed since the 1960s and Patrick Collinson has outlined the Earl's place in it.[321] Dudley's religion could thus be better understood, rather than simply to brand him as a hypocrite.[322] Leicester's importance as a privy councillor and statesman has often been overlooked by default.[93] Alan Haynes describes him as "one of the most strangely underrated of Elizabeth's circle of close advisers",[323] while Simon Adams, who since the early 1970s has researched many aspects of Leicester's life and career,[324] concludes: "Leicester was as central a figure to the 'first reign' [of Elizabeth] as Burghley."[325]

[edit] In literature and performing arts

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester features in several pieces of literature and the performing arts:

Literature

Operas

Films and TV Series

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ "está muy mala de un pecho", in the original Spanish (Adams Household p. 63).
  2. ^ The others were William Cecil and his brother-in-law Nicholas Bacon (Chamberlin p. 101).
  3. ^ According to Ian Aird, in 50% of fatal breast cancer cases these "secondary deposits" occur, in 8% of them in the spine. The affected bones become very brittle due to the deposits; even mere walking may cause to break them. Aird concludes: "If that part of the spine which lies in the neck suffers in this way, the affected person gets spontaneously a broken neck. Such a fracture is more likely to occur in stepping downstairs than in walking on the level." (Jenkins p. 65).
  4. ^ Dudley was just under 6 ft, or c.182 cm (Gristwood p. 21).
  5. ^ Sir Robert Dudley lost his case in the Star Chamber in 1605 (Warner p. xlvi). In the 19th century the question of Sir Robert Dudley's legitimacy was again raised, this time in the House of Lords, but again, it remained unresolved. There have been differing views on the problem: Wilson p. 326, believes in a marriage; Warner p. v–ix, xxxviii–xlvi, is very sceptical; Read p. 23, Adams Leicester p. 145, and Rickman p. 51, reject it.
  6. ^ The original title was: The copie of a leter, wryten by a Master of Arte of Cambrige, to his friend in London concerning some talke past of late betwen two worshipful and graue men, about the present state, and some procedinges of the Erle of Leycester and his friendes in England. Conceyued, spoken and publyshed, wyth most earnest protestation of al duetyful good wyl and affection, towardes her most excellent Ma. and the realm, for whose good onely it is made common to many (WorldCat Retrieved 2009-10-08). In 1641, it was reprinted in London as Leycesters Commonwealth (Burgoyne p. vii).
  7. ^ Discovrs de la vie abominable, rvses, trahisons, mevrtres, impostvres, empoisonnements, paillardises, atheismes, & autres tres-iniques conuersations, desquelles a vsé & vse iournellement le my lorde de Lecestre, machiaueliste, contre l'honneur de Dieu, la Maiesté de la royne d'Angleterre, Sa Princesse, & toute la republique chrestienne (WorldCat Retrieved 2009-10-08).

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ Adams Leicester p. 352
  2. ^ Adams Leicester p. 43
  3. ^ Haynes Power p. 12; Wilson pp. 151–152
  4. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 145, 147
  5. ^ Adams Leicester p. 52
  6. ^ Loades p. 225
  7. ^ Chamberlin p. 385
  8. ^ Adams Leicester p. 133
  9. ^ Wilson p. 16
  10. ^ Chamberlin pp. 55–56
  11. ^ Chamberlin p. 55
  12. ^ Wilson pp. 23, 28–29
  13. ^ Jenkins p. 300; Simon Adams: 'At Home and Away. The Earl of Leicester' in History Today May 1996 Retrieved 2009-09-15
  14. ^ Wilson pp. 31, 33, 44
  15. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 135, 159
  16. ^ Loades pp. 179, 225; Haynes Bear pp. 20–21
  17. ^ Loades pp. 225–226; Wilson pp. 45–47
  18. ^ Loades pp. 256–257, 226, 238–239
  19. ^ Ives pp. 199, 209; Haynes Bear pp. 23
  20. ^ Haynes Bear pp. 23–24; Chamberlin p. 68, 69
  21. ^ Loades p. 271
  22. ^ a b c Adams Leicester p. 134
  23. ^ Wilson p. 66
  24. ^ Nichols p. 33
  25. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 157, 134
  26. ^ Chamberlin p. 83; Adams Leicester p. 158
  27. ^ Loades p. 280
  28. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 161–162
  29. ^ Chamberlin p. 85; Loades pp. 273, 280
  30. ^ Adams Leicester p. 158; Wilson p. 71; Chamberlin pp. 85–86
  31. ^ Loades p. 273
  32. ^ Simon Adams: 'At Home and Away. The Earl of Leicester' in History Today May 1996 Retrieved 2009-09-15; Adams Household p. 381
  33. ^ Wilson pp. 78, 83–92
  34. ^ Wilson p. 96
  35. ^ Ives p. 26
  36. ^ Gristwood p. 125
  37. ^ Hume Calendar vol.I pp. 57–58; Wilson p. 95
  38. ^ Owen p. 9
  39. ^ a b Gristwood p. 129
  40. ^ Chamberlin p. 118
  41. ^ Chamberlin pp. 116–117
  42. ^ Loades p. 283
  43. ^ Chamberlin p. 116
  44. ^ Adams Household pp. 151, 78; Wilson p. 100; Chamberlin p. 117
  45. ^ Wilson p. 114; Doran p. 72
  46. ^ Chamberlin p. 101
  47. ^ Adams Household pp. 380–382
  48. ^ Adams Household p. 378
  49. ^ Adams Household p. 383
  50. ^ Adlard p. 35
  51. ^ Adlard pp. 32–33
  52. ^ Doran p. 43
  53. ^ Owen p. 10; Doran p. 45
  54. ^ Wilson pp. 115–116, 125, 127–128; Gristwood pp. 144–145
  55. ^ HMC Pepys p. viii; Gristwood p. 149
  56. ^ Gristwood p. 149
  57. ^ Wilson p. 124; Doran p. 44
  58. ^ Jenkins p. 65; Gristwood p. 155
  59. ^ Doran p. 44
  60. ^ Gristwood pp. 160–163
  61. ^ Loades pp. 284–285
  62. ^ Doran p. 45–52
  63. ^ Adams Leicester p. 165; Loades p. 284
  64. ^ Wilson p. 136
  65. ^ Adams Leicester p. 137
  66. ^ Wilson pp. 140–141
  67. ^ Chamberlin p. 145; Wilson p. 240
  68. ^ Chamberlin pp. 138–139
  69. ^ Chamberlin pp. 136, 160, 144–145
  70. ^ Chamberlin pp. 140, 146, 147
  71. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 321, 358
  72. ^ Wilson p. 142
  73. ^ Chamberlin pp. 151–152
  74. ^ Chamberlin p. 158
  75. ^ Chamberlin pp. 143–144, 152, 158, 168; Wilson p. 141; Jenkins p. 119
  76. ^ Chamberlin p. 152; Wilson p. 142
  77. ^ Chamberlin pp. 155, 156–157, 159–161
  78. ^ Fraser p. 267; Wilson p. 243
  79. ^ Doran p. 65
  80. ^ Hume Courtships p. 90; Doran p. 65
  81. ^ Hume Courtships pp. 90–94, 99, 101–104; Jenkins p. 130
  82. ^ Doran p. 212
  83. ^ Hume Courtships pp. 94, 95, 138, 197; Doran p. 124
  84. ^ a b Doran pp. 212–213
  85. ^ Adams Leicester p. 139
  86. ^ Haynes Bear p. 47
  87. ^ Adams Leicester p. 140; Wilson p. 305
  88. ^ Gristwood p. 198; Girouard Life p. 111
  89. ^ Adams Leicester p. 138
  90. ^ Wilson p. 230; Jenkins p. 194
  91. ^ Wilson p. 230
  92. ^ a b Adams Leicester p. 121
  93. ^ a b Wilson p. 305
  94. ^ Lovell pp. 265–267; 355
  95. ^ Adams Leicester p. 120
  96. ^ Wilson pp. 78, 305
  97. ^ Martyn p. 40
  98. ^ Girouard Architecture p. 445
  99. ^ Adams Leicester p. 319
  100. ^ a b c d e f g Simon Adams: 'At Home and Away. The Earl of Leicester' History Today May 1996 Retrieved 2009-09-15
  101. ^ Adams Leicester p. 321
  102. ^ Haynes Bear p. 59; Adams Leicester p. 235
  103. ^ Adams Leicester p. 310; Wilson p. 170
  104. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 264, 275, 325, 361
  105. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 268–269, 275–276
  106. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 270–272, 276
  107. ^ Adams Leicester p. 2
  108. ^ a b Adams Leicester p. 3
  109. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 386, 302–306
  110. ^ Wilson pp. 171–172
  111. ^ Adams Leicester p. 225
  112. ^ Wilson p. 172; Adams Leicester p. 225
  113. ^ Wilson p. 173
  114. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 322, 3
  115. ^ a b c Jenkins p. 162
  116. ^ Wilson pp. 1, 3
  117. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 312–313, 321
  118. ^ Adams Leicester p. 312–313, 320–321, 326
  119. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 320–321, 322–323, 384, 200–201
  120. ^ Jenkins pp. 179–181
  121. ^ Jenkins p. 181
  122. ^ Adams Leicester p. 327
  123. ^ Adams Leicester p. 312
  124. ^ Doran pp. 67–69; Jenkins pp. 205–211
  125. ^ Henderson pp. 90–92
  126. ^ Jenkins p. 207
  127. ^ Gristwood pp. 322–323
  128. ^ Wilson pp. 78, 81–82
  129. ^ Adams Leicester p. 165; Wilson p. 271, 81
  130. ^ Adams Leicester p. 383
  131. ^ Gristwood pp. 21; Wilson pp. 95, 80
  132. ^ Wilson pp. 80–81; Haynes Bear p. 95
  133. ^ Jenkins pp. 284, 165; Strong p. 67
  134. ^ Haynes Bear p. 14
  135. ^ Read p. 21
  136. ^ Rickman p. 49
  137. ^ Read p. 24
  138. ^ Read p. 25
  139. ^ Read pp. 23, 26
  140. ^ Wilson p. 207
  141. ^ Jenkins p. 124
  142. ^ Hume Calendar vol.I p. 472; Jenkins pp. 124–125
  143. ^ Wilson p. 225
  144. ^ Jenkins p. 212
  145. ^ Freedman pp. 21–22; Gristwood pp. 325–326
  146. ^ Freedman pp. 33–34; 22
  147. ^ Freedman pp. 33; Jenkins p. 217
  148. ^ Jenkins p. 217
  149. ^ Adams Household p. 188
  150. ^ Warner p. vi; Wilson p. 246; Adams Household p. 186
  151. ^ Warner p. ix
  152. ^ Warner p. xxxix
  153. ^ Warner p. xl; Rickman p. 51
  154. ^ Warner p. vi, vii; Wilson pp. 336–338
  155. ^ Jenkins pp. 234–235
  156. ^ Doran p. 161
  157. ^ Wilson pp. 229–230
  158. ^ Hammer p. 35
  159. ^ Jenkins p. 287
  160. ^ Nicolas p. 382
  161. ^ Jenkins p. 362
  162. ^ Jenkins pp. 280–281
  163. ^ Jenkins p. 253
  164. ^ Adams Household p. 182
  165. ^ Wilson pp. 228, 230–231
  166. ^ Nicolas p. 97; Jenkins p. 247
  167. ^ Hume Calendar vol. III p. 477; Jenkins p. 279
  168. ^ Owen p. 44; Jenkins pp. 263, 305
  169. ^ Jenkins pp. 280–281; Gristwood p. 380
  170. ^ Jenkins p. 305
  171. ^ Wilson p. 247
  172. ^ Hammer p. 46
  173. ^ a b Hearn p. 38
  174. ^ Wilson p. 195; Haynes Bear p. 14
  175. ^ Hume Calendar vol. II p. 572; Haynes Bear p. 14
  176. ^ Haynes Power p. 84
  177. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 17–18
  178. ^ Doran p. 59
  179. ^ Wilson p. 215; Collinson Letters p. xxv–xxvi
  180. ^ Jenkins p. 277
  181. ^ Doran p. 212
  182. ^ Adams Leicester p. 18
  183. ^ Gristwood pp. 246–247; Chamberlin pp. 102–103; Wilson pp. 215–216
  184. ^ Doran p. 216
  185. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 18–19, 59
  186. ^ Jenkins p. 247
  187. ^ Doran p. 190
  188. ^ Adams Leicester p. 34
  189. ^ Wilson p. 217
  190. ^ Wilson p. 216
  191. ^ Wilson p. 215
  192. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 104, 107
  193. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 137–138, 141
  194. ^ Adams Leicester p. 18
  195. ^ Jenkins pp. 159–160, 168–169
  196. ^ Chamberlin p. 187
  197. ^ Chamberlin pp. 194–198
  198. ^ Wilson p. 243
  199. ^ Jenkins pp. 300, 281
  200. ^ Jenkins p. 298
  201. ^ Wilson p. 329; Haynes Bear p. 156
  202. ^ Jenkins pp. 323–324
  203. ^ Jenkins p. 327
  204. ^ Willson pp. 75–76
  205. ^ Gristwood p. 376
  206. ^ Wilson p. 146; Adams Leicester p. 337
  207. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 142, 337
  208. ^ Wilson p. 165
  209. ^ Haynes Bear pp. 88–94
  210. ^ Wilson pp. 164–165; Gristwood p. 257
  211. ^ Haynes Bear pp. 145–149
  212. ^ Wilson p. 169
  213. ^ Adams Leicester p. 250
  214. ^ Wilson pp. 131–132, 168–169;
  215. ^ Chamberlin pp. 177–178
  216. ^ Jenkins p. 178; Gristwood p. 317
  217. ^ Haynes Bear pp. 75–76; Jenkins p. 178
  218. ^ Adams Household p. 230
  219. ^ Haynes Bear p. 77; Adams Household p. 212
  220. ^ Adams Household p. 56
  221. ^ Wilson pp. 151–155
  222. ^ Wilson p. 160.
  223. ^ Wilson illustration caption
  224. ^ Adams Leicester p. 228; Haynes Walsingham p. 74
  225. ^ Haynes Bear p. 199
  226. ^ Martyn pp. 37–40; Haynes Power p. 12
  227. ^ Haynes Bear pp. 76–78, 125–126; Wilson p. 307
  228. ^ Jenkins pp. 254–257
  229. ^ Jenkins p. 261
  230. ^ Chamberlin pp. 400–401
  231. ^ Collinson Letters p. xxi, xxiii–xxiv; Haynes Bear pp. 65–66
  232. ^ Collinson Movement pp. 53, 62–63, 92
  233. ^ Doran p. 66
  234. ^ Doran p. 59, 66
  235. ^ Doran pp. 66–67; Haynes Bear pp. 65–70
  236. ^ Collinson Movement p. 53
  237. ^ MacCulloch pp. 213, 249; Strong p. 75; Adams Leicester pp. 141–142
  238. ^ Wilson pp. 198–205; Adams Leicester p. 231
  239. ^ Adams Leicester p. 231
  240. ^ Wilson p. 205
  241. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 231, 143, 229–232; Collinson Letters p. xxx
  242. ^ Collinson Letters pp. xxi–xxiii, xxxviii
  243. ^ Collinson Letters pp. xxi–xxiii
  244. ^ Collinson Movement p. 63
  245. ^ Collinson Letters p.xxxv
  246. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 230–231
  247. ^ Collinson Letters pp. xxvi–xxvii; Adams Leicester p. 338
  248. ^ Adams Household p. 463; Adams Leicester p. 190
  249. ^ a b Wilson p. 162
  250. ^ Jenkins pp. 144–145; Haynes Power p. 15
  251. ^ Strong pp. 7–15; Haynes Bear p. 158
  252. ^ Strong pp. 20; 24
  253. ^ Adams Leicester p. 147
  254. ^ Strong p. 25
  255. ^ Strong p. 53
  256. ^ Strong pp. 35–49
  257. ^ Strong pp. 54–55
  258. ^ Strong p. 73
  259. ^ Strong p. 54
  260. ^ Haynes Bear pp. 158–159; Bruce p. 17; Strong pp. 23, 25
  261. ^ Bruce p. 15
  262. ^ Strong p. 53; Gristwood p. 401
  263. ^ a b Chamberlin pp. 263–264
  264. ^ Bruce p. 105
  265. ^ Strong p. 59
  266. ^ Bruce p. 424
  267. ^ Strong p. 72
  268. ^ Gristwood p. 408
  269. ^ Bruce p. 309; Wilson pp. 282–284
  270. ^ Strong p. 75
  271. ^ Strong pp. 75–76
  272. ^ Haynes Bear pp. 172–174
  273. ^ Strong p. 50; Bruce passim
  274. ^ Wilson p. 279; Bruce passim
  275. ^ Gristwood p. 406
  276. ^ Bruce p. 339
  277. ^ Haynes Bear pp. 170–171; Jenkins p. 323
  278. ^ Wilson p. 291
  279. ^ Wilson pp. 291–294
  280. ^ Wilson p. 294
  281. ^ Wilson pp. 294–295
  282. ^ Strong pp. 73, 77; Wilson p. 338
  283. ^ a b Gristwood p. 396
  284. ^ Strong p. 71
  285. ^ Strong pp. 73, 75; Adams Leicester p. 190
  286. ^ Simon Adams: 'Stanley, York and Elizabeth's Catholics' History Today July 1987 Retrieved 2009-10-10; Adams Leicester p. 180
  287. ^ Strong pp. 75–77; Haynes Bear p. 15
  288. ^ Adams Leicester p. 147; Gristwood p. 396
  289. ^ Watkins p. 167; Gristwood p. 433
  290. ^ Haynes Bear p. 191
  291. ^ Jenkins pp. 349–351
  292. ^ Haynes Bear pp. 191–195
  293. ^ a b Hume Calendar vol. IV p. 420–421; Jenkins p. 358
  294. ^ Jenkins pp. 362–363
  295. ^ Gristwood pp. 428–430
  296. ^ Lovell p. 355
  297. ^ Wilson p. 302
  298. ^ Adams Leicester p. 148; Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester: Autograph letter, signed, to Queen Elizabeth I. Folger Shakespeare Library Retrieved 2009-07-17
  299. ^ Wilson p. 303
  300. ^ Adams Leicester p. 149; Gristwood p. 437
  301. ^ Gristwood p. 437
  302. ^ Wilson pp. 262–265
  303. ^ Bossy p. 126
  304. ^ Burgoyne p. vii
  305. ^ Burgoyne p. 225
  306. ^ Wilson pp. 254–259
  307. ^ Simon Adams: 'At Home and Away. The Earl of Leicester' in History Today May 1996 Retrieved 2009-09-15; Wilson p. ix; Jenkins p. 291
  308. ^ Wilson p. 307
  309. ^ Haynes p. 200
  310. ^ Adams Leicester p. 52
  311. ^ MacCulloch p. 213
  312. ^ Gristwood p. 431
  313. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 53–55
  314. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 55, 56, 65
  315. ^ Chamberlin p. 45
  316. ^ Chamberlin pp. 22–31, 45–50, 438–439
  317. ^ Adams Leicester p. 57
  318. ^ Haynes Bear p. 11
  319. ^ Chamberlin p. 103
  320. ^ Wilson p. 304
  321. ^ a b Adams Leicester p. 176
  322. ^ Adams Leicester pp. 226–228
  323. ^ Haynes Power p. 15
  324. ^ Gristwood p. 479; Adams Leicester p. 2
  325. ^ Adams Leicester p. 7

[edit] References

  • Adams, Simon (ed.): Household Accounts and Disbursement Books of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester Cambridge UP 1995 ISBN 0521551560
  • Adams, Simon: Leicester and the Court: Essays in Elizabethan Politics Manchester UP 2002 ISBN 0719053250
  • Adlard, George: Amy Robsart and the Earl of Leycester John Russell Smith 1870 [1]
  • Bossy, John: Under the Molehill: An Elizabethan Spy Story Yale Nota Bene 2002 ISBN 0300094507
  • Bruce, John (ed.): Correspondence of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leycester, during his Government of the Low Countries, in the Years 1585 and 1586 Camden Society 1844 [2]
  • Burgoyne, F.J. (ed.): History of Queen Elizabeth, Amy Robsart and the Earl of Leicester, being a Reprint of "Leycesters Commonwealth" 1641 Longmans 1904 [3]
  • Chamberlin, Frederick: Elizabeth and Leycester Dodd, Mead & Co. 1939
  • Collinson, Patrick: The Elizabethan Puritan Movement Jonathan Cape 1971 ISBN 0224611321
  • Collinson, Patrick (ed.): Letters of Thomas Wood, Puritan, 1566–1577 The Athlone Press 1960
  • Doran, Susan: Monarchy and Matrimony: The Courtships of Elizabeth I Routledge 1996 ISBN 0415119693
  • Fraser, Antonia: Mary Queen of Scots Panther Books 1972 ISBN 0586033793
  • Freedman, Sylvia: Poor Penelope: Lady Penelope Rich. An Elizabethan Woman The Kensal Press 1983 ISBN 0946041202
  • Girouard, Mark: Elizabethan Architecture: Its Rise and Fall, 1540–1640 Yale UP 2009 ISBN 9780300093865
  • Girouard, Mark: Life in the English Country House. A Social and Architectural History BCA 1979
  • Gristwood, Sarah: Elizabeth and Leicester Bantam Books 2007 ISBN 9780553817867
  • Hammer, P.E.J.: The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics: The Political Career of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, 1585–1597 Cambridge UP 1999 ISBN 0521019419
  • Haynes, Alan: Invisible Power: The Elizabethan Secret Services 1570–1603 Alan Sutton 1992 ISBN 0750900377
  • Haynes, Alan: Walsingham: Elizabethan Spymaster & Statesman Sutton Publishing 2007 ISBN 9780750947718
  • Haynes, Alan: The White Bear: The Elizabethan Earl of Leicester Peter Owen 1987 ISBN 0720606721
  • Hearn, Karen: Nicholas Hilliard Unicorn Press 2005 ISBN 0906290821
  • Henderson, Paula: The Tudor House and Garden: Architecture and Landscape in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Yale UP 2005 ISBN 0300106874
  • Historical Manuscripts Commission (ed.): Report on the Pepys Manuscripts Preserved at Magdalen College, Cambridge HMSO 1911 [4]
  • Hume, Martin (ed.): Calendar of...State Papers Relating to English Affairs...in...Simancas, 1558–1603 HMSO 1892-1899 vol. I [5] vol. II [6] vol. III [7] vol. IV [8]
  • Hume, Martin: The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth Eveleigh Nash & Grayson 1904 [9]
  • Ives, Eric: Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery Wiley-Blackwell 2009 ISBN 9781405194136
  • Jenkins, Elizabeth: Elizabeth and Leicester The Phoenix Press 2002 ISBN 1842125605
  • Loades, David: John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland 1504–1553 Clarendon Press 1996 ISBN 0198201931
  • Lovell, M.S.: Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth Abacus 2006 ISBN 9780349115894
  • MacCulloch, Diarmaid: The Boy King: Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation Palgrave 2001 ISBN 0312238304
  • Martyn, Trea: Elizabeth in the Garden: A Story of Love, Rivalry and Spectacular Design Faber & Faber 2008 ISBN 9780571216932
  • Nicolas, Harris (ed.): Memoirs of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton Richard Bentley 1847 [10]
  • Nichols, J.G. (ed.): The Chronicle of Queen Jane Camden Society 1850 [11]
  • Owen, D.G. (ed.): Manuscripts of The Marquess of Bath vol.V: Talbot, Dudley and Devereux Papers 1533–1659 HMSO 1980 ISBN 011440092X
  • Read, Conyers (ed.): A Letter from Robert, Earl of Leicester, to a Lady The Huntington Library Bulletin No.9 April 1936
  • Rickman, Johanna: Love, Lust, and License in Early Modern England: Illicit Sex and the Nobility Ashgate 2008 ISBN 0754661350
  • Strong, R.C.; van Dorsten, J.A.: Leicester's Triumph Oxford UP 1964
  • Warner, G.F (ed.): The Voyage of Robert Dudley to the West Indies, 1594–1595 Hakluyt Society 1899 [12]
  • Watkins, Susan: The Public and Private Worlds of Elizabeth I Thames & Hudson 1998 ISBN 0500018693
  • Wilson, Derek: Sweet Robin: A Biography of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester 1533–1588 Hamish Hamilton 1981 ISBN 0241101492
  • Willson, D.H.: King James VI & I Jonathan Cape Paperback 1971 ISBN 0224605720

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Sir Henry Jernyngham		 Master of the Horse
1558 – 1587		 Succeeded by
The Earl of Essex
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