Elizabeth I's Secret Lover

by Robert Stedall

  With a complete lack of evidence being uncovered, the judges declared that there were insufficient grounds to convict Elizabeth. Mary and Gardiner were left with little choice but to authorise her release after two months in the Tower. Being the focus of every new Protestant uprising, she was in an extremely vulnerable position and was unlikely to be able to talk her way out of involvement for a second time. On 19 May, she was moved under house arrest to Woodstock in Oxfordshire, with country people calling out in sympathy as she travelled. At Woodstock, she was kept out of reach of London for fear of unrest associated with Philip’s unwelcome arrival. Kat Ashley was not permitted to stay there, and a troop of soldiers was positioned on a hilltop outside to watch her movements and prevent attempts to free her. To his horror, her custodian, Sir Henry Bedingfield, found several of her allies residing at the Bull public house in Woodstock. He was no match for Elizabeth’s incessant requests for concessions.

  Jane Guildford pinned her hopes for gaining her sons’ release by promoting their potential as soldiers. In the spring of 1554, when Philip’s Spanish retinue started to arrive in increasing numbers, she befriended members of the King’s Privy Chamber and their ladies. She was permitted to return to court, where she hoped to gain help in her sons’ plight. She was soon cultivating the Duchess of Alva, wife of Philip’s pre-eminent Spanish General and adviser, and gained the friendships of the Duke of Medinaceli, Principal Gentleman of the Bedchamber, and Don Diego de Mendosa, whose family held several senior Spanish diplomatic roles. She was assisted by her son-in-law, Sir Henry Sidney, who had survived at court following Edward’s death, but not with the same goodwill as previously. In March 1554, he joined a diplomatic mission sent to Spain to negotiate Mary’s marriage. He must have made a good impression on Philip, who became a godfather to his son, Philip Sidney, born later that same year. Nevertheless, it was an uphill task to persuade Mary to show any mercy to the Dudleys.

  At last, Jane Guildford’s hard work started to pay off. When John fell ill in the Tower, permission was given for him to visit her daughter, Mary Sidney, at Penshurst, but he died there on 21 October 1554, three days after his release. This was one tragedy too many for Jane, who expired at Chelsea three months later. In the light of this, orders were given for Ambrose, now Earl of Warwick, Robert and Henry to be released, although their attainders were not immediately lifted. Robert was not permitted to inherit his mother’s legacy to him of 50 Marks of land at Halesowen, or his inheritance in right of his wife received on the death of Sir John Robsart on 6 June 1554. This left Amy and him in dire financial straits and he had to borrow from friends to pay off his mother’s debts. Despite her request for a simple burial in a wooden coffin, the brothers arranged a fitting funeral. This involved a procession of seventy-two torch bearers with two servants carrying branched candlesticks at Chelsea church.

  Freedom provided the surviving Dudley brothers with the opportunity to show off their prowess in martial arts. In December 1554, Ambrose and Robert participated in a tournament held to celebrate Anglo-Spanish friendship. They needed Philip’s goodwill to assure their welcome at court, and when friends commended them to the Spanish prince, they were permitted to return to London. Robert’s kinsmen, Edward, Lord Dudley, and his brother, Sir Henry, had already been re-employed, with Edward appointed as Lieutenant of Hampnes. After a short spell in the Tower, Sir Henry had satisfied his interrogators and was taken into the Queen’s service. By the summer of 1554, he was at the French court, where he became involved in a new plot to oust Mary and her Spanish affiliates. French leaders and English émigrés were involved in a scheme to place Elizabeth on the throne with Devon as her consort with £50,000 from the French Exchequer. A thousand French troops led by Sir Henry were to land on the Isle of Wight in the confident expectation of gathering rebel support on arrival. In return for French involvement, Calais was to be handed over to France. When the plan was betrayed, many English-based conspirators lost their heads at Tower Hill in July 1555, before the rebellion had begun.

  Elizabeth and her allies were once more in a most dangerous position. Several of her staff including Kat Ashley, Dee and Giambattista Castiglione, her resident tutor, were brought to the Tower for interrogation. Although Kat hotly denied that Elizabeth had any knowledge of the plot, she was retained in the Tower for three months. Dee, whose principal occupation for Elizabeth was casting her horoscope, revealed no more. There is no firm evidence implicating Robert and his brothers, but there can be little doubt that they were aware of the plot and Robert was keeping Elizabeth informed through his Hatfield contacts. He had several friends among the émigrés in her service and was able to arrange their repatriation after Elizabeth’s accession. These included both Sir Henry Dudley and the diplomat, Sir Henry Killigrew. The Dudleys had to be careful. When they were spotted talking to malcontents near St Paul’s, they were warned to retire to the country. As Robert commended himself to Philip as a potential military commander, any possible treachery seems to have been ignored.

  It was Spanish influence, which did much to protect Elizabeth. This arose initially while she was still at Woodstock. When Mary concluded that she was pregnant, there were Spanish concerns that she could die in childbirth. Philip recognised that if Elizabeth were considered illegitimate, the dynastic heir to the English throne was Mary Queen of Scots, soon to be married to the French Dauphin. If the next Queen Consort of France became Queen Regnant of England, the balance of power in Europe would change to the great detriment of the Spanish Empire. Philip recognised that Spain’s future relationship with England depended on alliance with Elizabeth, the next heir under Henry VIII’s will. As a member of Philip’s suite, Robert was positioned to convey messages to Elizabeth of the Spanish King’s warm attitude towards her. Philip urged Mary to show her sisterly friendship and to return her to court. With Elizabeth enjoying Philip’s favour, Mary could not arrest her for any part in Sir Henry Dudley’s rebellion. She was ‘a person of too much wisdom, honour, truth, and respect to duty and honesty to be a party to conspiracy’.9 Sir Thomas Pope, founder of Trinity College Oxford, was sent to act as her guardian. Elizabeth reported that he was courteous and congenial and wrote platitudes confirming her undying loyalty to Mary. Her biggest concern was to stave off marriage. When Devon died in Padua in September 1556, Philip proposed that she should espouse his ally and military commander the Duke of Savoy. Mary was stubbornly reluctant to agree to this, as it would involve recognising Elizabeth as her heir. Nevertheless, she was so ‘intoxicated with love’10 for Philip that she agreed. Elizabeth was summoned to court, but when pressed to marry the Duke, she refused and was sent back to Hatfield in disgrace.

  Left to herself, Mary would not have restored Elizabeth to favour. She saw her cousin and close friend, the Catholic Margaret Lennox, as her rightful heir and provided her with sumptuous apartments at the Palace of Westminster. Margaret had been born in England and had a son, Henry, Lord Darnley. With Elizabeth being illegitimate in Catholic eyes and Mary Queen of Scots debarred as a foreigner, Margaret was next in line dynastically and was certainly very astute. It was the Spanish viewpoint which prevailed. This was a huge disappointment to Margaret, but Philip was wary of her husband, Lennox, who had been brought up in France and retained close French affiliations.

  Mary reacted slowly to the request for Elizabeth to be returned to court, but the prospect of childbirth gave her a greater sense of security. Elizabeth was brought back into seclusion at Hampton Court, where, progressively, she was permitted visitors. When Mary took to her bed, to her great embarrassment it turned out to be a phantom pregnancy. Philip only wanted to escape from a wife ‘who was too old and worn to heat his blood’.11 It is apparent, as he confessed in his later years, that he had developed an affection for his pale, red-headed sister-in-law, who was fighting her corner so powerfully and was dutifully attending Mass. He had every intention of making her his bride, if Mary should die without children. At the same time, Elizabeth ‘used every art to ingratiate he
rself with [him]’.12 After he left for the Continent on 26 April 1555, Mary lived almost in seclusion, and Elizabeth started to be courted as her likely heir.

  In September 1555, following the abdication of Charles V, Robert returned to France as a junior member of the entourage to establish control of Philip’s dominions in the Netherlands. With Philip becoming King of Spain, all nationalities making up his vast empire were represented. Robert acted as a messenger, carrying reports to English ambassadors elsewhere on the Continent and to diplomats back in England. Although war between France and Spain had been briefly halted by the Truce of Vaucelles, it broke out again the following year. Philip called for English troops to be sent to the Continent to support their Spanish allies. He left nothing to chance and planned a visit to England to commandeer supplies. Robert was chosen to advise Mary, who was overjoyed to hear that Philip was coming. Despite her best efforts, Philip’s call for English troops was strongly resisted both in the Council and Parliament. The Dudleys were among several disgraced courtiers, who took this as their opportunity. They offered to raise men on Philip’s behalf, if their estates and titles were restored.

  Having reached Greenwich on 17 March 1556, Robert set about raising money to fund his forthcoming military involvement. On 30 May, he raised £500 by selling 1,200 acres at Bulcamp in Suffolk, which was a part of Amy’s marriage settlement. He also raised a loan on the Halesowen estates, using it to buy out his siblings at a cost of £1,100. He then pledged the entire estate as security for loans of £1,928 6s 8d. Significantly, it was Robert who took the initiative rather than Ambrose or their uncle, Sir Andrew. By this time, Sir Andrew was an invalid, and, although he lived for another three years, his will made at this time described him as ‘sick of body’.13 It might have been expected that Ambrose would take the lead. He did not lack courage and was to prove an effective soldier. Yet Robert was the stronger character with the gifts of the consummate courtier, so that the rest of the family followed in his wake.14 He was also a lot better looking. When later seeking a husband for Mary Queen of Scots, de Quadra claimed that Elizabeth told William Maitland, the Scottish Secretary of State, that ‘she wished to God Lord Warwick had the grace and good looks of Lord Robert, and that each could have one of the brothers’. It was not that Ambrose was ‘ugly, either, nor was he ungraceful, but his manner was rather rough, and he was not so gentle as Lord Robert’.15 Particularly after the death in 1559 of their uncle, Sir Andrew, it was Robert who became the driving force in the family to achieve the restoration of their estates with a mixture of ‘persistence, flattery and graciousness’.16 Mary Sidney also played her part by becoming one of Elizabeth’s best loved ladies-in-waiting. Robert befriended prominent members of Philip II’s suite, and even the King himself, using a combination of gifts and bribes to servants, which left him heavily in debt. He continued to cultivate Spaniards as allies, retaining them for years to come.17 Much later, the walls of Kenilworth included portraits of Philip, Alva, the Duke of Feria, Charles V and the Duchess of Parma.

  In July 1556, when the English sent a force of 6,000 men under Pembroke to the Netherlands, the Dudley brothers went with it, each having raised small contingents to join the expedition. Robert was designated Master of the Ordnance.18 At the beginning of August, their force linked up with Philip’s main army under the Duke of Savoy, largely consisting of German mercenaries, to cross the border into France. It immediately laid siege to St Quentin on the Somme. When Anne de Montmorency, the Constable of France, brought a French relief column to the town’s rescue, it was annihilated by the Spanish allies, who took him prisoner along with many others. When St Quentin capitulated, it was mercilessly looted.

  Robert demonstrated ‘courage and administrative skill that pleased Philip greatly’.19 As a reward, on 30 January 1557, the Dudley family’s attainders were at last lifted. Robert was given the honour of carrying news of the victory to the Queen at Greenwich and she restored him to the manor of Hemsby. Tragically, Henry Dudley, who was not yet 20, was killed by a cannon ball beneath the walls of St Quentin in Robert’s full view. The shock of losing his brother and the atrocities committed by the Spanish army made a lasting impression on him. Ambrose and Robert were now the only survivors of Northumberland’s eight sons. Neither of them had produced children of their own. Despite eight years of marriage, Amy Robsart had failed to conceive, and this must have been a great tragedy for the couple.

  Inexplicably, with Paris at his mercy, Philip did not press home his advantage. He disbanded most of his army, sending the rest into winter quarters. This bought time for the French to recall the Duke of Guise from Italy to restore their morale and to protect the terrified Parisians. Under his leadership the French, on 1 January 1558, captured Calais, by when Ambrose and Robert were safely back in England. The grateful French King, Henry II, now confirmed his approval for the marriage of Guise’s niece, Mary Queen of Scots, to his son and heir, the French Dauphin, Francis. This took place at Notre Dame of 24 April 1558.

  England was gripped by religious persecution: 300 Protestant martyrs were burned at the stake and many more were forced to recant in public; 800 wealthier citizens avoided persecution by escaping to the Continent. This only deepened Protestant resolve. Even Catholics abhorred the oppressive regime of a Government being dictated to by Jesuit fanatics. ‘The involvement in foreign war, the loss of Calais, the frequent clashes between Spaniards and Englishmen, the failure to deal with the realm’s economic problems – all these were bitterly resented.’20

  Robert was at the forefront of those despising Mary’s policies. Instead of trying to capitalise on his faithful service to the Crown, he withdrew to his Norfolk estates for as long as Mary remained Queen. At least his share of the loot from St Quentin enabled him to settle his debts, and he managed to sell his mother’s property at Halesowen. This involved some haggling, and he did not receive payment until 1561, but he amassed a profit of £3,000. Although he and Amy could live in some style at Syderstone, it lacked the pasture and woodland acres that he desired. He contemplated purchasing another property, but his ambitions were overtaken by events.

  In October 1557, when Mary returned to St James’s Palace to attend Parliament, Elizabeth retired to Hatfield. She was short of money to fund her household, but following Robert’s return from the Netherlands, he had sold parcels of land with the support of Ambrose – apparently to assist her. Much later, on 16 August 1561 when the scholar and diplomat, Hubert Languet, briefed Augustus, Elector of Saxony, on Robert’s prospect of marrying Elizabeth, he reported that her advisers opposed it:

  but she was more attached to him than any of the others because when she was deserted by everybody in the reign of her sister not only did he never lessen in any degree his kindness and humble attention to her, but he even sold his possessions that he might assist her with money, and therefore she thought it just that she should make some return for his good faith and constancy.21

  Writing in the seventeenth century, Gregorio Leti refers to a gift of £200 sent to Elizabeth by the hand of a lady on Robert’s behalf. Admittedly, Leti was a ‘romancer’, whose comments should be read with caution.

  With Mary’s health already causing concern, Elizabeth was gaining the attention of all those disillusioned with England’s Catholic regime. She now had a constant stream of gentlemen and pages seeking service with her. She had to be extremely careful to whom she spoke and, of necessity, there is great difficulty in unravelling her network of allies, among whom Robert was undoubtedly key. Many of them were living abroad or formed part of Philip’s entourage. There is very little information on Robert’s relationship with her at this difficult time. He was careful to develop allies among her staff, and if he did send her messages, it was through her comptroller at Hatfield, Sir Thomas Parry. At this time, he counted Cecil as a close associate. John Dee, who had been Robert’s teacher, was another, as was Castiglione. Robert was also an old friend of Ascham, who had returned to her service as Latin secretary.

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p; Elizabeth met Cecil only rarely during Mary’s reign, although he remained her surveyor to assist with her legal work. He was almost schizophrenic. On the surface he was Mary’s loyal subject attending Mass at his home and happy to serve his Catholic monarch. Behind the scenes, he remained a secret critic of her government, and was without a job. With Mary expected to remain as Queen for an indefinite period, he would need to change his spots if he were to resume a political career and to demonstrate his loyalty to the new regime. Perhaps surprisingly, he was chosen to travel to Brussels to greet Cardinal Reginald Pole and to escort him to England. Even more surprisingly, they became friends, and Cecil used Pole’s influence to gain restoration to favour, providing him with legal advice and being appointed High Steward of Pole’s manor at Wimbledon. When a bill was placed before Parliament seeking to expropriate the land of Protestant exiles, Cecil was determined to prevent it becoming law. Knowing they had a majority in the House of Commons, its opponents locked the doors, forcing the Speaker to call a vote which defeated it.22

  Mary was running out of time. Men flocked to support Elizabeth, who was recognised as her heir ‘by the irresistible right of popular expectation’.23 On 8 November 1558, Mary’s councillors called on her to nominate Elizabeth as her successor. Much to the disappointment of Margaret Lennox, she agreed, but rather pathetically, coupled her recognition with a request for Elizabeth to retain the Catholic religion. Robert’s prospects suddenly looked very much brighter. Elizabeth was well prepared. In the previous February, Cecil had taken the opportunity of her visit to Somerset House to hold a secret meeting with her. Nothing was written down, but from now on Cecil was an integral part of her plans for Government. Sir Thomas Parry, her Comptroller at Hatfield, and Cecil were given the task of identifying Council members for when the time came.