Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Name and Title: Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Born: 24 June 1532

Died: 4 September 1588.

Buried: The Beauchamp Chapel, St Mary’s Church, Warwick.

The Early Years of Robert Dudley

Robert Dudley was the fifth son born to John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, and Jane (nee Guildford). His grandfather on his paternal side was the hated Edmund Dudley, an eminent councillor in the latter part of Henry VII’s reign who hounded merchants and nobles alike, extorting them for money on flimsy, and often fabricated, charges. Very few grieved his passing when Edmund was executed in 1510 on the orders of the new King, Henry VIII.

After Edmund’s death, Robert’s father, John Dudley, was made a ward of an old family friend, Sir Edward Guildford of Halden Manor in Kent. As was common practice, the young man was eventually married to one of Sir Edward’s daughters, Jane Guildford, who was sixteen years old at the time of the marriage. The pair had grown up together in the Guildford family home, and their union was to prove both fruitful and happy, with the couple remaining devoted to one another until John’s execution in 1553.

Robert was one of 13 children born to the couple, of which nine survived infancy. However, only three, Robert, Ambrose and Catherine, lived into the reign of Elizabeth I. Sadly, the definitive place of Robert’s birth is not known. However, one biographer suggests Halden Manor in Kent; as mentioned above, it was the Guildford family residence, and, according to Robert’s biographer, was ‘probably’ Jane’s favourite house.

Today, the Guildford ancestral home has been virtually destroyed and replaced by the eighteenth-century farmhouse: ‘Halden Place’. The only tell-tale signs that an earlier site of some significance once stood there is the presence of the medieval moat and a ‘much-defaced stone cartouche of the Guildford family [which] has been incorporated into the C17 stable block’.

When Robert Dudley Met Elizabeth Tudor…

At this stage, no one could have foreseen that a son preceded by four brothers would achieve the prestige and honours heaped upon Robert in his later years. His fortunes became inextricably linked to the child with flaming red hair and bewitching chestnut eyes whom he met for the first time around 1541 when he was nine, and the girl in question was eight. Of course, that girl was Elizabeth Tudor, the future Queen of England.

Given their age, it seems likely that the pair met in the royal schoolroom. Although their academic interests diverged (unlike Elizabeth, Robert showed no interest in classics, instead preferring mathematics, astronomy and astrology), they forged a friendship which would endure until death parted them over 40 years later in 1588. It is undoubtedly the case that when Robert Dudley met Elizabeth Tudor, their two worlds collided, and their relationship would forever change them.

Part of the closeness of that relationship perhaps lay in the adversity and danger they shared in their early adult life. Following the Wyatt rebellion in March 1554, Princess Elizabeth was incarcerated in the Tower of London on suspicion of her involvement in the plot. While there, she must have known that John Dudley and his sons, including Robert and Guildford, were also imprisoned, tried, found guilty of treason and condemned to death. This was in the wake of the Duke of Northumberland’s failed attempt to place his Protestant daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, upon the throne following the death of Edward VI.

Whilst John Dudley and, eventually, Guildford and Lady Jane were all executed, the other Dudley brothers survived and were released. Their freedom seems to have come about mainly because of Robert’s Guildford relatives and their connections to Phillip II of Spain. Death would have to wait. It seemed fate had something different in mind for the young Lord Robert.

Five years later, Robert would be at Elizabeth’s side to witness the first day of her reign, which commenced on 17 November 1558. He was present at Elizabeth’s childhood home, The Old Palace at Hatfield, as the Great Seal of England was given to the twenty-five-year-old queen. Elizabeth immediately appointed Lord Robert ‘Master of the Horse’. This post perfectly suited the man, as Dudley was an accomplished horseman. It also well-suited the Queen, for the position required its holder to be in close attendance on the monarch, organising the movements of the court and its entertainment.

‘I Will Have But One Mistress Here, And No Master!’

Lord Robert married twice, the first time, in his youth, to Amy Robsart (m. 4 June 1550). Thirty-seven years later, in 1578, he married for the second and final time to Lettice Knollys, granddaughter of Mary Boleyn.

When Amy died unexpectedly in 1560 following a fall down a flight of stairs at their home in Cumnor, Oxfordshire, gossip about the involvement of Dudley and the Queen in her death was rife. Rumours circulated at court that Amy had been murdered to allow Robert to marry Elizabeth. No firm evidence has ever been found to implicate them. However, Robert spent many years positioning himself as a suitor for Elizabeth, although the match never transpired despite his concerted efforts to win the Queen’s hand. As Elizabeth once famously said, ‘I Will Have But One Mistress Here, And No Master!’

After 17 years of waiting, Lord Robert, by this time, the 1st Earl of Leicester, had had enough. No doubt mindful of the need to sire a son and heir, he married the beautiful Lettice Knollys in secret, knowing all too well that the Queen would not allow another woman to steal away the heart of her ‘sweet Robin’.

When Elizabeth found out about the union, she was incandescent. Lettice, the ‘she-wolf’ as Elizabeth henceforth referred to her, was banished from court permanently. Although initially, Robert suffered the same fate, Elizabeth could not bear his absence for too long, and the Earl was eventually allowed to return.

Lettice bore her beloved husband his son and heir in 1581. He was named after his father Robert, with his title being Lord Denbigh. Sadly, ‘the noble imp’, as he is referred to on his tomb ledger, died aged just three. He is also buried in the Beauchamp Chapel, in St Mary’s Church, Warwick.

This left Robert with only one illegitimate son, another Robert (b. 1574), of whom he was very fond. He was raised in both his father’s household and that of the Earl’s friends, eventually becoming Sir Robert Dudley and inheriting all the titles and lands belonging to his father upon his father’s death, and according to the Earl of Leicester’s wishes. However, Sir Robert was never legitimised, and eventually, he moved abroad to serve at the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, where he styled himself not only as the Earl of Leicester and Warwick but also as the Duke of Northumberland!

His Last Letter…

Leicester was at Elizabeth’s side once more to witness the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Grand celebrations ensued, with Lord Robert riding in procession alongside the Queen through the streets of London and dining often with her in private. Shortly afterwards, Dudley took his leave of his mistress and headed north towards Buxton in Derbyshire, known then as it is known now for the healing qualities of its spa waters. The Earl had been suffering from stomach pains (quite possibly due to stomach cancer). However, Lord Robert never reached Buxton. He took a turn for the worst en route, taking to his bed at his Oxfordshire property of Cornbury Park. There, he died several days later, on 4 September 1588, aged 55. The bed where he passed away survives and is still in the house.

Elizabeth was devasted by the news and locked herself away in her rooms, refusing to see anyone. The depth of their love is evident in the final letter that Lord Robert penned to her shortly before his death. After Elizabeth’s own passing around 15 years later, the letter was found in the Queen’s chamber, hidden away in a private casket, her writing recording only that it was ‘his last letter’.

By this time, Elizabeth had established the cult of Gloriana, dominating England as its uncontested Queen for the latter part of her reign. However, according to Wilson’s biography of the Earl of Leicester, it was not always so. He states, ‘It was Robert Dudley, above all others, who sustained her throughout the long, hard process of self-tutelage and enabled her to emerge as the Gloriana of legend’.

The Burial and Tomb of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

On 10 October 1588, the Earl of Leicester was laid to rest, ‘where sundry of my ancestors do lie’ in the Beauchamp Chapel, St Mary’s, Warwick. The chapel was established by Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, in the fourteenth century and is probably one of the most beautiful family mausoleums you will likely see anywhere in the UK. Its elegance is simply breathtaking, and the tombs it contains are sublime examples of their type. Most prominently, they include those of the chapel’s founder, Richard Beauchamp, which stands magnificently in front of the high altar and those later tombs of Robert and Lettice, Earl and Countess of Warwick, and Robert’s elder brother, Ambrose Dudley.

The account of the Earl’s funeral survives. It details that several family members attended, including the widowed Countess, who would subsequently be responsible for commissioning the grand tomb we see today. Chief mourners included her son by her first marriage to the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereaux and Dudley’s nephew, Sir Philip Sidney. Two more of Robert’s brothers-in-law, Sir William and Sir Francis Knollys, were also in attendance, alongside several cousins from the Knollys, Blount and Jobson families. The Bishop of Salisbury preached the sermon with two of the Earl’s chaplains also present. The stately affair cost around £3,000.

Lettice would live for another 46 years, dying on Christmas day 1634, aged 91. She paid for a magnificent memorial to be erected in the chapel, which survives in all its glory. It is thought to date from the very end of the sixteenth century and has architectural features typical of the period. Towering nearly from floor to ceiling, the recumbent effigies of the Earl and the Countess take centre stage, their hands placed elegantly in prayer as their lifeless eyes gaze endlessly towards the heavens.

Numerous heraldic symbols abound, including the Bear and Ragged Staff (appropriated from Earldom of Warwick), the cinqfoils of the Earls of Leicester, no less than five Orders of the Garter and two visual representations of France’s honorary Order of St Michel; one of these hangs around the Earl’s neck and shoulders, the other about his coat of arms. Robert’s effigy is dressed in armour, and both figures are adorned with garments commensurate with the rank of their nobility – that of Earl and Countess. However, we should note that the coronets are later Georgian additions.

Above the effigies, and set into the wall, is the tomb ledger, written in Latin. Its English translation reads:

Sacred to the God of the living. In certain hope of rising again in Christ, here is placed the most famous Robert Dudley, fifth son of John, Duke of Northumberland, Earl of Warwick, Viscount Lisle, etc., Earl of Leicester, Baron Denbigh; Knight of both the orders of St. George and St. Michael; Master of the Horse of Queen Elizabeth (with whom he was distinguished with exceptional favor); thereafter Steward of the Royal Household; Privy Councillor; High Justiciar of the Forests, Parks, Chases, etc. on this side of Trent: Lieutenant and Captain-general of the English army sent into the Netherlands by the said Queen Elizabeth, from 1585 to 1587; Governor-general and Commander of the United Provinces of the Netherlands; and Lieutenant of the Kingdom of England against the Spaniard Philip II, when he was invading England in 1588 with a numerous fleet and army. He gave back his soul to God his savior in the year of salvation 1588, on the fourth day of September. His most sorrowful wife, Lettice, daughter of Francis Knollys, Knight of the Order of St. George and the Queen’s Treasurer, placed [this monument] to her best and dearest husband on account of her love and faith as his wife.

It is not known where exactly the Earl’s body lies. Tim Clark, St. Mary’s Church historian, suggests the most likely place is in the tomb-chest and that after Lettice death, her coffin may have been added through the wall behind the tomb. However, this remains speculation as the tomb has never been opened.

Visitor Information

To find out the latest opening times for St Mary’s Church, check out the website here.

Other Locations Nearby

Less than 0.5 miles: The Lord Leycester; a 900-year-old almshouse which was appropriated by Robert Dudley, 1st Ealr of Leciester, from one of Warwick’s guilds in 1571 as a philanthropic project to care for aged or wounded ex-servicemen. The Lord Leycester has recently undergone extensive renovation and is quite simply one of the most beautiful examples of its kind in England.
0.7 mile: Warwick Castle – historically the seat of the Earls of Warwick and visited by Elizabeth I in 1562 and 1576. IMHO, it has become a bit of a family theme park in recent years. It’s no longer my cup of tea but is very popular with families, so it’s probably an excellent place to visit if you travel with children.
5.6 miles: Kenilworth Castle – now in ruins and managed by English Heritage, this was once a grand medieval palace-fortress favoured by Lancastrian kings and much augmented by the mighty John of Gaunt. It was a gift to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, in the sixteenth century. You can read my blog about Kenilworth Castle here and one about two portraits, (one of Elizabeth and the other of Leicester) that experts believe were commissioned by Dudley and hung at Kenilworth for the Queen’s visit in 1575.
9 miles: Stratford upon Avon – famed as the home town of William Shakespeare, who was born, lived and died in the town. Several locations survive that are closely linked to the Bard, including his birthplace and place of burial. I’ll be publishing a ‘Weekend Away in Tudor Stratford’ in the itinerary section of this membership shortly.
9 miles: Baddesley Clinton – a perfectly formed moated medieval manor house. You can read more about it in my blog here.