Sarah-Beth Watkins - The Death of Amy Robsart: An Elizabethan Mystery

Thus sore and sad that ladie grievd,

In Cumnor Halle so lone and dreare;

And manye a heartefelte sighe shee heavd

And let falle manye a bitter teare.

And ere the dawne of daye appeard,

In Cumnor Hall so lone and dreare,

Full manye a piercing screame was hearde,

And manye a crye of mortal feare.

The death-belle thrice was hearde to ring,

An arial voyce was hearde to call,

And thrice the raven flappd its wyng

Arounde the towrs of Cumnor Hall.

The mastiffe howld at village doore,

The oaks were shatterd on the greene;

Woe was the houre--for never more

That haplesse countesse eer was seene.

And in that manor now no more

Is chearful feaste and sprightly balle;

For ever since that drearye houre

Have spirits haunted Cumnor Hall.

From Cumnor Hall, a poem by William Mickle.

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Amy Robsart, wife of Elizabeth Is favourite, Robert Dudley, later the Earl of Leicester, was found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs on 8 September 1560 at Cumnor Place, near Oxford. Her neck was broken.

Amy was twenty-eight when she died and her marriage to Dudley had been one of great absences and loneliness. Queen Elizabeth I had commanded much of his attention over the past years and Amy had lived a peripatetic life, moving from one house to another, without ever having a home of her own.

What may have been a simple accident has confounded historians for years with its inconsistencies. There are more questions than answers. Was it an accident, suicide or murder? Well take a look at Amys background, the circumstances surrounding her death and weigh up the evidence for each case.

* * *

Amy was the daughter of Sir John Robsart and Elizabeth Scott of Stanfield Hall near Wymondham in Norfolk. It was here that she first met the dashingly handsome Robert Dudley with his father and his brothers John and Ambrose on their way to subdue Ketts Rebellion a revolt that stemmed from the enclosure of common fields by wealthy landowners. Sir John Robsart had allowed the army to camp in his grounds and provided an evening meal for the senior officers. Amy was in attendance and it was then that she met the man she would soon marry.

Robert wed Amy the next year when she was only seventeen on 4 June 1550 at Sheen. Instead of it being just an arranged match, there were definitely feelings of love (or lust) as William Cecil, Elizabeth Is chief advisor, called Dudley and Amys a carnal marriage. Amy was of a lower social status than Robert but she was his choice and one accepted by his family. Their wedding ceremony came after the more auspicious marriage of his elder brother John to Anne Seymour, the eldest daughter of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and former Lord Protector of England. Nevertheless the weekend was a round of entertainment presided over by the young king, Edward VI.

Robert Dudley came from a family that had the taint of scandal attached to it. His grandfather, Edmund Dudley, had been Henry VIIs financial advisor and was one of the first people that Henry VIII executed when he came to power. His father too would succumb to the wrath of a sovereign.

When Edward VI knew he was dying, he wrote his Devise for the Succession that disinherited his sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. He had hoped to pass the throne on to the male descendants of Frances Brandon, the Duchess of Suffolk, and failing that, to the male heirs of the Lady Jane Grey, but neither of them had any male children by the time of Edwards demise. Edward rejected the idea that a woman could reign by herself but on his deathbed his cousin Lady Jane was named his heir. Jane never wanted such majesty thrust upon her. But John Dudley, Roberts father and Janes father-in-law, moved to place her on the throne and sent his sons to place the Princess Mary in custody.

Mary was wise to their machinations and escaped their clutches, rallying her supporters and proclaiming her right to the throne. She was crowned the rightful Queen of England on 1 October 1553 at Westminster Abbey and Jane was taken to the Tower of London along with those who had worked to make her queen.

Dudley senior was attainted as a traitor and executed in 1553 on Tower Hill. His five sons were imprisoned awaiting trial. Guildford, as Janes husband would be executed along with his wife but John, Ambrose, Robert and Henry would remain in the Tower for a time.