Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, KG (24 June1532 or 1533[note 1] – 4 September 1588) was an Englishnobleman and the favourite and close friend of ElizabethI from her first year on the throne until his death. TheQueen giving him reason to hope, he was a suitor for herhand for many years.Dudley’s youth was overshadowed by the downfall of hisfamily in 1553 after his father, the Duke of Northumber-land, had unsuccessfully tried to establish Lady Jane Greyon the English throne. Robert Dudley was condemned todeath but was released in 1554 and took part in the Battleof St. Quentin under Philip II of Spain, which led to hisfull rehabilitation. On Elizabeth I’s accession in Novem-ber 1558, Dudley was appointed Master of the Horse. InOctober 1562 he became a privy councillor and in 1587was appointed Lord Steward of the Royal Household. In1564 Dudley became Earl of Leicester and from 1563one of the greatest landowners in North Wales and theEnglish West Midlands by royal grants.Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was one of Elizabeth’sleading statesmen, involved in domestic as well as foreignpolitics alongside William Cecil and Francis Walsing-ham. Although he refused to be married to Mary, Queenof Scots, Dudley was for a long time relatively sympa-thetic to her until from the mid-1580s he strongly advo-cated her execution. As patron of the Puritan movementhe supported non-conforming preachers, but tried to me-diate between them and the bishops within the Churchof England. A champion also of the international Protes-tant cause, he led the English campaign in support of theDutch Revolt from 1585–1587. His acceptance of thepost of Governor-General of the United Provinces infu-riated Queen Elizabeth. The expedition was a militaryand political failure and ruined the Earl financially. Le-icester was engaged in many large-scale business venturesand a main backer of Francis Drake and other explorersand privateers. During the Spanish Armada the Earl wasin overall command of the English land forces. In thisfunction he invited Queen Elizabeth to visit her troops atTilbury. This was the last of many events he organisedover the years, the most spectacular being the festival athis seat Kenilworth Castle in 1575 on occasion of a three-week visit by the Queen. Dudley was a principal patronof the arts, literature, and the Elizabethan theatre.[1]

Robert Dudley’s private life interfered with his court ca-reer and vice versa. When his first wife, Amy Robsart,fell down a flight of stairs and died in 1560, he was freeto marry the Queen. However, the resulting scandal verymuch reduced his chances in this respect. Popular ru-

mours that he had arranged for his wife’s death continuedthroughout his life, despite the coroner’s jury's verdict ofaccident. For 18 years he did not remarry for Queen Eliz-abeth’s sake and when he finally did, his new wife, LetticeKnollys, was permanently banished from court. This andthe death of his only legitimate son and heir were heavyblows.[2] Shortly after the child’s death in 1584, a viru-lent libel known as Leicester’s Commonwealth was circu-lating in England. It laid the foundation of a literary andhistoriographical tradition that often depicted the Earl astheMachiavellian “master courtier”[3] and as a deplorablefigure around Elizabeth I. More recent research has ledto a reassessment of his place in Elizabethan governmentand society.

1 Youth

Quartered arms of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester

1.1 Education and marriage

Robert Dudley was the fifth son of John Dudley, Dukeof Northumberland, and his wife Jane, daughter of SirEdward Guildford.[4] John and Jane Dudley had 13 chil-dren in all and were known for their happy family life.[5]Among the siblings’ tutors figured John Dee,[6] ThomasWilson, and Roger Ascham.[7] Roger Ascham believedthat Robert Dudley possessed a rare talent for languages

1

2 2 ROYAL FAVOURITE

and writing, regretting that his pupil had done him-self harm by preferring mathematics.[8] The craft ofthe courtier Robert learnt at the courts of Henry VIII,and especially Edward VI, among whose companions heserved.[9]

In 1549 Robert Dudley participated in crushing Kett’sRebellion and probably first met Amy Robsart, whom hewas to wed on 4 June 1550 in the presence of the youngKing Edward.[10] She was of the same age as the bride-groom and the daughter and heiress of Sir John Robsart,a gentleman-farmer of Norfolk.[11] It was a love-match,the young couple depending heavily on both their fathers’gifts, especially Robert’s. John Dudley, who since early1550 effectively ruled England, was pleased to strengthenhis influence in Norfolk by his son’s marriage.[12] LordRobert, as he was styled as a duke's son, became an im-portant local gentleman and aMember of Parliament. Hiscourt career went on in parallel.[13]

1.2 Condemned and pardoned

On 6 July 1553 King Edward VI died and the Duke ofNorthumberland attempted to transfer the English Crownto Lady Jane Grey, his daughter-in-law who was marriedto his second youngest son, Guildford Dudley.[14] RobertDudley led a force of 300 into Norfolk where Mary Tu-dor was assembling her followers. After some ten days inthe county and securing several towns for Jane, he tookKing’s Lynn and proclaimed her on the market-place.[15]The next day, 19 July, Jane’s reign was over in Lon-don. Soon, the townsmen of King’s Lynn seized RobertDudley and the rest of his small troop and sent him toFramlingham Castle before Mary I.[16]

He was imprisoned in the Tower of London, attainted,and condemned to death, as were his father and fourbrothers. His father went to the scaffold.[17] In the Tower,Dudley’s stay coincided with the imprisonment of hischildhood friend,[18] Mary’s half-sister Elizabeth, whowas sent there on suspicion of involvement in Wyatt’sRebellion. Guildford Dudley was executed in February1554. The surviving brothers were released in the au-tumn; working for their release, their mother (who diedin January 1555) and their brother-in-law, Henry Sid-ney, had befriended the incoming Spanish nobles aroundPhilip of Spain, Mary’s husband.[4]

In December 1554, Ambrose and Robert Dudley tookpart in a tournament held to celebrate Anglo-Spanishfriendship.[4] Yet, the Dudley brothers were only wel-come at court as long as King Philip was there,[19] oth-erwise they were even suspected of associating with peo-ple who conspired against Mary’s regime.[20] In January1557 Robert and Amy Dudley were allowed to repossesssome of their former lands,[21] and in March of the sameyear Dudley was at Calais where he was chosen to deliverpersonally to Queen Mary the happy news of Philip’s re-turn to England.[22] Ambrose, Robert, and Henry Dud-

ley, the youngest brother, fought for Philip II at the Battleof St. Quentin in August 1557.[23] Henry Dudley waskilled in the following siege by a cannonball—accordingto Robert, before his own eyes.[24] All surviving Dudleychildren—Ambrose and Robert with their sisters Maryand Katherine—were restored in blood by Mary I’s nextparliament in 1558.[18]

2 Royal favourite

Elizabeth’s coronation procession: Robert Dudley is on horsebackon the far left, leading the palfrey of honour.

Robert Dudley was counted among Elizabeth's specialfriends by Philip II’s envoy to the English court a weekbefore Queen Mary’s death.[18] On 18 November 1558,the morning after Elizabeth’s accession, he witnessed thesurrender of the Great Seal to her at Hatfield. He becameMaster of the Horse on the same day.[4] This was an im-portant court position entailing close attendance on thesovereign. It suited him, as he was an excellent horse-man and showed great professional interest in royal trans-port and accommodation, horse breeding, and the sup-ply of horses for all occasions. Dudley was also entrustedwith organising and overseeing a large part of the Queen’scoronation festivities.[25]

In April 1559 Dudley was elected a Knight of the Garterin the good company of England’s only duke and an earl,causing great wonder.[26] The ambassador of the Republicof Venice soon wrote home: “My Lord Robert Dudley is... very intimate with HerMajesty. On this subject I oughtto report the opinion of many but I doubt whether myletters may not miscarry or be read, wherefore it is betterto keep silence than to speak ill.”[27] Philip II had alreadybeen informed shortly before Dudley’s decoration:

Lord Robert has come so much into favourthat he does whatever he likes with affairs andit is even said that her majesty visits him in hischamber day and night. People talk of this sofreely that they go so far as to say that his wifehas a malady in one of her breasts[note 2] and theQueen is only waiting for her to die to marryLord Robert ... Matters have reached such apass ... that ... it would ... be well to approach

2.1 Amy Dudley’s death 3

Elizabeth I Coronation Miniature

Lord Robert on your Majesty’s behalf ... YourMajesty would do well to attract and confirmhim in his friendship.[28]

Within a month the Spanish ambassador, Count de Feria,counted Robert Dudley among three persons who ran thecountry.[note 3] Visiting foreigners of princely rank werebidding for his goodwill. He acted as official host onstate occasions and was himself a frequent guest at am-bassadorial dinners.[29] By the autumn of 1559 severalforeign princes were vying for the Queen’s hand; their im-patient envoys came under the impression that Elizabethwas fooling them, “keeping Lord Robert’s enemies andthe country engaged with words until this wicked deedof killing his wife is consummated.”[30] “Lord Robert”,the new Spanish ambassador de Quadra was convinced,was the man “in whom it is easy to recognise the kingthat is to be ... she will marry none but the favouredRobert.”[31] Many of the nobility would not brook Dud-ley’s new prominence, as they could not “put up with hisbeing King.”[32] Plans to kill the favourite abounded,[33]and Dudley took to wearing a light coat of mail underhis clothes.[34] Among all classes, in England and abroad,gossip got under way that the Queen had children byDudley—such rumours never quite ended for the rest ofher life.[35]

2.1 Amy Dudley’s death

Further information: Amy Robsart

Already in April 1559 court observers noted that Eliz-abeth never let Dudley from her side;[36] but her favourdid not extend to his wife.[37] Lady Amy Dudley lived indifferent parts of the country since her ancestral manorhouse was uninhabitable.[38] Her husband visited her forfour days at Easter 1559 and she spent a month aroundLondon in the early summer of the same year.[39] Theynever saw each other again; Dudley was with the Queenat Windsor Castle and possibly planning a visit to her,when his wife was found dead at her residence CumnorPlace near Oxford on 8 September 1560:[40]

There came to me Bowes, by whom I dounderstand that my wife is dead and as hesayeth by a fall from a pair of stairs. Little otherunderstanding can I have of him. The greatnessand the suddenness of the misfortune doth soperplex me, until I do hear from you how thematter standeth, or how this evil should lightupon me, considering what the malicious worldwill bruit, as I can take no rest.[41]

Lord Robert Dudley c. 1560

Retiring to his house at Kew, away from court as from theputative crime scene, he pressed for an impartial inquirywhich had already begun in the form of an inquest.[42]The jury found that it was an accident: Lady Dudley,staying alone “in a certain chamber”, had fallen down the

4 2 ROYAL FAVOURITE

adjoining stairs, sustaining two head injuries and break-ing her neck.[43] It was widely suspected that Dudleyhad arranged his wife’s death to be able to marry theQueen. The scandal played into the hands of noblesand politicians who desperately tried to prevent Elizabethfrommarrying him.[44] Some of these, likeWilliam Ceciland Nicholas Throckmorton, made use of it,[45] but didnot themselves believe Dudley to be involved[46] in thetragedy which affected the rest of his life.[4]

Most historians have considered murder to beunlikely.[47] The coroner’s report came to light inThe National Archives in 2008 and is compatible withan accidental fall as well as suicide or other violence.[48]In the absence of the forensic findings of 1560, it wasoften assumed that a simple accident could not be theexplanation[49]—on the basis of near-contemporarytales that Amy Dudley was found at the bottom of ashort flight of stairs with a broken neck, her headdressstill standing undisturbed “upon her head”,[50] a detailthat first appeared as a satirical remark in the libelLeicester’s Commonwealth of 1584 and has ever sincebeen repeated for a fact.[51] To account for such odditiesand evidence that she was ill, it was suggested in 1956by Ian Aird, a professor of medicine, that Amy Dudleymight have suffered from breast cancer, which throughmetastatic cancerous deposits in the spine, could havecaused her neck to break under only limited strain, suchas a short fall or even just coming down the stairs.[50]This explanation has been widely accepted.[47] Suicidehas also often been considered an option, motives beingAmy Dudley’s depression or mortal illness.[52]

2.2 Marriage hopes and proposals

Elizabeth remained close with Dudley and he, with herblessing and on her prompting, pursued his suit for herhand in an atmosphere of diplomatic intrigue.[53] Hiswife’s and his father’s shadows haunted his prospects.[4]Pope Pius IV explained to one of his cardinals:

the greater part of the nobility of that islandtake ill the marriage which the said queen de-signs to enter with the Lord Robert Dudley ...they fear that if he becomes king, he will wantto avenge the death of his father, and extirpatethe nobility of that kingdom.[54]

Elizabeth countered such notions, saying that LordRobert “was of a very good disposition and nature, notgiven by any means to seek revenge of former matterspast”.[54] His efforts leading nowhere, in the spring of1561 Dudley offered to leave England to seek militaryadventures abroad; Elizabeth would have none of that andeverything remained as it was.[4]

In October 1562 the Queen fell ill with smallpox and, be-lieving her life to be in danger, she asked the Privy Coun-cil to make Robert Dudley Protector of the Realm and

to give him a suitable title together with twenty thousandpounds a year. There was universal relief when she recov-ered her health; Dudley was made a privy councillor.[55]He was already deeply involved in foreign politics, in-cluding Scotland.[56] In 1563 Elizabeth suggested Dudleyas a consort to the widowed Mary, Queen of Scots, theidea being to achieve firm amity between England andScotland and diminish the influence of foreign powers.[57]Elizabeth’s preferred solution was that they should alllive together at the English court, so that she would nothave to forgo her favourite’s company.[4] Mary of Scot-land at first enquired if Elizabeth was serious, wantingabove all to know her chances of inheriting the Englishcrown.[58] Elizabeth repeatedly declared that she was onlyprepared to acknowledge Mary as her heir on conditionthat she marry Robert Dudley.[59] Mary’s Protestant ad-visors warmed to the prospect of having Dudley as theirprince,[60] and in September 1564 he was created Earlof Leicester, a move designed to make him more accept-able to Mary.[4] In January 1565 Thomas Randolph, theEnglish ambassador to Scotland, was told by the Scot-tish queen that she would accept the proposal.[61] To hisamazement, 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 everwas 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 ensueunto him thereby ... but so uncertainly dealeththat I know not where to find him.[62]

Dudley indeed had made it clear to the Scots at the be-ginning that he was not a candidate for Mary’s hand andforthwith had behaved with passive resistance.[63] He alsoworked in the interest of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley,Mary’s eventual choice of husband.[64] Elizabeth herselfwavered as to declaring Mary her heir, until in March1565 she decided she could not bring herself to it.[65]Still, she finally told the Spanish ambassador that the pro-posal fell through because the Earl of Leicester refused tocooperate.[66]

By 1564 Dudley had realised that his chances of becom-ing Elizabeth’s consort were small.[67] At the same timehe could not “consider ... without great repugnance”, ashe said, that she chose another husband.[68] Confrontedwith other marriage projects, Elizabeth continued to saythat she still would very much like to marry him.[69] Dud-ley was seen as a serious candidate until the mid-1560sand later.[70] To remove this threat to Habsburg andValoissuitors, between 1565 and 1578, four German and Frenchprincesses were mooted as brides for Leicester, as a con-solation for giving up Elizabeth and his resistance to herforeign marriage projects.[71] These he had and wouldcontinue to sabotage.[72] In 1566Dudley formed the opin-ion that Elizabeth would never marry, recalling that shehad always said so since she was eight years old; but hestill was hopeful—she had also assured him he would be

5

her choice in case she changed her mind (and married anEnglishman).[73]

2.3 Life at court

Robert Dudley, dressed partly in tilting armour, 1575[74]

As “a male favourite to a virgin queen”, Robert Dudleyfound himself in an unprecedented situation.[4] His apart-ments at court were next to hers,[75] and—perceived asknowing “the Queen and her nature best of any man”—his influence was matched by few.[76] Another side ofsuch privileges was Elizabeth’s possessiveness and jeal-ousy. His company was essential for her well-being andfor many years he was hardly allowed to leave.[4] SirChristopher Hatton reported a growing emergency whenthe Earl was away for a few weeks in 1578: “This courtwanteth your presence. Her majesty is unaccompaniedand, I assure you, the chambers are almost empty.”[77]

On ceremonial occasions Dudley often acted as an un-official consort, sometimes in the Queen’s stead.[78] In apersonal letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury, an old friendof Leicester’s, Elizabeth said she considered Leicester as“another ourself”.[79] He largely assumed charge of courtceremonial and organised hundreds of small and largefestivities.[80] From 1587 he was Lord Steward,[81] be-ing responsible for the royal household's supply with foodand other commodities. He displayed a strong sense foreconomising and reform in this function, which he hadde facto occupied long before his official appointment.[82]

The sanitary situation in the palaces was a perennial prob-lem, and a talk with Leicester about these issues inspiredJohn Harington to construct a water closet.[83] Leices-ter was a lifelong sportsman, hunting and jousting in thetiltyard, and an indefatigable tennis-player.[83] He wasalso the Queen’s regular dancing partner.[84]

3 Ancestral and territorial ambi-tion

Ambrose, Earl of Warwick, Robert Dudley’s elder brother

After the Duke of Northumberland’s attainder the entireDudley inheritance had disappeared. His sons had to startfrom scratch in rebuilding the family fortunes, as they hadrenounced any rights to their father’s former possessionsor titles when their own attainders had been lifted in Jan-uary 1558.[85] Robert Dudley financed the lifestyle ex-pected of a royal favourite by large loans from City ofLondon merchants until in April 1560 Elizabeth grantedhim his first export licence, worth £6,000 p.a.[86] He alsoreceived some of his father’s lands, but since he was notthe family heir it was a matter of some difficulty to find asuitable estate for his intended peerage.[87] In June 1563the Queen granted him Kenilworth Manor, Castle, andPark, together with the lordships of Denbigh and Chirk inNorth Wales. Other grants were to follow.[88] All in all,Leicester and his elder brother Ambrose, Earl of War-wick, came to preside over the greatest aristocratic inter-est in the West Midlands and North Wales.[89]

6 4 LOVE AFFAIRS AND REMARRIAGE

3.1 Denbighshire

At the time Robert Dudley entered his new Welsh pos-sessions there had existed a tenurial chaos for more thanhalf a century. Some leading local families benefitedfrom this to the detriment of the Crown’s revenue. Toremedy this situation, and to increase his own income,Dudley effected compositions with the tenants in whatSimon Adams has called an “ambitious resolution ofa long-standing problem ... without parallel in Eliza-beth’s reign”.[90] All tenants that had so far only beencopyholders were raised to the status of freeholders inexchange for newly agreed rents. Likewise, all tenants’rights of common were secured as were the boundariesof the commons, thus striking a balance between prop-erty rights and protection against enclosure.[91]

Though an absentee landlord, Leicester, who was alsoBaron of Denbigh, regarded the lordship as an inte-gral part of a territorial base for a revived House ofDudley.[92] He set about developing the town of Denbighwith large building projects;[93] the church he planned,though, was never finished, being too ambitious. It wouldnot only have been the largest,[94] but also the first post-Reformation church in England and Wales built accord-ing to a plan where the preacher was to take the centre in-stead of the altar, thus stressing the importance of preach-ing in the Protestant Church. In vain Leicester tried tohave the nearby episcopal see of St. Asaph transferred toDenbigh.[95] He also encouraged and supported the trans-lation of the Bible and the Common Prayer Book intoWelsh.[96]

3.2 Warwick and Kenilworth

Fireplace at Kenilworth Castle, decorated with heraldic emblemsof Robert Dudley and the letters R and L for “Robert Leicester”[97]

Ambrose and Robert Dudley were very close, in mat-ters of business and personally.[98] Through their pater-nal grandmother they descended from the Hundred YearsWar heroes, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, andRichard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.[99] Robert Dud-ley was especially fascinated by the Beauchamp descent

and, with his brother, adopted the ancient heraldic deviceof the earls of Warwick, the bear and ragged staff.[100]Due to such genealogical aspects the West Midlands helda special significance for him.[101] The town of Warwickfelt this during a magnificent visit by the Earl in 1571 tocelebrate the feast of the Order of Saint Michael, withwhich Leicester had been invested by the French king in1566.[102] He shortly afterwards founded Lord Leyces-ter’s Hospital, a charity for aged and injured soldiers stillfunctioning today.[103]

Kenilworth Castle was the centre of Leicester’s ambitionsto “plant” himself in the region,[104] and he substantiallytransformed the site’s appearance through comprehensivealterations.[105] He added a 15th-century style gatehouseto the castle’s medieval structures, as well as a formalgarden and a residential wing which featured the “brittle,thin walls and grids of windows” that were to become thehallmark of Elizabethan architecture in later decades.[106]His works completed, the Earl staged a spectacular 19-day-festival in July 1575 as a final, allegorical bid for theQueen’s hand; it was as much a request to give him leaveto marry someone else.[4] There were a Lady of the Lake,a swimming papier-mâché dolphin with a little orchestrain its belly, fireworks, masques, hunts, and popular en-tertainments like bear baiting.[107] The whole scenery oflandscape, artificial lake, castle, and Renaissance gardenwas ingeniously used for the entertainment.[108]

4 Love affairs and remarriage

Confronted by a Puritan friend with rumours about his“ungodly life”,[109] Dudley defended himself in 1576:

I stand on the top of the hill, where ...the smallest slip seemeth a fall ... I may fallmany ways and have more witnesses thereofthan many others who perhaps be no saints nei-ther ... for my faults ... they lie before Himwho I have no doubt but will cancel them as Ihave been and shall be most heartily sorry forthem.[110]

With Douglas Sheffield, a young widow of the Howardfamily, he had a serious relationship from about1569.[111] He explained to her that he could not marry,not even in order to beget a Dudley heir, without his “ut-ter overthrow":[112]

You must think it is some marvellous cause... that forceth me thus to be cause almost ofthe ruin of mine own house ... my brother yousee long married and not like to have children,it resteth so now in myself; and yet such occa-sions is there ... as if I should marry I am surenever to have [the Queen’s] favour”.[113]

7

Although in this letter Leicester said he still loved her ashe did at the beginning, he offered her his help to findanother husband for reasons of respectability if she sowished.[114] The affair continued and in 1574 Douglasgave birth to a son, also called Robert Dudley.[115]

Lettice, Countess of Leicester, by George Gower c. 1585

Lettice Knollys was the wife ofWalter Devereux, 1st Earlof Essex, and first cousin once removed of Queen Eliza-beth on her mother’s side. Leicester had flirted with her inthe summer of 1565, causing an outbreak of jealousy inthe Queen.[116] After Lord Essex went to Ireland in 1573,they possibly became lovers.[117] There was much talk,and on Essex' homecoming in December 1575, “great en-mity between the Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Essex”was expected.[118] In July 1576 Essex returned to Ireland,where he died of dysentery in September.[117] Rumoursof poison, administered by the Earl of Leicester’s means,were soon abroad. The LordDeputy of Ireland, Sir HenrySidney, conducted an official investigation which did notfind any indications of foul play but “a disease appropri-ate to this country ... whereof ... died many”.[119] Therumours continued.[120]

The prospect of marriage to the Countess of Essex onthe horizon, Leicester finally drew a line under his re-lationship with Douglas Sheffield. Contrary to what shelater claimed, they came to an amicable agreement overtheir son’s custody.[4] Young Robert grew up in Dud-ley’s and his friends’ houses, but had “leave to see”his mother until she left England in 1583.[121] Leices-ter was very fond of his son and gave him an excellenteducation.[122] In his will he left him the bulk of his es-

tate (after his brother Ambrose’s death), including Kenil-worth Castle.[123] Douglas Sheffield remarried in 1579.After the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, the younger RobertDudley tried unsuccessfully to prove that his parents hadmarried 30 years earlier in a secret ceremony. In thatcase he would have been able to claim the earldoms ofLeicester and Warwick.[124] His mother supported him,but maintained that she had been strongly against rais-ing the issue and was possibly pressured by her son.[125]Leicester himself had throughout considered the boy asillegitimate.[126][note 4]

On 21 September 1578 Leicester secretly married LadyEssex at his country house atWanstead, with only a hand-ful of relatives and friends present.[127] He did not dareto tell the Queen of his marriage; nine months later Le-icester’s enemies at court acquainted her with the situa-tion, causing a furious outburst.[128] She already had beenaware of his marriage plans a year earlier, though.[129]Leicester’s hope of an heir was fulfilled in 1581 when an-other Robert Dudley, styled Lord Denbigh, was born.[130]The child died aged three in 1584, leaving behind discon-solate parents.[131] Leicester found comfort in God since,as he wrote, “princes ... seldom do pity according to therules of charity.”[132] The Earl turned out to be a devotedhusband:[133] In 1583 the French ambassador, Michel deCastelnau, wrote of “the Earl of Leicester and his lady towhom he is much attached”, and “who has much influ-ence over him”.[134] Leicester was a concerned parent tohis four stepchildren,[135] and in every respect worked forthe advancement of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex,whom he regarded as his political heir.[136]

The marriage of her favourite hurt the Queen deeply.She never accepted it,[137] humiliating Leicester in pub-lic: “my open and great disgraces delivered from herMajesty’s mouth”.[138] Then again, she would be as fondof him as ever.[139] In 1583 she informed ambassadorsthat Lettice Dudley was “a she-wolf” and her husband a“traitor” and “a cuckold”.[140] Lady Leicester’s social lifewas much curtailed.[141] Even her movements could posea political problem, as Francis Walsingham explained: “Isee not her Majesty disposed to use the services of myLord of Leicester. There is great offence taken at theconveying down of his lady.”[142] The Earl stood by hiswife, asking his colleagues to intercede for her; there wasno hope:[143] “She [the Queen] doth take every occasionby my marriage to withdraw any good from me”, Leices-ter wrote still after seven years of marriage.[144]

5 Colleagues and politics

For the first 30 years of Elizabeth’s reign, until Leices-ter’s death, he and Lord Burghley were the most powerfuland important political figures, working intimately withthe Queen.[145] Robert Dudley was a conscientious privycouncillor, and one of the most frequently attending.[146]

8 6 PATRONAGE

Robert Dudley in 1576, aged 44, as is stated in the margin.Miniature by Nicholas Hilliard[4]

In 1560 the diplomat Nicholas Throckmorton advocatedvehemently against Dudley marrying the Queen, butDudley won him over in 1562.[147] Throckmorton hence-forth became his political advisor and intimate. AfterThrockmorton’s death in 1571 there quickly evolved a po-litical alliance between the Earl of Leicester and Sir Fran-cis Walsingham, soon to be Secretary of State. Togetherthey worked for a militant Protestant foreign policy.[148]There also existed a family relationship between themafter Walsingham’s daughter had married Philip Sidney,Leicester’s favourite nephew.[149] Leicester, after someinitial jealousy, also became a good friend of Sir Christo-pher Hatton, himself one of Elizabeth’s favourites.[150]

Robert Dudley’s relationship with William Cecil, LordBurghley, was complicated. Traditionally they have beenseen as enemies, and Cecil behind the scenes sabotagedDudley’s endeavours to obtain the Queen’s hand.[70] Onthe other hand they were on friendly terms and had an ef-ficient working relationship which never broke down.[151]In 1572 the vacant post of Lord High Treasurer was of-fered to Leicester, who declined and proposed Burgh-ley, stating that the latter was the much more suitablecandidate.[152] In later years, being at odds, Dudley feltlike reminding Cecil of their “thirty years friendship”.[153]

On the whole, Cecil and Dudley were in concord aboutpolicies while disagreeing fundamentally about some is-sues, such as the Queen’s marriage and some areas offoreign policy.[154] Cecil favoured the suit of Francois,Duke of Anjou, in 1578–1581 for Elizabeth’s hand, whileLeicester was among its strongest opponents,[72] evencontemplating exile in letters to Burghley.[155] The An-jou courtship, at the end of which Leicester and sev-eral dozen noblemen and gentlemen escorted the Frenchprince to Antwerp,[156] also touched the question of En-glish intervention in the Netherlands to help the rebel-

lious provinces. This debate stretched over a decadeuntil 1585, with the Earl of Leicester as the foremostinterventionist. Burghley was more cautious of mili-tary engagement while in a dilemma over his Protestantpredilections.[157]

Until about 1571/1572 Dudley supported Mary Stuart’ssuccession rights to the English throne.[158] He was also,from the early 1560s, on the best terms with the Protes-tant lords in Scotland, thereby supporting the Englishor, as he saw it, the Protestant interest.[159] After MaryStuart’s flight into England (1568) Leicester was, unlikeCecil,[160] in favour of restoring her as Scottish queen un-der English control, preferably with a Protestant Englishhusband, such as the Duke of Norfolk.[161] In 1577 Le-icester had a personal meeting with Mary and listenedto her complaints of captivity.[162] By the early 1580sMary had come to fear Leicester’s influence with JamesVI, her son, in whose privy chamber the English Earlhad placed a spy.[4] She spread stories about his supposedlust for the English throne,[4] and when the Catholic anti-Leicester libel, Leicester’s Commonwealth, was publishedin 1584 Dudley believed that Mary was involved in itsconception.[163]

The Bond of Association, which the Privy Council gaveout in October 1584, may have originated in Dudley’sideas.[164] Circulated in the country, the document’s sub-scribers swore that, should Elizabeth be assassinated (asWilliam the Silent had been a few months earlier), notonly the killer but also the royal person who would bene-fit from this should be executed.[165] Leicester’s relationswith James of Scotland grew closer when he gained theconfidence of the King’s favourite, Patrick, Master ofGray, in 1584–1585. His negotiations with the Masterwere the basis for the Treaty of Berwick,[4] a defensivealliance between the two British states against Europeanpowers. In 1586 Walsingham uncovered the BabingtonPlot; after the Ridolfi Plot (1571) and the ThrockmortonPlot (1583), this was a further scheme to assassinate Eliz-abeth in which Mary Stuart was involved. Followingher conviction, Leicester, then in the Netherlands, vehe-mently urged her execution in his letters; he despaired ofElizabeth’s security after so many plots.[166]

Leicester having returned to England, in February 1587Elizabeth signed Mary’s death warrant with the provisothat it be not carried out until she gave green light. Asthere was no sign of her doing so, Burghley, Leicester,and a handful of other privy councillors decided to pro-ceed with Mary’s execution in the interest of the state.The Queen’s wrath at the news of Mary’s death was ter-rifying. Leicester went to Bath and Bristol for his health,yet unlike the other culprits escaped Elizabeth’s personalwrath.[167]

6 Patronage

6.3 Religion 9

6.1 Exploration and business

Sir Francis Drake. Leicester was happy to invest in his venturesand invite him to play cards.[168]

Robert Dudley was a pioneer of new industries; interestedin many things from tapestries to mining, he was engagedin the first joint stock companies in English history.[169]The Earl also concerned himself with relieving unem-ployment among the poor.[170] On a personal level, hegave to poor people, petitioners, and prisons on a dailybasis.[83] Due to his interests in trade and exploration,as well as his debts, his contacts with the London cityfathers were intense.[83] He was an enthusiastic investorin the Muscovy Company and the Merchant Adventur-ers.[171] English relations with Morocco were also han-dled by Leicester. This he did in the manner of his pri-vate business affairs, underpinned by a patriotic and mis-sionary zeal (commercially, these relations were a los-ing business).[172] He took much interest in the careersof John Hawkins and Francis Drake from early on, andwas a principal backer of Drake’s circumnavigation ofthe world. Robert and Ambrose Dudley were also theprincipal patrons of Martin Frobisher's 1576 search forthe Northwest Passage.[173] Later Leicester acquired hisown ship, the Galleon Leicester, which he employed ina luckless expedition under Edward Fenton, but also un-der Drake. As much as profit, English seapower was onhis mind, and accordingly Leicester became a friend andleading supporter of DomAntónio, the exiled claimant tothe Portuguese throne after 1580.[174]

6.2 Learning, theatre, the arts, and litera-ture

Apart from their legal function the Inns of Court werethe Tudor equivalents of gentlemen’s clubs.[175] In 1561,grateful for favours he had done them, the Inner Tem-ple admitted Dudley as their most privileged mem-

ber, their “Lord and Governor”.[176] He was allowed tobuild his own apartments on the premises and organisedgrand festivities and performances in the Temple.[177]As Chancellor of Oxford University Dudley was highlycommitted.[178] He enforced the Thirty-nine Articles andthe oath of royal supremacy at Oxford, and obtained fromthe Queen an incorporation by Act of Parliament for theuniversity.[179] Leicester was also instrumental in found-ing the official Oxford University Press,[180] and installedthe pioneer of international law, Alberico Gentili, and theexotic theologian, Antonio del Corro, at Oxford. Over delCorro’s controversial case he even sacked the university’sVice-Chancellor.[181]

Around 100 books were dedicated to Robert Dud-ley during Elizabeth’s reign.[182] In 1564/1567 ArthurGolding dedicated his popular translation of Ovid'sMetamorphoses to the Earl.[183] Dudley took a specialinterest in translations, which were seen as a means topopularise learning among “all who could read.”[184] Hewas also a history enthusiast, and in 1559 suggested tothe tailor John Stow to become a chronicler (as Stow re-called in 1604).[185] Robert Dudley’s interest in the the-atre was manifold, from academic plays at Oxford tothe protection of the Children of St. Paul’s and of theRoyal Chapel, and their respective masters, against hos-tile bishops and landlords.[186] From at least 1559 he hadhis own company of players,[187] and in 1574 he obtainedfor them the first royal patent that was ever issued to ac-tors so that they could tour the country unmolested bylocal authorities.[188] The Earl also kept a separate com-pany of musicians who in 1586 played before the Kingof Denmark; with them travelled William Kempe, “theLord Leicester’s jesting player”.[189]

Leicester possessed one of the largest collections of paint-ings in Elizabethan England, being the first great pri-vate collector.[191] He was a principal patron of NicholasHilliard, as well as interested in all aspects of Italianculture.[192] The Earl’s circle of scholars and men of let-ters included, among others, his nephew Philip Sidney,the astrologer and Hermeticist John Dee, his secretariesEdwardDyer and JeanHotman, as well as John Florio andGabriel Harvey.[193] Through Harvey, Edmund Spenserfound employment at Leicester House on the Strand, theEarl’s palatial town house, where he wrote his first worksof poetry.[194] Many years after Leicester’s death Spenserwistfully recalled this time in his Prothalamion,[195] andin 1591 he remembered the late Earl with his poem TheRuins of Time.[196]

6.3 Religion

From infancy Robert Dudley grew up as a Protes-tant. Presumably conforming in public under MaryTudor,[4] he was counted among the “heretics” by PhilipII’s agent before Elizabeth’s accession.[197] He immedi-ately became a major patron to former Edwardian cler-ics and returning exiles.[4] Meanwhile, he also helped

10 7 GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE UNITED PROVINCES

Queen Elizabeth at Wanstead House. The figures in the gardenmay include representations of Robert and Lettice Dudley.[190]

Painting by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder

some of Mary’s former servants and maintained Catholiccontacts.[198] From 1561 he advocated and supportedthe Huguenot cause,[199] and the French ambassadordescribed him as “totally of the Calvinist religion” in1568.[200] After the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in1572 this trait in him became the more pronounced, andhe continued as the chief patron of English Puritans anda champion of international Calvinism.[201] On the otherhand, in his household, Leicester employed Catholics likeSir Christopher Blount, who held a position of trust andof whom he was personally fond. The Earl’s patronage ofand reliance on individuals was as much a matter of oldfamily loyalties or personal relationships as of religiousallegiances.[202]

Leicester was especially interested in the furtheranceof preaching, which was the main concern of moder-ate Puritanism.[203] He went to great lengths to supportnon-conforming preachers, while warning them againsttoo radical positions which, he argued, would only en-danger what reforms had been hitherto achieved.[204]He would not condone the overthrow of the existingchurch model because of “trifles”, he said.[205] “I amnot, I thank God, fantastically persuaded in religion but... do find it soundly and godly set forth in this uni-versal Church of England.”[206] Accordingly, he tried tosmooth things out and, among other moves, initiated sev-eral disputations between the more radical elements ofthe Church and the episcopal side so that they “mightmake reconcilement”.[207] His influence in ecclesiasticalmatters was considerable until it declined in the 1580s

under Archbishop John Whitgift.[208]

7 Governor-General of the UnitedProvinces

During the 1570s Leicester built a special relationshipwith Prince William of Orange, who held him in high es-teem. The Earl became generally popular in the Nether-lands. Since 1577 he pressed for an English military ex-pedition, led by himself (as the Dutch strongly wished) tosuccour the rebels.[209] In 1584 the Prince of Orange wasmurdered, political chaos ensued, and in August 1585Antwerp fell to the Duke of Parma.[210] An English inter-vention became inevitable; it was decided that Leicesterwould go to the Netherlands and “be their chief as hereto-fore was treated of”, as he phrased it in August 1585.[211]He was alluding to the recently signed Treaty of Nonsuchin which his position and authority as “governor-general”of the Netherlands had only been vaguely defined.[212]The Earl prepared himself for “God’s cause and herMajesty’s” by recruiting the expedition’s cavalry from hisretainers and friends, and by mortgaging his estate to thesum of £25,000.[213]

At the end of December 1585 Leicester was received inthe Netherlands, according to one correspondent, in themanner of a second Charles V; a Dutch town official al-ready noted in his minute-book that the Earl was going tohave “absolute power and authority”.[214] After a progressthrough several cities and so many festivals he arrived inThe Hague, where on 1 January 1586 he was urged toaccept the title governor-general by the States General ofthe United Provinces. Leicester wrote to Burghley andWalsingham, explaining why he believed the Dutch im-portunities should be answered favourably. He acceptedhis elevation on 25 January, having not yet received anycommunications from England due to constant adversewinds.[215]

The Earl had now “the rule and government general” witha Council of State to support him (the members of whichhe nominated himself).[216] He remained a subject ofElizabeth, making it possible to contend that she was nowsovereign over the Netherlands. According to Leicester,this was what the Dutch desired.[217] From the start sucha position for him had been implied in the Dutch proposi-tions to the English, and in their instructions to Leicester;and it was consistent with the Dutch understanding of theTreaty of Nonsuch.[218] The English queen, however, inher instructions to Leicester, had expressly declined toaccept offers of sovereignty from the United Provinceswhile still demanding of the States to follow the “advice”of her lieutenant-general in matters of government.[219]Her ministers on both sides of the Channel hoped shewould accept the situation as a fait accompli and couldeven be persuaded to add the rebellious provinces to herpossessions.[214] Instead her fury knew no bounds and

11

Leicester as Governor-General, 1586. Engraving by HendrikGoltzius

Elizabeth sent Sir Thomas Heneage to read out her lettersof disapproval before the States General, Leicester havingto stand nearby.[220] Elizabeth’s “commandment”[221] wasthat the Governor-General immediately resign his post ina formal ceremony in the same place where he had takenit.[222] After much pleading with her and protestations bythe Dutch, it was postulated that the governor-generalshiphad been bestowed not by any sovereign, but by the StatesGeneral and thereby by the people.[223] The damage wasdone, however:[224] “My credit hath been cracked eversince her Majesty sent Sir Thomas Heneage hither”, Le-icester recapitulated in October 1586.[225]

Elizabeth demanded of her Lieutenant-General to refrainat all cost from any decisive action with Parma, which wasthe opposite of what Leicester wished and what the Dutchexpected of him.[226] After some initial successes,[227]the unexpected surrender of the strategically importanttown of Grave was a serious blow to English morale.Leicester’s fury turned on the town’s governor, BaronHemart, whom he had executed despite all pleadings.The Dutch nobility were astonished: even the Prince ofOrange would not have dared such an outrage, Leicesterwas warned; but, he wrote, he would not be intimidatedby the fact that Hemart “was of a good house”.[228]

Leicester’s forces, small and seriously underfinancedfrom the outset, faced the most formidable army inEurope.[229] Unity among their ranks was at risk by Le-icester’s and the other officers’ quarrels with Sir JohnNorris, who had commanded previous English con-tingents in the Netherlands and was now the Earl’sdeputy.[230] Elizabeth was angry that the war cost morethan anticipated and for many months delayed sending

money and troops.[231] This not only forced Dudley toraise further funds on his own account, but much aggra-vated the soldiers’ lot.[232] “They cannot get a penny; theircredit is spent; they perish for want of victuals and cloth-ing in great numbers ... I assure you it will fret me todeath ere long to see my soldiers in this case and cannothelp them”, Leicester wrote home.[233]

Many Dutch statesmen were essentially politiques; theysoon became disenchanted with the Earl’s enthusias-tic fostering of what he called “the religion”.[234] Hismost loyal friends were the Calvinists at Utrecht andFriesland, provinces in constant opposition to Hollandand Zeeland.[235] Those rich provinces engaged in a lu-crative trade with Spain which was very helpful to ei-ther side’s war effort. On Elizabeth’s orders Leicester en-forced a ban on this trade with the enemy, thus alienatingthe wealthy Dutch merchants.[236] He also effected a fis-cal reform. In order to centralise finances and to replacethe highly corrupt tax farming with direct taxation, a newCouncil of Finances was established which was not undersupervision of the Council of State. The Dutch mem-bers of the Council of State were outraged at these boldsteps.[237] English peace talks with Spain behind Leices-ter’s back, which had started within days after he had leftEngland, undermined his position further.[238]

In September 1586 there was a skirmish at Zutphen,in which Philip Sidney was wounded. He died a fewweeks later. His uncle’s grief was great.[239] In De-cember Leicester returned to England. In his absence,William Stanley and Rowland York, two Catholic offi-cers whom Leicester had placed in command of Deventerand the fort of Zutphen, respectively, went over to Parma,along with their key fortresses—a disaster for the Anglo-Dutch coalition in every respect.[240] His Dutch friends,as his English critics, pressed for Leicester’s return to theNetherlands. Shortly after his arrival in June 1587 theEnglish-held port of Sluis was lost to Parma, Leicesterbeing unable to assert his authority over the Dutch allies,who refused to cooperate in relieving the town.[241] Af-ter this blow Elizabeth, who ascribed it to “the maliceor other foul error of the States”,[242] was happy to enterinto peace negotiations with the Duke of Parma. By De-cember 1587 the differences between Elizabeth and theDutch politicians, with Leicester in between, had becomeinsurmountable; he asked to be recalled by the Queen andgave up his post.[243] Hewas irredeemably in debt becauseof his personal financing of the war.[4]

8 Armada and death

In July 1588, as the Spanish Armada came nearer, theEarl of Leicester was appointed “Lieutenant and Captain-General of the Queen’s Armies and Companies”.[245] AtTilbury on the Thames he erected a camp for the defenceof London, should the Spaniards indeed land. Leicestervigorously counteracted the disorganisation he found ev-

12 9 HISTORIOGRAPHICAL TREATMENT

The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I, painted after Leicester’sdeath. She possibly wears the necklace of six hundred pearls theEarl bequeathed to her in his will.[244]

erywhere, having few illusions about “all sudden hurley-burleys”, as he wrote toWalsingham.[246]When the PrivyCouncil was already considering to disband the camp tosave money, Leicester held against it, setting about toplan with the Queen a visit to her troops. On the dayshe gave her famous speech he walked beside her horsebare-headed.[247]

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

After the Armada the Earl was seen riding in splen-dour through London “as if he were a king”,[248] andfor the past few weeks he had usually dined with theQueen, a unique favour.[248] On his way to Buxton in Der-byshire to take the baths, he died at Cornbury Park nearOxford on 4 September 1588. Leicester’s health had notbeen good for some time and historians have consideredboth malaria and stomach cancer as death causes.[249] Hisdeath came unexpectedly,[4] and only a week earlier hehad said farewell to his Queen. Elizabeth was deeply af-fected and locked herself in her apartment for a few daysuntil Lord Burghley had the door broken.[250] Her nick-name for Dudley had been “Eyes”, which was symbolisedby the sign of ôô in their letters to each other.[251] Eliz-abeth kept the letter he had sent her six days before his

death in her bedside treasure box, endorsing it with “hislast letter” on the outside. It was still there when she died15 years later.[252]

Leicester was buried, as he had requested, in theBeauchamp Chapel of the Collegiate Church of St Mary,Warwick—in the same chapel as Richard Beauchamp, hisancestor, and the “noble Impe”, his little son.[253] Count-ess Lettice was also buried there when she died in 1634,alongside the “best and dearest of husbands”, as the epi-taph, which she commissioned, says.[254]

9 Historiographical treatment

The book which later became known as Leicester’s Com-monwealth was written by Catholic exiles in Paris andprinted anonymously in 1584.[255][note 5] It was publishedshortly after the death of Leicester’s son, which is alludedto in a stop-press marginal note: “The children of adul-terers shall be consumed, and the seed of a wicked bedshall be rooted out.”[256] Smuggled into England, the libelbecame a best-seller with underground booksellers andthe next year was translated into French.[257] Its underly-ing political agenda is the succession of Mary Queen ofScots to the English throne,[258] but its most outstandingfeature is an allround attack on the Earl of Leicester. Heis presented as an atheistic, hypocritical coward, a “per-petuall Dictator”,[259] terrorising the Queen and ruiningthe whole country. He is engaged in a long-term conspir-acy to snatch the Crown from Elizabeth in order to set-tle it first on his brother-in-law, the Earl of Huntingdon,and ultimately on himself. Spicy details of his monstrousprivate life are revealed, and he appears as an expert poi-soner of many high-profile personalities.[260] This influ-ential classic is the origin of many aspects of Leicester’shistorical reputation.[261]

Queen Elizabeth and Leicester by William Frederick Yeames,1865

In the early 17th century, William Camden saw “somesecret constellation” of the stars at work between Eliza-beth and her favourite;[262] he firmly established the leg-

13

end of the perfect courtier with the sinister influence.[263]Some of the most often-quoted characterisations of Le-icester, such as that he “was wont to put up all his passionsin his pocket”, his nickname of “the Gypsy”, and Eliza-beth’s “I will have here but one mistress and no master"-reprimand to him, were contributed by Sir Henry Wottonand Sir Robert Naunton almost half a century after theEarl’s death.[264] The Victorian historian James AnthonyFroude saw Robert Dudley as Elizabeth’s soft plaything,combining “in himself the worst qualities of both sexes.Without courage, without talent, without virtue”.[265]The habit of comparing him unfavourably to WilliamCecil[266] was continued by Conyers Read in 1925: “Le-icester was a selfish, unscrupulous courtier and Burghleya wise and patriotic statesman”.[267] Geoffrey Elton, inhis widely read England under the Tudors (1955), sawDudley as “a handsome, vigorous man with very littlesense.”[268]

Since the 1950s, academic assessment of the Earl of Le-icester has undergone considerable changes.[269] Leices-ter’s importance in literary patronage was established byEleanor Rosenberg in 1955. Elizabethan Puritanism hasbeen thoroughly reassessed since the 1960s, and PatrickCollinson has outlined the Earl’s place in it.[269] Dud-ley’s religion could thus be better understood, ratherthan simply to brand him as a hypocrite.[270] His impor-tance as a privy councillor and statesman has often beenoverlooked,[78] one reason being that many of his lettersare scattered among private collections and not easily ac-cessible in print, as are those of his colleagues Walsing-ham and Cecil.[4] Alan Haynes describes him as “oneof the most strangely underrated of Elizabeth’s circle ofclose advisers”,[271] while Simon Adams, who since theearly 1970s has researched many aspects of Leicester’slife and career,[272] concludes: “Leicester was as centrala figure to the 'first reign' [of Elizabeth] as Burghley.”[273]

10 Ancestry

11 See also

• Alienation Office

• Cultural depictions of Elizabeth I of England

• Kenilworth (novel)

• Lady Catherine Grey

• Greenwich armour

• Maria Stuarda

• Mary Stuart (play)

• Sebastian Westcott

12 Footnotes[1] There is a popular tradition that Robert Dudley was the

same age as Elizabeth I; however, in a letter to WilliamCecil he denotes 24 June as his birthday, and a 1576 por-trait miniature by Nicholas Hilliard gives his age as 44, “so1532 is the most likely year of his birth” (Adams 2008b).

[2] “está muy mala de un pecho” (“she is very ill in onebreast”), in the original Spanish (Adams 1995 p. 63).

[3] The others he listed were William Cecil and his brother-in-law Nicholas Bacon (Chamberlin 1939 p. 101).

[4] Sir Robert Dudley lost his case in the Star Chamber in1605 (Warner 1899 p. xlvi). Historians have had differ-ing views on the problem: While Derek Wilson believesin a marriage (Wilson 1981 p. 326), it has been rejectedby, for example, Conyers Read (Read 1936 p. 23), Jo-hanna Rickman (Rickman 2008 p. 51), and SimonAdams(Adams 2008d).

[5] The original title began: The copie of a leter, wryten bya Master of Arte of Cambrige ... (WorldCat Retrieved 5April 2010). In 1641 it was reprinted in London as Leyces-ters Commonwealth (Burgoyne 1904 p. vii).

13 Citations[1] Haynes 1992 p. 12; Wilson 1981 pp. 151–152

[2] Adams 2002 pp. 145, 147

[3] Adams 2002 p. 52

[4] Adams 2008b

[5] Adams 2002 p. 133

[6] Wilson 1981 p. 16

[7] Chamberlin 1939 pp. 55–56

[8] Chamberlin 1939 p. 55; Adams 2008b

[9] Wilson 1981 pp. 23, 28–29; Adams 2008b; Loades 1996p. 225

[10] Wilson 1981 pp. 31, 33, 44

[11] Adams 2002 pp. 135, 159

[12] Loades 1996 pp. 179, 225, 285; Haynes 1987 pp. 20–21

[13] Loades 1996 pp. 225–226; Wilson 1981 pp. 45–47

[14] Loades 1996 pp. 256–257, 238–239

[15] Ives 2009 pp. 199, 209; Haynes 1987 pp. 23

[16] Haynes 1987 pp. 23–24; Chamberlin 1939 p. 68, 69

[17] Loades 1996 pp. 266, 270–271

[18] Adams 2002 p. 134

[19] Loades 1996 p. 280

14 13 CITATIONS

[20] Adams 2002 pp. 161–162

[21] Loades 1996 p. 273

[22] Adams 2002 p. 158; Wilson 1981 p. 71

[23] Loades 1996 pp. 238, 273

[24] Adams 2002 p. 134; Chamberlin 1939 pp. 87–88

[25] Wilson 1981 pp. 78, 83–92

[26] Wilson 1981 p. 96

[27] Gristwood 2007 p. 92

[28] Hume 1892–1899 Vol. I pp. 57–58; Wilson 1981 p. 95

[29] Owen 1980 p. 9

[30] Skidmore 2010 pp. 166, 162

[31] Chamberlin 1939 p. 118

[32] Chamberlin 1939 pp. 116–117; Doran 1996 p. 42

[33] Adams 1995 p. 78; Wilson 1981 p. 100; Chamberlin1939 p. 117

[34] Adams 1995 p. 151

[35] Wilson 1981 p. 114; Doran 1996 p. 72

[36] Wilson 2005 p. 261

[37] Adams 2011

[38] Adams 1995 pp. 380–382

[39] Adams 1995 p. 378

[40] Adams 1995 p. 383

[41] Adams 2002 p. 136

[42] Doran 1996 p. 43; Skidmore 2010 p. 382

[43] Skidmore 2010 p. 378

[44] Owen 1980 p. 10; Doran 1996 p. 45

[45] Doran 1996 p. 212; Gristwood 2007 pp. 108–109; Skid-more 2010 pp. 243–244

[46] HMC 1911 p. viii; Gristwood 2007 pp. 112, 119; Skid-more 2010 p. 223

[47] Doran 1996 p. 44

[48] Adams 2011; Skidmore 2010 pp. 230–233

[49] Doran 1996 pp. 42–44

[50] Jenkins 2002 p. 65

[51] Jenkins 2002 p. 291

[52] Gristwood 2007 pp. 115, 120–123; Doran 1996 p. 44

[53] Doran 1996 p. 45–52; Adams 2008b

[54] Adams 2002 p. 165

[55] Wilson 1981 p. 136

[56] Adams 2002 p. 137

[57] Wilson 1981 pp. 140–141

[58] Chamberlin 1939 pp. 138–139

[59] Chamberlin 1939 pp. 136, 160, 144–145

[60] Chamberlin 1939 pp. 140, 146, 147

[61] Chamberlin 1939 pp. 151–152

[62] Chamberlin 1939 p. 158

[63] Chamberlin 1939 pp. 143–144, 152, 158, 168; Wilson1981 p. 141; Jenkins 2002 p. 119

[64] Chamberlin 1939 p. 152; Wilson 1981 p. 142

[65] Adams 2008b; Chamberlin 1939 pp. 155, 156–157, 159–161

[66] Fraser 1972 p. 267; Wilson 1981 p. 243

[67] Doran 1996 p. 65

[68] Hume 1904 p. 90; Doran 1996 p. 65

[69] Hume 1904 pp. 90–94, 99, 101–104; Jenkins 2002 p.130

[70] Doran 1996 p. 212

[71] Hume 1904 pp. 94, 95, 138, 197; Doran 1996 p. 124

[72] Doran 1996 pp. 212–213

[73] Adams 2002 p. 139

[74] Watkins 1998 p. 163

[75] Gristwood 2007 p. 151; Girouard 1979 p. 111

[76] Adams 2002 p. 140; Wilson 1981 p. 305

[77] Wilson 1981 p. 230

[78] Wilson 1981 p. 305

[79] Lovell 2006 pp. 265–267; 355

[80] Adams 2002 p. 120; Wilson 1981 pp. 78, 305

[81] Adams 2002 p. 43

[82] Haynes 1987 pp. 141–144; Wilson 1981 pp. 326–327

[83] Adams 1996

[84] Loades 2004 p. 271

[85] Adams 2002 p. 319

[86] Adams 2008b; Adams 1996

[87] Adams 2002 p. 163; Adams 2008b

[88] Haynes 1987 p. 59; Adams 2002 p. 235

[89] Adams 2002 p. 310; Wilson 1981 p. 170

[90] Adams 2002 pp. 3, 264, 272, 275

[91] Adams 2002 pp. 268–269, 275–276

15

[92] Adams 2002 pp. 3, 276–277

[93] Wilson 1981 pp. 171–172

[94] Adams 2002 p. 225

[95] Wilson 1981 p. 172; Adams 2002 p. 225

[96] Wilson 1981 p. 173

[97] Morris 2010 p. 27

[98] Adams 2002 pp. 322, 3

[99] Wilson 1981 pp. 1, 3

[100] Adams 2002 pp. 312–313, 321

[101] Adams 2002 p. 312–313, 320–321, 326

[102] Jenkins 2002 pp. 179–181

[103] Adams 2002 p. 327

[104] Adams 2002 p. 312

[105] Molyneux 2008 pp. 58–59

[106] Morris 2010 pp. 47–48

[107] Doran 1996 pp. 67–69; Jenkins 2002 pp. 205–211

[108] Henderson 2005 pp. 90–92

[109] Gristwood 2007 p. 249

[110] Gristwood 2007 pp. 249–250

[111] Rickman 2008 p. 49

[112] Read 1936 p. 24

[113] Read 1936 p. 25

[114] Read 1936 pp. 23, 26

[115] Warner 1899 pp. iii–iv

[116] Jenkins 2002 pp. 124–125

[117] Adams 2008a

[118] Jenkins 2002 p. 212

[119] Freedman 1983 pp. 33–34, 22

[120] Freedman 1983 pp. 33; Jenkins 2002 p. 217

[121] Adams 2008d; Adams 2008c

[122] Warner 1899 p. vi; Wilson 1981 p. 246

[123] Warner 1899 p. ix

[124] Warner 1899 p. xxxix

[125] Warner 1899 p. xl; Adams 2008d

[126] Warner 1899 p. vi, vii

[127] Jenkins 2002 pp. 234–235

[128] Doran 1996 p. 161

[129] Wilson 1981 pp. 229–230

[130] Hammer 1999 p. 35

[131] Jenkins 2002 p. 287

[132] Nicolas 1847 p. 382

[133] Jenkins 2002 p. 362

[134] Jenkins 2002 pp. 280–281

[135] Adams 1995 p. 182

[136] Hammer 1999 pp. 34–38, 60–61, 70, 76

[137] Wilson 1981 pp. 228, 230–231

[138] Nicolas 1847 p. 97; Jenkins 2002 p. 247

[139] Owen 1980 p. 44; Jenkins 2002 pp. 263, 305

[140] Hume 1892–1899 Vol. III p. 477; Jenkins 2002 p. 279

[141] Wilson 2005 p. 358; Jenkins 2002 p. 280

[142] Jenkins 2002 p. 305

[143] Wilson 1981 p. 247

[144] Hammer 1999 p. 46

[145] Adams 2002 pp. 17–18

[146] Wilson 1981 p. 195

[147] Doran 1996 p. 59

[148] Wilson 1981 p. 215; Collinson 1960 pp. xxv–xxvi

[149] Rosenberg 1958 p. 23

[150] Adams 2002 p. 121

[151] Adams 2002 p. 18; Alford 2002 p. 30; Doran 1996 p.216

[152] Wilson 1981 p. 217

[153] Wilson 1981 p. 216

[154] Adams 2002 pp. 18–19, 59

[155] Jenkins 2002 p. 247

[156] Doran 1996 p. 190

[157] Adams 2002 p. 34

[158] Adams 2002 pp. 104, 107

[159] Adams 2002 pp. 137–138, 141

[160] Adams 2002 p. 18

[161] Jenkins 2002 pp. 159, 169

[162] Wilson 1981 p. 243

[163] Jenkins 2002 p. 298

[164] Adams 2008b; Collinson 2007 p. 75

[165] Collinson 2007 p. 75

[166] Jenkins 2002 pp. 323–324

16 13 CITATIONS

[167] Hammer 1999 pp. 59–61; Gristwood 2007 p. 322

[168] Gristwood 2007 p. 292

[169] Wilson 1981 p. 146; Adams 2002 p. 337

[170] Adams 2002 pp. 142, 337

[171] Wilson 1981 p. 165

[172] Haynes 1987 pp. 88–94

[173] Wilson 1981 pp. 164–165; Gristwood 2007 p. 198

[174] Haynes 1987 pp. 145–149

[175] Wilson 1981 p. 169

[176] Adams 2002 p. 250

[177] Wilson 1981 pp. 131–132, 168–169

[178] Chamberlin 1939 pp. 177–178

[179] Haynes 1987 pp. 75–76; Jenkins 2002 p. 178

[180] Rosenberg 1958 pp. 295–296

[181] Rosenberg 1958 p. 137; Haynes 1987 p. 77

[182] Rosenberg 1958 p. xiii; Adams 2008b

[183] Rosenberg 1958 pp. 156–158; Jenkins 2002 p. 143

[184] Rosenberg 1958 p. xvi

[185] Adams 2008b; Rosenberg 1958 p. 64; Wilson 1981 pp.160–161

[186] Rosenberg 1958 pp. 301–307

[187] Adams 1995 p. 56

[188] Wilson 1981 p. 153

[189] Rosenberg 1958 p. 305

[190] Morris 2010 p. 34; Wilson 1981 illustration caption

[191] Hearn 1995 p. 96; Haynes 1987 p. 199

[192] Hearn 1995 p. 124; Haynes 1992 p. 12

[193] Haynes 1987 pp. 76–78, 125–126; Wilson 1981 p. 307

[194] Jenkins 2002 pp. 254–257

[195] Jenkins 2002 p. 261

[196] Adams 2002 p. 149

[197] Starkey 2001 pp. 230, 231

[198] Doran 1996 pp. 66–67; Skidmore 2010 pp. 129, 128;Porter 2007 p. 412

[199] Doran 1996 pp. 59, 67

[200] Collinson 1971 p. 53

[201] MacCulloch 2001 pp. 213, 249; Adams 2002 pp. 141–142

[202] Adams 1995 p. 463; Adams 2002 p. 190

[203] Adams 2002 pp. 230–231

[204] Wilson 1981 pp. 198–205; Adams 2002 p. 231

[205] Adams 2002 p. 231

[206] Wilson 1981 p. 205

[207] Adams 2002 pp. 231, 143, 229–232; Collinson 1960 p.xxx

[208] Collinson 1960 pp. xxi–xxiii, xxxviii

[209] Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 7–15; Wilson 1981 p.238; Haynes 1987 p. 158

[210] Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 20, 24

[211] Adams 2002 p. 147

[212] Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 25

[213] Gristwood 2007 pp. 307–308; Hammer 2003 p. 125

[214] Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 53

[215] Wilson 1981 pp. 276–278

[216] Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 55, 73

[217] Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 54

[218] Haynes 1987 pp. 158–159; Bruce 1844 p. 17; Strong andvan Dorsten 1964 pp. 23, 25

[219] Bruce 1844 p. 15

[220] Gristwood 2007 pp. 311, 313; Chamberlin 1939 p. 263

[221] Bruce 1844 p. 105

[222] Gristwood 2007 p. 313

[223] Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 59

[224] Hammer 2003 p. 127

[225] Bruce 1844 p. 424

[226] Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 72

[227] Gristwood 2007 pp. 316–317

[228] Bruce 1844 p. 309; Wilson 1981 pp. 282–284

[229] Adams 2002 p. 147; Gristwood 2007 p. 307; Hammer2003 pp. 125–126

[230] Adams 2002 p. 180; Hammer 2003 p. 126

[231] Hammer 2003 pp. 132–133

[232] Wilson 1981 p. 282; Hammer 2003 p. 133

[233] Gristwood 2007 pp. 315–316

[234] Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 75

[235] Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 75–76; Haynes 1987 p.175

[236] Haynes 1987 pp. 172–173; Adams 2008b

[237] Haynes 1987 pp. 173–174

17

[238] Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 43, 50

[239] Haynes 1987 pp. 170–171

[240] Wilson 1981 p. 291

[241] Wilson 1981 pp. 291–294

[242] Wilson 1981 p. 294

[243] Wilson 1981 pp. 294–295

[244] Watkins 1998 p. 167; Gristwood 2007 p. 337

[245] Haynes 1987 p. 191

[246] Jenkins 2002 pp. 349–351

[247] Haynes 1987 pp. 191–195

[248] Hume 1892–1899 Vol. IV pp. 420–421; Jenkins 2002 p.358

[249] Adams 1996; Gristwood 2007 pp. 333–334

[250] Wilson 1981 p. 302

[251] Adams 2002 p. 148; Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester:Autograph letter, signed, to Queen Elizabeth I. FolgerShakespeare Library Retrieved 17 July 2009

[252] Wilson 1981 p. 303

[253] Adams 2002 p. 149; Gristwood 2007 p. 340

[254] Gristwood 2007 p. 340

[255] Wilson 1981 pp. 262–265

[256] Jenkins 2002 p. 294

[257] Bossy 2002 p. 126; Wilson 1981 p. 251

[258] Wilson 1981 pp. 253–254

[259] Burgoyne 1904 p. 225

[260] Wilson 1981 pp. 254–259; Jenkins 2002 pp. 290–294

[261] Adams 1996; Wilson 1981 p. 268

[262] Gristwood 2007 p. 9

[263] Adams 2002 pp. 53–55; Adams 2008b

[264] Adams 2002 pp. 55, 56

[265] Adams 2002 p. 57

[266] Haynes 1987 p. 11

[267] Chamberlin 1939 p. 103

[268] Wilson 1981 p. 304

[269] Adams 2002 p. 176

[270] Adams 2002 pp. 226–228

[271] Haynes 1992 p. 15

[272] Gristwood 2007 p. 372; Adams 2002 p. 2

[273] Adams 2002 p. 7

14 References

• Adams, Simon (ed.) (1995): Household Accountsand Disbursement Books of Robert Dudley, Earl ofLeicester, 1558–1561, 1584–1586 Cambridge Uni-versity Press ISBN 0-521-55156-0

• Adams, Simon (1996): “At Home and Away. TheEarl of Leicester”History TodayVol. 46 No. 5 May1996 Retrieved 2010-09-29

• Adams, Simon (2002): Leicester and the Court: Es-says in Elizabethan Politics Manchester UniversityPress ISBN 0-7190-5325-0

• Adams, Simon (2008a): “Dudley, Lettice, countessof Essex and countess of Leicester (1543–1634)"OxfordDictionary of National Biography online edn.Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-04

• Adams, Simon (2008b): “Dudley, Robert, earl ofLeicester (1532/3–1588)" Oxford Dictionary of Na-tional Biography online edn. May 2008 (subscrip-tion required) Retrieved 2010-04-03

• Adams, Simon (2008c): “Dudley, Sir Robert(1574–1649)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biog-raphy online edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required)Retrieved 2010-04-03

• Adams, Simon (2008d): “Sheffield, Douglas, LadySheffield (1542/3–1608)" Oxford Dictionary of Na-tional Biography online edn. Jan 2008 (subscriptionrequired) Retrieved 2010-04-03

• Adams, Simon (2011): “Dudley, Amy, Lady Dud-ley (1532–1560)" Oxford Dictionary of National Bi-ography online edn. Jan 2011 (subscription re-quired) Retrieved 2012-07-04

• Alford, Stephen (2002): The Early ElizabethanPolity: William Cecil and the British Succession Cri-sis, 1558–1569 Cambridge University Press ISBN0-521-89285-6

• Bossy, John (2002): Under the Molehill: An Eliz-abethan Spy Story Yale Nota Bene ISBN 0-300-09450-7

• Bruce, John (ed.) (1844): Correspondence of RobertDudley, Earl of Leycester, during his Government ofthe Low Countries, in the Years 1585 and 1586 Cam-den Society

• Burgoyne, F.J. (ed.) (1904): History of Queen Eliz-abeth, Amy Robsart and the Earl of Leicester, being aReprint of “Leycesters Commonwealth” 1641 Long-mans

• Chamberlin, Frederick (1939): Elizabeth andLeycester Dodd, Mead & Co.

18 14 REFERENCES

• Collinson, Patrick (ed.) (1960): “Letters of ThomasWood, Puritan, 1566–1577” Bulletin of the Instituteof Historical Research Special Supplement No. 5November 1960

• Collinson, Patrick (1971): The Elizabethan PuritanMovement Jonathan Cape ISBN 0-224-61132-1

• Collinson, Patrick (2007): Elizabeth I Oxford Uni-versity Press ISBN 978-0-19-921356-6

• Doran, Susan (1996): Monarchy and Matrimony:The Courtships of Elizabeth I Routledge ISBN 0-415-11969-3

• Fraser, Antonia (1972): Mary Queen of Scots Pan-ther Books ISBN 0-586-03379-3

• Freedman, Sylvia (1983): Poor Penelope: LadyPenelope Rich. An Elizabethan Woman The KensalPress ISBN 0-946041-20-2

• Girouard, Mark (1979): Life in the English CountryHouse. A Social and Architectural History BCA

• Gristwood, Sarah (2007): Elizabeth and Leicester:Power, Passion, Politics Viking ISBN 978-0-670-01828-4

• Hammer, P.E.J. (1999): The Polarisation of Eliza-bethan Politics: The Political Career of Robert De-vereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, 1585–1597 CambridgeUniversity Press ISBN 0-521-01941-9

• Hammer, P.E.J. (2003): Elizabeth’s Wars: War,Government and Society in Tudor England, 1544–1604 Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 0-333-91943-2

• Haynes, Alan (1987): The White Bear: The Eliza-bethan Earl of Leicester Peter Owen ISBN 0-7206-0672-1

• Haynes, Alan (1992): Invisible Power: The Eliza-bethan Secret Services 1570–1603Alan Sutton ISBN0-7509-0037-7

• Hearn, Karen (ed.) (1995): Dynasties: Painting inTudor and Jacobean England 1530–1630 RizzoliISBN 0-8478-1940-X

• Henderson, Paula (2005): The Tudor House andGarden: Architecture and Landscape in the Sixteenthand Seventeenth CenturyYale University Press ISBN0-300-10687-4

• Historical Manuscripts Commission (ed.) (1911):Report on the Pepys Manuscripts Preserved at Mag-dalen College, Cambridge HMSO

• Hume, Martin (ed.) (1892–1899): Calendar of ...State Papers Relating to English Affairs ... in ...Simancas, 1558–1603 HMSO Vol. I Vol. III Vol.IV

• Hume, Martin (1904): The Courtships of QueenElizabeth Eveleigh Nash & Grayson

• Ives, Eric (2009): Lady Jane Grey: A TudorMysteryWiley-Blackwell ISBN 978-1-4051-9413-6

• Jenkins, Elizabeth (2002): Elizabeth and LeicesterThe Phoenix Press ISBN 1-84212-560-5

• Loades, David (1996): John Dudley, Duke ofNorthumberland 1504–1553 Clarendon Press ISBN0-19-820193-1

• Loades, David (2004): Intrigue and Treason: TheTudor Court, 1547–1558 Pearson/Longman ISBN0-582-77226-5

• Lovell, M.S. (2006): Bess of Hardwick: First Ladyof Chatsworth Abacus ISBN 978-0-349-11589-4

• MacCulloch, Diarmaid (2001): The Boy King: Ed-ward VI and the Protestant Reformation PalgraveISBN 0-312-23830-4

• Molyneaux, N.A.D. (2008): “Kenilworth Castle in1563” English Heritage Historical Review Vol. 32008 pp. 46–61

• Morris, R.K. (2010): Kenilworth Castle EnglishHeritage ISBN 978-1-84802-075-7

• Nicolas, Harris (ed.) (1847): Memoirs of the Lifeand Times of Sir Christopher HattonRichard Bentley

• Owen, D.G. (ed.) (1980): Manuscripts of TheMarquess of Bath Volume V: Talbot, Dudley andDevereux Papers 1533–1659 HMSO ISBN 0-11-440092-X

• Porter, Linda (2007): Mary Tudor: The First QueenPortrait ISBN 978-0-7499-5144-3

• Read, Conyers (1936): “A Letter from Robert, Earlof Leicester, to a Lady” The Huntington Library Bul-letin No. 9 April 1936

• Rickman, Johanna (2008): Love, Lust, and Licensein Early Modern England: Illicit Sex and the NobilityAshgate ISBN 0-7546-6135-0

• Rosenberg, Eleanor (1958): Leicester: Patron ofLetters Columbia University Press

• Skidmore, Chris (2010): Death and the Virgin:Elizabeth, Dudley and the Mysterious Fate of AmyRobsart Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 978-0-29-784650-5

• Starkey, David (2001): Elizabeth: ApprenticeshipVintage ISBN 0-09-928657-2

• Strong, R.C. and J.A. van Dorsten (1964): Leices-ter’s Triumph Oxford University Press

19

• Warner, G.F. (ed.) (1899): The Voyage of RobertDudley to the West Indies, 1594–1595 Hakluyt So-ciety

• Watkins, Susan (1998): The Public and PrivateWorlds of Elizabeth I Thames & Hudson ISBN 0-500-01869-3

• Wilson, Derek (1981): Sweet Robin: A Biography ofRobert Dudley Earl of Leicester 1533–1588 HamishHamilton ISBN 0-241-10149-2

• Wilson, Derek (2005): The Uncrowned Kings ofEngland: The Black History of the Dudleys and theTudor Throne Carroll & Graf ISBN 0-7867-1469-7

15 External links• “Dudley, Robert (DDLY564R)". A CambridgeAlumni Database. University of Cambridge.

• Archival material relating to Robert Dudley, 1st Earlof Leicester listed at the UK National Archives

• Lord Robert Dudley at The InternetMovie Database

20 16 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

16 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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