Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester#Love affairs and remarriage

File:Coat of arms of Sir Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, KG.png

Robert Dudley was the fifth son of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, and his wife Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Guildford.Adams 2008b His paternal grandfather, Edmund Dudley, had been an adviser to King Henry VII and was executed for treason in 1510 by King Henry VIII. John and Jane Dudley had 13 children in all and were known for their happy family life.Adams 2002 p. 133 Among the siblings' tutors figured John Dee,Wilson 1981 p. 16 Thomas Wilson, and Roger Ascham.Chamberlin 1939 pp. 55–56

Roger Ascham believed that Robert Dudley possessed a rare talent for languages and writing, including in Latin, regretting that his pupil had done himself harm by preferring mathematics.Chamberlin 1939 p. 55; Adams 2008b Robert learned the craft of the courtier at the courts of Henry VIII, and especially Edward VI, among whose companions he served.Wilson 1981 pp. 23, 28–29; Adams 2008b; Loades 1996 p. 225

In 1549, Robert Dudley participated in crushing Kett's Rebellion and probably first met Amy Robsart, whom he was to wed on 4 June 1550 in the presence of the young King Edward.Wilson 1981 pp. 31, 33, 44 She was of the same age as the bridegroom and the daughter and heiress of Sir John Robsart, a gentleman-farmer of Norfolk.Adams 2002 pp. 135, 159 It was a love-match, the young couple depending heavily on their fathers' gifts, especially Robert's. John Dudley, who since early 1550 effectively ruled England, was pleased to strengthen his influence in Norfolk by his son's marriage.Loades 1996 pp. 179, 225, 285; Haynes 1987 pp. 20–21 Lord Robert, as he was styled as a duke's son, became an important local gentleman and served as a Member of Parliament for Norfolk in 1551–52, March 1553 and 1559.Virgoe 1982 p. 66 His court career went on in parallel.Loades 1996 pp. 225–226; Wilson 1981 pp. 45–47

On 6 July 1553, King Edward VI died and the Duke of Northumberland attempted to transfer the English crown to Lady Jane Grey, who was married to his second youngest son, Lord Guildford Dudley.Loades 1996 pp. 256–257, 238–239 Robert Dudley led a force of 300 into Norfolk where Edward's half-sister Mary was assembling her followers. After some ten days in the county and securing several towns for Jane, he took King's Lynn and proclaimed her in the marketplace.Ives 2009 pp. 199, 209; Haynes 1987 pp. 23 The next day, 19 July, Jane's reign was over in London. Soon, the townsmen of King's Lynn seized Robert Dudley and the rest of his small troop and sent him to Framlingham Castle before Mary I.Haynes 1987 pp. 23–24; Chamberlin 1939 pp. 68-69

Robert Dudley was imprisoned in the Tower of London, attainted, and condemned to death, as were his father and four brothers. His father went to the scaffold.Loades 1996 pp. 266, 270–271 In the Tower, Dudley's stay coincided with the imprisonment of his childhood friend,Adams 2002 p. 134 Edward and Mary's half-sister Elizabeth, who was sent there on suspicion of involvement in Wyatt's rebellion. Guildford Dudley was executed in February 1554. The surviving brothers were released in the autumn; working for their release, their mother (who died in January 1555) and their brother-in-law, Henry Sidney, had befriended the incoming Spanish nobles around Philip of Spain, Mary's husband.

In December 1554, Ambrose and Robert Dudley took part in a tournament held to celebrate Anglo-Spanish friendship. Yet, the Dudley brothers were welcome at court only as long as King Philip was there,Loades 1996 p. 280 otherwise they were suspected of associating with people who conspired against Mary's regime.Adams 2002 pp. 161–162 In January 1557, Robert and Amy Dudley were allowed to repossess some of their former lands,Loades 1996 p. 273 and in March of the same year Dudley was at Calais where he was chosen to deliver personally to Queen Mary the happy news of Philip's return to England.Adams 2002 p. 158; Wilson 1981 p. 71 Ambrose, Robert, and Henry Dudley, the youngest brother, fought for Philip II at the Battle of St. Quentin in August 1557.Loades 1996 pp. 238, 273 Henry Dudley was killed in the following siege by a cannonball—according to Robert, before his own eyes.Adams 2002 p. 134; Chamberlin 1939 pp. 87–88 All surviving Dudley children — Ambrose and Robert with their sisters, Mary and Katherine — were restored in blood by Mary I's next parliament in 1558.

File:Coronation Procession of Elizabeth I of England 1559.jpg of honour.]]

Robert Dudley was counted among Elizabeth's special friends by Philip II's envoy to the English court a week before Queen Mary's death.{{Cite web |title=Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester |url=https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Robert-Dudley-Earl-Of-Leicester/ |access-date=25 February 2023 |website=Historic UK |language=en-GB}} On 18 November 1558, the morning after Elizabeth's accession, Dudley witnessed the surrender of the Great Seal to her at Hatfield. He became Master of the Horse on the same day. This was an important court position entailing close attendance on the sovereign. It suited him, as he was an excellent horseman and showed great professional interest in royal transport and accommodation, horse breeding, and the supply of horses for all occasions. Dudley was also entrusted with organising and overseeing a large part of the Queen's coronation festivities.Wilson 1981 pp. 78, 83–92

In April 1559 Dudley was elected a Knight of the Garter.Wilson 1981 p. 96 Shortly before, Philip II had been informed:

Lord Robert has come so much into favour that he does whatever he likes with affairs and it is even said that her majesty visits him in his chamber day and night. People talk of this so freely that they go so far as to say that his wife has a malady in one of her breasts{{#tag:ref|"está muy mala de un pecho" ("she is very ill in one breast"), in the original Spanish (Adams 1995 p. 63).|group="note"}} and the Queen is only waiting for her to die to marry Lord Robert ... Matters have reached such a pass ... that ... it would ... be well to approach Lord Robert on your Majesty's behalf ... Your Majesty would do well to attract and confirm him in his friendship.Hume 1892–1899 Vol. I pp. 57–58; Wilson 1981 p. 95

Within a month the Spanish ambassador, Count de Feria, counted Robert Dudley among three persons who ran the country.{{#tag:ref|The others he listed were William Cecil and his brother-in-law Nicholas Bacon (Chamberlin 1939 p. 101).|group="note"}} Visiting foreigners of princely rank were bidding for his goodwill. He acted as an official host on state occasions and was himself a frequent guest at ambassadorial dinners.Owen 1980 p. 9 By the autumn of 1559 several foreign princes were vying for the Queen's hand; their impatient envoys came under the impression that Elizabeth was fooling them, "keeping Lord Robert's enemies and the country engaged with words until this wicked deed of killing his wife is consummated."Skidmore 2010 pp. 166, 162 "Lord Robert", the new Spanish ambassador de Quadra was convinced, was the man "in whom it is easy to recognise the king that is to be ... she will marry none but the favoured Robert."Chamberlin 1939 p. 118 Many of the nobility would not brook Dudley's new prominence, as they could not "put up with his being King."Chamberlin 1939 pp. 116–117; Doran 1996 p. 42 Plans to kill the favourite abounded,Adams 1995 p. 78; Wilson 1981 p. 100; Chamberlin 1939 p. 117 and Dudley took to wearing a light coat of mail under his clothes.Adams 1995 p. 151 Among all classes, in England and abroad, gossip got underway that the Queen had children by Dudley—such rumours never quite ended for the rest of her life.Wilson 1981 p. 114; Doran 1996 p. 72

File:Amy Robsart – The Beaufort Miniature.png, Dudley's first wife]]

Already in April 1559 court observers noted that Elizabeth never let Dudley from her side;Wilson 2005 p. 261 but her favour did not extend to his wife.Adams 2011 Amy Dudley lived in different parts of the country since her ancestral manor house was uninhabitable.Adams 1995 pp. 380–382 Her husband visited her for four days at Easter 1559 and she spent a month around London in the early summer of the same year.Adams 1995 p. 378 They never saw each other again; Dudley was with the Queen at Windsor Castle and possibly planning a visit to her, when his wife was found dead at her residence Cumnor Place near Oxford on 8 September 1560:Adams 1995 p. 383

There came to me Bowes, by whom I do understand that my wife is dead and as he sayeth by a fall from a pair of stairs. Little other 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 will bruit, as I can take no rest.Adams 2002 p. 136

File:Robert Dudley.jpg

Retiring to his house at Kew, away from court as from the putative crime scene, he pressed for an impartial inquiry which had already begun in the form of an inquest.Doran 1996 p. 43; Skidmore 2010 p. 382 The jury found that it was an accident: Lady Dudley, staying alone "in a certain chamber", had fallen down the adjoining stairs, sustaining two head injuries and breaking her neck.Skidmore 2010 p. 378 It was widely suspected that Dudley had arranged his wife's death to be able to marry the Queen. The scandal played into the hands of nobles and politicians who desperately tried to prevent Elizabeth from marrying him.Owen 1980 p. 10; Doran 1996 p. 45 Most historians have considered murder to be unlikely.Doran 1996 p. 44 The coroner's report came to light in The National Archives in 2008 and is compatible with an accidental fall as well as suicide or other violence.Adams 2011; Skidmore 2010 pp. 230–233 In the absence of the forensic findings of 1560, it was often assumed that a simple accident could not be the explanationDoran 1996 pp. 42–44—on the basis of near-contemporary tales that Amy Dudley was found at the bottom of a short flight of stairs with a broken neck, her headdress still standing undisturbed "upon her head",Jenkins 2002 p. 65 a detail that first appeared as a satirical remark in the libel Leicester's Commonwealth of 1584 and has ever since been repeated for a fact.Jenkins 2002 p. 291 To account for such oddities and evidence that she was ill, it was suggested in 1956 by Ian Aird, a professor of surgery, that Amy Dudley had suffered from breast cancer, which through metastatic cancerous deposits in the spine, could have caused her neck to break under only limited strain, such as a short fall or even just coming down the stairs. This explanation has been widely accepted. Suicide has also often been considered an option, motives being Amy Dudley's depression or mortal illness.Gristwood 2007 pp. 115, 120–123; Doran 1996 p. 44

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Elizabeth remained close to Dudley and he, with her blessing and on her prompting, pursued his suit for her hand in an atmosphere of diplomatic intrigue.Doran 1996 p. 45–52; Adams 2008b His wife's and his father's shadows haunted his prospects. His efforts leading nowhere, in the spring of 1561 Dudley offered to leave England to seek military adventures abroad; Elizabeth would have none of that and everything remained as it was. In 1587, a man named Arthur claimed to have been born in 1561 as the illegitimate son of Robert Dudley and Queen Elizabeth I, but his claims could not be proven.{{Cite web |title=Simancas: June 1587, 16-30 {{!}} British History Online |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/simancas/vol4/pp101-118 |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}

In October 1562, the Queen fell ill with smallpox and, believing her life to be in danger, she asked the Privy Council to make Robert Dudley Protector of the Realm and to give him a suitable title together with 20,000 pounds a year. There was universal relief when she recovered her health. Dudley was made a privy councillor.Wilson 1981 p. 136 He was already deeply involved in foreign politics, including Scotland.Adams 2002 p. 137

In 1563, Elizabeth suggested Dudley as a consort to the widowed Mary, Queen of Scots, the idea being to achieve firm amity between England and Scotland and diminish the influence of foreign powers.Wilson 1981 pp. 140–141 Elizabeth's preferred solution was that they should all live together at the English court, so that she would not have to forgo her favourite's company. Mary at first enquired if Elizabeth was serious, wanting above all to know her chances of inheriting the English crown.Chamberlin 1939 pp. 138–139 Elizabeth repeatedly declared that she was prepared to acknowledge Mary as her heir only on condition that she marry Robert Dudley.Chamberlin 1939 pp. 136, 160, 144–145 Mary's Protestant advisors warmed to the prospect of her marriage to Dudley,Chamberlin 1939 pp. 140, 146, 147 and in September 1564 he was created Earl of Leicester, a move designed to make him more acceptable to Mary. In January 1565, Thomas Randolph, the English ambassador to Scotland, was told by the Scottish queen that she would accept the proposal.Chamberlin 1939 pp. 151–152 To his amazement, Dudley was not to be moved to comply:

But a man of that nature I never found any ... he whom I go about to make as happy as ever was any, to put him in possession of a kingdom, to lay in his naked arms a most fair ... lady ... nothing regardeth the good that shall ensue unto him thereby ... but so uncertainly dealeth that I know not where to find him.Chamberlin 1939 p. 158

By 1564, Dudley had realised that his chances of becoming Elizabeth's consort were small.Doran 1996 p. 65 At the same time he could not "consider ... without great repugnance", as he said, that she chose another husband.Hume 1904 p. 90; Doran 1996 p. 65 Confronted with other marriage projects, Elizabeth continued to say that she still would very much like to marry him.Hume 1904 pp. 90–94, 99, 101–104; Jenkins 2002 p. 130 Dudley was seen as a serious candidate until the mid-1560s and later.Doran 1996 p. 212 To remove this threat to Habsburg and Valois suitors, between 1565 and 1578, four German and French princesses were mooted as brides for Leicester, as a consolation for giving up Elizabeth and his resistance to her foreign marriage projects.Hume 1904 pp. 94, 95, 138, 197; Doran 1996 p. 124 These he had sabotaged and would continue to sabotage.Doran 1996 pp. 212–213 In 1566 Dudley formed the opinion that Elizabeth would never marry, recalling that she had always said so since she was eight years old; but he still was hopeful—she had also assured him he would be her choice in case she changed her mind (and married an Englishman).Adams 2002 p. 139

File:Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester drawing by Zuccaro 1575.jpg, 1575Watkins 1998 p. 163]]

As "a male favourite to a virgin queen", Robert Dudley found himself in an unprecedented situation. His apartments at court were next to hers,Gristwood 2007 p. 151; Girouard 1979 p. 111 and—perceived as knowing "the Queen and her nature best of any man"—his influence was matched by few.Adams 2002 p. 140; Wilson 1981 p. 305 Another side of such privileges was Elizabeth's possessiveness and jealousy. His company was essential for her well-being and for many years he was hardly allowed to leave. Sir Christopher Hatton reported a growing emergency when the Earl was away for a few weeks in 1578: "This court wanteth your presence. Her majesty is unaccompanied and, I assure you, the chambers are almost empty."Wilson 1981 p. 230

On ceremonial occasions, Dudley often acted as an unofficial consort, sometimes in the Queen's stead.Wilson 1981 p. 305 He largely assumed charge of court ceremonial and organised hundreds of small and large festivities.Adams 2002 p. 120; Wilson 1981 pp. 78, 305 From 1587 he was Lord Steward,Adams 2002 p. 43 being responsible for the royal household's supply with food and other commodities. He displayed a strong sense for economising and reform in this function, which he had de facto occupied long before his official appointment.Haynes 1987 pp. 141–144; Wilson 1981 pp. 326–327 The sanitary situation in the palaces was a perennial problem, and a talk with Leicester about these issues inspired John Harington to construct a water closet.Adams 1996 Leicester was a lifelong sportsman, hunting and jousting in the tiltyard, and an indefatigable tennis-player. He was also the Queen's regular dancing partner.Loades 2004 p. 271

File:Ambrose Dudley Earl of Warwick.jpg, Robert Dudley's elder brother]]

After the Duke of Northumberland's attainder the entire Dudley inheritance had disappeared. His sons had to start from scratch in rebuilding the family fortunes, as they had renounced any rights to their father's former possessions or titles when their own attainders had been lifted in January 1558.Adams 2002 p. 319 Robert Dudley financed the lifestyle expected of a royal favourite by large loans from City of London merchants until in April 1560 Elizabeth granted him his first export licence, worth £6,000 p.a.Adams 2008b; Adams 1996 He also received some of his father's lands, but since he was not the family heir it was a matter of some difficulty to find a suitable estate for his intended peerage.Adams 2002 p. 163; Adams 2008b In June 1563 the Queen granted him Kenilworth Manor, Castle, and Park, together with the lordships of Denbigh and Chirk in North Wales. Other grants were to follow.Haynes 1987 p. 59; Adams 2002 p. 235 Eventually, Leicester and his elder brother Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, came to preside over the greatest aristocratic interest in the West Midlands and North Wales.Adams 2002 p. 310; Wilson 1981 p. 170

{{See also|Lordship of Denbigh}}

At the time Robert Dudley entered his new Welsh possessions there had existed a tenurial chaos for more than half a century. Some leading local families benefited from this to the detriment of the Crown's revenue. To remedy this situation, and to increase his own income, Dudley affected compositions with the tenants in what Simon Adams has called an "ambitious resolution of a long-standing problem ... without parallel in Elizabeth's reign".Adams 2002 pp. 3, 264, 272, 275 All tenants that had so far only been copyholders were raised to the status of freeholders in exchange for newly agreed rents. Likewise, all tenants' rights of common were secured as were the boundaries of the commons, thus striking a balance between property rights and protection against enclosure.Adams 2002 pp. 268–269, 275–276

Though an absentee landlord, Leicester, who was also Lord of Denbigh, regarded the lordship as an integral part of a territorial base for a revived House of Dudley.Adams 2002 pp. 3, 276–277 He set about developing the town of Denbigh with large building projects;Wilson 1981 pp. 171–172 the church he planned, though, was never finished, being too ambitious. It would have been not only the largest,Adams 2002 p. 225 but also the first post-Reformation church in England and Wales built according to a plan where the preacher was to take the centre instead of the altar, thus stressing the importance of preaching in the Protestant Church. In vain Leicester tried to have the nearby episcopal see of St Asaph transferred to Denbigh.Wilson 1981 p. 172; Adams 2002 p. 225 He also encouraged and supported the translation of the Bible and the Common Prayer Book into Welsh.Wilson 1981 p. 173

File:Kenilworth fireplace.jpg, with shield displaying in bend the Ragged Staff of the Earls of Warwick, with the letters R and L for "Robert Leicester" for Robert DudleyMorris 2010 p. 27]]

Ambrose and Robert Dudley were very close, in matters of business and personally.Adams 2002 pp. 322, 3 Through their paternal grandmother they descended from the Hundred Years War heroes, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, and Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.Wilson 1981 pp. 1, 3 Robert Dudley was especially fascinated by the Beauchamp descent and, with his brother, adopted the ancient heraldic device of the earls of Warwick, the Bear and Ragged Staff.Adams 2002 pp. 312–313, 321 Due to such genealogical aspects the West Midlands held a special significance for him.Adams 2002 p. 312–313, 320–321, 326 The town of Warwick felt this during a magnificent visit by the Earl in 1571 to celebrate the feast of the Order of Saint Michael, with which Leicester had been invested by the French king in 1566.Jenkins 2002 pp. 179–181 He shortly afterwards founded Lord Leycester's Hospital, a charity for aged and injured soldiers still functioning today.Adams 2002 p. 327 Kenilworth Castle was the centre of Leicester's ambitions to "plant" himself in the region,Adams 2002 p. 312 and he substantially transformed the site's appearance through comprehensive alterations.Molyneux 2008 pp. 58–59 He added a 15th-century style gatehouse to the castle's medieval structures, as well as a formal garden and a residential wing which featured the "brittle, thin walls and grids of windows" that were to become the hallmark of Elizabethan architecture in later decades.Morris 2010 pp. 47–48 His works completed, the Earl staged a spectacular 19-day-festival in July 1575 as a final, allegorical bid for the Queen's hand; it was as much a request to give him leave to marry someone else. There was a Lady of the Lake, a swimming papier-mâché dolphin with a little orchestra in its belly, fireworks, masques, hunts, and popular entertainments like bear baiting.Doran 1996 pp. 67–69; Jenkins 2002 pp. 205–211 The whole scenery of landscape, artificial lake, castle, and Renaissance garden was ingeniously used for the entertainment.Henderson 2005 pp. 90–92

File:Robert Dudley, styled Earl of Warwick.jpg, son of Lady Douglas Sheffield and Robert Dudley]]

Confronted by a Puritan friend with rumours about his "ungodly life",Gristwood 2007 p. 249 Dudley defended himself in 1576:

I stand on the top of the hill, where ... the smallest slip seemeth a fall ... I may fall many ways and have more witnesses thereof than many others who perhaps be no saints neither ... for my faults ... they lie before Him who I have no doubt but will cancel them as I have been and shall be most heartily sorry for them.Gristwood 2007 pp. 249–250

You must think it is some marvellous cause ... that forceth me thus to be cause almost of the ruin of mine own house ... my brother you see long married and not like to have children, it resteth so now in myself; and yet such occasions is there ... as if I should marry I am sure never to have [the Queen's] favour".Read 1936 p. 25

File:Lettice Knollys1.jpg, by George Gower {{circa|1585}}]]

Lettice Knollys was the wife of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, and a first cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth on her mother's side. Leicester had flirted with her in the summer of 1565, causing an outbreak of jealousy in the Queen.Jenkins 2002 pp. 124–125 After Lord Essex went to Ireland in 1573, they possibly became lovers.Adams 2008a There was much talk, and on Essex's homecoming in December 1575, "great enmity between the Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Essex" was expected.Jenkins 2002 p. 212 In July 1576 Essex returned to Ireland, where he died of dysentery in September. Rumours of poison, administered by the Earl of Leicester's means, were soon abroad. The Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney, conducted an official investigation which did not find any indications of foul play but "a disease appropriate to this country ... whereof ... died many".Freedman 1983 pp. 33–34, 22 The rumours continued.Freedman 1983 pp. 33; Jenkins 2002 p. 217

[[File:Robert Dudley (1533-1588).jpg|thumb|left|alt=Robert Dudley (1533–1588)|[https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/view_as/grid/search/keyword:robert-dudley-1st-earl-of-leicester-161420992/ Robert Dudley],

Anglo/Netherlandish School, {{circa|1565}}, National Trust, Montacute House]]

The prospect of marriage to the Countess of Essex on the horizon, Leicester finally drew a line under his relationship with Douglas Sheffield. Contrary to what she later claimed, they came to an amicable agreement over their son's custody. Young Robert grew up in Dudley's and his friends' houses, but had "leave to see" his mother until she left England in 1583.Adams 2008d; Adams 2008c Leicester was very fond of his son and gave him an excellent education.Warner 1899 p. vi; Wilson 1981 p. 246 In his will he left him the bulk of his estate (after his brother Ambrose's death), including Kenilworth Castle.Warner 1899 p. ix Douglas Sheffield remarried in 1579. After the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, the younger Robert Dudley tried unsuccessfully to prove that his parents had married 30 years earlier in a secret ceremony. In that case, he would have been able to claim the earldoms of Leicester and Warwick.Warner 1899 p. xxxix His mother supported him, but maintained that she had been strongly against raising the issue and was possibly pressured by her son.Warner 1899 p. xl; Adams 2008d Leicester himself had throughout considered the boy as illegitimate.Warner 1899 p. vi, vii{{#tag:ref|Sir Robert Dudley lost his case in the Star Chamber in 1605 (Warner 1899 p. xlvi). Historians have had differing views on the problem: While Derek Wilson believes in a marriage (Wilson 1981 p. 326), it has been rejected by, for example, Conyers Read (Read 1936 p. 23), Johanna Rickman (Rickman 2008 p. 51), and Simon Adams (Adams 2008d).|group="note"}}

On 21 September 1578, Leicester secretly married Lady Essex at his country house at Wanstead, with only a handful of relatives and friends present.Jenkins 2002 pp. 234–235 He did not dare to tell the Queen of his marriage; nine months later Leicester's enemies at court acquainted her with the situation, causing a furious outburst.Doran 1996 p. 161 She already had been aware of his marriage plans a year earlier, though.Wilson 1981 pp. 229–230 Leicester's hope of an heir was fulfilled in 1581 when another Robert Dudley, styled Lord Denbigh, was born.Hammer 1999 p. 35 The child died aged three in 1584, leaving his parents disconsolate.Jenkins 2002 p. 287 Leicester found comfort in God since, as he wrote, "princes ... seldom do pity according to the rules of charity."Nicolas 1847 p. 382 The Earl turned out to be a devoted husband:Jenkins 2002 p. 362 In 1583, the French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau, wrote of "the Earl of Leicester and his lady to whom he is much attached", and "who has much influence over him".Jenkins 2002 pp. 280–281 Leicester was a concerned parent to his four stepchildren,Adams 1995 p. 182 and in every respect worked for the advancement of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, whom he regarded as his political heir.Hammer 1999 pp. 34–38, 60–61, 70, 76

The marriage of her favourite hurt the Queen deeply. She never accepted it,Wilson 1981 pp. 228, 230–231 humiliating Leicester in public: "my open and great disgraces delivered from her Majesty's mouth".Nicolas 1847 p. 97; Jenkins 2002 p. 247 Then again, she would be as fond of him as ever.Owen 1980 p. 44; Jenkins 2002 pp. 263, 305 In 1583 she informed ambassadors that Lettice Dudley was "a she-wolf" and her husband a "traitor" and "a cuckold".Hume 1892–1899 Vol. III p. 477; Jenkins 2002 p. 279 Lady Leicester's social life was much curtailed.Wilson 2005 p. 358; Jenkins 2002 p. 280 Even her movements could pose a political problem, as Francis Walsingham explained: "I see not her Majesty disposed to use the services of my Lord of Leicester. There is great offence taken at the conveying down of his lady."Jenkins 2002 p. 305 The Earl stood by his wife, asking his colleagues to intercede for her; there was no hope:Wilson 1981 p. 247 "She [the Queen] doth take every occasion by my marriage to withdraw any good from me", Leicester wrote even after seven years of marriage.Hammer 1999 p. 46

File:Nicholas Hilliard 005.jpg]]

For the first 30 years of Elizabeth's reign, until Leicester's death, he and Lord Burghley were the most powerful and important political figures, working intimately with the Queen.Adams 2002 pp. 17–18 Robert Dudley was a conscientious privy councillor, and one of the most frequently attending.Wilson 1981 p. 195

In 1560 the diplomat Nicholas Throckmorton advocated vehemently against Dudley marrying the Queen, but Dudley won him over in 1562.Doran 1996 p. 59 Throckmorton henceforth became his political advisor and intimate. After Throckmorton's death in 1571, there quickly evolved a political alliance between the Earl of Leicester and Sir Francis Walsingham, soon to be Secretary of State. Together they worked for a militant Protestant foreign policy.Wilson 1981 p. 215; Collinson 1960 pp. xxv–xxvi There also existed a family relationship between them after Walsingham's daughter had married Philip Sidney, Leicester's favourite nephew.Rosenberg 1958 p. 23 Leicester, after some initial jealousy, also became a good friend of Sir Christopher Hatton, himself one of Elizabeth's favourites.Adams 2002 p. 121

Robert Dudley's relationship with William Cecil, Lord Burghley, was complicated. Traditionally they have been seen as enemies, and Cecil behind the scenes sabotaged Dudley's endeavours to obtain the Queen's hand. On the other hand, they were on friendly terms and had an efficient working relationship which never broke down.Adams 2002 p. 18; Alford 2002 p. 30; Doran 1996 p. 216 In 1572, the vacant post of Lord High Treasurer was offered to Leicester, who declined and proposed Burghley, stating that the latter was the much more suitable candidate.Wilson 1981 p. 217 In later years, being at odds, Dudley felt like reminding Cecil of their "thirty years friendship".Wilson 1981 p. 216

On the whole, Cecil and Dudley were in concord about policies while disagreeing fundamentally about some issues, such as the Queen's marriage and some areas of foreign policy.Adams 2002 pp. 18–19, 59 Cecil favoured the suit of Francois, Duke of Anjou, in 1578–1581 for Elizabeth's hand, while Leicester was among its strongest opponents, even contemplating exile in letters to Burghley.Jenkins 2002 p. 247 The Anjou courtship, at the end of which Leicester and several dozen noblemen and gentlemen escorted the French prince to Antwerp,Doran 1996 p. 190 also touched the question of English intervention in the Netherlands to help the rebellious provinces. This debate stretched over a decade until 1585, with the Earl of Leicester as the foremost interventionist. Burghley was more cautious of military engagement while in a dilemma over his Protestant predilections.Adams 2002 p. 34

Until about 1571/1572, Dudley supported Mary Stuart's succession rights to the English throne.Adams 2002 pp. 104, 107 He was also, from the early 1560s, on the best terms with the Protestant lords in Scotland, thereby supporting the English or, as he saw it, the Protestant interest.Adams 2002 pp. 137–138, 141 After Mary Stuart's flight into England (1568) Leicester was, unlike Cecil,Adams 2002 p. 18 in favour of restoring her as Scottish queen under English control, preferably with a Protestant English husband, such as the Duke of Norfolk.Jenkins 2002 pp. 159, 169 In 1577 Leicester had a personal meeting with Mary and listened to her complaints about her captivity.Wilson 1981 p. 243 By the early 1580s Mary had come to fear Leicester's influence with James VI, her son, in whose privy chamber the English Earl had placed a spy. She spread stories about his supposed lust for the English throne, and when the Catholic anti-Leicester libel, Leicester's Commonwealth, was published in 1584 Dudley believed that Mary was involved in its conception.Jenkins 2002 p. 298

The Bond of Association, which the Privy Council gave out in October 1584, may have originated in Dudley's ideas.Adams 2008b; Collinson 2007 p. 75 Circulated in the country, the document's subscribers swore that, should Elizabeth be assassinated (as William the Silent had been a few months earlier), not only the killer but also the royal person who would benefit from this should be executed.Collinson 2007 p. 75 Leicester's relations with James of Scotland grew closer when he gained the confidence of the King's favourite, Patrick, Master of Gray, in 1584–1585. His negotiations with the Master were the basis for the Treaty of Berwick, a defensive alliance between the two British states against European powers. In 1586 Walsingham uncovered the Babington Plot. Following the Ridolfi Plot (1571) and the Throckmorton Plot (1583), this was another scheme to assassinate Elizabeth in which Mary Stuart was involved. Following her conviction, Leicester, then in the Netherlands, vehemently urged her execution in his letters; he despaired of Elizabeth's security after so many plots.Jenkins 2002 pp. 323–324

Leicester having returned to England, in February 1587 Elizabeth signed Mary's death warrant, with the proviso that it be not carried out until she gave her approval. As there was no sign of her doing so, Burghley, Leicester, and a handful of other privy councillors decided to proceed with Mary's execution in the interest of the state. Leicester went to Bath and Bristol for his health; unlike the other privy councillors involved, he escaped Elizabeth's severe wrath on hearing the news of Mary's death.Hammer 1999 pp. 59–61; Gristwood 2007 p. 322

File:sfdrake42.jpg. Leicester was happy to invest in his ventures and invite him to play cards.Gristwood 2007 p. 292]]

Robert Dudley was a pioneer of new industries; interested in many things from tapestries to mining, he was engaged in the first joint stock companies in English history.Wilson 1981 p. 146; Adams 2002 p. 337 The Earl also concerned himself with relieving unemployment among the poor.Adams 2002 pp. 142, 337 On a personal level, he gave to poor people, petitioners, and prisons on a daily basis. Due to his interests in trade and exploration, as well as his debts, his contacts with the London city fathers were intense. He was an enthusiastic investor in the Muscovy Company and the Merchant Adventurers.Wilson 1981 p. 165 English relations with Morocco were also handled by Leicester. This he did in the manner of his private business affairs, underpinned by a patriotic and missionary zeal (commercially, these relations were loss-making).Haynes 1987 pp. 88–94 He took much interest in the careers of John Hawkins and Francis Drake from early on, and was a principal backer of Drake's circumnavigation of the world. Robert and Ambrose Dudley were also the principal patrons of Martin Frobisher's 1576 search for the Northwest Passage.Wilson 1981 pp. 164–165; Gristwood 2007 p. 198 Later Leicester acquired his own ship, the Galleon Leicester, which he employed in a luckless expedition under Edward Fenton, but also under Drake. As much as profit, English seapower was on his mind, and accordingly, Leicester became a friend and leading supporter of Dom António, the exiled claimant to the Portuguese throne after 1580.Haynes 1987 pp. 145–149

Apart from their legal function, the Inns of Court were the Tudor equivalents of gentlemen's clubs.Wilson 1981 p. 169 In 1561, grateful for favours he had done them, the Inner Temple admitted Dudley as their most privileged member, their "Lord and Governor".Adams 2002 p. 250 He was allowed to build his own apartments on the premises and organised grand festivities and performances in the Temple.Wilson 1981 pp. 131–132, 168–169 As Chancellor of Oxford University Dudley was highly committed.Chamberlin 1939 pp. 177–178 He enforced the Thirty-nine Articles and the oath of royal supremacy at Oxford, and obtained from the Queen an incorporation by Act of Parliament for the university.Haynes 1987 pp. 75–76; Jenkins 2002 p. 178 Leicester was also instrumental in founding the official Oxford University Press,Rosenberg 1958 pp. 295–296 and installed the pioneer of international law, Alberico Gentili, and the exotic theologian, Antonio del Corro, at Oxford. Over del Corro's controversial case he even sacked the university's Vice-Chancellor.Rosenberg 1958 p. 137; Haynes 1987 p. 77

Around 100 books were dedicated to Robert Dudley during Elizabeth's reign.Rosenberg 1958 p. xiii; Adams 2008b In 1564/1567 Arthur Golding dedicated his popular translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses to the Earl.Rosenberg 1958 pp. 156–158; Jenkins 2002 p. 143 Dudley took a special interest in translations, which were seen as a means to popularise learning among "all who could read."Rosenberg 1958 p. xvi He was also a history enthusiast, and in 1559 suggested to the tailor John Stow to become a chronicler (as Stow recalled in 1604).Adams 2008b; Rosenberg 1958 p. 64; Wilson 1981 pp. 160–161 Robert Dudley's interest in the theatre was manifold, from academic plays at Oxford to the protection of the Children of St. Paul's and of the Royal Chapel, and their respective masters, against hostile bishops and landlords.Rosenberg 1958 pp. 301–307 From at least 1559 he had his own company of players,Adams 1995 p. 56 and in 1574 he obtained for them the first royal patent issued to actors to allow them to tour the country unmolested by local authorities.Wilson 1981 p. 153 The Earl also kept a separate company of musicians who in 1586 played before the King of Denmark; with them travelled William Kempe, "the Lord Leicester's jesting player".Rosenberg 1958 p. 305

File:Elizabeth I of England Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder.jpg. The figures in the garden may include representations of Robert and Lettice Dudley.Morris 2010 p. 34; Wilson 1981 illustration caption Painting by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder]]

Leicester possessed one of the largest collections of paintings in Elizabethan England, being the first great private collector.Hearn 1995 p. 96; Haynes 1987 p. 199 He was a principal patron of Nicholas Hilliard, as well as interested in all aspects of Italian culture.Hearn 1995 p. 124; Haynes 1992 p. 12 The Earl's circle of scholars and men of letters included, among others, his nephew Philip Sidney, the astrologer and Hermeticist John Dee, his secretaries Edward Dyer and Jean Hotman, as well as John Florio and Gabriel Harvey.Haynes 1987 pp. 76–78, 125–126; Wilson 1981 p. 307 Through Harvey, Edmund Spenser found employment at Leicester House on the Strand, the Earl's palatial town house, where he wrote his first works of poetry.Jenkins 2002 pp. 254–257 Many years after Leicester's death Spenser wistfully recalled this time in his Prothalamion,Jenkins 2002 p. 261 and in 1591 he remembered the late Earl with his poem The Ruins of Time.Adams 2002 p. 149

Robert Dudley grew up as a Protestant. Presumably conforming in public under Mary I, he was counted among the "heretics" by Philip II's agent before Elizabeth's accession.Starkey 2001 pp. 230, 231 He immediately became a major patron to former Edwardian clerics and returning exiles. Meanwhile, he also helped some of Mary's former servants and maintained Catholic contacts.Doran 1996 pp. 66–67; Skidmore 2010 pp. 129, 128; Porter 2007 p. 412 From 1561 he advocated and supported the Huguenot cause,Doran 1996 pp. 59, 67 and the French ambassador described him as "totally of the Calvinist religion" in 1568.Collinson 1971 p. 53 After the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572 this trait in him became more pronounced, and he continued as the chief patron of English Puritans and a champion of international Calvinism.MacCulloch 2001 pp. 213, 249; Adams 2002 pp. 141–142 On the other hand, in his household, Leicester employed Catholics like Sir Christopher Blount, who held a position of trust and of whom he was personally fond. The Earl's patronage of and reliance on individuals was as much a matter of old family loyalties or personal relationships as of religious allegiances.Adams 1995 p. 463; Adams 2002 p. 190

Leicester was especially interested in the furtherance of preaching, which was the main concern of moderate Puritanism.Adams 2002 pp. 230–231 He went to great lengths to support non-conforming preachers, while warning them against too radical positions which, he argued, would only endanger what reforms had been hitherto achieved.Wilson 1981 pp. 198–205; Adams 2002 p. 231 He would not condone the overthrow of the existing church model because of "trifles", he said.Adams 2002 p. 231 "I am not, I thank God, fantastically persuaded in religion but ... do find it soundly and godly set forth in this universal Church of England."Wilson 1981 p. 205 Accordingly, he tried to smooth things out and, among other moves, initiated several disputations between the more radical elements of the Church and the episcopal side so that they "might make reconcilement".Adams 2002 pp. 231, 143, 229–232; Collinson 1960 p. xxx His influence in ecclesiastical matters was considerable until it declined in the 1580s under Archbishop John Whitgift.Collinson 1960 pp. xxi–xxiii, xxxviii

File:Leicester as Governor-General engraving by Goltzius.jpg]]

During the 1570s, Leicester built a special relationship with Prince William of Orange, who held him in high esteem. The Earl became generally popular in the Netherlands. Since 1577 he pressed for an English military expedition, led by himself (as the Dutch strongly wished) to succour the rebels.Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 7–15; Wilson 1981 p. 238; Haynes 1987 p. 158 In 1584 the Prince of Orange was murdered, political chaos ensued, and in August 1585 Antwerp fell to the Duke of Parma.Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 20, 24 An English intervention became inevitable;{{why|date=August 2023}} it was decided that Leicester would go to the Netherlands and "be their chief as heretofore was treated of", as he phrased it in August 1585.Adams 2002 p. 147 He was alluding to the recently signed Treaty of Nonsuch in which his position and authority as "governor-general" of the Netherlands had only been vaguely defined.Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 25 The Earl prepared himself for "God's cause and her Majesty's" by recruiting the expedition's cavalry from his retainers and friends, and by mortgaging his estate to the sum of £25,000.Gristwood 2007 pp. 307–308; Hammer 2003 p. 125

On Thursday, 9 December 1585, the Earl of Leicester set sail for the Low Countries from Harwich and landed after a swift crossing of less than 24 hours, the fleet anchored at Flushing (Vlissingen). At the end of December 1585 Leicester was received in the Netherlands, according to one correspondent, in the manner of a second Charles V; a Dutch town official already noted in his minute-book that the Earl was going to have "absolute power and authority".Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 53 After progress through several cities and so many festivals he arrived in The Hague, where on 1 January 1586 he was urged to accept the title governor-general by the States General of the United Provinces. Leicester wrote to Burghley and Walsingham, explaining why he believed the Dutch importunities should be answered favourably. He accepted his elevation on 25 January, having not yet received any communications from England due to constant adverse winds.Wilson 1981 pp. 276–278

The Earl had now "the rule and government general" with a Council of State to support him (the members of which he nominated himself).Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 55, 73 He remained a subject of Elizabeth, making it possible to contend that she was now sovereign over the Netherlands. According to Leicester, this was what the Dutch desired.Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 54 From the start such a position for him had been implied in the Dutch propositions to the English, and in their instructions to Leicester; and it was consistent with the Dutch understanding of the Treaty of Nonsuch.Haynes 1987 pp. 158–159; Bruce 1844 p. 17; Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 23, 25 The English queen, however, in her instructions to Leicester, had expressly declined to accept offers of sovereignty from the United Provinces while still demanding of the States to follow the "advice" of her lieutenant-general in matters of government.Bruce 1844 p. 15 Her ministers on both sides of the Channel hoped she would accept the situation as a fait accompli and could even be persuaded to add the rebellious provinces to her possessions. Instead her fury knew no bounds and Elizabeth sent Sir Thomas Heneage to read out her letters of disapproval before the States General, Leicester having to stand nearby.Gristwood 2007 pp. 311, 313; Chamberlin 1939 p. 263 Elizabeth's "commandment"Bruce 1844 p. 105 was that the Governor-General immediately resign his post in a formal ceremony in the same place where he had taken it.Gristwood 2007 p. 313 After much pleading with her and protestations by the Dutch, it was postulated that the governor-generalship had been bestowed not by any sovereign, but by the States General and thereby by the people.Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 59 The damage was done, however:Hammer 2003 p. 127 "My credit hath been cracked ever since her Majesty sent Sir Thomas Heneage hither", Leicester recapitulated in October 1586.Bruce 1844 p. 424

File:Emanuel-van-Meteren-Historien-der-Nederlanden-tot-1612 MG 9971.tif

Elizabeth demanded of her Lieutenant-General to refrain at all costs from any decisive action with Parma, which was the opposite of what Leicester wished and what the Dutch expected of him.Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 72 After some initial successes,Gristwood 2007 pp. 316–317 the unexpected surrender of the strategically important town of Grave was a serious blow to English morale. Leicester's fury turned on the town's governor, Baron Hemart, whom he had executed despite all pleadings. The Dutch nobility were astonished: even the Prince of Orange would not have dared such an outrage, Leicester was warned; but, he wrote, he would not be intimidated by the fact that Hemart "was of a good house".Bruce 1844 p. 309; Wilson 1981 pp. 282–284

Leicester's forces, small and seriously underfinanced from the outset, faced the most formidable army in Europe.Adams 2002 p. 147; Gristwood 2007 p. 307; Hammer 2003 pp. 125–126 Unity among their ranks was at risk by Leicester's and the other officers' quarrels with Sir John Norris, who had commanded previous English contingents in the Netherlands and was now the Earl's deputy.Adams 2002 p. 180; Hammer 2003 p. 126 Elizabeth was angry that the war cost more than anticipated and for many months delayed sending money and troops.Hammer 2003 pp. 132–133 This not only forced Dudley to raise further funds on his own account, but much aggravated the soldiers' lot.Wilson 1981 p. 282; Hammer 2003 p. 133 "They cannot get a penny; their credit is spent; they perish for want of victuals and clothing in great numbers ... I assure you it will fret me to death ere long to see my soldiers in this case and cannot help them", Leicester wrote home.Gristwood 2007 pp. 315–316

Many Dutch statesmen were essentially politiques; they soon became disenchanted with the Earl's enthusiastic fostering of what he called "the religion".Strong and van Dorsten 1964 p. 75 His most loyal friends were the Calvinists at Utrecht and Friesland, provinces in constant opposition to Holland and Zeeland.Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 75–76; Haynes 1987 p. 175 Those rich provinces engaged in a lucrative trade with Spain which was very helpful to either side's war effort. On Elizabeth's orders Leicester enforced a ban on this trade with the enemy, thus alienating the wealthy Dutch merchants.Haynes 1987 pp. 172–173; Adams 2008b He also affected a fiscal reform. In order to centralise finances and to replace the highly corrupt tax farming with direct taxation, a new Council of Finances was established which was not under the supervision of the Council of State. The Dutch members of the Council of State were outraged at these bold steps.Haynes 1987 pp. 173–174 English peace talks with Spain behind Leicester's back, which had started within days after he had left England, undermined his position further.Strong and van Dorsten 1964 pp. 43, 50

In September 1586 there was a skirmish at Zutphen, in which Philip Sidney was wounded. He died a few weeks later. His uncle's grief was great.Haynes 1987 pp. 170–171 In December Leicester returned to England. In his absence, William Stanley and Rowland York, two Catholic officers whom Leicester had placed in command of Deventer and the fort of Zutphen, respectively, went over to Parma, along with their key fortresses—a disaster for the Anglo-Dutch coalition in every respect.Wilson 1981 p. 291 His Dutch friends, as his English critics, pressed for Leicester's return to the Netherlands. Shortly after his arrival in June 1587 the English-held port of Sluis was lost to Parma, Leicester being unable to assert his authority over the Dutch allies, who refused to cooperate in relieving the town.Wilson 1981 pp. 291–294 After this blow Elizabeth, who ascribed it to "the malice or other foul error of the States",Wilson 1981 p. 294 was happy to enter into peace negotiations with the Duke of Parma. By December 1587 the differences between Elizabeth and the Dutch politicians, with Leicester in between, had become insurmountable; he asked to be recalled by the Queen and gave up his post.Wilson 1981 pp. 294–295 He was irredeemably in debt because of his personal financing of the war.

File:Leicester's letter to Elizabeth I.jpg

In July 1588, as the Spanish Armada came nearer, the Earl of Leicester was appointed "Lieutenant and Captain-General of the Queen's Armies and Companies".Haynes 1987 p. 191 At Tilbury on the Thames he erected a camp for the defence of London, should the Spaniards land. Leicester vigorously counteracted the disorganisation he found everywhere, having few illusions about "all sudden hurley-burleys", as he wrote to Walsingham.Jenkins 2002 pp. 349–351 When the Privy Council was already considering disbanding the camp to save money, Leicester held against it, setting about to plan with the Queen a visit to her troops. On the day she gave her famous speech he walked beside her horse, bare-headed.Haynes 1987 pp. 191–195

File:Warwick ChurchofStMary BeauchampChapel01.JPG]]

After the Armada, the Earl was seen riding in splendour through London "as if he were a king",Hume 1892–1899 Vol. IV pp. 420–421; Jenkins 2002 p. 358 and for the last few weeks of his life he usually dined with the Queen, a unique favour. On his way to Buxton in Derbyshire to take the baths, he died at Cornbury Park near Oxford, on 4 September 1588. Leicester's health had not been good for some time; historians have considered malaria and stomach cancer as causes of death.Adams 1996; Gristwood 2007 pp. 333–334 His death came unexpectedly, and only a week earlier he had said farewell to Elizabeth. She was deeply affected and locked herself in her apartment for a few days until Lord Burghley had the door broken.Wilson 1981 p. 302 Her nickname for Dudley had been "Eyes", which was symbolised by the sign of ôô in their letters to each other.Adams 2002 p. 148; [http://www.folger.edu/html/exhibitions/elizabeth_I/leicester.asp Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester: Autograph letter, signed, to Queen Elizabeth I. Folger Shakespeare Library] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090928063944/http://www.folger.edu/html/exhibitions/elizabeth_I/leicester.asp |date=28 September 2009 }} Retrieved 17 July 2009 Elizabeth kept the letter he had sent her six days before his death in her bedside treasure box, endorsing it with "his last letter" on the outside. It was still there when she died 15 years later on 24 March 1603.Wilson 1981 p. 303

Leicester was buried, as he had requested, in the Beauchamp Chapel of the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick on 10 October 1588—in the same chapel as Richard Beauchamp, his ancestor, and the "noble Impe", his little son.Adams 2002 p. 149; Gristwood 2007 p. 340 Countess Lettice was also buried there when she died in 1634, alongside the "best and dearest of husbands", as the epitaph, which she commissioned, says.Gristwood 2007 p. 340

The book which later became known as Leicester's Commonwealth was written by Catholic exiles in Paris and printed anonymously in 1584.Wilson 1981 pp. 262–265{{#tag:ref|The original title began: {{sic|hide=y|The copie of a leter, wryten by a Master of Arte of Cambrige ...}} ([https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/150657857 WorldCat]. Retrieved 5 April 2010.)

In 1641, it was reprinted in London as {{sic|hide=y|Leycesters Commonwealth}} (Burgoyne 1904 p. vii).|group="note"}} It was published shortly after the death of Leicester's son, which is alluded to in a stop-press marginal note: "The children of adulterers shall be consumed, and the seed of a wicked bed shall be rooted out."Jenkins 2002 p. 294 Smuggled into England, the libel became a best-seller with underground booksellers and the next year was translated into French.Bossy 2002 p. 126; Wilson 1981 p. 251 Its underlying political agenda is the succession of Mary, Queen of Scots, to the English throne,Wilson 1981 pp. 253–254 but its most outstanding feature is an all-round attack on the Earl of Leicester. He is presented as an atheistic, hypocritical coward, a "perpetuall Dictator",Burgoyne 1904 p. 225 terrorising the Queen and ruining the whole country. He is engaged in a long-term conspiracy to snatch the Crown from Elizabeth in order to settle it first on his brother-in-law, the Earl of Huntingdon, and ultimately on himself. Spicy details of his monstrous private life are revealed, and he appears as an expert poisoner of many high-profile personalities.Wilson 1981 pp. 254–259; Jenkins 2002 pp. 290–294 This influential classic is the origin of many aspects of Leicester's historical reputation.Adams 1996; Wilson 1981 p. 268 Similar conspiracies are often mentioned in coded letters from Mary, Queen of Scots, to the French ambassador.George Lasry, Norbert Biermann, Satoshi Tomokiyo, [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01611194.2022.2160677 'Deciphering Mary Stuart’s lost letters from 1578-1584', Cryptologia (8 Feb 2023), pp. 37, 40] {{doi|10.1080/01611194.2022.2160677}}

File:La reine Elisabeth 1ere et Leicester-William Frederick Yeames-MBA Lyon 2014.jpeg, 1865]]

In the early 17th century, William Camden saw "some secret constellation" of the stars at work between Elizabeth and her favourite;Gristwood 2007 p. 9 he firmly established the legend of the perfect courtier with the sinister influence.Adams 2002 pp. 53–55; Adams 2008b Some of the most often-quoted characterisations of Leicester, such as that he "was wont to put up all his passions in his pocket", his nickname of "the Gypsy", and Elizabeth's "I will have here but one mistress and no master"-reprimand to him, were contributed by Sir Henry Wotton and Sir Robert Naunton almost half a century after the Earl's death.Adams 2002 pp. 55, 56

The Victorian historian James Anthony Froude saw Robert Dudley as Elizabeth's soft plaything, combining "in himself the worst qualities of both sexes. Without courage, without talent, without virtue".Adams 2002 p. 57 The habit of comparing him unfavourably to William CecilHaynes 1987 p. 11 was continued by Conyers Read in 1925: "Leicester was a selfish, unscrupulous courtier and Burghley a wise and patriotic statesman".Chamberlin 1939 p. 103 Geoffrey Elton, in his widely read England under the Tudors (1955), saw Dudley as "a handsome, vigorous man with very little sense."Wilson 1981 p. 304

Since the 1950s, academic assessment of the Earl of Leicester has undergone considerable changes.Adams 2002 p. 176 Leicester's importance in literary patronage was established by Eleanor Rosenberg in 1955. Elizabethan Puritanism has been thoroughly reassessed since the 1960s, and Patrick Collinson has outlined the Earl's place in it. Dudley's religion could thus be better understood, rather than simply to brand him as a hypocrite.Adams 2002 pp. 226–228 His importance as a privy councillor and statesman has often been overlooked, one reason being that many of his letters are scattered among private collections and not easily accessible in print, as are those of his colleagues Walsingham and Cecil. Alan Haynes describes him as "one of the most strangely underrated of Elizabeth's circle of close advisers",Haynes 1992 p. 15 while Simon Adams, who since the early 1970s has researched many aspects of Leicester's life and career,Gristwood 2007 p. 372; Adams 2002 p. 2 concludes: "Leicester was as central a figure to the 'first reign' [of Elizabeth] as Burghley."Adams 2002 p. 7

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{{reflist|group="note"}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

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• Adams, Simon (1996): [https://www.historytoday.com/simon-adams/home-and-away-earl-leicester "At Home and Away. The Earl of Leicester"] History Today Vol. 46 No. 5 May 1996 Retrieved 2010-09-29
• Adams, Simon (2002): Leicester and the Court: Essays in Elizabethan Politics Manchester University Press {{ISBN|0-7190-5325-0}}
• Adams, Simon (2008a): [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8159 "Dudley, Lettice, countess of Essex and countess of Leicester (1543–1634)"] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-04
• Adams, Simon (2008b): [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8160 "Dudley, Robert, earl of Leicester (1532/3–1588)"] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. May 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-03
• Adams, Simon (2008c): [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8161 "Dudley, Sir Robert (1574–1649)"] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-03
• Adams, Simon (2008d): [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/69742 "Sheffield, Douglas, Lady Sheffield (1542/3–1608)"] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-03
• Adams, Simon (2011): [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8144 "Dudley, Amy, Lady Dudley (1532–1560)"] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Jan 2011 (subscription required) Retrieved 2012-07-04
• Alford, Stephen (2002): The Early Elizabethan Polity: William Cecil and the British Succession Crisis, 1558–1569 Cambridge University Press {{ISBN|0-521-89285-6}}
• Bossy, John (2002): Under the Molehill: An Elizabethan Spy Story Yale Nota Bene {{ISBN|0-300-09450-7}}
• Bruce, John (ed.) (1844): [https://archive.org/details/correspondenceof00leicrich Correspondence of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leycester, during his Government of the Low Countries, in the Years 1585 and 1586] Camden Society
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• Chamberlin, Frederick (1939): Elizabeth and Leycester Dodd, Mead & Co.
• Collinson, Patrick (ed.) (1960): "Letters of Thomas Wood, Puritan, 1566–1577" Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research Special Supplement No. 5 November 1960
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• Collinson, Patrick (2007): Elizabeth I Oxford University Press {{ISBN|978-0-19-921356-6}}
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• Fraser, Antonia (1972): Mary Queen of Scots Panther Books {{ISBN|0-586-03379-3}}
• Freedman, Sylvia (1983): Poor Penelope: Lady Penelope Rich. An Elizabethan Woman The Kensal Press {{ISBN|0-946041-20-2}}
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• Gristwood, Sarah (2007): Elizabeth and Leicester: Power, Passion, Politics Viking {{ISBN|978-0-670-01828-4}}
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• Haynes, Alan (1992): Invisible Power: The Elizabethan Secret Services 1570–1603 Alan Sutton {{ISBN|0-7509-0037-7}}
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• Henderson, Paula (2005): The Tudor House and Garden: Architecture and Landscape in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Yale University Press {{ISBN|0-300-10687-4}}
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• Hume, Martin (ed.) (1892–1899): Calendar of ... State Papers Relating to English Affairs ... in ... Simancas, 1558–1603 HMSO [https://archive.org/details/calendarofspain01greauoft Vol. I] [https://archive.org/details/calendarletters01simagoog Vol. III] [https://archive.org/details/calendarletters00simagoog Vol. IV]
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• Rosenberg, Eleanor (1958): Leicester: Patron of Letters Columbia University Press
• Skidmore, Chris (2010): Death and the Virgin: Elizabeth, Dudley and the Mysterious Fate of Amy Robsart Weidenfeld & Nicolson {{ISBN|978-0-29-784650-5}}
• Starkey, David (2001): Elizabeth: Apprenticeship Vintage {{ISBN|0-09-928657-2}}
• Strong, R.C. and J.A. van Dorsten (1964): Leicester's Triumph Oxford University Press
• {{Cite book|title=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558|last=Virgoe|first=Roger|date=1982|publisher=Boydell and Brewer|isbn=9780436042829|editor-last=Bindoff|editor-first=S.T.|volume=2|location=London|pages=66|chapter=DUDLEY, Sir Robert (1532/33-88)|access-date=1 September 2019|chapter-url=http://www.histparl.ac.uk/volume/1509-1558/member/dudley-sir-robert-153233-88|via=The History of Parliament Online}}
• Warner, G.F. (ed.) (1899): [https://archive.org/details/voyageofrobertdu00warnrich The Voyage of Robert Dudley to the West Indies, 1594–1595] Hakluyt Society
• Watkins, Susan (1998): The Public and Private Worlds of Elizabeth I Thames & Hudson {{ISBN|0-500-01869-3}}
• Wilson, Derek (1981): Sweet Robin: A Biography of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester 1533–1588 Hamish Hamilton {{ISBN|0-241-10149-2}}
• Wilson, Derek (2005): The Uncrowned Kings of England: The Black History of the Dudleys and the Tudor Throne Carroll & Graf {{ISBN|0-7867-1469-7}}

• Goldring, Elizabeth (2014): Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and the World of Elizabethan Art: Painting and Patronage at the Court of Elizabeth I Yale University Press
• Peck, Dwight (ed.) (1985) Leicester's Commonwealth: The Copy of a Letter Written by a Master of Art of Cambridge (1584) and Related Documents Ohio University Press {{ISBN|0-8214-0800-3}}

{{commons category|Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester}}

• {{acad|id=DDLY564R|name=Dudley, Robert}}
• {{UK National Archives ID}}
• [https://www.imdb.com/character/ch0044121/ Lord Robert Dudley at The Internet Movie Database]

{{s-start}}

{{s-off}}

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{{s-ttl|title=Master of the Horse|years=1558–1587}}

{{s-aft|after=The Earl of Essex}}

{{s-vac}}

{{s-ttl| title = Lord Steward

| years = 1587–1588 }}

{{s-aft| after = Lord St John of Basing }}

{{s-break}}

{{s-bef| before = Sir John Salusbury }}

{{s-ttl| title = Custos Rotulorum of Denbighshire

| years = bef. 1573–1588 }}

{{s-aft| rows = 2 | after = Thomas Egerton }}

{{s-bef| before = John Griffith }}

{{s-ttl| title = Custos Rotulorum of Flintshire

| years = bef. 1584–1588 }}

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{{s-ttl|title=Custos Rotulorum of Warwickshire|years=bef. 1573–1588}}

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{{s-aft|after=Sir Robert Salusbury}}

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{{s-ttl|title=Custos Rotulorum of Anglesey|years=bef. 1584–1588}}

{{s-aft|after=Sir Richard Bulkeley}}

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{{s-ttl|title=Master of the Buckhounds|years=1552–1553}}

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{{s-aca}}

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{{s-ttl|title=High Stewart of Cambridge University|years=1563–1588}}

{{s-aft|rows=2|after=Sir Christopher Hatton}}

{{s-bef| before = John Mason }}

{{s-ttl| title = Chancellor of the University of Oxford

| with = Sir Thomas Bromley as deputy 1585–1588

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{{s-ttl|title=Justice in Eyre
south of the Trent|years=1585–1588}}

{{s-aft|after=The Lord Hunsdon}}

{{s-end}}

{{Dukes of Beaufort, Lancaster, and Somerset family tree}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dudley, Robert, 1st Earl of Leicester}}

Category:Earls of Leicester

Robert

Category:1532 births

Category:1588 deaths

Category:16th-century Protestants

Dudley, Robert

Category:English royal favourites

Category:English people of the Eighty Years' War

Category:Burials at Beauchamp Chapel, Collegiate Church of St Mary (Warwick)

Leicester, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl

Category:English courtiers

Category:English generals

Category:English people of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)

Category:Knights of the Garter

Category:Lord-lieutenants of Warwickshire

Category:Lord-lieutenants of Essex

Category:Lord-lieutenants of Hertfordshire

Category:People from Wanstead

Category:Prisoners in the Tower of London

Category:Younger sons of dukes

Category:English MPs 1547–1552

Category:English MPs 1553 (Edward VI)

Category:English MPs 1559

Category:16th-century Puritans

Category:16th-century English nobility

Category:Masters of the Buckhounds

Category:Members of Parliament for Norfolk

Category:Court of Elizabeth I

Category:Members of the Privy Council of England

Category:Children of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland