Robert Dudley

"No, Dudley!" said Elizabeth, raising him with one hand, while she extended the other that he might kiss it. "Elizabeth hath not forgotten that, whilst you were a poor gentleman, despoiled of your hereditary rank, she was as poor a princess, and that in her cause you then ventured all that oppression had left you--your life and honour. Rise, my lord, and let my hand go--rise, and be what you have ever been, the grace of our court and the support of our throne! Your mistress may be forced to chide your misdemeanours, but never without owning your merits.--And so help me God," she added, turning to the audience, who, with various feelings, witnessed this interesting scene--"so help me God, gentlemen, as I think never sovereign had a truer servant than I have in this noble Earl!"

Robert Dudley was born on August 7, 1574.  Not the Robert Dudley featured in Walter Scott’s “Kenilworth”, but his son.  Robert was illegitimate, and was born 14 years after Dudley’s first wife Amy Robsart died.   

The younger Robert ultimately inherited Kenilworth Castle, but not the titles his father held; though he tried, claiming that his mother, Lady Douglas Sheffield had been secretly married to his father.  Dudley made his mark as an explorer and cartographer.

Amy Robsart

'He left, therefore, the Countess's door unsecured on the outside, and, under the eye of Varney, withdrew the supports which sustained the falling trap, which, therefore, kept its level position merely by a slight adhesion. They withdrew to wait the issue on the ground-floor adjoining; but they waited long in vain. At length Varney, after walking long to and fro, with his face muffled in his cloak, threw it suddenly back and exclaimed, "Surely never was a woman fool enough to neglect so fair an opportunity of escape!"
"Perhaps she is resolved," said Foster, "to await her husband's return."


"True!--most true!" said Varney, rushing out; "I had not thought of that before."

In less than two minutes, Foster, who remained behind, heard the tread of a horse in the courtyard, and then a whistle similar to that which was the Earl's usual signal. The instant after the door of the Countess's chamber opened, and in the same moment the trap-door gave way. There was a rushing sound--a heavy fall--a faint groan--and all was over...'

The real-life Amy Robsart did die a suspicious death, as portrayed in Walter Scott's "Kenilworth" (text above), and was found at the bottom of a flight of stairs at Cumnor Place.  In 1558, Amy's husband Robert Dudley joined Elizabeth I's court.  Elizabeth and Dudley were close, and possibly intimate.  Amy may have felt betrayed, and become despondent.  Many death scenarios are possible, none proven.  In Scott's novel, Richard Varney, Dudley's vassal, is the villain.  Amy Robsart died on September 8, 1560.

Dudley Marries Amy Robsart

The heroine of Walter Scott's "Kenilworth" was Amy Robsart.  Amy was the daughter of Sir John Robsart and Elizabeth Scott.  Amy Robsart and Robert Dudley, son of Earl John Dudley of Warwick, married on June 4, 1550.

Amy Robsart is most famous for her mysterious death.  She died of a broken neck (1560), and was found at the bottom of a set of stairs at Cumnor Place.  Supposition has it that she was either murdered, to make way for a marriage between Dudley and Queen Elizabeth I.  Another possibility is suicide.

In "Kenilworth", Scott portrays the marriage between Dudley and Robsart as secret; necessarily so due to Dudley's position at Elizabeth's court:

"...Varney kneeled down, and replied, with a look of the most profound contrition, "There had been some love passages betwixt him and Mistress Amy Robsart."


Leicester's flesh quivered with indignation as he heard his dependant make this avowal, and for one moment he manned himself to step forward, and, bidding farewell to the court and the royal favour, confess the whole mystery of the secret marriage. But he looked at Sussex, and the idea of the triumphant smile which would clothe his cheek upon hearing the avowal sealed his lips. "Not now, at least," he thought, "or in this presence, will I afford him so rich a triumph." And pressing his lips close together, he stood firm and collected, attentive to each word which Varney uttered, and determined to hide to the last the secret on which his court-favour seemed to depend. Meanwhile, the Queen proceeded in her examination of Varney.


"Love passages!" said she, echoing his last words; "what passages, thou knave? and why not ask the wench's hand from her father, if thou hadst any honesty in thy love for her?"..."

Elizabeth I

Today, in 1533, Elizabeth I was born. Elizabeth was depicted in Scott's "Kenilworth", that being the castle of Elizabeth's favorite, Robert Dudley. The story line covered the death, and possible murder of Amy Robsart, Dudley's first wife. Scott's novel may have been inspired by a ballad he knew from his youth, William Julius Mickle's Cumnor Hall. As Scott's biographer Lockhart asserts, Cumnor Hall was the original name of the novel. Scott's publisher, Constable, insisted the name be Kenilworth, which is how the novel was published.