Robert Dudley: Life Story

Published 9th December 2017

Chapter 15 : Spanish Armada

In summer 1586, Robert advised the queen that the only answer to the situation in the Netherlands, was for her to take formal sovereignty and increase the military spending. Whilst Elizabeth would not agree to such an idea, she wrote affectionately to him:

‘Rob, I am afraid you will suppose by my wanderings writings that midsummer moon hath taken large possession of my brains this month, but you must needs take things as they come in my head, though order be left behind me. Now will I end that do imagine I talk still with you and therefore loathly say farewell 00 [the symbol of the ‘eyes’ that was her pet name for him] ..With my million and legion of thanks, for all your pains and cares. As you know, ever the same ER.’

The low point of Robert’s time in the Netherlands was reached in September 1586, when his nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, a young man of great promise, and an ardent adherent of the Protestant cause, was badly wounded in the Battle of Zutphen, dying a couple of weeks later.

Soon after, reports revealed to Elizabeth that Robert was not up to the job – he had alienated the State-General, failed to deal with corruption in the army, and made no military progress. She was both angry and distressed as she continued to miss him personally.

Robert requested leave of absence to return home and refresh his health at the spa in Buxton, a place he had visited in 1578 (meeting Mary, Queen of Scots) and in 1584. Permission was granted and he returned in mid-November 1586, to be greeted warmly, not just by Elizabeth, but by those of her councillors who wished her to proceed against the Queen of Scots with the death penalty imposed by a court the previous month.

Whilst Robert had in previous times, advocated Mary being accepted as Elizabeth’s heir (despite her Catholic faith) he had no hesitation in throwing himself behind Cecil and Walsingham in their determination that the Scottish queen would lose her head. Elizabeth had reacted tearfully to a plea by Mary for mercy but Robert informed Walsingham that ‘the letter hath wrought tears, but I trust shall do no further harm’.

There was international outcry at the threat to Mary, but Robert asked the Scottish king, James VI’s envoy, Archibald Douglas, if the execution of James’ mother, would result in war. He was assured that King James would manage to overlook it, provided there was no threat to his own position as Elizabeth’s probable heir. Robert gave the necessary comfort.

In early 1587, it was mooted that Robert would return to the Netherlands – Lord Buckhurst was sent in preparation, with orders to calm any dissatisfaction the States General had with Robert. He returned to his post in June 1587, but even the additional money and men he had received did not enable him to hold the port of Sluys, which fell to Parma.

Elizabeth continued to hope for peace negotiations to succeed, although Robert thought her deluded. He wrote to Walsingham that ‘you shall find the Prince of Parma meaneth no peace.’

War loomed on another front, too, as the heir to the French throne, following the death of Anjou, was the Huguenot, Henri of Navarre, who was being challenged by the hard-line Catholic Guise faction in France. Elizabeth was obliged to support Navarre, which only deepened tensions with Spain.

Robert was finally permitted to hand over his duties in the Netherlands in late 1587, returning home by Christmas, to a country which was now gearing for war on the home front, despite Elizabeth’s continued efforts to negotiate peace. As 1588 opened, preparations began on land and at sea. In July, Robert was appointed as Lieutenant-Governor of the Queen’s forces. Despite his poor showing in the Netherlands, there was no-one Elizabeth loved or trusted more.

The English forces were deployed at Tilbury, and at Sandwich. On 27th July, Robert invited Elizabeth to inspect the encamped troops. He was certain that the loyalty of the men was such that she would be quite safe, and indeed, so it proved. Elizabeth went by barge to Tilbury on 8th August, and addressed the army the following day, Robert by her side. After her speech, he assured her that she had ‘so inflamed the hearts of her good subjects, as I think the weakest among them is able to match the proudest Spaniard that dares land in England.’

The pair then withdrew to Robert’s tent to dine, the queen rejecting advice to return immediately to London, lest Parma’s troops be ready to land. It soon became apparent that the sea battle fought on 2nd August had been enough to prevent a Spanish invasion. Elizabeth returned to London, and Robert was given permission to travel to Buxton in an attempt to improve his failing health. En route, her wrote to her:

‘I most humbly beseech Your Majesty to pardon your old servant to be thus bold in sending to know how my gracious Lady doth, and what ease of her late pain she finds, being the chiefest thing in this world I do pray for, for her to have good health and long life. For my poor case, I continue still your medicine, and find it amends much better than any other thing that hath been given me. Thus hoping to find perfect cure at the bath, with the continuance of my wonted prayer for Your Majesty’s most happy preservation, I humbly kiss your feet. From your old lodging at Rycote this Thursday morning, ready to take on my journey, by your Majesty’s most faithful and obedient servant. R Leicecester.

This was the last letter Elizabeth ever received from Robert. Six days later, he died, with his wife, Lettice, by his side. The letter, inscribed in Elizabeth’s own hand ‘his last letter’, was found in a casket beside her bed at her own death, fifteen years later. Robert’s death devastated Elizabeth – she mourned him sincerely, shutting herself up in her rooms – it was even rumoured that Sir Walter Raleigh had ordered the door of her chamber forced open, when she would not emerge. In late November, she was observed to have aged and become ‘spent’ and ‘melancholy’.

Robert was interred in the Beauchamp Chapel, at St Mary’s College, Warwick, alongside his distant Beauchamp ancestors, and his little son by Lettice. He was joined forty-six years later by Lettice, who, despite remarrying, in her will wrote of ‘my dear lord and husband the Earl of Leicester with whom I desire to be entombed.’