Robert Dudley: Life Story

Published 9th December 2017

Chapter 12 : War

But Elizabeth needed an alliance with France, and in November 1581, she publicly announced she would marry Anjou, who had come in person to persuade her. Robert was horrified – perhaps from mixed motives – personal jealousy, the fear that a new king would reduce his own importance, and a real concern about an alliance with Catholic France.

Having accepted the Duke of Anjou, Elizabeth made impossible terms – France would have to support England if Spain invaded, and there would be no more money for Anjou’s campaign in the Netherlands. Naturally, the French rejected these terms, but it cost Elizabeth a huge amount of money for Anjou’s campaign to remove him from England. He was quite unable to defeat the Spanish, and died on 10 June 1584.

During the early 1580s, the English government stepped up its campaign against Catholics. The ‘Act to Retain Her Majesty’s Subjects in their due obedience’ was passed. Under it, the fines for recusancy were increased to £20 per month, whilst a fine of £200 was imposed for saying the Mass. Anyone who either converted to Catholicism, or encouraged someone else to do so, was to be held guilty of treason. Severe though this act was, Robert, amongst others, believed it to be too lenient. ‘Her Majesty,’ he wrote, ‘is slow to believe the great increase of Papists is of danger to the realm.’ He prayed that ‘the Lord of His mercy [would] open her eyes.’

He himself was at the forefront of investigation into the threat posed by the seminary priests and Jesuit missionaries who were now entering England. In 1581, together with Sir Christopher Hatton, Robert interviewed the most famous of them all, Edmund Campion. Campion had once been one of Oxford’s most prized scholars, even favoured by the queen herself, but he had embraced the old faith.

Robert and Hatton were not reassured by Campion’s insistence that he was interested only in spiritual matters, and not in suborning subjects from their proper allegiance to Elizabeth. They sent him to the Tower of London, and he was later tried and executed, by hanging, drawing and quartering.

As the 1580s progressed, the threat of war with Spain, and of Catholic insurgency seemed to rise - or so it seemed to the government. Assassination was feared – not without reason. Two regents of Scotland (the Earl of Moray, and the Earl of Lennox) had been assassinated, and in 1584, the leader of the Dutch, William the Silent, also met his death that way. Later, both Henri III and Henri IV of France would fall to Catholic fanatics (although both were Catholic themselves).

Elizabeth was understandably nervous, but she rejected Robert’s suggestion that she should reduce the numbers of people who could freely visit the outer limits of the court. In his view ‘there is no right Papist in England that wisheth Queen Elizabeth to live long, and to suffer any such in her court cannot be but dangerous’.

To discourage those who wished to replace Elizabeth with the Catholic Queen of Scots, the Bond of Association was created – a bond by which all signatories swore that if the queen were assassinated, anyone who benefited from her death, would be killed, even if they had had no part in, or knowledge of the plot. Robert, like the other councillors (with one exception, William Davison) signed it – as did Mary, Queen of Scots!

An act, similar in scope to the Bond was introduced in Parliament, debarring any beneficiary of a plot from inheriting the throne. This was clearly aimed at Mary, Queen of Scots. On Elizabeth’s orders, the clauses debarring any such person’s heirs, were struck out.

In the febrile atmosphere that followed the assassination of William the Silent in the Netherlands, pressure increased on Elizabeth to intervene. Ghent was recaptured by Spain and it seemed likely that Antwerp would follow. In February 1585, the States-General of the Netherlands offered the monarchy to Henri III of France, but he had enough problems with Spain and the internal Wars of Religion already, and he declined.

The States-General turned to Elizabeth instead, and offered her the sovereignty on 24th June 1585. Elizabeth had no idea of so subverting the rules of inheritance and the rights of monarchs as to interfere with Philip of Spain’s legitimate title. She would only intervene to protect her co-religionists, and, more pertinently, distract Spain from any attack on England.

Under pressure from Robert and her other councillors, by the Treaty of Nonsuch Elizabeth agreed to lend the States-General more money – although they had been slack about paying interest on previous loans. She would also provide 5,000 foot soldiers and 1,000 cavalry, in return for the towns of Flushing (Vlessingen) and Brill, which were to be held by English garrisons as surety.

The Dutch were keen for the English troops to be led by an important noble. Robert was desperate for the role – like all sixteenth century men, he thirsted for military glory, and he had been a strong supporter of the Netherlands’ political and religious position since their war with Spain had begun, and by 28th August, 1585, it appeared that his dreams were about to come true.