BOOKS.

MR. ADLA.RD'S " AMYE ROBSART AND THE EARL OF LEYCESTER.".

Ma. ADLARD'S volume is as old-fashioned in its style of composi- tion as in the length of its title-page. It is the work of an anti- quary, and as formidable to the general modern reader as the compilations of antiquaries usually are. A more badly arranged book it would be difficult to imagine. It is a biographical jungle, containing many facts (though not many new ones) on an in- teresting and perplexing subject, which, however, it requires no small amount of enterprise and perseverance in the reader to hunt out and bring together into something like an intelligent point of view. We speak more particularly of the first part of the volume, which gives its title to the book, and which relates to the mysterious death of Amye Robsart, or rather Lady Robert Dudley. The only really valuable contribution which Mr. Adlard has made towards the solution of this enigma, is the elaborate manner in which he has traced the origin of the accusations against the Earl of Leicester in the shape in which we find them in the common accounts (adopted by Sir Walter Scott) to the calumnious publication which now goes by the name of Leycester's Commonwealth, and which has been generally attributed to Persons or Parsons, the Jesuit. Tradition or independent tes- timony has added but little to the criminal indictment set forth in that virulent publication, which appeared originally in 1584, under a different title. Mr. Adlard is very angry with Sir Walter Scott not only for adopting the story as commonly told as the basis of his novel of Kenilworth, but also for his anachronisms in styling Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester in 1560, when he was not so created till four years later ; for bringing poor Amye out of her grave fifteen years after her death to be present at the revels of Kenilworth, and for attributing to Dudley's first marriage with her the circumstances of secrecy and repudiation which attended the alleged but disclaimed marriage between him and Douglas, Lady Sheffield (the mother of Sir Robert Dudley), at a much later period of his life. But surely this was all within the fair license of a romancer, and exactly what would recommend itself to the choice of a writer of genius, whose object it was simply to invest what he believed to be a fact—the violent death of Amye Robsart—with any attendant circumstances of interest and romance which had occurred during the same general period, and in connection with the husband of Atuye Robsart. Mr. Adlard, we have said, has not added much to the facts which we already possessed; indeed, the largest part of his inquiry is avowedly derived from the works of Dr. Bartlett and Mr. Pettigrew ; nor has he taken any notice of the important additions made to our evidence by Mr. Froude in his history- of the reign of Elizabeth.

The facts which we can ascertain respecting Lady Robert Dudley's life are few in the extreme. She was the child of Sir John Robsart, of Siderstern, in the county of Norfolk, and of Elizabeth, daughter of John Scott, Esq., of Camberwell, in the county of Surrey. So uncertain is our knowledge of Sir John Robsart's daughter, that her Christian name even is matter of dispute, Mr. Adlard maintaining that it was "Ainye," while Lord Braybrooke and Mr. Hunter maintained that it appears in the funeral certificates, and in an instrument under the hand of Sir John himself, as Anne. However this may be, on the 15th of May, 1550, Sir John Robsart settled upon his daughter and Robert Dudley, their marriage then being agreed upon, an annuity of £20; and King Edward VI. records in his Diary, under the date "June 4" of the same year, that "Sir Robert Dudley, third sou to the Earl of Warwick, married Sir John Robsart's daughter, after which marriage there were certain gentlemen that did strive who should first take away a goose's head, which was hanged alive on two cross posts." Robert Dudley was born on the 24th of June, 1532 or 1533; and the husband and wife were probably about the same age,—eighteen. What is the meaning of Lord Burghley's expression with respect to this marriage, " Nuptim carnales in ketitia incipiunt, et in luctu termi- nantur," in a sarcastic summary of Dudley's qualifications to be the Queen's husband (in 1566), it is not easy to say. Lord Robert came into possession of the Robsart estates in January, 1557, so

• Arnye Robsart and the Earl of Leycater: a Critical Inquiry into the Authenticity of The Various Statements in Relation to the Death of Arnye Robsart, and of he Libels on the Earl of Leycester, with a Vindication of the Earl by his Nephew, Sir Philip Sydney. And a History of Kenilworth Castle. including an Account of the Splendid Entertainment given to Queen Elizabeth by the Earl of Leyeester in 1575, from The works of Robert Lane- ham and George Gawoign e ; together with Memoirs and Correspondence of Si,. Robert Dudley. Son of the Earl of Locator. By George Adlard, author of "The Sutton- Dudleys of England," &e. London ; John Russell Smith. 1870. that we may conclude that Sir John Robsart was then dead. Of the nature of Lady Dudley's domestic life we know nothing, but a

letter from her to a Mr. Flowerdew has been preserved; though unluckily it has no date, except that of the day of the month, the 7th of August. It is written "from Mr. Hyde's," who is thought to be William Hyde, Esq., of Denchworth, in Berkshire, and begins, "I understand by Gryse that you put him in remembrance of that you spoke to me of, concerning the going of certain sheep at Siderstern, and although I forgot to move my lord thereof

before his departing, he being sore troubled with weighty affairs, and I not being altogether in quiet for his sudden departing, yet, &c."

It would be perhaps forcing a meaning to interpret these expres- sions into an actual estrangement between husband and wife, and another reference to Dudley in the letter, that " my lord so justly required me at his departing to see those poor men satisfied, as though it had been a matter depending upon life," gives a favour- able impression of him, and shows that she still occasionally acted for him in the management of the estate. Lord Robert Dudley was sworn of Elizabeth's Privy Council on the 4th of June, 1559. and it has been conjectured that this was the "weighty affairs" spoken of in the letter. However this may be, De Feria, the Spanish Ambassador, writing to his master in April, 1559, says, "They tell me that she [the Queen] is enamoured of my Lord Robert Dudley, and will never let him leave her side. He offers me his services in behalf of the Archduke [as a candidate for Elizabeth's hand], but I doubt whether it will be well to use them. He is in such favour, that people say that she visits him in his chamber day and night, nay, it is even reported that his wife has a cancer on the breast, and that the Queen waits only till she die to marry him." Of course, this was only the talk of the courtiers ; and it must be remembered that Robert Dudley had been Eliza- beth's playfellow in childhood, as well as her fellow-prisoner in the Tower, and that what might seem excessive favour towards any one else might be natural enough in her towards him. The important fact is that the courtiers had begun to speculate on and foretell the death of Lady Dudley, though as yet there was no talk of intended foul play.

We now come to the eve of the Cumnor tragedy, for we have no intermediate facts bearing on the subject of the relations between Dudley and his wife. In August, 1560, some cloud seems to have risen between Cecil (Burghley) and his exacting but generally (to him, at least) constant Sovereign. What it really was we do not know. We know, however, that about this time Lord Robert Dudley was in especial favour with the Queen, who conferred on him the lucrative privilege of exporting woollen cloths free of duty. The Queen set out on one of her royal pro- gresses, Cecil not attending her at first. Among other places, she visited Basing House, and its master, the Marquis of Winches- ter, writes on the 24th to Cecil, condoling with him "that when his counsel is most for Her Majesty's honour and profit, the same hath great hindrance by her weak credit of him, and by back- counsel." Cecil was himself at Baking on the 27th, and writes on that day to Throgmorton in these words :—" I dare not write that I might speak. God send Her Majesty understanding, which shall be her surety ; and so full of melancholy I wish you free from it, as I doubt not but your fortune shall be to find you free. I omit to speak of my comfort in service that in this journey [to Scotland] have for her honour oppressed my- self with debt, and have no consideration made me ; I can bear it better for myself than for others." On the 29th Cecil wrote to Randolph, intimating (as it. would seem from Randolph's replies) that he intended withdrawing from Court. Our next evidence must be derived from a letter addressed by the Spanish Ambassa- dor, De Quadra, to the Duchess of Parma. It is dated from Lon- don on the 11th of September. After speaking of a conversation with the Queen on the 3rd, in which she told him that she had made up her mind to marry, and that the Archduke was to be the man, he adds that she had just now told him drily that she did not intend to marry, and that it could not be. "After my conversation with the Queen [the first conversation], I met the Secretary Cecil, whom I knew to be in disgrace. Lord Robert, I was aware, was endeavouring to deprive him of his place. With little difficulty I led him to the subject ; and, after many protestations, and entreaties that I would keep secret what he was about to tell me, he said that the Queen was going on so strangely that he was about to withdraw from her service. It was a bad sailor, he said, that did not make for port when he saw a storm coming ; and for himself, he perceived the most manifest ruin impending over the Queen, through intimacy with Lord Robert. He, Lord Robert, had made himself master of the business of the State and of the person of the Queen, to the extreme injury of the realm, with the intention.of marrying her ; and she herself was shutting herself up in the palace, to the peril of her health and life. That the realm would tolerate the marriage, he said that he did not believe ; he was, therefore, determined to retire into the country, although he supposed they would send him to the Tower before they would let him go. He implored me for the love of God to remonstrate with the Queen ; to persuade her not utterly to throw herself away as she was doing, and to remember what she owed to herself and to her subjects. Of Lord Robert he twice said that he would be better in Paradise than here." In reply to assurances from the Ambassador, Cecil, according to De Quadra, "told me the Queen cared nothing for foreign princes ; she did not believe that she stood in any need of their support. She was deeply in debt, taking no thought how to clear herself, and she had ruined her credit in the City. [The London merchants did refuse to advance her £60,000 in this very month.] Last of all, he said that they were thinking of destroying Lord Robert's wife. They had given out that she was ill; but she was not ill at all ; she was very well, and was taking care not to be poisoned; God, he trusted, would never permit such a crime lobe accomplished, or allow so wicked a conspiracy to prosper." "The day after this conversa- tion," De Quadra continues, "the Queen, on her return from hunting, told me that Lord Robert's wife was dead or nearly so, and begged me to say nothing about it. Assuredly it is a matter full of shame and infamy ; but for all this, I do not feel sure that she will immediately marry him, or indeed that she will marry at all. She wants resolution to take any decided step." "Since this was written," he adds, "the death of Lord Robert's wife has been given out publicly. The Queen said in Italian, ' Que si ha rotto il collo.' It seems that she fell down a staircase." On the same day, the 11th of September, on which De Quadra wrote this despatch, Cecil wrote to Randolph, and from the answer to the latter, we gather that he alluded to the death of Lady Robert Dudley. "The first word that I read of your letter," Randolph writes, "comparing it with such bruits and slanderous reports as have been maliciously reported by the French and their faction, so passioned my heart till no grief that ever I felt was like unto it ; I neither had word to comfort, nor

advice to give to my friends Both—and I thought it good for a time to keep your letters from all. It is yet no time to cast such doubts." Some examinations of one Arthur Guntor were subsequently taken by Cecil, respecting con- versations in which Dudley's imminent high promotion was spoken of, and (according to Mr. Froude's extract from the Hatfield MSS., though the examinations in the printed Burgh- ley Papers have nothing on this point,) it was asserted that "ere this my Lord Robert's wife is dead, she broke her neck ;" but it is needless to dwell on this, because the date of the con- versations is placed only vaguely at "about three weeks since." Such is the evidence which we possess anterior to the catastrophe itself, and it cannot be denied that its general tendency is to create a presumptive suspicion against Leicester. It must be remembered, however, that the relative positions of persons would suggest to such a Court as that of Elizabeth the pro- bability of such an occurrence. Without actually incriminating Robert Dudley himself, there was certainly a strong Dudley party —the nucleus of which were the relics of the party which had been bound up with the fortunes of the Dudleys in the reigns of Edward and Mary, and which was largely swollen by the enemies of William Cecil,—which would not stick at a little to place the Queen's favourite in the assured position of the Queen's husband. Well might the Court tattlers look upon Lady Dudley's life as threatened under such circumstances, and well might Cecil him- self, in his antipathy and fears, accept those rumours as true, or think it worth his while to seem to accept them as such, if he could move the Spanish Ambassador to some strong intervention against the Dudley match. The exaggerated tone of the English

Premier in the whole conversation is evident, and however we may explain his extraordinary confidences to a foreign minister, it is clear that they must not be received as his deliberate opinion without considerable hesitation.

But what was Robert Dudley's own conduct on the news of the death of his wife, and how does that bear on the question? Here

we again avail ourselves of Mr. Adlard, who gives us no assistance

in the preliminary evidence. We have some letters among the Pepys MSS. (now at Cambridge), which have been printed by

Lord Braybrooke in an appendix to his edition of the well-known Diary, and are between Lord Robert Dudley and a Mr. T. Blount, whom he addresses as "cousin." Had these been originals, much

more certainty in the matter would have been gained ; but they are only copies, and Mr. Fronde (while using them) Bug-

gests a doubt as to whether they may not have been mani- pulated for the purpose of being produced at a subsequent inquiry into the death of Lady Dudley. This, however, is a mere conjecture, unsupported by any evidence, and we are inclined to think that the letters belie it by their contents, which are natural and consistent if accepted as faithful, while they are wholly wanting in the thorough-going character proper and essential to a " cooked " statement. The death of Amye Dudley occurred on Sunday, the 8th of September, 1560, at Cumnor Place, in Berkshire, about three miles west of Oxford. This house was then tenanted by a Mr. Anthony Forster, who pur- chased the property in 1561, and died in 1572. Forster appears to have been a man of high personal character, and of learning and

accomplishments. From the letters it appears that Arnye Dudley had been staying at his house in the society of a Mrs. Owen (the wife of his landlord) and Airs. Odingsells, sister of the Mr. Hyde from whose house /Wye's letter, already alluded to, was written. Both of these were ladies of position, and, however lonely might be the life of Lady Dudley in the continued absence of her husband, there is nothing in the circumstances of her residence here to excite suspicion of intended foul play—indeed, quite the contrary. From the letters between Dudley and Blount it would seem that while the former was at Windsor on the 9th of September, he received a messenger from Gumnor with the news of his wife's death, and that this messenger had crossed and communicated his news to Thomas Blount, who was proceeding on some mission from Dudley himself. Dudley at once wrote to Blount, "Immediately upon your departing from me there came to me Bowes, by whom I do understand that my wife is dead, and, as he saith, by a fall from a pair of stairs. Little other understanding can I have of him. The greatness and the suddenness of the misfortune doth so perplex me until I do hear from you bow the matter standeth, or how this evil should light upon me, considering what the malicious world will bruit, as I can take no rest, and because I have no way to purge myself of the malicious talk that I know the wicked world will use, but one, which is the very plain truth to be proven, I do pray you, as you have loved me, and do tender me and my quietness, and as now my special trust is in you, that you will use all the devices and means you can possible for the learning of the truth ; wherein have no respect of any living person." He then charges him to go on to Cumnor, summon the coroner and give the strictest in- junction to him to choose the " discreetest and substantial men" for the jurors, and that they should view the body and search the matter to the bottom. In conclusion, he implores Blount, "as I have ever loved you, do not dissemble with me, neither let any- thing be hid from me, but send me your true conceit and opinion of the matter, whether it happened by evil chance or by villainy." In a postscript Dudley adds, ".1 have sent for my brother Appleyard [Amye's half-brother], because he is her brother, and other her friends also to be there, that they may be privy and see how all things do proceed."

Blount had been already informed by the messenger to Dudley, whom he met, that when the death occurred all the domestics belonging to the establishment (including himself) were absent at Abingdon Fair, at the urgent desire, as he alleged, of Lady Dudley herself, "who would not that day suffer one of her own sort to tarry at home, and was so earnest to have them gone to the fair, that with any of her own sort that made reason of tarrying at home she was very angry, and came to Mrs. Odingsells, the widow that liveth with Anthony Forster, who refused that day to go to the fair, and was very angry with her also, because she said it was no day for gentle- women to go in, but said the morrow was much better, and then she would go. Whereunto my lady answered and said that she might choose and go at her pleasure, but all hers should go ; and was very angry. They asked who should keep her company if all they went. She said Mrs. Owen should keep her company at dinner." After obtaining this information from the messenger, Blount went on to Abingdon, where he passed the night, and dis- sembling his knowledge of the tragedy, and pretending he was on his way to Gloucestershire, tried to gather from the landlord of the inn what was the talk of the country about it. This seems to us to have been a very wise proceeding on his part, since it was very essential for him to learn what were the reports respecting the death outside the household at Cumnor, who might otherwise take measures after his arrival to keep any sinister opinions from his knowledge. He found the landlord reluctant to express any opinion as to the death. "Some were disposed to say well, and some evil," but being pressed, he said that for himself he judged it as "a misfortune, because it chanced in that honest

gentleman's house ; his great honesty, said 'he, doth much curb the evil thoughts of the people." He also mentioned the mes- senger's story, that "it is said how that she rose that day very early and commanded all her sort to go to the fair, and would suffer none to tarry at home, and thereof is much judged." This story of her insisting on her servants absenting themselves was, Blount says, confirmed by Pirto [seemingly her maid], "who

doth dearly love her." Pirto, in answer to his question as to whether she judged the death was "by chance or villainy," said she thought it was by "very chance, and neither done by man nor by herself. For herself [Lady Dudley], she said she was a good virtuous gentlewoman, and would daily pray upon her knees ; and, divers times, she saith, that she hath heard her pray to God to deliver her from desperation." On this, Blount remarked, "Then she might have an evil toy in her mind." "No, good Mr. Blount," said Pirto, "do not judge so of my words ; if you should so gather, I am sorry I said so much." Blount, how- ever, adds that he had heard since his arrival of divers tales of her [Lady Dudley] that made him judge her to be "a strange woman of mind." He himself cannot, however, arrive at any certain conclu- sion as to her death, except that it seemed to have been from a fall ; "but yet bow or which way," he adds, "I cannot learn," and "it passeth the judgment of any man to say how it is." He says that the jury had been already most of them chosen before his arrival, and part of them were at the house ; that they seemed to be specially wise and able men, and several of them personal enemies of Anthony Forster. On the 12th, Dudley, writing from Kew, acknowledges the receipt of Blount's letter, and repeats in strong language his injunction to the jury and to Blount to search the matter to the bottom without respect of persons. Blount writes again on the 13th, reporting that the jury were very active ; that he heard it whispered that they could find no presumption of guilt ; and that some of them were rather sorry than not, whether from malice to Forster or not he could not tell ; but his own opinion was "much quieted ;" and he now was of opinion that there was no foul play in the matter. "A letter, un- dated, but probably next in time, from Dudley to Blount, says that the foreman of the jury had written to him that although the inquiry was not yet over, for anything they could learn it was a very misfortune.' Dudley says that he was much relieved ; but for better security, after the first jury had given their verdict, he wished that there might be a second, and the investigation be pursued further ; he had desired another of the Blouuts, Sir Richard, 'a perfect honest gentleman,' to be present ; and he under- stood that Appleyard was there also, as well as Arthur Robsart " [a natural son of Amye's father]. What was the formal end of the coroner's inquiry we cannot tell, or whether one jury or two were impanelled, but the practical result seems to have been that there was no evidence brought before them which could lead to a belief of foul play. Certainly, as far as we can judge from the preceding facts, Dudley acted as an innocent man might have done ; his own presence at Cumnor would only have overawed or led to suspicions of his having overawed the jury ; and he did the best thing in urging a thorough inquiry through friends, and summoning his wife's relations to be present. He also makes in his letter no affectation of regret for her death, except as exposing him to the malice of his enemies ; and this is in favour of the sincerity of his proceedings, as it would seem some estrangement had taken place. Cecil seems to have been unable to make out a case against him at that time, and to have patched up a formal reconciliation, being satisfied probably that the suspicion and odium incurred by Dudley had disabled him for the time from his candidature for the Queen's hand. But he never really was reconciled to Dudley, and in 1566, when his pretensions as a suitor were again seriously entertained, Cecil seems to have re- opened a private examination before the Council into the cir- cumstances of the death of Lady Dudley, and to have in particular examined Blount and Appleyard. The former writes to Dudley (then Earl of Leicester) to express his sorrow that he had not been able to see the Earl before he was examined. It would seem that one of Lady Dudley's relatives had been raising questions about her death, and was secretly supported by several noblemen ; that Appleyard had been offered £1,000 if he would come forward and give evidence, and that Leicester, in an interview with Appleyard, had been so angry, that Blount thought he would have run him through the body. Appleyard, it appears from a paper in Cecil's handwriting, had "let fall words of anger, and said that for Dudley's sake he had covered the murder of his sister." Being examined by Cecil, he admitted (according to Mr. Froude's abstract of Cecil's paper) that the investigation at Cumnor had been, after all, inadequately conducted. "He said that he had oftentimes

moved the Lord Robert to give him leave, and to countenance him in the prosecution of the trial of the murder of his sister, adding that he did take the Lord Robert to be innocent thereof; but yet he thought it an easy matter to find out the offenders, affirming there- unto and showing certain circumstances that moved him to think surely that she was murdered ; whereunto he said that the Lord Robert always assured him that he thought it was not fit to deal any further in the matter, considering that by order of law it was already found otherwise, and that it was so presented by • a jury. Nevertheless the said Appleyard in his speech said upon examination that the jury had not as yet given up their verdict."

Here our evidence on the matter ends, and, on the whole, we think our verdict (as far as our present evidence goes) must be that Leicester was guiltless personally of his wife's death ; that the suspicious opportuneness of the death, the previous anticipations of it, and Blount's evident perplexity in the matter, warrant a certain probability that some of Leicester's adherents destroyed her for their own political interests, but that it is quite possible that she died by her own act in a mood of desperation, either caused by her desertion by her husband, or by continual fears of being sacrificed to his prospects of advance- ment.

We have preferred dealing at length with one portion of Mr. Adlard's volume. The other portions are much less important in an historical point of view, though the story of Leicester's son, Sir Robert Dudley, is curious, and (if it had been presented in a less cumbrous form) would have been an agreeable addition to the story of Amye Robsart.