Today in 1578 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, married Lettice Knollys. Ever since the death of his wife, Amy Robsart, under suspicious circumstances a decade and a half earlier, Dudley had been trying to convince Queen Elizabeth to marry him. He even staged the two-week-long series of pageants and parties at Kenilworth in 1575 to try one last time to convince her. And though they were likely deeply in love with each other, she never did marry him.
Lettice likely started her involvement with Dudley after her husband went to Ireland in 1573. Lettice was a grandniece of Anne Boleyn, and had been close to Elizabeth since she was a child. She married Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford when she was 17, and after he went to Ireland there was scandalous talk of her and Robert Dudley. Then her husband died in Ireland of dysentery in 1576, and in 1578 she and Robert Dudley married in a private ceremony.
When the Queen found out, she banished Lettice forever from court, and called her a she-wolf. She never forgave Lettice for taking what she was unable to. Still, the marriage was a happy one. They had one child, who died at the age of three. In 1589, six months after Dudley’s death, she unexpectedly married Sir Christopher Blount, who was much younger, and had been in her household. He was a Catholic secret agent, and had been involved in the Essex rebellion, being beheaded in the process.
Lettice Knollys kept on going, walking a mile a day until she was 90. She died in her chair on Christmas Day 1634, age 91.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
Suggested links:
Episode 95: Tudor Times on Robert Dudley
Spring 2018 Tudor Summit: Christine Hartweg on Robert Dudley
From my shop:
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop. She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.