Elizabeth I's Secret Lover

by Robert Stedall

  Whichever way it came to light, Lettice had to face the full force of Elizabeth’s wrath. She remained defiant and was not one to seek her cousin’s forgiveness. She was not ashamed of what she had done and was determined to brazen it out. There was a dramatic confrontation between them in the Queen’s private apartments at Whitehall. By refusing to bow down, Lettice succeeded in antagonising Elizabeth even further. ‘However much she had loved Lettice’s mother, the days when Elizabeth shared the same warm feeling for her daughter were over.’35 Mary Sidney found herself caught in the middle. She had always been on friendly terms with Lettice, but now remained at Penshurst while waiting for matters to calm down. The clandestine marriage had tested their friendship to the limit, and the relationship between the sisters-in-law seems never fully to have recovered.

  Robert also became extremely sensitive to his worsening relationship with Burghley, although this had nothing to do with his marriage. Burghley, as Chairman of a committee of the Mint, had issued orders without acquainting Robert or receiving his countersignature as a member of the committee. Robert believed that he had been deliberately slighted. He felt Burghley’s antagonism keenly and sought help from his friends to achieve a reconciliation.36 He later wrote to Burghley at the injustice of the Queen’s displeasure with Lettice and threatened to retire to a residence he had acquired in Germany. He hoped for Burghley’s help, and Burghley may have played his part in trying to reconcile the Queen to Lettice, but to no avail.37 Nevertheless, Elizabeth’s affection for Robert was deep-rooted, and his influence started to revive. By late 1579, he was restored to the heart of her circle and she dined with him on at least two occasions. ‘The long-standing affection between Elizabeth and himself had life in it still, and the old habits of tenderness asserted themselves on any occasion of illness.’38 In October 1584, he suffered a recurrence of his malaria. She sent frequent requests for bulletins on his well-being, and he took ‘the opportunity to express his ardent gratitude and devotion’.39 Castelnau believed that his great loyalty placed him in higher favour than he had been four years previously. Nevertheless, it never reached its former unassailable strength and he was no longer positioned to counter the threat posed by Anjou.40

  With Robert spending more time at Court, Lettice spent much of the first year of their marriage at her father’s home, Grey’s Court. If she were pregnant at the time of her two marriages, as seems likely, the child did not survive. Nevertheless, at the end of 1579, she was safely delivered of a son, Robert, who immediately took the title of Lord Denbigh and was known as ‘the Noble Imp’. His father now had the legitimate heir he craved. The Noble Imp was raised in the utmost splendour, having a cradle draped with crimson velvet and a fine little chair upholstered in green. He seems to have been a bit unruly and managed to deface a portrait of ‘a gentlewoman in yellow satin’,41 no doubt to the chagrin of his parents. Several portraits were painted of him, one entirely naked to show off the perfection of his body. Most tragically, he fell suddenly ill at Wanstead in July 1584. Robert hurried back from court, which was on progress at Nonsuch, arriving at Wanstead the day before the child’s death on 19 July. Robert and Lettice were completely distraught; he had been the focus of all their plans. There is no clear evidence of the cause, but it seems to have been some childhood malady. There is a malicious story that a little suit of armour preserved at Warwick Castle with one thigh-piece rather longer than the other had belonged to him. This implies he might have been deformed, but it has been demonstrated that the armour was not manufactured until around 1625.42 The death was all the more poignant because, in September 1582, Lettice had been expecting another child, but nothing more is heard of it and the pregnancy seems to have ended in miscarriage. With Robert being 52 and Lettice 41, they must have realised they were unlikely to have other children. Their hopes now rested with Robert Sheffield and Lettice’s son, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.

  As was the norm, Robert and Lettice did not attend the Noble Imp’s funeral and burial in the Beauchamp Chapel at Warwick, but they created a magnificent effigy to his memory. They needed to get away from Wanstead; they spent a few days at Theobalds, Burghley’s new house in Hertfordshire, although Burghley was not there. Theobalds had been transformed from a small home into a redbrick palace enclosing three courts, the inner one surrounded by the principal rooms. The hall could be converted into a great chamber for the Queen’s visits, with a gallery on the third floor for her use. At the north-west end there was a bedroom in a tower for ‘the Queen’s Majesty’, with several adjoining rooms. A Tower on the south side housed a chamber reserved for Robert.

  Robert was pathetically grateful to Burghley. Although he and Lettice were distraught, the loss of their son drove them together. As Robert said in his will, Lettice was ‘a faithful, loving and very obedient, careful wife’.43 Hatton had to explain to Elizabeth the reason for Robert’s sudden departure from court. She immediately sent Sir Henry Killigrew with a message of sympathy, but Robert’s grief did not soften her heart towards Lettice. Robert wrote to Davison, the Queen’s secretary, to thank him for his letter of sympathy, which ‘found me from the court, whence I have been absent these fifteen days to comfort my sorrowful wife for the loss of my only little son, whom God has lately taken from us.’44 For a period, he excused himself from attendance at Council meetings unless specifically needed.45

  The couple ‘spent most of the rest of 1584 in company with their friends and family’,46 much of it at Grey’s Court. Robert paid another visit to Buxton, something he always found beneficial. On his return, he spent the night with Catherine Huntingdon at Leicester. After hunting en route, he was able to provide the Mayor and brethren with six bucks and largesse for the town’s charities. They returned the compliment with a hogshead of claret and two fat oxen. As he began to overcome his sadness, he seems to have lost at dice, and gave money to the poor and the household servants for their hospitality.47 Although he was soon called upon to return to court, Lettice continued to be treated vindictively and despite his frequent pleadings, remained banished and out of favour.48 Although her life revolved round Wanstead and Leicester House, she seems to have moved out when the Queen visited for occasional meetings with the Council. Mary Sidney found the situation too painful. She relinquished her apartments at court provided by the Queen and retired to Penshurst, but Robert was expected to remain.

  It was to stem his loss of influence that Robert now advanced Lettice’s son, the young Essex, to royal favour. He had been made Burghley’s ward following his father’s death. He was 13 at the time of Robert’s marriage to Lettice, ‘athletic, vigorous and flamboyant’.49 Burghley saw to it that he attended Cambridge, but at the age of 19 he moved to live at Lamphey, his property in Wales, spending his time ‘largely in idleness’50 according to Sir Henry Wotton. Lettice was not going to put up with this and roused him out of his country existence. She asserted her authority to bring him back to London to attend court under the auspices of his stepfather. He was attractive and became an immediate hit with a charisma that he knew how to use to good effect.51 Yet he was prone to petulance if crossed and found himself having to compete with a coterie of young favourites, including Raleigh, whom he despised.

  Although Elizabeth could not be seen to grow old among her new favourites, Robert ‘continued to be [her] closest adviser and to convey messages to and from the Council’,52 even though he may have advocated policies, of which she did not approve. Their friendship ‘had weathered the storm that threatened it with shipwreck … [She] had still her fondness for his society … and she stimulated and enchained him still.’53 Their relationship had been punctuated by quarrels and disagreements, causing ‘open and great disgraces from her majesty’s mouth’,54 but these could not destroy their mutual affection. His role now was to provide devotion, not love.

  Despite her antagonism for their mother, Elizabeth showed great concern for the welfare of Penelope and Dorothy Devereux. In January 1581, Penelope, who was just 18, was escorted
to court from York by Lady Huntingdon. ‘Beautiful, vivacious and intelligent, [she] was an instant hit … in the same way that Lettice had once been.’55 She rapidly gained the admiration of Philip Sidney, seeming to fulfil the wishes of her father as expressed in his will. Unfortunately, Huntingdon, realising the family’s financial predicament, sought a connection for her with deeper pockets. Robert, 3rd Lord Rich – three years older than Penelope and with an income of £5,000 per annum from his Essex estates – was ‘a vociferous puritan’ and one of the most eligible bachelors available. In other respects, ‘he was an unsavoury character with a reputation as a bully’.56 Without consulting either Lettice or Penelope, Huntingdon wrote to Walsingham, asking him to seek Elizabeth’s approval for their marriage, which she duly granted. Penelope made her feelings abundantly clear. She bravely defied convention by fighting against it but was powerless to prevent it from taking place on 1 November 1581. Her second husband, Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, later recorded: ‘A lady of great birth and virtue, being in the power of her friends, was by them married against her will unto one against whom she did protest at the very solemnity and ever after.’57

  Although Penelope remained in the Queen’s service, she spent most of her time with her mother to avoid Rich’s attentions, which she found detestable. Sidney realised that he had let Penelope slip through his fingers. Within a year of her marriage he made her the inspiration for his poem Astrophil and Stella, about an unconsummated love affair; although written in 1582, it was not published until after his death. He referred to her as ‘the richest [pun intended] gem of love and life’, using the words:

  … Yet could not, by rising morn foresee

  How fair a day was near. Oh, punished eyes!

  With Penelope no longer available, Robert was attracted by the possibility of establishing another link between the Dudley and Devereux families. In January 1582, he made a will to make provision for his young son. This will also named his stepdaughter Dorothy, then aged 17, as a suitable spouse for Philip Sidney, his nephew. By then Sidney, who had recently been knighted, had eyes elsewhere. In March 1583, he became betrothed to Walsingham’s daughter Frances. She may not have had the glamour of Penelope, but was dark-haired and beautiful, and it was a match of ‘mutual affection’.58 Neither family had much money and Sir Henry Sidney told Walsingham that he was looking to him to ‘move the Queen to certain suits’,59 which might compensate for his son failing to make a more lucrative connection. This did not prevent Sir Henry from strongly approving of the match. He wrote of ‘the joyful love and great liking between our most dear and sweet children, whom God bless’.60 It was not mentioned to the Queen in advance and, with Philip occupying a prominent position at court, she was displeased at their reticence. Walsingham was incensed and wrote to Hatton that he had not discussed it as:

  I am not a person of that state, but that it may be thought a presumption for me to trouble her Majesty with a private matter between a free gentleman of equal calling with my daughter. … Let her understand, first that the match is for concluded, secondly how just cause I shall have to find myself aggrieved if that her Majesty shall show her mislike thereof.61

  The wedding took place in September 1583, and the Queen became godmother to their first child. Robert was delighted.

  It was now obvious, even to Elizabeth’s councillors, that the Stuart line would provide the next occupant of the English throne. Although Elizabeth refused to acknowledge this, her councillors started to take the Stuarts into account in planning both the nation’s future and their own.62 Robert made a point of maintaining a close relationship with all the potential Stuart candidates. He asked Castelnau to establish him in better standing with Mary Queen of Scots. The ambassador reported to Henry III that he and his wife had dined with Robert and Lettice at Leicester House, which they took as a ‘particular mark of attention’.63 Robert apparently expressed a wish to Castelnau that their wives should become intimate friends. Castelnau advised Mary that the best way to retain Robert as an ally was by establishing contact with Lettice. Elizabeth seems to have become aware of these overtures. When Robert visited Buxton again in June 1584, Mary was not permitted to attend at the same time. She wrote to Castelnau seeking royal consent to visit the spa as soon as Robert had left and asked him to assess the extent of Robert’s support for his brother-in-law Huntingdon’s claims to the English Crown. Castelnau reported back that Robert:

  would be the first to combat him, and in the event of the death of his Queen, he, with all his relations and friends, would willingly render some important service; he told me I might acquaint your Majesty with this. But was on no account to let anyone else hear of it.64

  It has already been seen that Robert had made plans for his son to marry Arbella Stuart, but he hatched another connection. Robert was ‘even more anxious to be on thoroughly good terms with James’.65 The attractive Dorothy Devereux remained available. Mendosa heard rumours that, in concert with Walsingham, Robert had proposed to James that if he married Dorothy and would assure them that he would not change his religion, ‘they would have him declared by the judges to be the heir to the Crown of England’.66 Elizabeth seems also to have heard these stories and asked James’s representative in London to establish if there was any truth in them. Although they were denied, she blamed Lettice and became:

  so excited about it as to say that she would rather allow the King to take her crown away than see him married to the daughter of such a she-wolf, and, if she could find no other way to repress her ambition and that of the traitor Leicester, she would proclaim her for the bad woman that she was, and prove that her husband was a cuckold.67

  Having watched her sister’s predicament, Dorothy was not impressed with yet another proposal for an arranged marriage. In July 1583, she eloped with Sir Thomas Perrot, who had frequently participated in tournaments at court. They were married at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, with five or six witnesses and two men guarding the church door with swords and daggers under their cloaks, while pursuers galloped to the porch in a failed attempt to prevent the ceremony. Even Lettice did not approve, and Elizabeth banished Dorothy from court. Perrot spent a period in the Fleet prison along with the chaplain who had performed the ceremony. Burghley had to intervene to gain their release and he helped the couple in their subsequent financial difficulties. These forced them to retire to Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire, the Perrot family estate.68

  Remaining on good terms with James was a particular concern for Robert because, in August 1584, Davison, while ambassador in Edinburgh, heard rumours that Robert had ‘disparaged the awkward intelligence of the young King’.69 Davison warned Robert, who dismissed it as a calumny because ‘no man of his training and experience would be guilty of such offences’.70 In July 1585, he wrote to James’s Secretary of State, Sir John Maitland of Thirlestane (later Lord Thirlestane), to propose that they should become friends:

  as men that do serve two Princes so near in blood and so near in friendship as my mistress and your master be. And for my own part … I cannot like to live a stranger with such a person but to offer any kindness or acquaintance I may devise …71

  As Elizabeth had recently referred to James as ‘that false Scots urchin’ after his approval of the execution of Regent Morton, Robert was clearly seeking to cover all the options for the inheritance of the English Crown, if Elizabeth should die.

  Elizabeth’s continuing anger with Lettice undoubtedly sounded the death-knell on any hope of reconciliation. ‘Lettice too was angry and vowed not to cower away and hide as if overridden by guilt.’72 According to the unreliable Leicester’s Commonwealth, Lettice’s sister Anne:

  added fuel to the fire by saying that ‘she nothing doubted but that one day she should see her sister, upon whom the Queen now railed so much, to sit in her place and throne, being much worthier of the same for her qualities and rare virtues than was the other.’73

  It would seem that Elizabeth was not made aware of this. Lettice did not often appear
in public, but when she did, she did not move quietly. The Spanish ambassador reported:

  She now demeaned herself like a Princess, vied in dress with the Queen till her Majesty, after sundry admonitions, told her that as but one sun lightened the east, she would have but one Queen of England, boxed her ears and forbade her the court.74

  While this may seem unlikely, he continued:

  She rides through Cheapside drawn by four milk-white steeds with four footmen in black velvet jackets and silver bears on their backs and breasts, two knights and thirty gentlemen before her, and coaches of gentlewomen, pages and servants behind her, so that it might be supposed to be the Queen or some foreign prince or ambassador.75

  She also travelled on the Thames in her husband’s barge, and despite being barred from court visited many members of society at their homes.

  While Robert was serving the Queen, Lettice held court at Leicester House, making it ‘the established home of the greatest noble in the land’.76 It became the scene of regular entertainments performed by the Earl of Leicester’s men. She also spent time at Wanstead, employing 150 staff between the two properties. Although Kenilworth was fully maintained, after their marriage Lettice is only recorded to have visited it once, in 1585.77 An inventory of its contents made in 1578 includes a portrait of her, described as the Countess of Essex.78 It is known that she continued to use her Essex title until 1584, perhaps to avoid drawing attention to her marriage to Robert.79 Leicester House was filled with portraits, of Robert and Lettice, of Penelope Rich, of Dorothy Perrot, of Sir Francis Knollys, of other members of the Knollys family, of Philip Sidney and even of Douglas Stafford. One of them was the double portrait of Penelope and Dorothy that now hangs at Longleat.80