Biography of Amy Robsart 1532-1560
On 07 Jun 1532 Amy Robsart was born to John Robsart of Syderstone Hall.
Diary of Edward VI. 04 Jun 1550. Sir [her husband] Robert Dudeley (age 17), third sonne to th'erle of Warwic (age 46), maried sir Jon Robsartes daughter (age 17)1, after wich mariage ther were certain gentlemen that did strive who shuld first take away a gose's heade, wich was hanged alive on tow crose postes.
Note 1. Whlst popular tradition, the ballad by Mickle, and Sir Walter Scott's romance of Kemlworth, had made the name of Amy Robsart exceedingly familiar, very little was formerly known of her actual history. That deficiency was in some measure supplied by a memoir of her, published in the Gentleman's Magazine for Dec. 1845, New Series, vol. xxiv. p. 595, to which was subsequently appended, in vol. xxxiv. p. 123, the account of her funeral at Oxford. Five letters relative to her mysterious death were also published in 1850, — nearly simultaneously in a new edition of Pepys's Diary, by Lord Braybrooke; and also in The Romance of the Peerage, by Mr. G. L. Craik (see the Gentleman's Magazine, New Series, vol. xxxiii. p. 255).
On 04 Jun 1550 Robert Dudley 1st Earl of Leicester (age 17) and Amy Robsart (age 17) were married at Sheen Palace [Map]. King Edward VI of England and Ireland (age 12) and William Cecil 1st Baron Burghley (age 29) attended. He the son of John Dudley 1st Duke Northumberland (age 46) and Jane Guildford Duchess Northumberland (age 41).
Henry Machyn's Diary. On or after 29 Aug 1560. The (blank) day of August was bered my lade Dudley (age 28) the wyff of my [her husband] lord Robart Dudley (age 28) the master of the quen('s) horse, with a grett baner of armes and a vj baners-rolles of armes, and a viij dosen penselles and viij dosen skochyons, and iiij grett skochyons of armes, and iiij haroldes, master Garter (age 50), master Clarenshux (age 50), master Lanckostur, and (blank).... with ij harolds, master Clarenshux (age 50) and , and a standard and a pennon of armes, a cot armur, helmett, and crest, and mantylles, and sword, and a viij dosen of skochyons of armes and vj of bokeram, and [many] mornars in blake, and ther was grett [dinner and] a dolle of mones [money] as many as cam.
Note. P. 242. Funeral of lady Amy Dudley. The name of "Amy Robsart" is invested with a prevailing interest as the heroine of poetry and romance. I have collected what is known of her, and endeavoured to sift the mysterious rumours of her assassination, in a memoir which appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for December, 1845. I have now to append the following additional memorial: "Lady Amie Robsert, late wyff to the right noble the lord Robert Dudley, knight and companyon of the most noble order of the garter, and master of the horsse to the quenes moste excellent majestie, dyed on sonday the 8. of Septembre at a howsse of Mr. Foster, iij. myles from Oxford, in the 2. yere of quene Elizabeth, 1560, and was beryed on sonday the 22. of September next enshewenge in our Lady churche of Oxford." (MS. Harl. 897, f. 80b.)
On 08 Sep 1560, the day of the Abingdon Fair, Amy Robsart (age 28) died from falling down stairs at Cumnor Place Abingdon [Map]. She was married to [her husband] Robert Dudley 1st Earl of Leicester (age 28), favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland (age 27), who was with Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland (age 27) at Windsor Castle [Map] at the time. Foul play was suspected but not proven. The event was regarded as suspicious by many. The Queen's reputation being tarnished she could not risk a marriage with Dudley.
The inquest into her death concluded ...
Inquisition as indenture held at Cumnor [Map] in the aforesaid county [Oxfordshire] on 9 September in the second year of the reign of the most dread Lady Elizabeth, by the grace of God queen of England, France, and Ireland, defend of the faith, etc., before John Pudsey, gent, a coroner of the said lady queen in the aforesaid county, on inspection of the body of Lady Amy Dudley, late wife of Robert Dudley, knight of the most noble order of the garter, there lying dead: by oath of Richard Smith, gent., Humphrey Lewis, gent., Thomas Moulder, gent., Richard Knight, Thomas Spyre, Edward Stevenson, John Stevenson, Richard Hughes, William Cantrell, William Noble, John Buck, John Keene, Henry Lanlgey, Stephen Ruffyn, and John Sire: which certain jurors, sworn to tell the truth at our request, were adjourned from the aforesaid ninth day onwards day by day very often; and finally various several days were given to them by the selfsame coroner to appear both before the justices of the aforesaid lady queen at the assizes assigned to be held in the aforesaid county and before the same coroner in order there to return their verdict truthfully and speedily, until 1 August in the third year of the reign of the said lady queen; on which day the same jurors say under oath that the aforesaid Lady Amy on 8 September in the aforesaid second year of the reign of the said lady queen, being alone in a certain chamber within the home of a certain Anthony Forster, esq., in the aforesaid Cumnor, and intending to descend the aforesaid chamber by way of certain steps (in English called 'steyres') of the aforesaid chamber there and then accidentally fell precipitously down the aforesaid steps to the very bottom of the same steps, through which the same Lady Amy there and then sustained not only two injuries to her head (in English called 'dyntes') - one of which was a quarter of an inch deep and the other two inches deep - but truly also, by reason of the accidental injury or of that fall and of Lady Amy's own body weight falling down the aforesaid stairs, the same Lady Amy there and then broke her own neck, on account of which certain fracture of the neck the same Lady Amy there and then died instantly; and the aforesaid Lady Amy was found there and then without any other mark or wound on her body; and thus the jurors say on their oath that the aforesaid Lady Amy in the manner and form aforesaid by misfortune came to her death and not otherwise, as they are able to agree at present; in testimony of which fact for this inquest both the aforesaid coroner and also the aforesaid jurors have in turn affixed their seals on the day.
On 21 Sep 1578 [her husband] Robert Dudley 1st Earl of Leicester (age 46) and Lettice Knollys Countess Essex (age 34) were married secretly much to the anguish of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland (age 45) who developed a deep hatred of Lettice Knollys Countess Essex (age 34). She by marriage Countess of Leicester. Roger North 2nd Baron North (age 48) was present. He the son of John Dudley 1st Duke Northumberland and Jane Guildford Duchess Northumberland.
On 04 Sep 1588 [her husband] Robert Dudley 1st Earl of Leicester (age 56) died at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire. He was buried at Beauchamp Chapel, St Mary's Church, Warwick [Map]. Earl of Leicester extinct.
