HOUSE OF DUDLEY: A New History of Tudor England

The house of Tudor is a favourite subject for film makers, and the dashing Robert Dudley who hoped to marry Queen Elizabeth I has been portrayed by a range of glamorous actors. When his first wife died from falling downstairs, Dudley was widely rumoured to have murdered her, and the author of this interesting new angle on Tudor history provides us with the full details of the autopsy and the machinations of Dudley's enemies in response to what they saw as a bid for the crown. A few years later the birth of a bastard son to Dudley's long-term mistress Douglass Sheffield was kept a secret, as was the marriage to Lettice Knollys which finally put paid to any ambitions he had to be the consort. Dudley's life thereafter continued full of intrigue, and the author describes his trip to the Netherlands at the head of an army which led to the offer of the governor-generalship of the United Provinces. On his return to England Dudley was instrumental in persuading Elizabeth to execute Mary Queen of Scots the following year. The author argues that the Dudley line of ruthless adventurers dominated the whole Tudor period, starting with Robert's grandfather Edmund who became right hand man to Henry VII through the influence of his second wife, Elizabeth Grey. Edmund's enforcing activities were directed towards the extortion of taxes, and it was he who falsely accused Agness Sunnyff of murdering a baby in order to extort money. On the accession of Henry VIII Edmund made a desperate play for the new king's favour but he lost and was executed. His son John Dudley embarked on a perilous career of service to successive monarchs, changing allegiance and religion and finally foundering on the project to bring his relation Lady Jane Grey to the throne. 534pp, colour reproductions.