Amy Robsart

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Amy Robsart, painted by William Frederick Yeames , 1877

Amy Robsart (born June 7, 1532 , † September 8, 1560 in Cumnor Place , Oxfordshire, England) was the first wife of Robert Dudley , the later Earl of Leicester , and the daughter and heiress of Sir John Robsart and Elizabeth Scott.

The relationship between Robert Dudley and Amy was arranged by the parents after the two probably met in 1549. A love marriage is assumed, since Robert's father, the Duke of Northumberland , would otherwise have sought a better match. In 1550 Robert and Amy married in the presence of King Edward VI. ; the marriage remained childless. Since Queen Elizabeth I ascended to the throne in November 1558, Dudley lived mostly at court. Dudley's star at court rose, and despite his marriage he was considered a candidate for marriage for Elisabeth, as his wife was “very sick in one of her breasts” and the queen obviously had a very intimate relationship with him: “Visited him day and night in his room (e) ". It was soon rumored that Dudley had sent poison to his wife.

Amy Dudley last lived in the country house at Cumnor Place near Abingdon . On September 8, 1560, she was found dead by her servants returning home at the foot of a stone staircase. The judicial jury to clarify the cause of death recognized the accident.

Amy Dudley's cause of death remains controversial to this day. In 2008 the historian Steven Gunn found the judicial verdict on her case ("Coroner's Inquest"). This document declares her broken neck from falling down stairs to be the cause of death. In addition to a broken neck, the document speaks of two wounds on the head. Both accident and manslaughter are possible from this finding. Apart from an accident, suicide or cancer, which at an advanced stage can lead to brittle bones from metastatic deposits, are considered the most likely.

Amy Robsart's grave slab in St Mary's Church in Oxford

Robert Dudley was so compromised by widespread rumors that he had murdered his wife that marriage with him seemed too risky for Elizabeth for the time being.

Amy Robsart's fate inspired Walter Scott to write his novel Kenilworth (1821), which became a bestseller and aroused a romantic and scientific interest in the case. Kenilworth has inspired numerous historicist style paintings, plays, and operas. In Germany, Tanja Kinkel processed the case literarily ( Im Schatten der Königin , 2010).

proof

  1. ^ "Está muy mala de un pecho" in the Spanish original: Adams, Simon: Household Accounts and Disbursement Books of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester Cambridge UP 1995 p. 63
  2. ↑ Calendar of ... State Papers Relating to English Affairs ... in ... Simancas 1558-1603 ed.HMS Hume London 1892–1899 vol. I pp. 57–58
  3. ^ Adlard, George: Amy Robsart and the Earl of Leycester London 1870, p. 41
  4. ↑ Simon Adams: "Dudley, Amy, Lady Dudley (1532-1560)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. January 2011
  5. ↑ One injury was about 5cm deep, the other about 5mm. Chris Skidmore: Death and the Virgin: Elizabeth, Dudley and the Mysterious Death of Amy Robsart , 2010, p. 232
  6. ↑ Adams 2011; Skidmore 2010, pp. 230-233
  7. ^ Aird, Ian: The Death of Amy Robsart English Historical Review LXXI 1956
  8. ^ Susan Doran, Monarchy and Matrimony: The Courtships of Elizabeth I , 1996, p. 44

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personal data
SURNAME Robsart, Amy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman, wife of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1532
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1560
Place of death Cumnor Place , Oxfordshire, England