According to Agnes Strickland, he claimed to have known
Queen Elizabeth since they both were 8 years old.[2]
As is often the case with Ms. Strickland, the source of the claim is not given.
The head of the Dudley family, John, had risen rapidly in
the ranks of the nobility, from Viscount Lisle to Earl of Warwick to the august
Duke if Northumberland. His young sons were obedient and shared their father’s ambition.
Upon the death of Edward, Northumberland unfolded a plan to place his son and
daughter-in-law, Jane Grey, on the throne.
The Dudley’s had every reason to expect success in the
religiously riven country. The chaos between reigns would favor the steadiest
hand. The Catholic Mary, however, proved that she had the heart to fight for the kingdom and a far better grasp of the situation.
We do know that both Robert and Elizabeth were held prisoner
in The Tower, in 1554, after the Wyatt Rebellion. Elizabeth, then princess, was
even more closely guarded than the other prisoners. Given their powerful
attachment from the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, surely they were somehow
able to begin that attachment by communication between them as they each faced the
prospect of execution there.
Whether Dudley’s young wife, Amy, paid him a visit is also
unknown. So then, Elizabeth may or may not have met her at that point.
Robert’s mother, Jane Guilford, was a well-connected woman.
She had not taken an active part in the Jane Grey affair. Nevertheless, all of
the Northumberland properties had been seized. In the words of Ms. Richardson,
In the month of October 1554, the three brothers were set
free. Queen Mary had married Philip of Spain in August, and from the first
moment of the new King's coming, the Duchess of Northumberland had laboured to
procure, through Spanish influences, the release of her sons. The poor,
deprived lady, dying in her only remaining house a Guilford inheritance of
Hales Owen, bequeathed to the Duchess of Alva her green parrot, "having
nothing worthy for her else."[3]
Robert was freed upon conversion to Catholicism and an
agreement to serve Mary as a soldier. He was made Master of Ordnance, in the siege
of St. Quentin. He and his brothers served so faithfully at the siege and
elsewhere that the attainder against Northumberland
lands was reversed and many of the properties were returned.
Queen Mary did not have long left to rule. Elizabeth
ascended the throne in 1559. Robert rode in the place of highest honor, immediately
behind her, in her coronation procession, in rich apparel, on a richly caparisoned
charger. In all high processions, throughout her reign, until his death, he
rode in that same position.
Elizabeth showered gifts of the richest sorts on Dudley from
the first. He was immediately named Master of the Horse. He was made a Knight
of the Garter within a year. In 1564, he was created the Earl of Leicester. In
amongst it all, he received numerous gifts of money and land.
While all of these gifts were being bestowed, rumors were
constantly being reported by foreign ambassadors that attempts had been planned
and failed to poison Dudley. On the other hand, Dudley was accused of poisoning
several key political and sexual competitors. The early state papers of the
reign of Elizabeth describe a world of a thin layer of strict protocol laid
over a lurid, cloak-and-dagger reality.
Even after matters had settled down, Robert’s special
treatment was the source of smoldering jealousy. He was still the target of
horrific rumors. Perhaps worse, he was constantly accused of incompetence.
Next to her number one counselor, William Cecil, Baron
Burghley, however, Elizabeth had no closer advisor than Dudley. She made him
master of all of her military matters on land, and many of her internal
political matters. During much of her reign he had free access to her private
chambers. More rumors, still, arose from their private time there late at night.
Being the most experienced officer in Elizabeth’s service
when the Spanish began building their great Armada, in 1588, and the Duke of
Parma collected his invasion force, she named him General of all her land forces. The
two consulted on many of the details of the country’s defense, in chambers,
letters and tents in the field.
By mid-August the Earl of Leicester seems to have agreed
that the Armada was, for all intents and purposes, defeated. Or maybe he felt
that he needed rest that could not wait.
As he prepared to travel to a bath, for his rest, he wrote a
letter to Elizabeth that would be his last.
I most humbly beseech your Majesty to pardon your poore old
servant to be thus bold in sending to know how my gracious Lady doth and what
ease of her late pain she finds, being the chiefest thing in this world I do
pray for, for her to have good health and long life. For my own poor case, I continue
still your medicine and find it amend much better than with any other thing
that hath been given me. Thus hoping to find perfect cure at the bath with the
continuance of my wonted prayer for your Majesty's most happy preservation I
humbly kiss your foot, from your old lodging at Rycott this Thursday morning, ready
to take on my journey, by your Majesty's most faithfull and obedient servant,
R. LEYCESTER.
Even as I had wrytten thus
much I received your Majesty's token by
young
Tracy.[4]
He died on September 4, along the road toward the baths at
Leamington and toward Kenilworth castle at which he had famously entertained
Elizabeth when both were much younger. She
kept the letter in the box of her most treasured possessions until her death.
[1]
Richardson, Mrs. Aubrey. The Lover Of Queen Elizabeth Being The Life And
Character Of
Robert Dudley, Earl
Of Leicester 1533-1588. 10-1.
[2]
Strickland, Agnes. The Life of Queen Elizabeth (1910). 88.
[3] Richardson,
22.
[4]
Richardson, 382-3.
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