On this day in 1564 – Queen Elizabeth I created Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester

On 29^th September 1564 Queen Elizabeth I created Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester. It was a move that Elizabeth had been planning for a few months in an attempt to make Dudley a more attractable prospect to Mary Queen of Scots. The marriage proposal between the two had been an idea of Elizabeth’s for some time.

Queen Elizabeth I first proposed the match to the Scottish Ambassador, William Maitland of Lethington who originally laughed at the match he also asked why Elizabeth did not marry Dudley herself and that when she died she could leave her husband and the throne to Mary Queen of Scots.

Sir William Cecil, chief advisor to Elizabeth supported the match as it would not only form an alliance with Scotland but it would also take Dudley away from Elizabeth and the court. Cecil began communicating with Maitland full of praise and support for the match with Dudley however; Maitland did not inform Mary of the proposal from England for the simple fact that Dudley was not a peer.

Thomas Randolph, the English ambassador to Scotland was urged to keep pushing the prospect of marriage with Dudley to Mary despite the fact that neither Dudley nor Mary wanted the marriage to go ahead. Elizabeth had no intentions for the marriage to go ahead, it was purely political as it kept Mary occupied with negotiations and it stopped the gossip within Elizabeth’s own court regarding her relationship with Dudley.

On 29^th September 1564 despite the fact that the marriage negotiations between Dudley and Mary were failing Elizabeth created Dudley the Earl of Leicester. The Earldom had been previously held by the likes of John of Gaunt and Henry Bolingbroke (later King Henry IV) and was a prestigious title. It was reported that as Elizabeth placed the chain of earldom around his neck she placed her hand on his neck with a little stroke.

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester

On this day in 1578 – Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and Lettice Knollys, Countess of Essex were married

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester married Lettice Knollys without consent from Queen Elizabeth I on 21^st September 1578.

It is believed that Dudley had long hoped to marry Queen Elizabeth herself but it became more and more clear that she had no intentions of marrying anybody let alone her favourite, Dudley. Therefore, Robert began secretly looking for a wife. He had met Lettice Knollys, daughter of Catherine Carey and granddaughter of Mary Boleyn, when Lettice was 21 and married to Walter Devereux. Robert and Lettice enjoyed a brief flirtation at the time but it was nothing more than an attempt to make the Queen jealous after she had flirted herself with Sir Thomas Heneage.

After Devereux had been sent to Ireland Lettice remained in the employment of her first cousin, Queen Elizabeth and had regular encounters with Robert. Lettice was also present at Kenilworth Castle in 1575 when he entertained the Queen for 19 days, in an apparent last ditch attempt to win her hand in marriage.

Rumours began surfacing regarding the nature of Robert and Lettice’s relationship made worse when Devereux was sent back to Ireland. Devereux died in September 1576 leaving Lettice widowed with their four children to raise, they were forced to seek accommodation and favours from family and friends.

Finally accepting that the Queen would not marry him nor any other, Robert began negotiations with Lettice’s father and brothers in the hope that he could marry her. On the evening of 20^th September 1578 Robert welcomed Lord North into his home at Wanstead and confided in him that he would be married in the morning. Robert also told his chaplain “that he had for a good season forborne marriage in respect of her Majesty’s displeasure and that he was then for sundry respects and especially for the better quieting of his conscience determined to marry with the right honourable Countess of Essex”.

The couple were married early on the 21^st September between 7am and 8am with the bride wearing a loose gown. Only six people were present at the wedding including Lettice’s father and brother, Richard along with Robert’s brother, Ambrose and two friends the Earl of Pembroke and Lord North.

Queen Elizabeth was furious that Robert had married without her permission she banished the couple from the court, eventually allowing Robert to return but Lettice was not allowed back.

In the early years of their marriage in order to avoid further wrath from the Queen Lettice continued to call herself the Countess of Essex and not Leicester. She also continued living discreetly at her family home in Oxfordshire. Things changed when she gave birth to a son in June 1581, by 1583 Lettice and their son were openly living in Robert’s London home as man and wife, which infuriated the Queen further.

The relationship between Elizabeth and Robert never fully recovered after he married Lettice and although she still relied upon him and sent him on military missions abroad. The couple remained married until Robert’s death in 1588. The couple are buried together in the Beauchamp Chapel of the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick alongside their son. When Lettice died in 1634 she had commissioned an epitaph to be fitted onto their tomb which read that she was buried with the ‘best and dearest of husband.’

Lettice Knollys and Robert Dudley

On this day in 1560 – Amy Dudley died

Amy Dudley the first wife of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, died on Sunday 8^th September 1560. Amy had been staying at Cumnor Place, Abingdon as a guest Sir Anthony Forster and his wife. On the morning of the 8^th September Amy had sent her servants to attend the Fair that was in Abingdon.

Upon their return they found Amy dead at the foot of the stairs with two head rooms and an apparent broken neck. Robert Dudley upon hearing of his wife’s death immediately ordered his steward, Thomas Blount, to order an inquest at once. Blount reported back to Dudley regarding his wife’s movements on the morning of her death, he reported that Lady Dudley had risen early and;

“would not that day suffer one of her own sort to tarry at home, and was so earnest to have them gone to the fair, that with any of her own sort that made reason of tarrying at home she was very angry, and came to Mrs. Odingsells… who refused that day to go to the fair, and was very angry with her also. Because (Mrs. Odingsells) said it was no day for gentlewomen to go… Whereunto my lady answered and said that she might choose and go at her pleasure, but all hers should go; and was very angry. They asked who should keep her company if all they went; she said Mrs. Owen should keep her company at dinner; the same tale doth Picto, who doth dearly love her, confirm. Certainly, my Lord, as little while as I have been here, I have heard divers tales of her that maketh me judge her to be a strange woman of mind.”

Mrs. Picto was Amy Dudley’s maid and Thomas Blount asked her whether or not she suspected foul play in her death Blount reported that Mrs. Picto replied;

“she said by her faith she doth judge very chance, and neither done by man nor by herself. For herself, she said, she was a good virtuous gentlewoman, and daily would pray upon her knees; and divers times she saith that she hath heard her pray to God to deliver her from desperation. Then, said I, she might have an evil toy in her mind. No, good Mr. Blount, said Picto, do not judge so of my words; if you should so gather, I am sorry I said so much.”

Thomas Blount continued in his report by saying;

“My Lord, it is most strange that this chance should fall upon you. It passeth the judgment of any man to say how it is; but truly the tales I do hear of her maketh me to think she had a strange mind in her: as I will tell you at my coming.”

An inquest was set up consisting of the coroner and the jurors were made up local gentlemen and yeomen. Blount followed up his letter to Dudley with a second to keep him informed of the proceedings, he informed Dudley that some of the jury were not friendly towards Anthony Foster and they were proceeding with the inquiry and were very thorough. He wrote;

“they be very secret, and yet do I hear a whispering that they can find no presumptions of evil. And if I may say to your Lordship my conscience: I think some of them be sorry for it, God forgive me…Mine own opinion is much quieted… the circumstances and as many things as I can learn doth persuade me that only misfortune hath done it, and nothing else.”

Rumours began to spread around the court back in London regarding the circumstances of Amy’s death, it had long been rumoured that Dudley wished to marry the Queen and viewed his wife as an obstacle. Therefore rumours sprang up that Dudley had his wife murdered or poisoned to further his proposal with the Queen. It was in Dudley’s best interest for the inquiry to conclude as quickly as possible with an outcome that cleared him of any suspicion.

The jury wrote to Dudley to tell them that the ruled the death as accidental but they recommended that another inquiry should take place to investigate further and it should include any friends of Amy’s that were available as well as her half brothers John Appleyard and Arthur Robsart. However, this second inquiry never happened.

The coroner ruled on 1^st August 1561 that Lady Dudley ‘being alone in a certain chamber… accidentally fell precipitously down’ the stairs ‘to the very bottom of the same’ The coroner reported that she had two injuries to her head with one being ‘of the depth of a quarter of a thumb’ and the other ‘of the depth of two thumbs’. It continued to say that ‘by reason of the accidental injury or of that fall and of Lady Amy’s own body weight falling down the aforesaid stairs’ that she broke her neck ‘on account of which … the same Lady Amy then and there died instantly;… and thus the jurors say on their oath that the Lady Amy…by misfortune came to her death and not otherwise, as they are able to agree at present.’

Amy Dudley was buried at St. Mary’s, Oxford and Robert spared no expense with her funeral and spent £2,000. Robert Dudley did not attend the funeral as was the custom in Tudor times but he wore mourning clothes for the next six months he also retired from court for a month and went into mourning at his home at Kew.

With the aid of modern medicine the death of Amy Dudley has been kept alive theories surrounding her death suggest that she was suffering from breast cancer that had spread into her spine causing her neck to break easily under limited strain. Another theory was that she was murdered but not by Dudley but by someone who did not wish to see the Queen and Dudley marry. However, anyone who did arranged it risked the Queen’s reputation. Therefore, the most likely cause of death I believe is either illness or perhaps even suicide due to depression or a worsening illness.

The death of Amy Dudley painted by Victorian artist,

William Frederick Yeames

On this day in 1588 – Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester died

On 4^th September 1588 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester died, aged 56 not long after the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Dudley’s health had been deteriorating for some time with complaints of stomach pains. At the end of August 1588 Dudley set off to Buxton, Derbyshire to take in the water, the spa water in the baths were believed to have healing powers.

As Dudley was travelling to Buxton he stopped at a house at Rycote near Reading, a place he had visited previously with Queen Elizabeth, who he had a close relationship with throughout his life. It was here he wrote his final letter to his treasured Queen. Dudley wrote;

“I most humbly beseech your Majesty to pardon your poor old servant to be thus bold in sending to know how my gracious lady doth, and what ease of her late pains she finds, being the chiefest thing in this world I do pray for, for her to have good health and long life. For my own poor case, I continue still your medicine and find that amends much better than with any other thing that hath been given me. Thus hoping to find perfect cure at the bath, with the continuance of my wonted prayer for your Majesty’s most happy preservation, I humbly kiss your foot. From your old lodging at Rycote, this morning, ready to take on my Journey, by your Majesty’s most faithful and obedient servant,

1. Leicester

Even as I had writ thus much, I received Your Majesty’s token by Young Tracey.”

After writing this letter Leicester continued his journey to Buxton stopping at Combury Park near Woodstock, Oxfordshire where his health failed even further when at 4pm on the 4^th September he passed away. He was buried in the Beauchamp Chapel of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary’s, Warwick.

Queen Elizabeth was devastated at the loss of her ‘Sweet Robin’. An informer of the Spanish Ambassador reported that Elizabeth was so upset with grief that she locked herself in her chamber with no servants and refused to speak to anybody. It took the force of her council to break down her down and enter. Elizabeth kept Dudley’s final letter and when she died it was found kept in a box next to her bed with the inscription ‘His Last Letter’.

Robert Dudley’s last letter to Queen Elizabeth

On this day in 1550 – Robert Dudley married Amy Robsart

On 4^th June 1550 Robert Dudley married Amy Robsart at the royal palace of Sheen at Richmond. The couple were both close to their 18^th birthdays and unlike many marriages at the time it was a marriage of love and not arranged by either family.

It is believed that the couple met when Sir John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, led his sons and an army north to put down a rebellion by Robert Kett that was brewing after Lord Sheffield was clubbed to death after falling from his horse. Dudley took his sons Ambrose and Robert with him and on 22^nd August 1549 the troops camped outside the town of Wymondham, whilst Dudley, his sons and officers lodged at Stanfield Hall, the home of the Robsarts. This fleeting visit lasted just one night as by morning the army was on the move again towards Norwich.

Two weeks before the marriage took place both father’s sat down and drew up a marriage contract, both men were looking to get the best deal for their child and one of Sir John Robsart’s biggest concerns was the welfare of his wife after his death. Therefore he proposed that his entire estate that included the manors of Syderstone, Newton and Great Bircham would pass to Amy and Robert after both he and his wife had passed away. Sir John Dudley was concerned about the future married couple’s ability to live comfortably and so entered a clause that would ensure that a dowry of £200 was in place along with an annual allowance of £20 to be paid by Robsart to Robert. On top of the Dudley also provided £50 from the rent of some of his Leicestershire lands. Dudley also offered some land at the priory of Coxford for the couple to live, until Amy comes into her inheritance.

On 3^rd June 1550 a wedding between Warwick’s son, John Dudley and the daughter of the Duke of Somerset, Anne took place. This wedding was arranged after Somerset was freed from the Tower of London after his involvement in the Kett’s rebellion. The marriage also took place at the palace of Sheen and the weekend of festivities were attended by the King.

The wedding between Robert and Amy was a smaller ceremony than the day before and was attended by many of the same guests; they were all perhaps feeling a bit worse for wear after the lavish banquet they had attended in honour of the eldest Dudley. Robert being the third son could not expect the same attention but the King and his half sister, Princess Elizabeth attended this wedding also.

Many signs pointed to this union being a marriage of love, years later Cecil wrote in a memorandum; ‘Nuptii carnales a laetitia incipient et in luctu terminantur, which translated to ‘carnal marriages begin in joy and end in weeping’. Cecil was close to being appointed Principal Secretary to the Privy Council and so it was likely that he was at the wedding and knew the couple.

After the marriage Robert Dudley was on his way to becoming an influential landholder in north-west England and despite an imprisonment in the Tower of London for his families involvement in placing Lady Jane Grey on the throne He was also on his way to becoming a regular at court and under Elizabeth Robert Dudley would become one of the most influential men in England.

Robert Dudley