 Robert
Devereux,
Earl of Essex
(1566-1601)
Born: 19th November 1566
at Netherwood, Herefords
Earl of Essex
Died: 25th February 1601 at Tower Hill, London
Robert
Devereux, the last of Queen Elizabeth
I's favourites, was the son of Walter Devereux, first Earl of Essex, and
Lettice Knollys. On his father's death, in 1576, Lord Burghley became his
guardian and his mother married the famous Earl of Leicester. He entered at
Trinity, Cambridge, when only twelve years of age, but does not appear to have
been regular in his residence, though he became a fair scholar.
He
was early presented at Court, where the Queen did her best to 'spoil' him; and
from his twentieth and her own fifty-fourth year she indulged in many
flirtations with him, but also in many quarrels, in the course of which his hot
temper and jealousy always allowed her to get the better. But the Queen's
affection for him was genuine and, at bottom, more of a maternal than of an
amatory character. She was always in anxiety when he went to the wars, which he
often did (sometimes against her express command) and in which he always behaved
himself with conspicuous daring. Thus, he was knighted on the field of battle at
Zutphen, where Sidney fell. He 'ran away' and joined the 'Counter Armada' of
1589, and he was always crying out for open war with Spain and for an efficient
army. But he was also perpetually quarrelling with his rivals at Court or in
camp; now with Raleigh,
now with Blount, now with the Cecils; and his idea of a quarrel was, if
possible, to fight a duel to the death.
In
1590, he incurred for a time, the Queen's severest displeasure by marrying Sir
Philip Sidney's widow, the daughter of Sir
Francis Walsingham. Next year, we find him commanding, with more valour
than discretion, a small English force sent to France to succour Henry IV
against the Catholic League. Whenever he was abroad, he was always complaining,
and with reason, of the way in which his rivals, especially Robert
Cecil, were undermining his influence at home.
One
of the most curious episodes in his life is the friendship he formed with the
two Bacons, Francis and Anthony. It seems probable that the former, believing
Essex to be the 'coming man,’ deliberately attached himself to the Earl's
fortunes and gave him good advice, which Essex was too impetuous to take. Essex
was perpetually soliciting the Queen, but in vain, for preferment for his new
friend. In 1596, came the expedition to Spain, in which Essex commanded the land
forces which stormed Cadiz, while, against his advice, the sailors let the
Spanish treasure-fleet escape; but in his next expedition, known as the
'Islands' voyage' to the Azores, Essex was not so successful.
Finally,
all Essex's enemies were rejoiced when he teased his fond mistress into giving
him command of the great expedition to Ireland in 1599. Ireland was the grave of
his brilliant father's reputation and of that of many more. The Earl's
preparations were extensive and well planned but he had to face the worst
rebellion yet known in the island with the certainty that Spanish help was not
far off. Once in Ireland, he seems to have lost his head. Instead of driving
straight at Ulster and at the Earl of Tyrone, the leading rebel, he made a
senseless progress through Munster; and, when at last he turned northwards, he
allowed himself to be entrapped into a parley by the wily Irishman, the result
of which was that he concluded a wholly unauthorized truce and undertook to
present Tyrone's demands to the English government. The Queen was absolutely
furious and her favourite made matters worse by deserting his army and hurrying
to England.
He
was not immediately imprisoned, but kept in seclusion for nine months. In June
1600, he was brought to trial before a special court and it is characteristic of
Francis Bacon that he, who had advised the Earl to apply for the Irish command
and hoped to make his own fortune by him, appeared against him in his trial. No
actual sentence beyond dismissal from his offices and imprisonment in his own
house was recorded against Essex and he was set at liberty in August. However,
he had lost the favour of the Queen for good, and this disgrace was one under
which his restless nature could not be quiet. He knew well that Cecil and other
courtiers were his sworn enemies and he now entertained the absurd idea of an
appeal to force.
Essex
intrigued with King James
VI of Scotland to induce him to support a rising, along with his friend,
Lord Mountjoy, who had succeeded to his command in Ireland, whom he implored to
land troops in Wales. His only real accomplice, however, was Shakespeare's
patron, the Earl of Southampton. The rash Essex was a bad head for any
insurrection and the London mob, with whom he was really popular, was not so
foolish as to rise against Queen Elizabeth. There was, however, actually
something like a small riot when Essex and Southampton were seized and sent to
the Tower. The former was beheaded on 25th February 1601 and there is good
reason for believing that the Queen broke her aged heart when she signed his
death-warrant.
Vain
and rash beyond anyone of his age, lacking any real measure of statesmanship,
Robert Devereux had been lifted by the accidents of his birth into a position
for which he was wholly unfitted. Yet he possessed, in a marked degree,
qualities which endeared him even to those with whom he quarrelled: most utter
frankness, warm affection and generosity and, in war, the courage of a Paladin
of romance.
Edited from Emery Walker's "Historical
Portraits" (1909).
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