Tudor? I Hardly Knew Her! : Amy Dudley, Part One: MURDER
Her husband's acting different and it smells like infidelity
Imagine, if you will, the kind of bright, sunny day with nothing going wrong as in the opening of an episode of Law and Order: SVU. It’s early fall in 1560 at the estate of Sir Anthony Forster, which looks sort of like Downton Abbey in the sense that it may be a “country home,” but he’s also super rich, and it’s basically a mansion. A stressed-out-looking woman in her mid-20s is yelling at two older women. This is our heroine, AMY ROBSART DUDLEY.
“I insist you must all go to the fair!” she screams.
“But madam,” protest the women, “It is unseemly for gentlewomen to go the fair on a Sunday.”
“Well, this Sunday, YOU’RE GOING!!” Amy yells, and the other women rush off, cowed. Amy watches them, her lovely face inscrutable, and then she strode off purposefully.
CUT TO: the ladies return home hours later from the fair. A crowd of household staff is gathering at a staircase near the back of the house.
“What is it?” the ladies demand, suddenly scared. The male servants, the only ones left behind during the trip to the fair, stop them before they can get any closer.
And then, the camera swoops around them to the bottom of a short flight of stairs. AMY is lying there, still in her same gorgeous gown, blood trailing from two head wounds, her neck broken. She is dead. An accident… OR MURDER??
Cue: the opening credits.
Who Was Amy Robsart?
Twenty-eight years before she was found dead at the bottom of the stairs, Amy Robsart was born in Norfolk to gentleman-farmer Sir John Robsart of Syderstone and his wife, Elizabeth Scott. She was their only child and, as such, the heir to John’s fortune and estate. She was well educated for a girl for the time, as evidenced by what remains of her letters. She wrote with neat handwriting, displaying intelligence and thoughtfulness. She would have understood the importance of her role as heiress, knowing that her father would decide her husband and should, in some way, elevate their family’s position. This is why it’s such a surprise twist to her life story when she suddenly gets married, three days before her eighteenth birthday, for love-related reasons.
As much as the stereotype exists that women in olden times got married as young teens, the average age of marriage was usually at least in the mid-20s for a woman. Her husband, Robert Dudley, was also young for a groom at eighteen. Despite his family’s wealth and influence, he was also the fourth son, and nobody expected much from him. Amy and Robert had likely met about a year before their marriage when Robert and his family had briefly stayed in the Robsarts’ home on their way back from a military battle. The two had taken notice of one another during this brief visit, and why wouldn’t they? From what we know about Robert later in life (when SPOILER he became infamous as Queen Elizabeth I’s #1 crush), he was tall, handsome, and charismatic. Amy has been described as “very beautiful” and known to have been clever and interested in fashion, so she likely looked amazing in cute outfits. Throw in teenage hormones and the general Renaissance feeling that you could die at any moment from the plague, and the two were all in.
Robert had grown up alongside King Henry VIII’s son Edward. When Edward inherited the throne as Edward VI, Robert stayed on as one of his gentlemen — and Robert’s father became an influential advisor to the boy king. His father agreed to the teen marriage, likely because an alliance with the Robsarts meant access to their lands in Norfolk. Amy’s father also consented to the match, and the two fathers hashed out a prenuptial agreement noting that Amy wouldn’t inherit the land until after both of her parents had died. One cute detail: Amy and Robert’s wedding ceremony had a charming bohemian vibe, as they cut costs by piggybacking on another marriage, re-using the flowers and re-inviting most of the guests from the previous ceremony. King Edward VI (Henry VIII’s teenage son) was among the attendees.
Right away, their marriage was marked by a lack of anywhere to live. They initially lived with Robert’s parents, then moved to Somerset House, where Robert was the keeper. Both were wealthy, but in a real estate sort of way — their families owned property, but not a house for these two teen lovebirds to live in. They also didn’t have children right away, which may have surprised some who’d assumed theirs was a shotgun marriage-type scenario. But soon enough, Amy had more to worry about than her fertility or lack of a permanent home because Robert, his father, and brothers were all arrested and thrown in the Tower of London! Why? Oh, just for the Lady Jane Grey Scenario/treason.
The Lady Jane Grey Scenario
A quick recap: buckle up. So, boy King Edward VI became quite sick all of a sudden with something like measles followed by tuberculosis. This was wildly inconvenient for everyone because the King was fifteen years old and had no heir. Robert’s father, unwilling to give up the power he’d enjoyed as the King’s advisor, hurriedly schemed to figure out how to retain his influence over the crown. A major crisis was that, without an obvious heir, the throne seemed like it may be handed over to Edward’s older sister, Mary. But she was a Catholic, and England had spent the last several decades being Very Protestant. Edward’s other sister, Elizabeth, was Protestant, but there wasn’t a way to legally bypass Mary to get to her. And so — still not dead, but very sick and on his deathbed — Edward authorized a document removing his sisters from succession and naming his cousin Lady Jane Grey as the next monarch.
And what did Robert’s father do? He married Robert’s brother Guildford Dudley to Lady Jane Grey to ensure that the Dudley family could puppetmaster Jane as a pawn/queen. This plan worked great for exactly nine days until Mary stormed into town with the support of literally everybody and took over and became Queen Mary I. And she, rather understandably, threw the whole Dudley family (and Jane) into jail for scheming against her. Although Robert wasn’t directly involved in the scheme (i.e. he wasn’t the one married to Jane Grey), he was sentenced to death along with his brothers and father because he probably at least knew what they’d been planning. Where did this leave Amy? Like the other Dudley spouses (other than Jane), she was left to sit around and wait to see if she was about to become a widow.
Amy and the other wives were permitted conjugal visits with their husbands during the year that the Dudley men were imprisoned. Do you know who was in jail at around the same time? Oh, just the Queen’s half-sister, Elizabeth, who was also around the same age as Robert. Rumour has it that during this stressful time in jail, not knowing if they would live or die, Robert and Elizabeth began to form a meaningful connection. They likely knew each other already, having grown up around Edward VI. But some experiences bond you for life, and being thrown in jail to be potentially executed is one of those things.
After about a year, Robert’s father and brother Guildford, along with Jane, were executed. However, Robert was freed and reunited with Amy (although he may or may not have already been in love with Elizabeth). It turns out that having your family disgraced and executed for treason makes an already frugal lifestyle even more challenging, and Amy and Robert found themselves even shorter on funds than they’d been before.
They depended largely on gifts of money from Amy’s father and crossing their fingers and hoping for the best. Well, that’s what Amy was doing, but guess what Robert was up to? Oh, just making up for lost time away from royal court by racking up debts from gambling and fancy clothes. Ugh, Robert, could you think about someone else for five seconds?? (Spoiler: he cannot, will not, and does not for the rest of his life). Was he perhaps spending all this money to buy impressive outfits to impress Elizabeth? I’m not saying he was, but I’m not saying he wasn’t. Bear in mind that Mary was still Queen, and Elizabeth was just a gorgeous, athletic Princess with whom Robert had shared some very intense experiences in prison.
The Couch-Surfing Era
In 1554, Amy’s father died. As per her marriage contract, she and Robert wouldn’t inherit any of his property until after her mother also died. And as her mother was still alive, this inheritance was no help to the increasingly strained Robsart-Dudley marital finances. But!! Three years later, Amy’s mother died, which was obviously super distressing for her but also likely brought a sense of relief because at least now she had some finances coming in. Unfortunately, her ancestral home was uninhabitable (i.e. it was falling apart and gross), so Amy and Robert had to continue with their couch-surfing lifestyle.
Later this same year, Robert joined the army to fight in France on behalf of Mary I (and her dirtbag husband, Philip). Amy took over running the household while he was away, and the letters we have of hers are from this era. From them, it’s clear that she very capably stepped up to run things, tracking their finances and doing her best to pay some of Robert’s debts down.
Robert survived the battle and returned home to Amy. His time in the army did a lot to fix the Dudley family's reputation, as Mary I’s husband Philip spoke well of Robert, so the Queen was now a fan. With their fortunes looking a bit better, Amy and Robert were determined to figure out a permanent home for themselves.
This episode of House Hunters International: Renaissance Norfolk was interrupted by the sudden death of Queen Mary I, meaning that the Dudley family’s hard work winning over the new Queen became pointless. HOWEVER, Robert’s #1 crush, Elizabeth, became Queen Liz I, and Robert’s fortunes suddenly improved. So, it’s clear that these two were already on very good terms because she seems to have used her influence to get Robert assigned the very prestigious job of Master of the Horse. This job involved arranging all of Elizabeth’s business trips (which, being in the 16th century, involved a lot of horses and carriages) and regularly tending to the Queen’s other whims (ahem). And so, Robert headed off to live in London at the royal court… leaving Amy behind.
If absence makes the heart grow fonder, the opposite was happening vis-a-vis Robert and Elizabeth as their continued closeness seemed to bring them even closer. By 1599, diplomats were reporting back to their home countries that the Queen was in love with Robert — to the point that she was spending too much time horseback riding and hunting than she was doing Queen-related jobs. If Robert had been single, this would have led to potential concerns that the Queen would marry him. As he was married, this led to concerns that the Queen was in love with a married man. Neither situation was very good for anyone, least of all the ambitious and gross men who were always running around scheming ways to gain more and more power. It didn’t help that Robert’s room was basically around the corner from Elizabeth’s, meaning he could rush to her side at any time of day or night.
So the thing is that Queens in this time and place couldn’t just marry anyone. Marriages of princesses and minor noblewomen were closely monitored so that they’d have the best possible political outcomes. As a single woman, Elizabeth was like The Bachelorette: Renaissance, with every single King, Prince, and noble constantly sending her marriage proposals. It wasn’t just that they thought she was gorgeous and genius-level intelligent (both of which she was), but these men also likely assumed that if they married her, they’d be in charge of England. After all, when Elizabeth’s sister Mary had married Philip, he wound up King of England, right? So Elizabeth’s advisors were panicking over who she should marry; marrying someone like Robert, a commoner, was the worst-case scenario for any of them. The only thing seemingly keeping that marriage from happening was that Amy was still alive and still married to Robert… but rumours started circulating that maybe she was dying.
These rumours took off because Amy was not invited to spend much time at the royal court, so nobody knew what she was like. Robert visited her for a few days in 1559, and Amy stayed in London for about a month later that year. Other than that, Robert was living in a room connecting to Elizabeth in the royal palace while Amy was couch surfing in the home of yet another of their royal friends. And then the rumours got even weirder, as word started to spread that Robert was SECRETLY POISONING AMY so she’d die and he could marry Elizabeth. These rumours weren’t really about Amy; they were mostly meant to discredit Robert. We know now that Elizabeth’s unwillingness to marry was her superpower, but at the time, her councillors were freaking out and blamed Robert for her lack of marrying anyone else. This is why the councillors began plotting to ASSASSINATE ROBERT. And meanwhile, allegedly, Elizabeth forbade Robert from seeing Amy or having anything to do with her.
Amy’s Final Days
So whither Amy??? Well, she kept bopping around from house to house, relying on the kindness of other wealthy people. She eventually wound up in a place called Cumnor Hall in Berkshire. Like Downton Abbey (the house, not the TV show), the house was a renovated 14th-century abbey and was being rented out by Sir Anthony Forster (no relation to me; potentially, he was a relative of Amy’s). The other occupants of this sort of island of misfit toys were Anthony’s wife and two women named Mrs. Odingsells and Mrs. Owen, who were relatives of the abbey’s owner. It sounds like a super nice place to stay, and the grounds include a pond, a deer park, and a terrace garden. Amy may have been a houseguest, but she got the nicest apartment of anyone. She had her separate entrance with a staircase (foreshadowing) leading up to it.
Amy paid for her lifestyle from her inheritance, including paying for ten personal servants out of pocket. She may have been abandoned by her husband, but she didn’t mope around but rather is recorded as continuing to spend money having new dresses made (bear in mind, one fancy dress back then cost about as much as a good car nowadays). She had been married to Robert for just over ten years, was twenty-eight years old, and seemingly was doing her best to make lemonade out of an incredibly strange lemon of a marriage situation. She ordered a dress on August 24, 1560, perhaps because Robert had been making noises about potentially coming by for a visit, and she wanted to show him what he was missing, like Ariana Madix in the red dress at the Vanderpump reunion post-Scandoval.
On Saturday, September 7, 1560, Queen Elizabeth turned twenty-seven. The following day, a fair was held in Abingdon, near where Amy was staying at the abbey. While it was not usual for gentlewomen to attend fairs on Sunday, Amy insisted that Mrs. Odingsells and Mrs. Owens go to the fair, leaving her in the house with just a handful of staff. When the household returned home from the fair, Amy lay dead at the bottom of the stairs leading up to her apartment, her neck broken, with two gauge-like holes in her skull.
Next week: the investigation and WHODUNNIT!
Sources