Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of c.1533-1588
English nobleman

He was the grandson of the notorious Edmund Dudley beheaded by Henry VIII, and the son of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who was executed for his support of Lady Jane Grey. Robert Dudley himself was sentenced to death, but, pardoned (1554), became a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, who made him Master of the Horse, Knight of the Garter, a Privy Councillor, High Steward of the University of Cambridge, Baron Dudley, and finally (1564) Earl of Leicester. It was rumoured that he had poisoned Amy Robsart (1560), whom he had married in 1550, in order to be free to marry the queen. He was unpopular at court, and Elizabeth suggested him as a husband for Mary, Queen of Scots (1563). He made a secret marriage to the Dowager Lady Sheffield, but he remained popular with Elizabeth, who was magnificently entertained by him at his castle of Kenilworth (1575). She was only temporarily offended when he bigamously married (1578) the widow of Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex. He supported the Puritans in their opposition to Catholicism. Sent in 1585 to command the expedition to the Low Countries in which Sir Philip Sidney, his nephew, died at Zutphen, he was recalled for incompetence in 1587, and his arrogance and touchiness were counterproductive, but he was nonetheless appointed as leader of the forces assembled at Tilbury to defend England against the Spanish Armada (1588). He died suddenly at Cornbury, in Oxfordshire, probably of malaria, but some alleged he had taken poison originally intended for his wife.

Bibliography: E Rosenberg, Leicester, Patron of Letters (1958)