Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

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Royal Household
  • Privy Councillor
  • governor-general of the United Provinces
    • Spouse(s)
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      ​
      (m. 1550; died 1560)​
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      (m. 1578)​
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    Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester,

    PC (24 June 1532[note 1] – 4 September 1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the queen's hand for many years.[1][2]

    Dudley's youth was overshadowed by the downfall of his family in 1553 after his father, the

    Royal Household. 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.

    The Earl of Leicester was one of Elizabeth's leading statesmen, involved in domestic as well as foreign politics alongside

    Elizabethan theatre.[3]

    Leicester's private life interfered with his court career and vice versa. When his first wife,

    historiographical tradition that often depicted Leicester as the Machiavellian "master courtier"[5] and as a deplorable figure around Elizabeth I. More recent research has led to a reassessment of his place in Elizabethan government and society
    .

    Youth

    Quartered arms of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (based on his Order of the Garter stallplate in St. George's Chapel)

    Education and marriage

    Robert Dudley was the fifth son of

    Henry VIII. John and Jane Dudley had 13 children in all and were known for their happy family life.[7] Among the siblings' tutors figured John Dee,[8] Thomas Wilson, and Roger Ascham.[9]

    Roger Ascham believed that Robert Dudley possessed a rare talent for languages and writing, including in

    Henry VIII, and especially Edward VI, among whose companions he served.[11]

    In 1549, Robert Dudley participated in crushing Kett'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.[12] She was of the same age as the bridegroom and the daughter and heiress of Sir John Robsart, a gentleman-farmer of Norfolk.[13] It was a love-match, the young couple depending heavily on their fathers' gifts, especially Robert's. John Dudley, who since early 1550 effectively ruled England, was pleased to strengthen his influence in Norfolk by his son's marriage.[14] Lord Robert, as he was styled as a duke's son, became an important local gentleman and served as a Member of Parliament for Norfolk in 1551–52, March 1553 and 1559.[15] His court career went on in parallel.[16]

    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, who was married to his second youngest son, Lord Guildford Dudley.[17] Robert Dudley led a force of 300 into Norfolk where Edward's half-sister Mary was assembling her followers. After some ten days in the county and securing several towns for Jane, he took King's Lynn and proclaimed her in the marketplace.[18] The next day, 19 July, Jane's reign was over in London. Soon, the townsmen of King's Lynn seized Robert Dudley and the rest of his small troop and sent him to Framlingham Castle before Mary I.[19]

    Robert Dudley was imprisoned in the

    Elizabeth, who was sent there on suspicion of involvement in Wyatt's rebellion. Guildford Dudley was executed in February 1554. The surviving brothers were released in the autumn; working for their release, their mother (who died in January 1555) and their brother-in-law, Henry Sidney, had befriended the incoming Spanish nobles around Philip of Spain, Mary's husband.[6]

    In December 1554, Ambrose and Robert Dudley took part in a

    Mary and Katherine — were restored in blood by Mary I's next parliament in 1558.[21]

    Royal favourite

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

    coronation festivities.[29]

    Elizabeth I coronation miniature

    In April 1559 Dudley was elected a

    Knight of the Garter.[30]
    Shortly before, Philip II had been informed:

    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[note 2] 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.[31]

    Within a month the Spanish ambassador,

    coat of mail under his clothes.[37] Among all classes, in England and abroad, gossip got underway that the Queen had children by Dudley—such rumours never quite ended for the rest of her life.[38]

    Amy Dudley's death

    Further information: Amy Robsart

    Already in April 1559 court observers noted that Elizabeth never let Dudley from her side;[39] but her favour did not extend to his wife.[40] Amy Dudley lived in different parts of the country since her ancestral manor house was uninhabitable.[41] Her husband visited her for four days at Easter 1559 and she spent a month around London in the early summer of the same year.[42] They never saw each other again; Dudley was with the Queen at Windsor Castle and possibly planning a visit to her, when his wife was found dead at her residence Cumnor Place near Oxford on 8 September 1560:[43]

    There came to me Bowes, by whom I do understand that my wife is dead and as he sayeth by a fall from a pair of stairs. Little other understanding can I have of him. The greatness and the suddenness of the misfortune doth so perplex me, until I do hear from you how the matter standeth, or how this evil should light upon me, considering what the malicious world will bruit, as I can take no rest.[44]

    Lord Robert Dudley c. 1560

    Retiring to his house at

    head injuries and breaking her neck.[46] It was widely suspected that Dudley had arranged his wife's death to be able to marry the Queen. The scandal played into the hands of nobles and politicians who desperately tried to prevent Elizabeth from marrying him.[47]
    Most historians have considered murder to be unlikely.
    cancerous deposits in the spine, could have caused her neck to break under only limited strain, such as a short fall or even just coming down the stairs.[51] This explanation has been widely accepted.[48] Suicide has also often been considered an option, motives being Amy Dudley's depression or mortal illness.[53]

    Marriage hopes and proposals

    Lord Leicester. An 18th-century copy of his portrait and autograph

    Elizabeth remained close to Dudley and he, with her blessing and on her prompting, pursued his suit for her hand in an atmosphere of diplomatic intrigue.[54] His wife's and his father's shadows haunted his prospects.[6] His efforts leading nowhere, in the spring of 1561 Dudley offered to leave England to seek military adventures abroad; Elizabeth would have none of that and everything remained as it was.[6]

    In October 1562 the Queen 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.[55] He was already deeply involved in foreign politics, including Scotland.[56]

    In 1563, Elizabeth suggested Dudley as a consort to the widowed

    Thomas Randolph, the English ambassador to Scotland, was told by the Scottish queen that she would accept the proposal.[61] 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.[62]

    Dudley indeed had made it clear to the Scots at the beginning that he was not a candidate for Mary's hand and forthwith had behaved with passive resistance.[63] He also worked in the interest of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Mary's eventual choice of husband.[64] Elizabeth herself wavered as to declaring Mary her heir, until in March 1565 she decided she could not bring herself to it.[65] Still, she finally told the Spanish ambassador that the proposal fell through because the Earl of Leicester refused to cooperate.[66]

    By 1564, Dudley had realised that his chances of becoming Elizabeth's consort were small.

    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.[71] These he had sabotaged and would continue to sabotage.[72] 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).[73]

    Life at court

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

    As "a male favourite to a virgin queen", Robert Dudley found himself in an unprecedented situation.

    Sir Christopher Hatton reported a growing emergency when the Earl was away for a few weeks in 1578: "This court wanteth your presence. Her majesty is unaccompanied and, I assure you, the chambers are almost empty."[77]

    On ceremonial occasions, Dudley often acted as an unofficial consort, sometimes in the Queen's stead.

    jousting in the tiltyard, and an indefatigable tennis-player.[82] He was also the Queen's regular dancing partner.[83]

    Ancestral and territorial ambition

    Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, Robert Dudley's elder brother

    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 attainders had been lifted in January 1558.[84] Robert Dudley financed the lifestyle expected of a royal favourite by large loans from City of London merchants until in April 1560 Elizabeth granted him his first export licence, worth £6,000 p.a.[85] He also received some of his father's lands, but since he was not the family heir it was a matter of some difficulty to find a suitable estate for his intended peerage.[86] In June 1563 the Queen granted him Kenilworth Manor, Castle, and Park, together with the lordships of Denbigh and Chirk in North Wales. Other grants were to follow.[87] Eventually, Leicester and his elder brother Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, came to preside over the greatest aristocratic interest in the West Midlands and North Wales.[88]

    Denbighshire

    See also: Lordship of Denbigh

    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 benefited from this to the detriment of the Crown's revenue. To remedy this situation, and to increase his own income, Dudley affected compositions with the tenants in what Simon Adams has called an "ambitious resolution of a long-standing problem ... without parallel in Elizabeth's reign".[89] All tenants that had so far only been copyholders were raised to the status of freeholders in exchange for newly agreed rents. Likewise, all tenants' rights of common were secured as were the boundaries of the commons, thus striking a balance between property rights and protection against enclosure.[90]

    Though an absentee landlord, Leicester, who was also Lord of Denbigh, regarded the lordship as an integral part of a territorial base for a revived House of Dudley.

    Common Prayer Book into Welsh.[95]

    Warwick and Kenilworth

    Fireplace at Kenilworth Castle, with shield displaying in bend the Ragged Staff of the Earls of Warwick, with the letters R and L for "Robert Leicester" for Robert Dudley[96]

    Ambrose and Robert Dudley were very close, in matters of business and personally.

    Lord Leycester's Hospital, a charity for aged and injured soldiers still functioning today.[102]
    bear baiting.[106] The whole scenery of landscape, artificial lake, castle, and Renaissance garden was ingeniously used for the entertainment.[107]

    Love affairs and remarriage

    Sir Robert Dudley
    , son of Lady Douglas Sheffield and Robert Dudley

    Confronted by a

    Douglas Sheffield, a young widow of the Howard family, he had a serious relationship from about 1569.[110] He explained to her that he could not marry, not even in order to beget a Dudley heir, without his "utter overthrow":[111]

    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".[112]

    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.[113] The affair continued and in 1574 Douglas gave birth to a son, also called Robert Dudley.[114]

    Lettice, Countess of Leicester, by George Gower c. 1585
    Robert Dudley (1533–1588)
    Robert Dudley, Anglo/Netherlandish School, c. 1565, National Trust, Montacute House

    Sir Henry Sidney, conducted an official investigation which did not find any indications of foul play but "a disease appropriate to this country ... whereof ... died many".[118] The rumours continued.[119]

    The prospect of marriage to the Countess of Essex on the horizon, Leicester finally drew a line under his relationship with Douglas Sheffield. Contrary to what she later claimed, they came to an amicable agreement over their son's custody.[6] Young Robert grew up in Dudley's and his friends' houses, but had "leave to see" his mother until she left England in 1583.[120] Leicester was very fond of his son and gave him an excellent education.[121] In his will he left him the bulk of his estate (after his brother Ambrose's death), including Kenilworth Castle.[122] Douglas Sheffield remarried in 1579. After the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, the younger Robert Dudley tried unsuccessfully to prove that his parents had married 30 years earlier in a secret ceremony. In that case, he would have been able to claim the earldoms of Leicester and Warwick.[123] His mother supported him, but maintained that she had been strongly against raising the issue and was possibly pressured by her son.[124] Leicester himself had throughout considered the boy as illegitimate.[125][note 4]

    On 21 September 1578 Leicester secretly married Lady Essex at his

    country house at Wanstead, with only a handful of relatives and friends present.[126] 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.[127] She already had been aware of his marriage plans a year earlier, though.[128] Leicester's hope of an heir was fulfilled in 1581 when another Robert Dudley, styled Lord Denbigh, was born.[129] The child died aged three in 1584, leaving his parents disconsolate.[130] Leicester found comfort in God since, as he wrote, "princes ... seldom do pity according to the rules of charity."[131] The Earl turned out to be a devoted husband:[132] In 1583 the French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau, wrote of "the Earl of Leicester and his lady to whom he is much attached", and "who has much influence over him".[133] Leicester was a concerned parent to his four stepchildren,[134] and in every respect worked for the advancement of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, whom he regarded as his political heir.[135]

    The marriage of her favourite hurt the Queen deeply. She never accepted it,[136] humiliating Leicester in public: "my open and great disgraces delivered from her Majesty's mouth".[137] Then again, she would be as fond of him as ever.[138] In 1583 she informed ambassadors that Lettice Dudley was "a she-wolf" and her husband a "traitor" and "a cuckold".[139] Lady Leicester's social life was much curtailed.[140] 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."[141] The Earl stood by his wife, asking his colleagues to intercede for her; there was no hope:[142] "She [the Queen] doth take every occasion by my marriage to withdraw any good from me", Leicester wrote even after seven years of marriage.[143]

    Colleagues and politics

    Robert Dudley in 1576, aged 44, as is stated in the margin. Miniature by Nicholas Hilliard[6]

    For the first 30 years of Elizabeth's reign, until Leicester's death, he and Lord Burghley were the most powerful and important political figures, working intimately with the Queen.[144] Robert Dudley was a conscientious privy councillor, and one of the most frequently attending.[145]

    In 1560 the diplomat

    Sir Christopher Hatton, himself one of Elizabeth's favourites.[149]

    Robert Dudley's relationship with William Cecil, Lord Burghley, was complicated. Traditionally they have been seen as enemies, and Cecil behind the scenes sabotaged Dudley's endeavours to obtain the Queen's hand.[70] On the other hand, they were on friendly terms and had an efficient working relationship which never broke down.[150] In 1572 the vacant post of Lord High Treasurer was offered to Leicester, who declined and proposed Burghley, stating that the latter was the much more suitable candidate.[151] In later years, being at odds, Dudley felt like reminding Cecil of their "thirty years friendship".[152]

    On the whole, Cecil and Dudley were in concord about policies while disagreeing fundamentally about some issues, such as the Queen's marriage and some areas of foreign policy.

    Francois, Duke of Anjou, in 1578–1581 for Elizabeth's hand, while Leicester was among its strongest opponents,[72] even contemplating exile in letters to Burghley.[154] The Anjou courtship, at the end of which Leicester and several dozen noblemen and gentlemen escorted the French prince to Antwerp,[155] 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.[156]

    Until about 1571/1572 Dudley supported Mary Stuart's succession rights to the English throne.

    James VI, her son, in whose privy chamber the English Earl had placed a spy.[6] She spread stories about his supposed lust for the English throne,[6] and when the Catholic anti-Leicester libel, Leicester's Commonwealth, was published in 1584 Dudley believed that Mary was involved in its conception.[162]

    The

    Ridolfi Plot (1571) and the Throckmorton Plot (1583), this was another scheme to assassinate Elizabeth in which Mary Stuart 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.[165]

    Leicester having returned to England, in February 1587 Elizabeth signed Mary's death warrant, with the proviso that it be not carried out until she gave her approval. As there was no sign of her doing so, Burghley, Leicester, and a handful of other privy councillors decided to proceed with Mary's execution in the interest of the state. Leicester went to Bath and Bristol for his health; unlike the other privy councillors involved, he escaped Elizabeth's severe wrath on hearing the news of Mary's death.[166]

    Patronage

    Exploration and business

    Sir Francis Drake. Leicester was happy to invest in his ventures and invite him to play cards.[167]

    Robert Dudley was a pioneer of new industries; interested in many things from

    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 loss-making).[171] He took much interest in the careers of John Hawkins and Francis Drake from early on, and was a principal backer of Drake's circumnavigation of the world. Robert and Ambrose Dudley were also the principal patrons of Martin Frobisher's 1576 search for the Northwest Passage.[172] 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.[173]

    Learning, theatre, the arts, and literature

    Apart from their legal function, the

    Act of Parliament for the university.[178] Leicester was also instrumental in founding the official Oxford University Press,[179] and installed the pioneer of international law, Alberico Gentili, and the exotic theologian, Antonio del Corro, at Oxford. Over del Corro's controversial case he even sacked the university's Vice-Chancellor.[180]

    Around 100 books were dedicated to Robert Dudley during Elizabeth's reign.[181] In 1564/1567 Arthur Golding dedicated his popular translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses to the Earl.[182] Dudley took a special interest in translations, which were seen as a means to popularise learning among "all who could read."[183] He was also a history enthusiast, and in 1559 suggested to the tailor John Stow to become a chronicler (as Stow recalled in 1604).[184] Robert Dudley's interest in the theatre was manifold, from academic plays at Oxford to the protection of the Children of St. Paul's and of the Royal Chapel, and their respective masters, against hostile bishops and landlords.[185] From at least 1559 he had his own company of players,[186] and in 1574 he obtained for them the first royal patent issued to actors to allow them to tour the country unmolested by local authorities.[187] The Earl also kept a separate company of musicians who in 1586 played before the King of Denmark; with them travelled William Kempe, "the Lord Leicester's jesting player".[188]

    Queen Elizabeth at Wanstead Hall. The figures in the garden may include representations of Robert and Lettice Dudley.[189] Painting by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder

    Leicester possessed one of the largest collections of paintings in Elizabethan England, being the first great private collector.

    The Ruins of Time.[195]

    Religion

    Robert Dudley grew up as a Protestant. Presumably conforming in public under Mary I,

    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.[201]

    Leicester was especially interested in the furtherance of preaching, which was the main concern of moderate Puritanism.[202] He went to great lengths to support non-conforming preachers, while warning them against too radical positions which, he argued, would only endanger what reforms had been hitherto achieved.[203] He would not condone the overthrow of the existing church model because of "trifles", he said.[204] "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."[205] 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".[206] His influence in ecclesiastical matters was considerable until it declined in the 1580s under Archbishop John Whitgift.[207]

    Governor-General of the United Provinces

    Hendrik Goltzius

    During the 1570s Leicester built a special relationship with Prince William of Orange, who held him in high esteem. The Earl became generally popular in the Netherlands. Since 1577 he pressed for an English military expedition, led by himself (as the Dutch strongly wished) to succour the rebels.[208] In 1584 the Prince of Orange was murdered, political chaos ensued, and in August 1585 Antwerp fell to the Duke of Parma.[209] An English intervention became inevitable;[why?] 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.[210] He was alluding to the recently signed Treaty of Nonsuch in which his position and authority as "governor-general" of the Netherlands had only been vaguely defined.[211] The Earl prepared himself for "God's cause and her Majesty's" by recruiting the expedition's cavalry from his retainers and friends, and by mortgaging his estate to the sum of £25,000.[212]

    On Thursday 9 December 1585, the Earl of Leicester set sail for the Low Countries from Harwich and landed after a swift crossing of less than 24 hours, the fleet anchored at Flushing (Vlissingen). 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".[213] After progress through several cities and so many festivals he arrived in The Hague, where on 1 January 1586 he was urged to accept the title governor-general by the States General of the United Provinces. Leicester wrote to Burghley and Walsingham, explaining why he believed the Dutch importunities should be answered favourably. He accepted his elevation on 25 January, having not yet received any communications from England due to constant adverse winds.[214]

    The Earl had now "the rule and government general" with a

    Sir Thomas Heneage to read out her letters of disapproval before the States General, Leicester having to stand nearby.[219] Elizabeth's "commandment"[220] was that the Governor-General immediately resign his post in a formal ceremony in the same place where he had taken it.[221] After much pleading with her and protestations by the Dutch, it was postulated that the governor-generalship had been bestowed not by any sovereign, but by the States General and thereby by the people.[222] The damage was done, however:[223] "My credit hath been cracked ever since her Majesty sent Sir Thomas Heneage hither", Leicester recapitulated in October 1586.[224]

    Engraving of Robert Dudley as Governor-General, on horseback

    Elizabeth demanded of her Lieutenant-General to refrain at all costs from any decisive action with Parma, which was the opposite of what Leicester wished and what the Dutch expected of him.[225] After some initial successes,[226] 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 were astonished: 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".[227]

    Leicester's forces, small and seriously underfinanced from the outset, faced the most formidable army in Europe.[228] Unity among their ranks was at risk by Leicester's and the other officers' quarrels with Sir John Norris, who had commanded previous English contingents in the Netherlands and was now the Earl's deputy.[229] Elizabeth was angry that the war cost more than anticipated and for many months delayed sending money and troops.[230] This not only forced Dudley to raise further funds on his own account, but much aggravated the soldiers' lot.[231] "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", Leicester wrote home.[232]

    Many Dutch statesmen were essentially

    direct taxation, a new Council of Finances was established which was not under the supervision of the Council of State. The Dutch members of the Council of State were outraged at these bold steps.[236] English peace talks with Spain behind Leicester's back, which had started within days after he had left England, undermined his position further.[237]

    In September 1586 there was a skirmish at

    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.[239] 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.[240] After this blow Elizabeth, who ascribed it to "the malice or other foul error of the States",[241] 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.[242] He was irredeemably in debt because of his personal financing of the war.[6]

    Armada and death

    A letter from Leicester to Elizabeth I, written at the Armada camp and signed with his nickname, "Eyes"

    In July 1588, as the

    Thames he erected a camp for the defence of London, should the Spaniards land. Leicester vigorously counteracted the disorganisation he found everywhere, having few illusions about "all sudden hurley-burleys", as he wrote to Walsingham.[244] When the Privy Council was already considering disbanding 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.[245]

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

    After the Armada the Earl was seen riding in splendour through London "as if he were a king",[246] and for the last few weeks of his life he usually dined with the Queen, a unique favour.[246] On his way to Buxton in Derbyshire to take the baths, he died at Cornbury Park near Oxford, on 4 September 1588. Leicester's health had not been good for some time; historians have considered malaria and stomach cancer as causes of death.[247] His death came unexpectedly,[6] and only a week earlier he had said farewell to Elizabeth. She was deeply affected and locked herself in her apartment for a few days until Lord Burghley had the door broken.[248] Her nickname for Dudley had been "Eyes", which was symbolised by the sign of ôô in their letters to each other.[249] Elizabeth kept the letter he had sent her six days before his death in her bedside treasure box, endorsing it with "his last letter" on the outside. It was still there when she died 15 years later on 24 March 1603.[250]

    Leicester was buried, as he had requested, in the Beauchamp Chapel of the

    Richard Beauchamp, his ancestor, and the "noble Impe", his little son.[251] 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.[252]

    Historiographical treatment

    The book which later became known as

    stop-press marginal note: "The children of adulterers shall be consumed, and the seed of a wicked bed shall be rooted out."[254] Smuggled into England, the libel became a best-seller with underground booksellers and the next year was translated into French.[255] Its underlying political agenda is the succession of Mary, Queen of Scots, to the English throne,[256] but its most outstanding feature is an all-round attack on the Earl of Leicester. He is presented as an atheistic, hypocritical coward, a "perpetuall Dictator",[257] terrorising the Queen and ruining the whole country. He is engaged in a long-term conspiracy to snatch the Crown from Elizabeth in order to settle it first on his brother-in-law, the Earl of Huntingdon, and ultimately on himself. Spicy details of his monstrous private life are revealed, and he appears as an expert poisoner of many high-profile personalities.[258] This influential classic is the origin of many aspects of Leicester's historical reputation.[259] Similar conspiracies are often mentioned in coded letters from Mary, Queen of Scots, to the French ambassador.[260]

    Queen Elizabeth and Leicester by William Frederick Yeames, 1865

    In the early 17th century,

    Sir Robert Naunton almost half a century after the Earl's death.[263]

    The Victorian historian James Anthony Froude saw Robert Dudley as Elizabeth's soft plaything, combining "in himself the worst qualities of both sexes. Without courage, without talent, without virtue".[264] The habit of comparing him unfavourably to William Cecil[265] was continued by Conyers Read in 1925: "Leicester was a selfish, unscrupulous courtier and Burghley a wise and patriotic statesman".[266] Geoffrey Elton, in his widely read England under the Tudors (1955), saw Dudley as "a handsome, vigorous man with very little sense."[267]

    Since the 1950s, academic assessment of the Earl of Leicester has undergone considerable changes.[268] 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.[268] Dudley's religion could thus be better understood, rather than simply to brand him as a hypocrite.[269] His importance as a privy councillor and statesman has often been overlooked,[78] one reason being that many of his letters are scattered among private collections and not easily accessible in print, as are those of his colleagues Walsingham and Cecil.[6] Alan Haynes describes him as "one of the most strangely underrated of Elizabeth's circle of close advisers",[270] while Simon Adams, who since the early 1970s has researched many aspects of Leicester's life and career,[271] concludes: "Leicester was as central a figure to the 'first reign' [of Elizabeth] as Burghley."[272]

    See also

    Footnotes

    1. ^ There is a popular tradition that Robert Dudley was the same age as Elizabeth I; however, in a letter to William Cecil he denotes 24 June as his birthday, and a 1576 portrait miniature by Nicholas Hilliard gives his age as 44, "so 1532 is the most likely year of his birth" (Adams 2008b).
    2. ^ "está muy mala de un pecho" ("she is very ill in one breast"), in the original Spanish (Adams 1995 p. 63).
    3. Nicholas Bacon
      (Chamberlin 1939 p. 101).
    4. ^ Sir Robert Dudley lost his case in the Star Chamber in 1605 (Warner 1899 p. xlvi). Historians have had differing views on the problem: While Derek Wilson believes in a marriage (Wilson 1981 p. 326), it has been rejected by, for example, Conyers Read (Read 1936 p. 23), Johanna Rickman (Rickman 2008 p. 51), and Simon Adams (Adams 2008d).
    5. ^ The original title began: The copie of a leter, wryten by a Master of Arte of Cambrige ... (WorldCat. Retrieved 5 April 2010.) In 1641, it was reprinted in London as Leycesters Commonwealth (Burgoyne 1904 p. vii).

    Citations

    1. ^ "Princely pleasures at Kenilworth: Robert Dudley's three-week marriage proposal to Elizabeth I". HistoryExtra. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
    2. ^ "Robert Dudley's bindings: 'A bear muzzled and chained'". blogs.bl.uk. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
    3. ^ Haynes 1992 p. 12; Wilson 1981 pp. 151–152
    4. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 145, 147
    5. ^ Adams 2002 p. 52
    6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Adams 2008b
    7. ^ Adams 2002 p. 133
    8. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 16
    9. ^ Chamberlin 1939 pp. 55–56
    10. ^ Chamberlin 1939 p. 55; Adams 2008b
    11. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 23, 28–29; Adams 2008b; Loades 1996 p. 225
    12. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 31, 33, 44
    13. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 135, 159
    14. ^ Loades 1996 pp. 179, 225, 285; Haynes 1987 pp. 20–21
    15. ^ Virgoe 1982 p. 66
    16. ^ Loades 1996 pp. 225–226; Wilson 1981 pp. 45–47
    17. ^ Loades 1996 pp. 256–257, 238–239
    18. ^ Ives 2009 pp. 199, 209; Haynes 1987 pp. 23
    19. ^ Haynes 1987 pp. 23–24; Chamberlin 1939 pp. 68-69
    20. ^ Loades 1996 pp. 266, 270–271
    21. ^ a b c Adams 2002 p. 134
    22. ^ Loades 1996 p. 280
    23. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 161–162
    24. ^ Loades 1996 p. 273
    25. ^ Adams 2002 p. 158; Wilson 1981 p. 71
    26. ^ Loades 1996 pp. 238, 273
    27. ^ Adams 2002 p. 134; Chamberlin 1939 pp. 87–88
    28. ^ "Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester". Historic UK. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
    29. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 78, 83–92
    30. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 96
    31. ^ Hume 1892–1899 Vol. I pp. 57–58; Wilson 1981 p. 95
    32. ^ Owen 1980 p. 9
    33. ^ Skidmore 2010 pp. 166, 162
    34. ^ Chamberlin 1939 p. 118
    35. ^ Chamberlin 1939 pp. 116–117; Doran 1996 p. 42
    36. ^ Adams 1995 p. 78; Wilson 1981 p. 100; Chamberlin 1939 p. 117
    37. ^ Adams 1995 p. 151
    38. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 114; Doran 1996 p. 72
    39. ^ Wilson 2005 p. 261
    40. ^ Adams 2011
    41. ^ Adams 1995 pp. 380–382
    42. ^ Adams 1995 p. 378
    43. ^ Adams 1995 p. 383
    44. ^ Adams 2002 p. 136
    45. ^ Doran 1996 p. 43; Skidmore 2010 p. 382
    46. ^ Skidmore 2010 p. 378
    47. ^ Owen 1980 p. 10; Doran 1996 p. 45
    48. ^ a b Doran 1996 p. 44
    49. ^ Adams 2011; Skidmore 2010 pp. 230–233
    50. ^ Doran 1996 pp. 42–44
    51. ^ a b Jenkins 2002 p. 65
    52. ^ Jenkins 2002 p. 291
    53. ^ Gristwood 2007 pp. 115, 120–123; Doran 1996 p. 44
    54. ^ Doran 1996 p. 45–52; Adams 2008b
    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; Wilson 1981 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. ^ a b Doran 1996 p. 212
    71. ^ Hume 1904 pp. 94, 95, 138, 197; Doran 1996 p. 124
    72. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Wilson 1981 p. 305
    79. ^ Adams 2002 p. 120; Wilson 1981 pp. 78, 305
    80. ^ Adams 2002 p. 43
    81. ^ Haynes 1987 pp. 141–144; Wilson 1981 pp. 326–327
    82. ^ a b c d Adams 1996
    83. ^ Loades 2004 p. 271
    84. ^ Adams 2002 p. 319
    85. ^ Adams 2008b; Adams 1996
    86. ^ Adams 2002 p. 163; Adams 2008b
    87. ^ Haynes 1987 p. 59; Adams 2002 p. 235
    88. ^ Adams 2002 p. 310; Wilson 1981 p. 170
    89. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 3, 264, 272, 275
    90. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 268–269, 275–276
    91. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 3, 276–277
    92. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 171–172
    93. ^ Adams 2002 p. 225
    94. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 172; Adams 2002 p. 225
    95. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 173
    96. ^ Morris 2010 p. 27
    97. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 322, 3
    98. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 1, 3
    99. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 312–313, 321
    100. ^ Adams 2002 p. 312–313, 320–321, 326
    101. ^ Jenkins 2002 pp. 179–181
    102. ^ Adams 2002 p. 327
    103. ^ Adams 2002 p. 312
    104. ^ Molyneux 2008 pp. 58–59
    105. ^ Morris 2010 pp. 47–48
    106. ^ Doran 1996 pp. 67–69; Jenkins 2002 pp. 205–211
    107. ^ Henderson 2005 pp. 90–92
    108. ^ Gristwood 2007 p. 249
    109. ^ Gristwood 2007 pp. 249–250
    110. ^ Rickman 2008 p. 49
    111. ^ Read 1936 p. 24
    112. ^ Read 1936 p. 25
    113. ^ Read 1936 pp. 23, 26
    114. ^ Warner 1899 pp. iii–iv
    115. ^ Jenkins 2002 pp. 124–125
    116. ^ a b Adams 2008a
    117. ^ Jenkins 2002 p. 212
    118. ^ Freedman 1983 pp. 33–34, 22
    119. ^ Freedman 1983 pp. 33; Jenkins 2002 p. 217
    120. ^ Adams 2008d; Adams 2008c
    121. ^ Warner 1899 p. vi; Wilson 1981 p. 246
    122. ^ Warner 1899 p. ix
    123. ^ Warner 1899 p. xxxix
    124. ^ Warner 1899 p. xl; Adams 2008d
    125. ^ Warner 1899 p. vi, vii
    126. ^ Jenkins 2002 pp. 234–235
    127. ^ Doran 1996 p. 161
    128. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 229–230
    129. ^ Hammer 1999 p. 35
    130. ^ Jenkins 2002 p. 287
    131. ^ Nicolas 1847 p. 382
    132. ^ Jenkins 2002 p. 362
    133. ^ Jenkins 2002 pp. 280–281
    134. ^ Adams 1995 p. 182
    135. ^ Hammer 1999 pp. 34–38, 60–61, 70, 76
    136. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 228, 230–231
    137. ^ Nicolas 1847 p. 97; Jenkins 2002 p. 247
    138. ^ Owen 1980 p. 44; Jenkins 2002 pp. 263, 305
    139. ^ Hume 1892–1899 Vol. III p. 477; Jenkins 2002 p. 279
    140. ^ Wilson 2005 p. 358; Jenkins 2002 p. 280
    141. ^ Jenkins 2002 p. 305
    142. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 247
    143. ^ Hammer 1999 p. 46
    144. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 17–18
    145. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 195
    146. ^ Doran 1996 p. 59
    147. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 215; Collinson 1960 pp. xxv–xxvi
    148. ^ Rosenberg 1958 p. 23
    149. ^ Adams 2002 p. 121
    150. ^ Adams 2002 p. 18; Alford 2002 p. 30; Doran 1996 p. 216
    151. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 217
    152. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 216
    153. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 18–19, 59
    154. ^ Jenkins 2002 p. 247
    155. ^ Doran 1996 p. 190
    156. ^ Adams 2002 p. 34
    157. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 104, 107
    158. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 137–138, 141
    159. ^ Adams 2002 p. 18
    160. ^ Jenkins 2002 pp. 159, 169
    161. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 243
    162. ^ Jenkins 2002 p. 298
    163. ^ Adams 2008b; Collinson 2007 p. 75
    164. ^ Collinson 2007 p. 75
    165. ^ Jenkins 2002 pp. 323–324
    166. ^ Hammer 1999 pp. 59–61; Gristwood 2007 p. 322
    167. ^ Gristwood 2007 p. 292
    168. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 146; Adams 2002 p. 337
    169. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 142, 337
    170. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 165
    171. ^ Haynes 1987 pp. 88–94
    172. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 164–165; Gristwood 2007 p. 198
    173. ^ Haynes 1987 pp. 145–149
    174. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 169
    175. ^ Adams 2002 p. 250
    176. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 131–132, 168–169
    177. ^ Chamberlin 1939 pp. 177–178
    178. ^ Haynes 1987 pp. 75–76; Jenkins 2002 p. 178
    179. ^ Rosenberg 1958 pp. 295–296
    180. ^ Rosenberg 1958 p. 137; Haynes 1987 p. 77
    181. ^ Rosenberg 1958 p. xiii; Adams 2008b
    182. ^ Rosenberg 1958 pp. 156–158; Jenkins 2002 p. 143
    183. ^ Rosenberg 1958 p. xvi
    184. ^ Adams 2008b; Rosenberg 1958 p. 64; Wilson 1981 pp. 160–161
    185. ^ Rosenberg 1958 pp. 301–307
    186. ^ Adams 1995 p. 56
    187. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 153
    188. ^ Rosenberg 1958 p. 305
    189. ^ Morris 2010 p. 34; Wilson 1981 illustration caption
    190. ^ Hearn 1995 p. 96; Haynes 1987 p. 199
    191. ^ Hearn 1995 p. 124; Haynes 1992 p. 12
    192. ^ Haynes 1987 pp. 76–78, 125–126; Wilson 1981 p. 307
    193. ^ Jenkins 2002 pp. 254–257
    194. ^ Jenkins 2002 p. 261
    195. ^ Adams 2002 p. 149
    196. ^ Starkey 2001 pp. 230, 231
    197. ^ Doran 1996 pp. 66–67; Skidmore 2010 pp. 129, 128; Porter 2007 p. 412
    198. ^ Doran 1996 pp. 59, 67
    199. ^ Collinson 1971 p. 53
    200. ^ MacCulloch 2001 pp. 213, 249; Adams 2002 pp. 141–142
    201. ^ Adams 1995 p. 463; Adams 2002 p. 190
    202. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 230–231
    203. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 198–205; Adams 2002 p. 231
    204. ^ Adams 2002 p. 231
    205. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 205
    206. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 231, 143, 229–232; Collinson 1960 p. xxx
    207. ^ Collinson 1960 pp. xxi–xxiii, xxxviii
    208. ^ Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 7–15; Wilson 1981 p. 238; Haynes 1987 p. 158
    209. ^ Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 20, 24
    210. ^ Adams 2002 p. 147
    211. ^ Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 25
    212. ^ Gristwood 2007 pp. 307–308; Hammer 2003 p. 125
    213. ^ a b Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 53
    214. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 276–278
    215. ^ Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 55, 73
    216. ^ Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 54
    217. ^ Haynes 1987 pp. 158–159; Bruce 1844 p. 17; Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 23, 25
    218. ^ Bruce 1844 p. 15
    219. ^ Gristwood 2007 pp. 311, 313; Chamberlin 1939 p. 263
    220. ^ Bruce 1844 p. 105
    221. ^ Gristwood 2007 p. 313
    222. ^ Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 59
    223. ^ Hammer 2003 p. 127
    224. ^ Bruce 1844 p. 424
    225. ^ Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 72
    226. ^ Gristwood 2007 pp. 316–317
    227. ^ Bruce 1844 p. 309; Wilson 1981 pp. 282–284
    228. ^ Adams 2002 p. 147; Gristwood 2007 p. 307; Hammer 2003 pp. 125–126
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    230. ^ Hammer 2003 pp. 132–133
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    238. ^ Haynes 1987 pp. 170–171
    239. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 291
    240. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 291–294
    241. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 294
    242. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 294–295
    243. ^ Haynes 1987 p. 191
    244. ^ Jenkins 2002 pp. 349–351
    245. ^ Haynes 1987 pp. 191–195
    246. ^ a b Hume 1892–1899 Vol. IV pp. 420–421; Jenkins 2002 p. 358
    247. ^ Adams 1996; Gristwood 2007 pp. 333–334
    248. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 302
    249. ^ Adams 2002 p. 148; Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester: Autograph letter, signed, to Queen Elizabeth I. Folger Shakespeare Library Archived 28 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 17 July 2009
    250. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 303
    251. ^ Adams 2002 p. 149; Gristwood 2007 p. 340
    252. ^ Gristwood 2007 p. 340
    253. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 262–265
    254. ^ Jenkins 2002 p. 294
    255. ^ Bossy 2002 p. 126; Wilson 1981 p. 251
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    257. ^ Burgoyne 1904 p. 225
    258. ^ Wilson 1981 pp. 254–259; Jenkins 2002 pp. 290–294
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    260. doi:10.1080/01611194.2022.2160677
    261. ^ Gristwood 2007 p. 9
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    263. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 55, 56
    264. ^ Adams 2002 p. 57
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    266. ^ Chamberlin 1939 p. 103
    267. ^ Wilson 1981 p. 304
    268. ^ a b Adams 2002 p. 176
    269. ^ Adams 2002 pp. 226–228
    270. ^ Haynes 1992 p. 15
    271. ^ Gristwood 2007 p. 372; Adams 2002 p. 2
    272. ^ Adams 2002 p. 7

    References

    Further reading

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