Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Sweet Robin: A Biography of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester 1533-1588 > Status Update

‘By 1588 Elizabeth of England was able to stand alone, to endure the strains of office, sift the advice of councillors, form her own opinions, pursue her own policies, assess the strengths and weaknesses of herself and her state. All that was not true of the young woman who had mounted the throne in 1558. It was Robert Dudley, above all others, who sustained her throughout the long, hard process of self-tutelage‘

‘In the midst of all the rejoicing over her great victory she had suffered a loss which robbed her of all happiness. According to the only contemporary account, ‘she was so grieved that for some days she shut herself in her chamber alone and refused to speak to anyone, until the Treasurer and other councillors had the doors broken open and entered to see her’.’

‘By late November Elizabeth was desperate to see her ō ō, to have him beside her, to confide in him her secret fears, to seek his advice. Never had she been more alone that she was in that autumn of 1586. Political England clamoured for her to shed Mary’s blood - a thing utterly repugnant to her. Catholic Europe and the Scottish king urged her to resist her people - a course of action she could not take.’

‘Lettice and Robert had no more children. Ironically, therefore, the heir to the earldoms of Leicester and Warwick was a boy who could never claim his inheritance. It was an irony in more senses than one. Leicester’s action in casting aside Douglas Sheffield had deprived the Dudley line of its only heir in the male line.‘

‘Elizabeth behaved with unremitting vindictiveness towards Lettice, while her attitude towards Robert became one of destructive possessiveness. She could not, would not be without him. To banish him would have been to punish herself and was therefore pointless. Married he might be, but Elizabeth would see to it that he derived as little satisfaction as possible from that state.‘

‘That Elizabeth was distressed by her favourite’s marriage there can be no doubt. Sufficient proof is her attitude towards Lettice, who was banished from court and never readmitted to the Queen’s favour, despite Dudley’s frequent pleadings. It marked the end of an epoch in her life. The man she had regarded as a husband in almost all but name she could no longer look upon in that way.‘

‘Yet it would be a mistake to see this exorbitant Kenilworth display as a last, desperate gamble for the Queen’s hand. Robert’s affections had strayed elsewhere and his formal courtship of Elizabeth was now nothing more than that... What Robert wanted above all was for Elizabeth to make a decision, to release him from the cords which had bound him for seventeen years’

‘The sudden death of Robert’s wife in suspicious circumstances would have been disastrous for any romantic plans the couple may have had. The only person in England who might have gained from such a tragedy was William Cecil. Within days of telling de Quadra that Lady Dudley was doomed she was found with a broken neck at the foot of a staircase at Cumnor Place.’

‘their marriage seems to have stood up remarkably well to the strains placed upon it almost from the beginning. They had no children but that is not to say that Amy had no pregnancies or that the couple did not enjoy a normal sexual relationship. As the months passed, however, and the ties between Robert and Elizabeth grew stronger Amy’s absence from court must have been convenient.‘

‘As public sympathy for Elizabeth became more manifest and conditions of her imprisonment were eased (she was, for example, permitted to walk in the Privy Garden). It is conceivable that the Dudleys would not have attempted to make contact with her; almost inconceivable that they did not succeed in some way or other.’