AMY DUDLEY ~ MURDER OR SUICIDE?
The handsome Robert Dudley flattered and charmed the still young and beautiful Queen Elizabeth I, who had not yet lost her fair skin and long red hair.
The couple were not discreet about their relationship, spending hours hunting alone together, openly flirting in front of the court and visiting each other’s bedchambers.
The scandal was, that Dudley was still a married man….
The marriage between Robert and Amy Dudley was becoming strained.
The unfortunate Amy spent an increasingly lonely life living in different country estates.
Although Dudley did still visit his wife Amy, they were forbidden from being seen together in Elizabeth’s presence.
Elizabeth would repeatedly demand that Dudley say he ‘did nothing with her.’
In December 1559, Amy moved into Cumnor Place.
Rumours swirled that Dudley was sending her poison, so that he would be free to marry the Queen.
On the morning of 8th September 1560, Amy appeared agitated to her servants, as she sent them away to enjoy the fair that had come to Abingdon.
Angry at those who suggested that they might stay with her, she insisted they leave her alone, and enjoy the afternoon off.
When the servants returned, they found the large house deathly quiet, and their anxiety soon turned to horror as they found their mistress dead, lying at the bottom of a staircase.
Amy was only 28 years old when she died, and this was just the beginning of the mystery surrounding her death.
She was found with her neck broken and two deep wounds in the back of her head – not injuries which one may expect her to sustain if she had merely fallen down a small staircase consisting of just eight steps….
Dudley was quickly informed of his wife’s death. He immediately sent dispatches to the house, demanding that the circumstances of her death be investigated.
Whilst publicly expressing grief about the passing of his wife, he privately paid the owner of Cumnor Place 300 pounds – around £65,000 in today’s money.
He then gifted the foreman of the jury a substantial amount of velvet – a priceless commodity in 16th century England – and asked him to select a jury of ‘discreet’ men to oversee the inquest.
The subsequent investigation led to a verdict of accidental death.
Dudley had his wife buried in a lavish ceremony, and then retired for six months of official mourning at his house in Kew.
However, the mysterious circumstances of Amy’s death, and the fact that it appeared all too convenient for Dudley, not to mention the strange payments made – meant that rumours would plague Dudley’s reputation for the rest of his life.
Elizabeth was forced to distance herself from Dudley.
The debate about his involvement in his wife’s death, could cause suspicion to fall on her……was she the one poisoning Amy?
Although Dudley had a solid alibi for the murder, was it possible that he had organised for his wife to be killed?
Was it possible Elizabeth had encouraged him to do so?
The extent to which Dudley, or the Queen, were involved in Amy’s death is still unclear.
However, the suspicious circumstances was enough for the gossip, which filled the elite circles of Tudor society to persist for centuries.
Another theory, is that Amy’s murder was organised by Dudley’s enemies.
They knew that Amy’s death would arouse such great suspicion, that Elizabeth would be forced to distance herself from him.
Elizabeth’s chief spy William Cecil was known to resent Dudley for the influence he held over the Queen. It would not have been beyond him to arrange Amy’s death in this way…..
There is still the possibility Amy’s death was an accidental fall.
Or it could have been self-inflicted – suicide.
Amy was indeed depressed at the time of her death.
Competing with the most powerful woman in the country for the attentions of her adulterous husband was bad enough, but Amy was also convinced she was terminally ill, after discovering a cyst on her breast.
However, throwing oneself down a small flight of stairs is almost certainly not the way someone would attempt suicide, as there would have been no guarantee of death.
This is especially true given that the staircase where she was found only had 8 steps.
It is for this reason also that an accident could also probably be ruled out, given that the injuries she sustained – a broken neck and two deep cuts to her head – were not consistent with a fall down a short flight of steps…..
The mystery is further deepened when one considers Amy’s state of mind that morning.
Why was she so anxious for her servants to leave her alone that day?
Was she expecting a visitor?
Was that visitor the person who ended her life?….
Was Amy murdered, and by whom remains an open question.
Dudley and Elizabeth did indeed have a motive for her to die.
As two intelligent people, they must surely have known that the scandal Amy’s death would cause, would have been counter-productive to their relationship.
Dudley’s actions after her death may be suspicious, but could also be explained by the fact that he was desperate to avoid being implicated.
Giving gifts and jury-rigging could swing an otherwise unsympathetic hearing in his favour.
Amy’s death effectively ended Dudley and Elizabeth’s relationship.
It must be considered that it was probably orchestrated by Dudley’s enemies at court, especially the cunning spymaster Cecil.
Dudley not only lost a wife but also a lover, and all his power and influence on that fateful late summer’s day. Giving his enemies exactly the result they wanted.
Dudley would go on to marry Lettice Knollys, the daughter of Catherine Carey, who was supposedly Henry VIII’s love child with Mary Boleyn.
Lettice was a younger version of Elizabeth, they looked so similar, which is probably why Dudley was attracted to her.
Dudley died on 4th September 1588.
He had been with Elizabeth a week earlier, and she was heartbroken at his death.
Six days before his death, he had written Elizabeth a letter.
Elizabeth kept the letter he had sent her in her bedside treasure box, endorsing it with “his last letter” on the outside.
It was still there when she died 15 years later on 24th March 1603.
? The Death of Amy Robsart, as imagined by Victorian artist William Frederick Yeames
