Category Archives: friends & foes

John Dudley at The Anne Boleyn Files

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Christine Hartweg

I am happy and feel very honoured that you can now read about John Dudley and his many friends (he really had a lot) at the amazing The Anne Boleyn Files! Please go here …

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William Cecil and Amy Robsart: Was He Behind Her Death?

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Christine Hartweg

It has always been a popular notion that Lord Robert Dudley’s wife, Amy, was murdered. The theory that this was done on the orders of Sir William Cecil, the queen’s Principal Secretary, is much more recent, but only slightly less … Continue reading →

Posted in Amy Robsart, friends & foes, letters, Robert Dudley, sources & historians | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

William Cecil and Amy Robsart: Visiting Lord Robert

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Christine Hartweg

In the week following his wife’s deadly fall from a flight of stairs Robert Dudley wrote many letters. He had left the court at Windsor for his house in Kew, “whither the lordes resorted to him to comforte him.”1 He … Continue reading →

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William Cecil and Amy Robsart: Talking to de Quadra

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Christine Hartweg

On a day in September 1560 Sir William Cecil, Principal Secretary to the Queen, had a talk with Bishop de la Quadra, the Spanish ambassador. Cecil had recently returned from Scotland, where he had concluded the Treaty of Edinburgh, a … Continue reading →

Posted in Amy Robsart, Elizabeth I, errors & myths, friends & foes, Robert Dudley, sources & historians | Tagged , | 1 Comment

John Dudley’s Youth: In Kent, at Court, in France

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Christine Hartweg

Edmund Dudley’s decapitated body was buried in the precincts of the Blackfriars monastery in the west of the City of London. Fifteen months later, in November 1511, his widow remarried, on the king’s command; the lucky bridegroom was Arthur Plantagenet, … Continue reading →

Posted in family & marriage, friends & foes, Henry VIII, Jane Dudley, John Dudley | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sir John Dudley Goes to Spain

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Christine Hartweg

On 12 October 1537 England finally was blessed with the prince the country had yearned for so long. Three days later, among “all estates and gentlemen present at the christening” was listed “Sir John Dudley”.1 He already had played his … Continue reading →

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1560 and 1588 – Two Funerals

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Christine Hartweg

On 22 September 1560 Lady Amy Dudley was laid to rest at St. Mary’s Church, Oxford. After her sudden death on 8 September the court had gone into mourning for the wife of the queen’s favourite, Hampton Court being “stuffed … Continue reading →

Posted in Ambrose Dudley, Amy Robsart, Elizabeth I, friends & foes, Lettice Knollys, Robert Dudley, Sir Robert Dudley | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Arundel and Leicester

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Christine Hartweg

The queen was 25 years old and unmarried. Henry Fitzalan, twice a widower, fancied himself in the role of consort; of ancient nobility, he certainly possessed the right house to accommodate Elizabeth and her court. Nonsuch Palace, built by Henry … Continue reading →

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Arundel and Northumberland

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Christine Hartweg

Revenge. Revenge and liberty were on the mind of Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel, when he addressed his fellow councillors at dinner on 19 July 1553. Having left the Tower under a pretext, the group had decided to leave … Continue reading →

Posted in 1553, friends & foes, John Dudley, letters | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Dudley and Paget, Part II

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Christine Hartweg

“Whatever the nature of the clash between Northumberland and the 1st Lord Paget in 1551–52, it did not destroy close relations between the families.”1 Certainly, when disaster overcame the Dudleys in the summer of 1553, the Duchess of Northumberland did … Continue reading →

Posted in Elizabeth I, friends & foes, Jane Dudley, letters, Robert Dudley | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment