84 Facts About Robert Dudley Leicester

Robert Dudley Leicester was a suitor for the Queen's hand for many years.

Dudley's youth was overshadowed by the downfall of his family in 1553 after his father, The 1st Duke of Northumberland, had failed to prevent the accession of Mary I Robert Dudley was condemned to death but was released in 1554 and took part in the Battle of St Quentin under Mary's husband and co-ruler, Philip, which led to his full rehabilitation.

In 1564, Dudley became Earl of Leicester and, from 1563, one of the greatest landowners in North Wales and the English West Midlands by royal grants.

Earl of Robert Dudley Leicester was one of Elizabeth's leading statesmen, involved in domestic as well as foreign politics alongside William Cecil and Sir Francis Walsingham.

Robert Dudley Leicester was engaged in many large-scale business ventures and was one of the main backers of Francis Drake and other explorers and privateers.

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Lord Robert Dudley Leicester was a principal patron of the arts, literature, and the Elizabethan theatre.

Robert Dudley was the fifth son of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, and his wife Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Guildford.

John and Jane Robert Dudley Leicester had 13 children in all and were known for their happy family life.

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.

Robert Dudley Leicester learned the craft of the courtier at the courts of Henry VIII, and especially Edward VI, among whose companions he served.

Robert Dudley Leicester was of the same age as the bridegroom and the daughter and heiress of Sir John Robsart, a gentleman-farmer of Norfolk.

Robert Dudley led a force of 300 into Norfolk where Edward's half-sister Mary was assembling her followers.

Robert Dudley was imprisoned in the Tower of London, attainted, and condemned to death, as were his father and four brothers.

Yet, the Robert Dudley Leicester brothers were only welcome at court as long as King Philip was there, otherwise they were even suspected of associating with people who conspired against Mary's regime.

Henry Dudley was killed in the following siege by a cannonball—according to Robert, before his own eyes.

Robert Dudley Leicester was entrusted with organising and overseeing a large part of the Queen's coronation festivities.

Lord Robert Dudley Leicester 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.

Robert Dudley Leicester acted as official host on state occasions and was himself a frequent guest at ambassadorial dinners.

Amy Robert Dudley Leicester lived in different parts of the country since her ancestral manor house was uninhabitable.

Robert Dudley Leicester's husband visited her for four days at Easter 1559 and she spent a month around London in the early summer of the same year.

The jury found that it was an accident: Lady Robert Dudley Leicester, staying alone "in a certain chamber", had fallen down the adjoining stairs, sustaining two head injuries and breaking her neck.

Robert Dudley Leicester's 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.

Robert Dudley Leicester was already deeply involved in foreign politics, including Scotland.

Robert Dudley Leicester indeed had made it clear to the Scots at the beginning that he was not a candidate for Mary's hand and forthwith had behaved with passive resistance.

Robert Dudley Leicester worked in the interest of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Mary's eventual choice of husband.

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Robert Dudley Leicester was seen as a serious candidate until the mid-1560s and later.

In 1566 Robert Dudley Leicester 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 assured him he would be her choice in case she changed her mind.

Robert Dudley Leicester's company was essential for her well-being and for many years he was hardly allowed to leave.

Robert Dudley Leicester's majesty is unaccompanied and, I assure you, the chambers are almost empty.

On ceremonial occasions Robert Dudley Leicester often acted as an unofficial consort, sometimes in the Queen's stead.

Robert Dudley Leicester largely assumed charge of court ceremonial and organised hundreds of small and large festivities.

Robert Dudley Leicester displayed a strong sense for economising and reform in this function, which he had de facto occupied long before his official appointment.

Robert Dudley Leicester was a lifelong sportsman, hunting and jousting in the tiltyard, and an indefatigable tennis-player.

At the time Robert Dudley entered his new Welsh possessions there had existed a tenurial chaos for more than half a century.

Robert Dudley Leicester set about developing the town of Denbigh with large building projects; the church he planned, though, was never finished, being too ambitious.

In vain Robert Dudley Leicester tried to have the nearby episcopal see of St Asaph transferred to Denbigh.

Robert Dudley Leicester encouraged and supported the translation of the Bible and the Common Prayer Book into Welsh.

Ambrose and Robert Dudley were very close, in matters of business and personally.

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.

Robert Dudley Leicester 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.

Robert Dudley Leicester explained to her that he could not marry, not even in order to beget a Dudley heir, without his "utter overthrow":.

Robert Dudley Leicester had flirted with her in the summer of 1565, causing an outbreak of jealousy in the Queen.

Prospect of marriage to the Countess of Essex on the horizon, Robert Dudley Leicester finally drew a line under his relationship with Douglas Sheffield.

Young Robert grew up in Dudley's and his friends' houses, but had "leave to see" his mother until she left England in 1583.

Robert Dudley Leicester was very fond of his son and gave him an excellent education.

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Robert Dudley Leicester's mother supported him, but maintained that she had been strongly against raising the issue and was possibly pressured by her son.

Robert Dudley Leicester 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.

Robert Dudley Leicester already had been aware of his marriage plans a year earlier, though.

Robert Dudley Leicester never accepted it, humiliating Leicester in public: "my open and great disgraces delivered from her Majesty's mouth".

Robert Dudley was a conscientious privy councillor, and one of the most frequently attending.

In 1572 the vacant post of Lord High Treasurer was offered to Robert Dudley Leicester, who declined and proposed Burghley, stating that the latter was the much more suitable candidate.

In later years, being at odds, Robert Dudley Leicester felt like reminding Cecil of their "thirty years friendship".

Robert Dudley Leicester was, 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.

In 1577 Robert Dudley Leicester had a personal meeting with Mary and listened to her complaints about her captivity.

Robert Dudley Leicester 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.

Robert Dudley 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.

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.

Robert Dudley Leicester was an enthusiastic investor in the Muscovy Company and the Merchant Adventurers.

Robert Dudley Leicester 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 the principal patrons of Martin Frobisher's 1576 search for the Northwest Passage.

Later Robert Dudley Leicester acquired his own ship, the Galleon Robert Dudley Leicester, which he employed in a luckless expedition under Edward Fenton, but under Drake.

Robert Dudley Leicester was allowed to build his own apartments on the premises and organised grand festivities and performances in the Temple.

Robert Dudley Leicester 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.

Robert Dudley Leicester was instrumental in founding the official Oxford University Press, and installed the pioneer of international law, Alberico Gentili, and the exotic theologian, Antonio del Corro, at Oxford.

Robert Dudley Leicester possessed one of the largest collections of paintings in Elizabethan England, being the first great private collector.

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Robert Dudley Leicester was a principal patron of Nicholas Hilliard, as well as interested in all aspects of Italian culture.

Robert Dudley Leicester immediately became a major patron to former Edwardian clerics and returning exiles.

Robert Dudley Leicester was especially interested in the furtherance of preaching, which was the main concern of moderate Puritanism.

Robert Dudley Leicester 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.

Robert Dudley Leicester 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.

Robert Dudley Leicester wrote to Burghley and Walsingham, explaining why he believed the Dutch importunities should be answered favourably.

Robert Dudley Leicester remained a subject of Elizabeth, making it possible to contend that she was now sovereign over the Netherlands.

The English queen in her instructions to Robert Dudley 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.

Robert Dudley 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, Robert Dudley Leicester was warned; but, he wrote, he would not be intimidated by the fact that Hemart "was of a good house".

On Elizabeth's orders Robert Dudley Leicester enforced a ban on this trade with the enemy, thus alienating the wealthy Dutch merchants.

Robert Dudley Leicester was irredeemably in debt because of his personal financing of the war.

Robert Dudley Leicester's health had not been good for some time; historians have considered malaria and stomach cancer as causes of death.

Robert Dudley Leicester's death came unexpectedly, and only a week earlier he had said farewell to Elizabeth.

Robert Dudley Leicester was deeply affected and locked herself in her apartment for a few days until Lord Burghley had the door broken.

Book which later became known as Robert Dudley Leicester's Commonwealth was written by Catholic exiles in Paris and printed anonymously in 1584.

Robert Dudley Leicester is presented as an atheistic, hypocritical coward, a "perpetuall Dictator", terrorising the Queen and ruining the whole country.

Robert Dudley Leicester 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.

The habit of comparing him unfavourably to William Cecil was continued by Conyers Read in 1925: "Robert Dudley Leicester was a selfish, unscrupulous courtier and Burghley a wise and patriotic statesman".