On 24 Sep 1599 Robert Devereux 2nd Earl Essex (age 33) sailed from Ireland reaching London four days later.

On 28 Sep 1599 Robert Devereux 2nd Earl Essex (age 33) presented himself to Elizabeth (age 66) in her bedchamber at Nonsuch Palace [Map] where he found the queen newly up, the hair about her face. Elizabeth had just a simple robe over her nightdress, her wrinkled skin was free of cosmetics and, without her wig. Essex saw her bald head with just wisps of thinning grey hair 'hanging about her ears'. The Queen confined the Earl to his rooms with the comment that "an unruly beast must be stopped of his provender.".

On 29 Sep 1599 Robert Devereux 2nd Earl Essex (age 33) was compelled to stand before the Council during a five-hour interrogation. The Council, which included his uncle William Knollys 1st Earl Banbury (age 55), took a quarter of an hour to compile a report, which declared that his truce with O'Neill was indefensible and his flight from Ireland tantamount to a desertion of duty. He was committed to the custody of Sir Richard Berkeley (age 68) in his own York House [Map] on 1 October.