Elizabeth (21 page)

Sir Thomas Chaloner, the English Ambassador to the Imperial Court in Brussels, wrote a letter to William Cecil warning that in diplomatic circles the Queen’s relationship with Robert was subject to much lewd speculation, which he believed was scandalous and unfounded.
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Whatever the nature of their physical relationship, Robert believed that Elizabeth wanted to marry him. However, he had a lot of competition. He would need to make sure that no one else made a proposal that she might accept, and the only people Robert could count on for support were his family and a few close friends. In September 1559, Robert came up with a scheme to deal with the
one suitor whom he believed he had cause to fear – Charles, Archduke of Austria, who was close to being an ideal candidate. The 19-year-old Charles was good-looking, strong, an enthusiastic horseman, a soldier, a Catholic who was tolerant of Protestants, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor and cousin of the King of Spain. His family were known to produce many healthy children (later, when Charles married Maria of Bavaria in 1571, they went on to have seven children).

Robert set out to disrupt the negotiations. Aided by his sister Mary Sidney, he began to mislead de Quadra, the newest Spanish Ambassador, supplying him with false information. On 7 September, de Quadra reported that Mary Sidney had told him that it was time to speak to the Queen about the Archduke: ‘… She said I must not mind what the Queen said, it was not the custom here for ladies to give their consent till they were teased into it.’

De Quadra then consulted Robert, who agreed that Elizabeth would accept Charles, as she needed the alliance. De Quadra tried to push the Queen into a formal agreement to marry Charles, but reported that when he pressed her, she seemed frightened and protested, over and over again, that she would ‘not to be bound’. De Quadra was surprised at her vehemence: ‘I do not believe that Lady Sidney and Lord Robert could be mistaken, and the latter says he never thought the Queen would go so far.’
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Of course, Robert and his sister would have known that the more Elizabeth was pushed on the matter, the harder she would resist.

In October 1559, one of the least welcome of Elizabeth’s marriage proposals arrived with Duke John of Finland, who had come to win the Queen for his brother, Crown Prince Eric of Sweden. While Robert may have been concerned in the beginning, he soon realized that he had nothing to worry about as it soon became apparent that this suitor had little chance of success.

For Elizabeth, however, the situation was stressful. This is well illustrated by a jousting tournament that was held in November 1559 at which Robert Dudley and Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, another of Elizabeth’s nobles, took on all-comers. As the Queen watched her beloved joust, she sat between Duke John of Finland on one side and von Breuner, representing Archduke Charles, on the other. According to de Quadra, ‘The King of Sweden’s son [Duke John], who is here, is fit to kill the Emperor’s ambassador [von Breuner], because he said his father was only a clown who had stolen his kingdom … The matter has reached such a point that the Queen is careful they should not meet in the palace to avoid their slashing each other in her presence.’
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The histrionic behaviour of the bizarre Swedes made for a good story, but for many, the fact that the Queen might have set her heart on Robert was already a matter of great concern, particularly the fact that he had a wife. The very existence of Amy was undeniably an obstacle to a marriage between Robert and Elizabeth – if one was indeed being considered – and by late 1559, rumours were circulating that Elizabeth and Robert were only waiting for Amy to die from her long-standing illness in order for them to marry. De Quadra, who was still smarting over Robert’s interference in the negotiations over Archduke Charles, wrote to Philip II on 13 November 1559 that he had heard, ‘… veracious news that Lord Robert has sent to poison his wife.’ Elizabeth, he had heard, was only pretending to consider marrying Prince Eric and Archduke Charles ‘until this wicked deed is consummated’.
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Despite the rumours, there is no evidence that Robert had abandoned or neglected his wife; nor is there anything to suggest that he treated Amy harshly. While she was living with the Hydes at Throcking, he visited Amy quite frequently. They, the Hydes, their servants and friends spent pleasant evenings together playing
cards or dicing, so much so that Robert, short of cash as always, sometimes had to borrow money from Mr Hyde to make bets as they played.
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Back at Court, Robert was faced with open opposition from noblemen determined to stop any pretensions he might have of marrying the Queen. In late 1559, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, a 23-year-old gentleman who was England’s Premier Duke and who himself nursed an ambition to be Elizabeth’s husband, threatened Robert’s life. De Quadra was pleased to report to Philip, ‘I think this hatred of the Lord Robert will continue as the Duke and the rest of them cannot put up with his being King.’
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On 18 November, de Quadra again wrote to Philip, ‘He [Robert] has been warned there is a plot to kill him, which I quite believe, for not a man in the realm can suffer the idea of his being King.’
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Robert also feuded with Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel, whose advances had been rejected by the Queen. He, too, objected to the knight stepping into a position that should have been reserved for a duke or an earl. Fitzalan’s servant would later state that although he felt the matter of Elizabeth’s marriage should be up to the Queen and that Robert was ‘as meet a man as any in England’, he prayed God that ‘all men may take it well, that there might rise no trouble thereof’.
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Rumours of plots to kill Robert Dudley reached such a point that he is said to have worn chain mail under his clothes.
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Members of Elizabeth’s own inner circle also commented on Robert. Kat Ashley, who always endeavoured to protect her muchloved Elizabeth, was mindful of the danger of rumours to a woman’s reputation. She tried to warn Elizabeth to be careful. Late in 1559, Ambassador von Breuner wrote to Ferdinand I that Elizabeth had responded to Kat Ashley’s warnings by defending Robert: ‘She [Elizabeth] hoped she had given no one just cause to
associate her name with that of her equerry or of any other man. But, she said, in this world, she had had so much sorrow and so little joy! If she showed herself gracious to her Master of Horse, he deserved it, for his honourable nature and dealing.’
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Von Breuner himself judged their relationship to be one based on innocent love.
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Meanwhile, at least one observer took to heart Elizabeth’s longheld conviction that she had no intention of marrying. Roger Ascham, who had known her from childhood, wrote to his friend Sturm in early 1560: ‘I told you rightly … that in the whole ordinance of her life she resembled not Phaedra, but Hippolyta … for by nature and not by the counsels of others, she is thus averse and abstinent from marriage. When I know any thing for certain, I will write to you as soon as possible; in the mean time I have no hopes to give you respecting the King of Sweden.’
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In May 1560, William Cecil left Court to head negotiations for making peace with Scotland. The French Mary of Guise was acting Regent in Scotland for her daughter Mary, Queen of Scots, who was in France with her husband, François II. Mary of Guise, keen to maintain Scotland’s links with France, was ill and believed to be dying, which would make discussions between the English and Scottish Councils easier.

Even in the midst of these political negotiations, Elizabeth’s marriage was not far from the statesman’s mind. Cecil wrote a private report of the proceedings to Elizabeth from Edinburgh, ending his letter, ‘So most humbly of Almighty God I do require that it may please Him to direct your Majesty’s heart to make a choice of a husband that may be father to your posterity …’
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The next month he wrote again, ending with his ‘continual prayer, that God would direct your heart to procure a father for your children.’
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Cecil would have accepted almost any prince, but
he prayed most sincerely that the father of England’s future monarch should not be Sir Robert Dudley.

The Treaty of Edinburgh, which Cecil negotiated was, at least, a success for England. Scotland would be governed by a Council of 12 members, 5 chosen by the Scottish lords and 7 by Mary, Queen of Scots. All French forces were to be withdrawn to France and their fortifications at Leith, Dunbar and Eyemouth were to be dismantled. In addition, the Queen of Scots would stop using the English royal arms and would recognize Elizabeth as Queen of England. Cecil had achieved all his demands.

However, as for his and the other Councillors’ prayers regarding Elizabeth’s marriage, they appeared to have no effect. Elizabeth continued to favour Robert. It was said that while Cecil was in Scotland, the Queen hardly left the Court and that Robert was always with her to keep her away from his rivals. Certainly, as Master of the Horse he was with her daily. With the vigilant Cecil away, the rumours increased that Elizabeth and Robert were having a physical relationship. This is also the most likely time for Elizabeth to have become pregnant. If this was the case, the child conceived of this affair would have been born sometime between January and April 1561.

When Cecil returned to England, far from being praised by the Queen, he was met by a storm of complaints. Why had he not insisted that the negotiations included the return of Calais? This was one of her priorities, and she had been persuaded by someone that Cecil had failed by not making this a condition of the treaty.

Cecil suspected that Robert had a hand in plying the Queen with notions of recovering Calais which, as any sensible politician knew, was lost forever. Cecil knew that Robert had enjoyed Elizabeth’s full attention during his absence and suspected that he might have wanted to turn the triumph of a man he saw as a rival
for the Queen’s appreciation into a failure in her eyes. Cecil became depressed at what he felt were uncalled-for attacks on him by the Queen and threatened to resign.

The situation was becoming increasingly heated. Elizabeth and Robert’s alleged affair was the talk of the Royal Courts of Europe. In England, too, the rumours were gaining ground among the people. In the late summer of 1560, ‘Mother’ Anne Dowe (Dove), aged 68, appeared before the bench on charges of slandering the Queen by claiming Elizabeth was pregnant. She asserted that in June she had heard from an owner of a house in Rochford that Robert had given Elizabeth an expensive petticoat costing 20 nobles. Mother Dowe had replied that the Queen could have bought one for herself. Several days later, she repeated the story of Robert giving the Queen the expensive petticoat to an acquaintance, who replied, ‘Thinkst thou it was a petticoat? No, no, he gave her a child, I warrant thee.’ She then told the tailor that Elizabeth and Robert had been playing ‘legerdemain’ (sleight of hand, later known as hanky-panky), to which he retorted ‘That is not so!’ Mother Dowe replied, ‘Is, for he hath given her a child.’ The tailor countered, ‘What, she hath no child yet!’ to which Mother Dowe replied, ‘No, if she hath not, he hath put one to the making.’
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Mother Dowe was imprisoned for indiscreet assertions. Her claims were somewhat undermined by the fact that the other parties to these conversations said she had been drinking. However, they show the extent of the rumours about Elizabeth and Robert’s intimate associations at the time, and the suspicions that the Queen may indeed have been pregnant.