Christine Hartweg is the author of John Dudley: The Life of Lady Jane Grey’s Father-in-Law, and Amy Robsart: A Life and Its End.
Christine lives in Berlin and was born in South America in 1972. She has been studying historical themes for nearly three decades and seriously started to research the Dudley family of Tudor England in 2008. Christine has advised the BBC and other TV channels on Dudley matters and her website is www.allthingsrobertdudley.wordpress.com
Twitter: Christine Hartweg @BuffHistory
Facebook: Elizabeth, Robert, and the Renaissance John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland
Transcript of Christine Hartweg on All Things Robert Dudley:
Hi, I’m Christine Hartweg and I’d like to talk to you about Robert Dudley, Lord of Leicester, who was Robert Dudley? He’s famous as Elizabeth I great favorite and he is considered the great love of her life, but how did they get to know each other? Well Robert Dudley was the son, in fact, the fourth surviving son of John Dudley who successfully bore the titles of Viscount Lisle, Earl of Warwick and finally Duke of Northumberland. John Dudley’s own father, Edmund Dudley had served as a kind of minister to Henry VII and had been executed early in the reign of Henry VIII in order to please the crowds.
Now John Dudley, Robert’s father, nevertheless made a brilliant career under Henry VIII serving as Vice-Admiral and Lord-Admiral and under Henry’s son, Edward VI, he achieved maximum power serving as Chief Minister to the young King. we don’t know for certain how much time the young Robert Dudley spent at court, but at one point, he must have met Elizabeth because later told a French Ambassador that they had first become friends before he was 8 years old. It’s fascinating that the topic of conversation was marriage, even then, Elizabeth said she would never marry, now it’s often said that she was inspired to say such a thing by the fate of her step-mother Katherine Parr, Henry VIII’s fifth wife was executed when Elizabeth was 8 years old, and of course this may be correct.
As to Robert Dudley’s acquaintance to Edward the young King, we know even less. Robert served as a gentleman of the privy chamber from August 1551 and at that point he was already 19, this was the same day that Barnaby Fitzpatrick, the King’s good friend, was appointed to the privy chamber and Fitzpatrick also became a lifelong friend to Robert Dudley. Thee king was also present at Robert’s wedding on 4th June 1550 which was celebrated at the Royal Palace of Richmond. It seems certain that Robert was five years older than King Edward and knew the King and Queen quite well. As we see Robert’s father, John Dudley, rose to the heights of power during Edward’s reign.
In December of 1549 when Robert was 17, major protests and rebellion occurred in England, John was appointed to go with an army to Norfolk to suppress one of those Kett’s Rebellions, his sons Robert and Ambrose went with him on their first military adventure and turned out a bloody business, but before the fighting started, The Dudleys and the other officers met bla bla at the House of Sir John Robstart, now Sir John Robstar was a wealthy Gentleman farmer and his only legitimate child was Amy, a girl of 17, Amy was almost the same age as Robert, being 14 days older.
Now, there was no particular reason that John Dudley would choose this girl as a bride for one of his younger sons and it seems likely that the marriage of Robert and Amy was a love match. William Cecil, who happened to be a wedding guest, certainly believed so. Amy and Robert would have lived mostly in Robert’s parents property, although periodically they would also live in Norfolk, in the summer of 1553, John Dudley,now Duke of Northumberland, projected to place Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the death of Edward VI. the project turned out a total failure with Robert, his father, and all of Robert’s older brothers ending up with the tower, his father was executed while the brothers were all spared for the moment.
However, in January of the next year another rebellion broke out, Wyatt’s rebellion, and Robert’s younger brother Guildford was executed with his wife, Lady Jane Grey. Both had nothing to do with the rebellion although Jane’s father was deeply involved, and got also executed. Robert and the surviving brothers continued in the tower, where they were allowed visits from their wives, including Amy. after the brother’s release, Robert and Amy experienced financial difficulty but by 1558 they were looking to rent a house in the country so they could have a residence of their own. At last on 17th November of the same year, Queen Mary died. Elizabeth, Robert’s old acquaintance if you like, ascended the throne. For Robert this meant brilliant career prospects, as he could be confident that he belonged to Elizabeth’s best friends. William Cecil was another of these men and women.
On the second day of the reign, Robert received the prestigious office of Master of Horse, in this office Robert was always next to the Queen, on any of the pursuits she might undertake and he was also made the first person to be allowed to touch her when helping her in and out of the saddle.
It soon became clear that there was no place for Amy at court, and later there were rumours that Elizabeth even forbade Robert to visit his wife and if he must, then he should do nothing with her, these were allegedly the words of William Paget a senior statesman pungent off by an old friend of the Dudleys. Amy lived in a succession of houses belonging to Roberts retainers friends in Hertfordshire, Warwickshire and what is now Oxfordshire; but she also made travels to Lincolnshire and London, this often implied that she did not have a house or a man of her own, there was one in Norfork but it was uninhabitable she could not have felt at home and had no independent life.
This is quite untrue though she directly received the proceeds of her land those she had inherited from her parents who both died in the 1550’s and she paid her own household of about ten servants out of these proceeds. Robert seems not to have interfered with that, although in theory it would have been all his. It’s interesting that he would pursue a similar model with his later wife Lettice, she also managed her own household and finances even when living as Robert’s wife at Leicester House in 1580s, it is often said that Robert never visited his wife the last year of her life but we can’t be sure about this.
What does seem certain is that she seeks traveling during 1560 she was reported to have been ill before but then apparently had recovered. Then on Sunday 8th September of 1560 she was found dead at the foot of some stairs leading down from her chambers at her place near Oxford; her servant who she hadn’t sent away for the day were shocked, so wass Robert who was staying with the court at Windsor, a servant brought him the news “I do understand that my wife is dead, and if he says it was from a fall of a pair of stairs little 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 briut, as I can take no rest”
Robert ordered a proper investigation should be conducted, at least to exonerate him from any suspicion, he’s regularly criticized for this, but we shouldn’t forget such letters were written to his servants or people like William Cecil, Elizabeth’s chief minister and Robert’s political rival it seems unfortunate that no correspondence seems to have survived between Robert and any of his wives either Amy or Lettice. The coroner’s inquest started almost immediately after Amy was found. It concluded that after stepping out of her Chambers, she fell down certain steps and to the bottom of said steps, sustaining to head injuries before breaking her neck of which she died.
At the time and ever since there is about what happened to Amy Dudley abounded, especially murder theories; the notion that she would be murdered by poison actually started soon after Elizabeth’s excession well over a year before her actual death. Such theories and rumors were most popular with the Habsburg Ambassadors who in 1559 had come to England to promote Elizabeth’s marriage to the Archduke Charles of Austria.
Robert Dudley was seen as a principal obstacle to that plan and they would have liked to see him out of the way, on the other hand rumors that Elizabeth was in love with Lord Robert and wished to marry him in case is wife should die from an illness started even earlier, soon there were also rumors that Elizabeth was pregnant by Robert, such stories of secret children circulated on all levels of society throughout Elizabeth’s reign, it simply never stopped, and are a great example of why rumors are not necessarily facts just because they are found in historical documents.
Now what did Amy die from? I think we’ll never know, an accident as was described in the official report should not be ruled out, statistics about causes of death as well as media reports confirm that it is possible to fall down any number of steps and sustain fatal injuries in the head and neck, then there is the possibility of suicide, Amy was claimed to have sent away all her servants, and her maid reported how she prayed daily on her knees to relieve her heart from desperation, she was also described as a strange woman of mind, it’s even possible that Robert Dudley himself had a suspicion of suicide at first.
The murder theory in my opinion is least consistent with the later developments all the people who would have known about the deed, if the rumors were true, survived happily until they died a natural death in their beds decades later. If either Robert Dudley or William Cecil organized Amy’s murder, they surely would have organized the disappearance of other witnesses and certainly would have endeavored to find and prosecute Amy supposed killer.
According to some London gossip, Richard Verney, one of Amy’s previous hosts, watch the man who had killed her or had her killed, yet he died quietly on his bed unmolested. And also out of the Dudley family Robert seem to like Verney I like to particularly care for his old friend’s grandson. Roberts chances to wed the Queen diminished drastically due to his wife’s mysterious death which was even talked of in France and Italy. He did not give up hope though, although he wants told the Spanish Ambassador that Elizabeth would not marry him but only a great Prince, but then she had told him that she would marry only him should she marry an Englishman, on her part Elizabeth wants told the emperor’s ambassador that’s Robert had never dared to ask her for her hand so he was not her suitor in the true sense of the word. She been repeated once more that she would consider him only should she marry an Englishman.
At least I bet remain extremely jealous and Robert also became jealous and throughout the 1560s the court witnessed the succession of lovers. In March 1563 Elizabeth shocked a Scottish Ambassador with a proposal that Robert should marry the Queen of Scots and that they could live all three together in London. Robert Dudley didn’t like the idea, he didn’t want to marry the Queen of Scots and only two historians have claimed he did.
There are tons of evidence though that show that he was extremely reluctant to go to Scotland and become king. Scottish Diplomat James Melville recalled in his memoirs how he “wasn’t a boat on the Thames of Robert Dudley, when Robert began to purge himself of so proud and pretence as to marry the great Queen steaming himself not worth it to wipe her shoes” Robert feared that if he appeared to be desirous of that marriage, he would lose the favor of both Queens Mary and Elizabeth Mary was offended by the offer of which she considered to be Elizabeth’s discarded lover but Elizabeth insisted, when Mary realized however with Robert would also come a promise to become Elizabeth’s heir she relented.
By then Elizabeth had decided though that she couldn’t bring herself to agree to the marriage. But in the meantime she had raised Robert to the Earl of Leicester ticking his neck at the ceremony. She had also granted him the great medieval castle of Kenilworth. Robert the new Earl of Leicester had taken his precautions and become a chief supporter of the suit of Lord Darnley for Mary’s hand. Robert was a close friend of Lady Margaret Douglas, Lord Darnley’s mother who desperately wanted to see her son on the Scottish throne. Elizabeth’s Ambassador in Scotland Thomas Randolph meanwhile complained that Robert was missing his chance of greatness “Him, whom I go about to put him in possession of the Kingdom, to make him King of the mighty people, to lay in his arms a most fair and worthy lady, so uncertainly did he leave that I don’t know where to find him.”
Had Robert Dudley wished to become King consort, he would not have hesitated to take his chances to become King of Scots, especially as his chances to become King of England diminished by the day, it is clear that he preferred to stay in England although only as the Queen favored. Though this decision to stay in England was no doubt good for his life expectancy, he may also had been unwilling to marry a woman who had once offended him by saying that Elizabeth wanted to marry her housekeeper who had made room for her by killing his wife, we know that Robert did not take the remark kindly.
A few years later in May of 1567 Robert’s friend Nicholas Morton, another diplomat had written cryptic commands in one of his letters to Robert “This night a fair lady lodges in your bed” certainly we don’t know who this lady might have been, it would not have been lady Douglas Sheffield, this lady in her 20s had received a strange christian name in honor of Margaret Dudley’s surname Douglas Howard by 1569 was the widow of John Sheffield second Lord Sheffield. “I returned to Elizabeth’s Court as one of the Queen’s ladies there she met the Earl of Leicester, by May 1573 observed that Robert was very close with her majesty and that he endeavored to please her more than ever before for there are two sisters now in the court and are very fine with him, Milady Sheffield and Frances Howard with the Queen thinking not great of them and not the better of him.”
Then on August 7th 1574 Douglas Sheffield gave birth to a son, Robert was totally delighted that he now had a son and the child was named Robert and received his father’s surname Dudley, so this was Robert Dudley Jr the queen seem to have being happy about this as long as Robert didn’t marry again she was pleased in a truly remarkable letter Robert tried to explain to Douglas why he could not marry her this is really a long letter it’s 7 sheets of print.
“My good friend hardly was I brought the right in this sort unto you lest you might conceive otherwise thereof that I mean it ut more loth am I to conceal anything from you at both honesty and true Goodwill doth bind me to impart unto you.” Robert points out that if I marry I’m sure never to have favor of them but I’d rather yet to never have wife than to lose them yes there is nothing in the world best than favor that I would not give in hope to leaving some children behind me being now the last of my house.
Although in this letter Robert said he didn’t love her as he did in the beginning he even offered to help her find another husband if she should wish. “I pray you think, and so I do faithfully assure you, this doth rise upon no other cause in the world but upon your last speech with me, by which me thought it seemed you conceived somewhat; and were not honest for me to leave you in doubt, being resolved as I am and ever have been for certain, otherwise & in all things the same as I was will be” this letter which has survived what certainly written before Robert knew of Douglas’s pregnancy Robert Dudley Jr was just toddler when his parents relationship broke finally down. More than 30 years later Douglas claimed they had been secretly married and she recounted how they met in the Royal dance of Greenwich in what turned into a stormy meeting.
Robert offered her 700 pounds a year for life if she forgot they were married when she refused she said he departed from her not to come anymore to her. However, they somehow came to an amicable agreement over the son’s custody young Robert grew up in his father’s and his friends houses and had lived to see his mother however she married a diplomat Sir Edward Stafford 1579 and left England in 1583. The reason why Robert parted with Douglas sometime in the mid 1570 s was almost certainly Lettice Devereux Countess of Essex, in 1565 she was described as one of the best looking ladies of the Court and daughter of the first cousin to the queen with whom she’s a favorite. Robert was 11 years her senior and she may have known him since childhood, in 1565 Robert did some flirting with Lettice and Elizabeth’s reaction was furious.
Ten years later in July 1575 Robert threw a spectacular 19-day festival at his great castle Kenilworth she had spent 60 thousand pounds on building works there they were new complete with new apartments for the queen and a beautiful garden and he wished to show it all to Elizabeth and the court. The show was also to be a final and allegorical bid for the Queen’s hand. The beautiful Countess of Essex, Lettice was also there and apparently Elizabeth was not totally pleased. Some of the surrounding gentry were not happy at all and are said to have said that the lord of the castle was a whoremaster.
By December Lettice’ss husband had returned from an expedition in Ireland, and scandal must have grown, another Spanish Diplomat reported that great Discord was expected between the Earls of Essex and Leicester because of the latter’s love affair with the former’s wife. In 1567 Walter Devereux, Lettice’s husband, set back to Dublin let it be known that Robert pushed for his return to Ireland get the evidence in accounts and papers does not bear this out even before Walter Devereux hat left England his wife had travelled to Buxton in Derbyshire Robert Dudley was often there in Buxton Lettice engraved a most interesting line on a window pane, on which many important guests immortalized themselves between the contributions of Mary Queen of Scots and Robert Dudley himself we read “Faithful, faultless, somehow yet unfortunate, yet must suffer” L. Essex.
Obviously Lettice thought gossip about her relationship with the Earl to have no basis of fact in September Walter Devereux succumbed to an illness in Dublin, no sooner than Lettice was released from her unhappy personal situation, rumours that the Earl of Leicester and, by extension Lettice where behind her husband’s death the north Deputy of Ireland, who was also Robert Dudley’s brother-in-law, however conducted the official investigations which did not find any indications of fault play.
Instead it found a deceased appropriate to this country from which have died many including Walter Deveraux’s Irish girlfriend the death of her husband let Lettice in financial difficulty she also needed to evacuate her house, and extremely hostile specially was the Leicester Commonwealth, a rumour says that Robert had her moved up and down the country from house to house the idea was that he intended to hide their relationship from the queen. The same later also claimed that Robert and Lettice underwent not one, but two wedding ceremonies this is however very unlikely with Lettice now a widow. Robert seemed to have remembered that during the 1576 Parliament Queen Elizabeth had declared “that she’d rather be a milkmaid with a bucket at her arm than give up her single state.”
Robert saw this as one of several signals that he was finally acquitted, delivered and discharged, as he put it, of any of any hope of marrying Elizabeth. He concluded that he finally could think of remarriage, he also bought a new house in Essex, married lettuce in the morning of 21st September 1578. A couple of friends were witnesses of the small ceremony, for the queen must know nothing. And two days later she was welcome at his homestead as a stop of her summer program. Lettice did not appear in Parliament as lady Leicester for another couple of years she simply continued as Countess of Essex she was even prepared to be counted as the Earl of Leicester’s mistress when living in Leicester house for a visitor in March 1582 observed “There was rubbing my Lord’s bastard by milady Essex” the visitor was referring to Robert Dudley Jr who is of course Douglas’s son, not Lettice’s and of course such details were not widely known.
Not before the late summer of 1582 did Lettice apparently decide to live as lady Leicester, affecting once more Elizabeth of England, although she had been aware of this marriage for at least 3 years. Meanwhile Robert and Lettice had finally produced a Dudley heir, both parents were extremely fond of the child, the little Robert, Lord Denbigh, as they called him, was surely pampered.
He was born in 1581 not 1579 as it is often claimed, though he suddenly died on 19th July, 1584 only 3 years old Robert was called home and immediately left his duties there at court to comfort his “sorrowful wife” as he wrote. Robert and Lettice were absolutely shattered, Elizabeth was also sorry though she couldn’t bring herself to put her condolences to writing as this would have implied to address the Countess of Leicester, also Robert suffered considerably because Elizabeth wouldn’t relent on her anger toward Lettice. He never stopped trying to bring about the reconciliation between the women but to no avail indeed even after Robert’s own death Elizabeth’s hatred for lettuce who had once been her favorite cousin never abated. It said so much about Elizabeth’s feelings for her sweet Robin that she could never come over his marriage to another woman this was not just jealousy on Elizabeth’s part this was a case of a deeply wounded heart
Though married, Robert continued his unique relationship with Elizabeth, on one occasion he wrote her that he was her oath knight, but that he had found what he always wanted, a family. His residences were also the home of his step-children Lettice’s teenage children by her late husband: Penelope, Dorothy, Robert and Walter they all had rooms at Leicester and their pictures were also there. Just like one of Walter Devereux, Lord of Essex. The picture of Douglas Sheffield on the other hand Robert kept in a casket.
Robert Devereux the new Lord of Essex was also Robert Dudley’s godson and the two became great friends, Robert also promoted the young Lord of Essex to court with Elizabeth; it all looks like a success story. More than 20 years after Robert Dudley’s death in 1588, William Canden, Elizabeth’s first ever historian, wrote about how Robert had been much given to women, and finally a good husband in excess.
In his will Robert had bequeathed Kenilworth Castle to his illegitimate son, his widow Lettice was not pleased about this and would not accept it, and her new husband Christopher Blount even raid the castle grounds in order to get hold of valuables and important papers. Queen Elizabeth always helped Robert Dudley Jr, though became greedy though, wanting to secure the Earldoms of Warwick and Leicester for himself, if he were the son of a married couple, he would be his father’s and his uncle’s heir, there is even evidence that he put pressure on his mother Douglas to achieve this. It all ended in a sensational court case in which he tried to prove that his parents had indeed been married before Witnesses sometime in May 1573. Douglas, who supplied written testimony couldn’t remember the exact date though Dudley Jr lost the case and shortly after left with his mistress leaving behind his wife and 5 little daughters and then the fugitive couple converted to Catholicism and married it seemed that if there was a bigamist it was Robert Dudley Jr not Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, thank you.