Elizabeth's Rival

by Nicola Tallis

  The Queen was impressed with Walter’s hard work, and on 12 April she had praised his efforts to Sir Peter Carew, an English adventurer who was also in Ireland: ‘Considering of the great zeal and noble courage of our cousin the Earl of Essex towards our service and the reducing of the province of Ulster to due obedience and good order.’36 She evidently held him in high regard, so much so that she wrote to him, calling him ‘a rare treasure of our realm, and a principal ornament of our nobility’.37 It was this that led her to declare that the Ulster enterprise must not be abandoned after all, and to Walter’s gratification, his work continued.

  THE DAYS OF Walter’s absence from home were growing ever longer, leaving Lettice to oversee the development of her children. She had also made some trips of her own. In addition to Buxton the previous year she had also taken the opportunity to visit the court. Residing at Durham Place once more, in January 1575 Lettice had exchanged New Year’s gifts with the Queen. On this occasion she had given her kinswoman ‘a waistcoat of white satin all over embroidered with Venice gold and silver’, and had received three gilt bowls with a cover in return.38 Her younger sister Elizabeth, still one of the Queen’s ladies, had also presented the monarch with a gift, and it is probable that while she was at court Lettice had had the opportunity to spend some time with her while they participated in the traditional New Year’s entertainments. But there was someone else who Lettice would also have spent time with.

  That New Year, the Earl of Leicester had presented the Queen with a magnificent gift. It was ‘a fair gown of black taffeta with a fair border of Venice gold and silver, lined with sarcenet’.39 It came with a kirtle [a gown] and a doublet, which was garnished with goldsmith’s work containing diamonds and rubies. It was a costly gift, and one intended to showcase Leicester’s continuing devotion to Elizabeth. But was his attention also captured by another?

  The hostile Commonwealth claimed that while her husband was in Ireland, the path was now clear for the relationship between the Countess of Essex and Leicester to develop. What is evident is that during Walter’s absence, Lettice did indeed have some contact with Leicester. Exactly how much is unclear, but the Kenilworth Game Book confirm that in 1573 – the year Walter left for Ireland – she received the gift of a hind from Leicester.40 Additionally, the following year she was given three out of nineteen bucks that had been killed. Out of the sixteen named recipients, Lettice was the only one to receive three. In 1575, she would receive yet more game from him, but the significance of this ought not to be overestimated, for there is nothing to suggest that this was anything other than usual practice. Such gifts were normal among members of the aristocracy and Lettice was just one of many to whom Leicester sent such things.41 Lettice and Leicester did, however, clearly have a friendship at this time – hardly surprising given that they would have seen one another at court, and the relationship between their two families – and he may have grown fonder of her as it became progressively clearer that his relationship with Elizabeth was becoming more platonic. Although they may have been mutually attracted to one another, and could have flirted in the courtly fashion, things are unlikely to have progressed any further at this time. After all, despite her husband’s absence Lettice was still very much a married woman. A lady’s reputation was of the utmost importance, and with a father as stringent as Sir Francis Knollys when it came to codes of moral behaviour, Lettice knew this well. It is certainly possible that with her husband away she had become lonely, and perhaps sought male company and attention. She would also have been aware of Leicester’s relationship with Douglas Sheffield, and as a mother of four she was not a giddy young maid, but old enough to know better.

  In character, Leicester and Walter were also wildly different. Though on occasion they argued, Leicester and the Queen were extremely close, and he spoke to her in the manner dictated by courtly love. Walter had no time for such frills, and although courteous, always spoke plainly. He enjoyed the idea of military warfare, and although his Irish campaign was going disastrously, he was a strong man who would handle events very differently from Leicester when he too was placed in a military position. Leicester blended in well with the fineries of the court, and was both intelligent and polished – a finesse that Walter seems to have lacked.

  Leicester, meanwhile, had made his feelings about marriage very clear in his letter to Douglas Sheffield. But that did not mean that he could not give his attempts to marry the Queen one last throw of the dice.

  AS THE SUMMER heat of 1575 intensified in London, the Queen began her annual progress. Every summer she left the capital in order to avoid the disease that often spread, and to visit some of the country homes of her nobles. It was also a good opportunity for her to be seen by her subjects, who always delighted in any chance to catch a glimpse of their beloved Queen. On this occasion, Elizabeth journeyed towards the Midlands via Oxfordshire, where a number of hosts were preparing to welcome her. The preparations for such visits were always treated with the utmost seriousness, and a great deal of care was taken over the presentation of both the houses in which the Queen would stay, and the entertainments that would be provided. There was one host in particular who was waiting to make a dazzling impression on the Queen, and he had a very specific agenda.

  During the course of her progress, the Queen visited Warwick Castle, where Ambrose Dudley and his third wife, Anne, entertained her. The couple had been married in November 1565, and Anne was a great favourite of the Queen’s.42 The visit was of short duration, and before long Elizabeth and the court set out for their next destination. The journey was short, and on 9 July the Queen arrived at Kenilworth Castle, where the air was ‘sweet and wholesome’.43 Situated just a few miles from Warwick, Kenilworth was the magnificent residence of the Earl of Leicester. The castle stood on the outskirts of the town, which by this time was a well-inhabited market town that hosted regular cattle fairs. This was not the first of the Queen’s visits, for she had called on Leicester there several times previously, and neither would it be her last.44 Yet it was this visit that would be remembered by history, and this visit that has been interpreted as serving a very specific purpose. Many of the ladies and gentlemen of the court were present, and given that she herself was to be involved in that summer’s progress, Lettice is likely to have been there to witness the whole sensational spectacle.

  Kenilworth was a castle that was steeped in royal history. Begun in the Norman period, the castle had enjoyed a whole host of royal owners and was an important medieval stronghold.45 When Leicester was granted Kenilworth in 1563, it was in desperate need of modernizing, and the Earl immediately began a vast rebuilding programme. The work had cost him an eye-watering sum of £60,000 (£10,433,000), and had only been completed earlier that year.46 As a result, Kenilworth had been transformed from a medieval castle into a splendid Renaissance home – one of the great Elizabethan prodigy houses.47

  The majority of the information concerning the visit, and by far the most detailed, comes in the form of a letter from Robert Laneham. Laneham had been employed as Leicester’s Gentleman Usher at court, and therefore knew the Queen’s host well. It is likely that he was employed by Leicester to write an account of the visit, with the view to publication and wide distribution. It was intended to paint Leicester in a good light, and it certainly succeeded. Similarly, another contemporary account, written by George Gascoigne, also praised the Earl’s efforts. Like Laneham, Gascoigne was also in Leicester’s employ, working as both a poet and an actor. On this occasion, he had been called upon to use all of his skills, for it was he who was responsible for devising many of the entertainments that were to be staged.

  Many have viewed the 1575 visit as Leicester’s final attempt to convince Elizabeth to marry him. There was probably an element of this, but the likelihood is that he had realized by now that his hopes would not bear fruit. Even so, the matter of the Queen’s marriage was one that had once again become the topic on everybody’s lips, and Leicester was determined to have his
say. He was still one of the Queen’s closest advisors and friends, and Elizabeth listened to his advice and opinions. Years of proposals from a variety of suitors had come to nothing, but in the 1570s there was reason to believe that a French marriage could be on the cards, for the Queen was once again wavering in her resolve. In January 1571, the Queen’s ambassador in France, Sir Francis Walsingham, who would later become her principal secretary, had travelled to Paris in order to make enquiries, for the Queen appeared to be considering a match with Catherine de Medici’s son, Henri, who would later succeed as Henri III of France.48 By the following year, however, the plan had been abandoned, and instead the possibility of a marriage to Henri’s younger brother, François, Duc d’Anjou had been raised.49 Religion would prove to be a sticking point, for Anjou was fervently Catholic, but talks and negotiations were to continue until 1578. Perhaps Elizabeth was seriously considering marriage after all.

  WHEN THE QUEEN arrived at Kenilworth, a magnificent entrance had been prepared for her. Mythology was to be a common theme for the visit, and the Queen entered via a bridge that was decorated with gifts from Roman gods and goddesses, including bowls of fish and live fowl which were offered to her. As she was conducted inside Kenilworth’s walls, the Queen was greeted by ‘the Lady of the Lake with two nymphs’, who had come to attend on her.50 She cannot have failed to have noticed Leicester’s bear and ragged staff badge which appeared everywhere, proudly proclaiming Dudley ownership of this once royal stronghold. There were large windows full of costly glass, and many pieces from Leicester’s splendid picture collection were also on display.

  Eight surviving inventories detail Leicester’s paintings at Kenilworth, and among the portraits – numbering more than fifty – were likenesses of both himself and the Queen, as well as one of the Countess of Essex. As historian Elizabeth Goldring highlights, all of the inventories of the Kenilworth portraits were compiled from 1578 onwards, by which time the nature of Lettice and Leicester’s relationship had significantly changed. Lettice was then consistently referred to as the Countess of Leicester in the inventories.51 That she was referred to as the Countess of Essex in this particular portrait indicates that it was painted, and owned, by Leicester during the time of Lettice’s first marriage. The portrait was full-length, and had perhaps been given to him as a gift.52

  Kenilworth was lavishly furnished, and the surviving inventories bear testament to the wealth and splendour that Leicester had acquired by the time of his death. There were magnificent tapestries, including nine pieces depicting ‘hawking and hunting’, footstools of ‘purple cloth of silver fringed with purple silk and gold’, and endless pieces of costly plate and glass.53 There were also twenty-three maps – yet another of the Earl’s interests. Leicester’s initials appeared throughout in another visual reminder of his ownership, including on the ‘chair of crimson velvet’ that was ‘embroidered with R.L. in cloth of gold, and the bear and ragged staff in cloth of silver’.54

  In preparation for the Queen’s visit, Leicester’s attention had been dedicated not just to the interior of his home, but also to the exterior. A unique garden had been created especially for the Queen, laden with Elizabethan symbolism. Influenced by ideas from abroad and one of the first examples of an English classical garden, it contained an array of fruit trees, including pears, apples and cherries – the Queen’s favourite, which were symbolic of heaven. The garden also contained exotic birds in aviaries, and an opulent fountain. Obelisks and spheres were featured, as was the white bear that had been associated with Leicester’s ancestors, the Earls of Warwick, since the fourteenth century. It was a brilliant display, encapsulating Leicester’s character, achievements and lineage.

  The Queen’s visit, which would be remembered as the Princely Pleasures for its dazzling splendour, was destined to last for nineteen days. This was the longest stay that Elizabeth made at any of her courtiers’ houses, and as such was a testament to the favour in which Leicester was held. Elizabeth was lodged in the same accommodation that she had used during her most recent visit in 1572, although Leicester had significantly improved it especially. There is no indication as to where Lettice was lodged during her stay, and neither is there any mention of her in the ensuing festivities. Nevertheless, she cannot have failed to have been impressed by the spectacular show that Leicester had prepared, and is likely to have participated in the ‘dancing of lords and ladies’ that took place.55

  Every day the Queen was entertained by something new that Leicester had devised, whether it be hunting, a masque, dancing or fireworks. The Earl also showered his royal mistress with gifts, but if he had indeed been hoping that his efforts would coerce Elizabeth into reconsidering his suit, then he was to be sadly disappointed. Despite his lavish hospitality, as he bade farewell to his royal guest at the end of the month, Leicester must now have known for certain that a marriage with Elizabeth was never going to transpire: she would never agree to be his bride.

  Leaving the magnificence of Kenilworth behind her, the Queen continued with her progress. Travelling via Lichfield, she journeyed further into the leafy Staffordshire countryside. Having presumably travelled ahead while the festivities at Kenilworth were still underway, Lettice was busy ordering the last frantic preparations in her household. On 6 August, she was honoured to be able to welcome her kinswoman to Chartley, and during her brief stay the Queen would also have met Lettice’s children – probably for the first time.56 Her goddaughter Penelope was now twelve, Dorothy was eleven, Robert was nearly ten, and Walter was five. They were all handsome children, and the importance of the royal visit would have been heavily imprinted on them. Compared to the splendour of Kenilworth, Chartley had little to offer, and the Queen’s visit lasted for just a night. Regardless, it was still a significant honour, and a sign of the Queen’s continued favour towards Lettice. In spite of the rumours that had once surfaced about her and Leicester, the kinswomen were still close, and it was with pride – and also great cost given the state of her finances, thanks to her husband’s campaign – that Lettice was able to extend her hospitality.

  The Queen’s visit was also a sign of the high regard in which she held Walter. Despite his absence, she did find the time to write to him during her short stay in his house. He would have been disappointed to have missed the Queen’s visit to his family home, but her letter was one that Walter was delighted to receive, for the Queen praised him for his loyal service. Much to his relief, he had recently had some success in ‘taming Ulster’, and the Queen acknowledged that ‘we understand your painful travails in Ulster and good success. With as small effusion of blood as may be, you have brought Ulster into obedience and quiet.’57 There was better news to come, for she also informed him that she had decided to send Sir Henry Sidney back to resume his former role as Deputy, in place of the difficult Sir William FitzWilliam. Best of all, the Queen informed Walter that she was creating him Earl Marshal, an office that he was to hold ‘during life’.58 In a postscript written in her own hand, Elizabeth added a more personal note: ‘the search of your honour, with the danger of your breath, hath not been bestowed on so ungrateful a Prince that will not both consider the one and reward the other’.59

  Lettice must have been told of her husband’s new post while the Queen was at Chartley – news that came as a source of great pride. As the Queen bade farewell to her kinswoman and her home, she made her way the short distance to Stafford Castle, where Lord Stafford was her host. Lettice remained at home, where before long there was more news of her husband.

  WHILE THE QUEEN was enjoying her summer progress and being entertained by Lettice at Chartley, unbeknown to her Walter had sanctioned an act of the most savage cruelty. He had successfully managed to drive the Scots out of Clandeboye, and many of them had fled to Rathlin Island, located off the north-east coast of Ireland, for safety. On Walter’s orders, in July an expedition to the island was staged under John Norris and Francis Drake, resulting in a four-day siege.60 More than two hundred people were merc
ilessly slaughtered, including women and children, many of who had attempted to hide in the island’s caves. According to Walter’s own estimation, three or four hundred were killed in the caves alone, as he proudly informed the Queen.61 It is difficult to find any justification for such an act of barbarity, showcasing Walter’s ruthless nature. Far from being appalled by Walter’s violent methods, both he and the Queen viewed his actions as necessary in order to tame the unruly nation. It was to be his last act in Ireland, and it was one that made a lasting impression.

  That autumn, Sir Henry Sidney returned to Ireland. In spite of the recent atrocities, he was full of praise for Walter, who he described as ‘so noble and worthy a personage’, and ‘complete a gentleman’.62 There were many at home who had taken the opportunity of Walter’s absence to criticize his actions in Ireland, but Sidney was not among them. Instead, he commended Walter on his ‘painful travels in the hardest part of this miserable county’.63 Nevertheless, it was time for him to abandon Ireland, for he had been summoned home. Almost two years in Ireland had achieved very little, and had drained all of his resources, leaving him heavily in debt. It had always been an ambitious enterprise, but one that was fraught with a great number of difficulties: lack of resources, continued opposition both at home and in Ireland, not to mention the rugged determination of the Irish rebels, meant that Walter was faced with a gruelling task. In spite of this he had persevered, but he realized that his priorities now lay elsewhere, chiefly in the replenishing of his empty coffers.