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 Robert Dudley,
Earl of Leicester
(1532-1588)
Born: 24th
June 1532
Earl of Leicester
Died: 4th September 1588 at Cornbury, Oxon
Robert
Dudley, the favourite and courtier of Queen Elizabeth
I, was the fifth son of
John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland and Jane Guildford. At the age of eighteen,
he married his first wife, Amy Robsart, whom he has been so often accused, but
without sufficient evidence, of murdering in order to marry Elizabeth. He
supported his father in the vain attempt to place Jane
Grey on the throne in July 1553, was condemned to death for doing so,
but pardoned in October 1554, went abroad and distinguished himself with his
brother in the campaign against France in 1557. He received some kindness from
Queen Mary’s husband, Philip II of Spain, but his real fortunes began when
Elizabeth, upon her accession, made him her Master of the Horse.
That
Elizabeth loved Dudley and continued to love him, in spite of frequent quarrels,
is a theory quite tenable; but the opposite theory, that she loved no-one at
all, and merely employed Lord Robert as a stalking-horse against other
suitors, is also tenable. Lady Amy Dudley died suddenly in 1560 at Cumnor Place,
in North Berkshire, in circumstances that were at least suspicious, and part of
the suspicion involved not only Lord Robert but the Queen as well. It is certain
that the Queen carried open, but perhaps never secret flirtation with her Master
of the Horse to the verge of impropriety. Him almost alone of her courtiers she
rewarded by really rich gifts of Crown lands and him, in a moment of weakness,
she named Protector of the Realm in the event of her death, when she had her
only recorded illness in 1562. That he, for his part, set himself forth to marry
the Queen by all means in his power there is little doubt. He told Spanish
ambassadors that he would bring England back to Catholicism if Philip would help
him to her hand; and he must have been considerably flabbergasted when the Queen
gravely proposed him as a husband for her rival, Mary Queen of Scots. In order
to fit him for the post, she created him, in 1564, Earl of Leicester.
Leicester,
as prime favourite, was the incessant bugbear and terror of Cecil and the old
Catholic nobles. Yet, he was obliged, sadly, to confess that Cecil could do more
with his mistress in an hour than he could do in seven years; and so he
gradually pulled away from his temporary connection with the Catholics and began
to court the rising Puritan party in Church and State. Thus, he was always more
friendly with Walsingham than with Cecil, and Walsingham's steady friendship is
perhaps a point in his favour. Leicester certainly knew of the conspiracy of the
Northern Earls in 1569 and may, perhaps, have been thinking of providing for his
own safety in the event of its success; but, upon its failure, he had no
difficulty in proving to Cecil that he had betrayed the conspirators. In 1571,
he privately married a widow, Lady Sheffield, but never acknowledged the
marriage, and, seven years later, married another widow, Lady Essex, thus
becoming the step-father of Robert
Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex,
Elizabeth's last favourite.
All
this time, Leicester professed to be supporting the successive pretensions of
the two French Valois princes to Elizabeth's hand. In 1585, Elizabeth's fondness
induced her to entrust him with the English army sent to succour the Protestant
Netherlands in their struggle with Spain. The Earl displayed great extravagance
and great incompetence. He allowed the States-General to name him to the
Governorship of the Provinces and thereby incurred much scolding from his
mistress, and wasted much time, which would have been better employed in
fighting the Spaniards, of which business Leicester did very little. He was
recalled in November 1587, but his failure did not prevent the Queen from
entrusting him with the command of her troops at Tilbury in August 1588, when
the defeat of the Spanish Armada was yet hardly known. Early in the following
month Leicester died suddenly. Perhaps the best thing that can be said for him
is that he was a considerable patron of literature.
Edited from Emery Walker's "Historical
Portraits" (1909).
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