Lettice Knollys

Lettice Knollys ( , sometimes latinized as Laetitia; 8 November 1543 – 25 December 1634) was an English noblewoman and mother to the courtiers Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Penelope, Lady Rich. She was Countess of Essex during her first marriage to Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex and became Countess of Leicester after her second marriage to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. She was also the granddaughter of Mary Boleyn. With her marriage to her cousin Elizabeth I's favourite, she incurred the Queen's unrelenting displeasure.

A great-niece of Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn, and close to Elizabeth since childhood, Lettice Knollys was introduced early into court life. At 17 she married Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford, who in 1572 became Earl of Essex. After her husband went to Ireland in 1573, she possibly became involved with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. There was plenty of scandalous talk, not least when Essex died in Ireland of dysentery in 1576. Two years later on 20 Sep 1578, Lettice Knollys was married to Robert Dudley in private by his chaplain Humphrey Tyndall. When the Queen was told of the marriage, she banished the Countess forever from court, effectively curtailing her social life. The couple's child, Robert, Lord Denbigh, died at the age of three, to the great grief of his parents and ending all prospects for the continuance of the House of Dudley. Lettice Knollys' union with Leicester was nevertheless a happy one, as was her third marriage to the much younger Sir Christopher Blount, whom she unexpectedly married in 1589 only six months after the Earl's death. She continued to style herself Lady Leicester.

The Countess was left rich under Leicester's will; yet the discharge of his overwhelming debts diminished her wealth. In 1604–1605 she successfully defended her widow's rights in court when her possessions and her good name were threatened by the Earl's illegitimate son, Robert Dudley, who claimed that he was his father's legitimate heir, thus implicitly declaring her marriage bigamous. Lettice Knollys was always close to her large family circle. Helpless at the political eclipse of her eldest son, the second Earl of Essex, she lost both him and her third husband to the executioner in 1601. From the 1590s she lived chiefly in the Staffordshire countryside, where, in reasonably good health until the end, she died at age 91 on Christmas Day 1634.

Family and upbringing

Lettice Knollys was born on 8 November 1543 at Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire. Her mother, Catherine Carey, was a daughter of Mary Boleyn, sister to Anne Boleyn. Thus Catherine was Elizabeth I's first cousin, and Lettice Knollys her first cousin once removed. Lettice was the third of her parents' 16 children.

Sir Francis and his wife were Protestants. Her parents and the remainder of the family returned to England in January 1559, two months after Elizabeth I's succession. Lettice Devereux returned to court on at least one occasion, in the summer of 1565, when the Spanish ambassador Diego Guzmán de Silva described her as "one of the best-looking ladies of the court" and as a favourite with the Queen. Pregnant with her first son, she flirted with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the Queen's favourite. The Viscountess retired to Herefordshire where, in November 1565, she gave birth to Robert, later 2nd Earl of Essex. Two more sons followed: Walter, who was born in 1569, and Francis, who died soon after birth at an unknown date.

Walter Devereux was raised to the earldom of Essex in 1572. Elizabeth and the court (including the Earl of Leicester) then progressed to Chartley, where they were welcomed by the Countess of Essex.

When Walter Devereux returned to England in December 1575, the Spanish agent in London, Antonio de Guaras, reported:<blockquote>As the thing is publicly talked of in the streets, there can be no harm in my writing openly about the great enmity between the Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Essex, in consequence, it is said, of the fact that while Essex was in Ireland his wife had two children by Leicester. ... Great discord is expected in consequence.</blockquote>

These rumours were elaborated on years later in Leicester's Commonwealth, a Catholic underground libel against the Protestant Earl of Leicester that satirically detailed his alleged enormities. Here the Countess of Essex, after having a daughter by Leicester, kills a second child "cruelly and unnaturally" by abortion to prevent her homecoming husband from discovering her affair. There is no evidence that any such children ever existed. Rumours of poison, administered by Leicester, immediately sprang up and continued, notwithstanding an official investigation which concluded that Essex had died of natural causes. His body was carried over to Carmarthen, where his widow attended the funeral. She partly lived in her father's house at Rotherfield Greys, but also with friends; Leicester's Commonwealth claimed that Leicester had her move "up and down the country from house to house by privy ways". After seven months of wrangling, she reached a more satisfactory settlement, the Countess declaring to be "content to respect my children more than myself".

Marriage to Leicester and banishment from court

thumb|[[Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1575, aged about 43]]

Lettice Knollys married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester on 21 September 1578 at around seven o'clock in the morning. Only six other people were present at the Earl's country house of Wanstead Hall in Essex; among these were the bride's father and brother, Francis and Richard Knollys; the bridegroom's brother, Ambrose, Earl of Warwick; and his two friends, the Earl of Pembroke and Lord North. The officiating chaplain Humphrey Tyndall later remarked that the bride wore a "loose gown" (an informal morning dress), Even Lady Leicester's movements through London were resented by the Queen, let alone summer visits to Kenilworth by husband and wife.

Robert Dudley had been close to the Knollys family since the early 1550s; several of Lettice's brothers had been in his service, and his marriage only enhanced his relations with her siblings. To his four stepchildren he was a concerned and generous stepfather. The Dudleys' domestic life is partly documented in the Earl's accounts. and remained largely excluded from society life. Leicester stayed away from his court duties for a few weeks "to comfort my sorrowful wife for the loss of my little son, whom God has lately taken from us." He thanked Lord Burghley for—unsuccessfully—pleading with the Queen "on behalf of my poor wife. For truly my Lord, in all reason she is hardly dealt with."

In 1585 Leicester led an English expedition to assist the rebellious United Provinces against Spain. He incurred Elizabeth's wrath when he accepted the title of Governor-General in January 1586. What had especially kindled her fury was a tale that the Countess of Leicester was planning to follow her husband to the Netherlands "with such a train of ladies, and gentlewomen, and such rich coaches, litters, and side-saddles, as Her Majesty had none, and that there should be such a court of ladies, as should far pass Her Majesty's court here." Thomas Dudley, who informed Leicester about these events, stressed that "this information" was "most false".

The Earl returned to England in December 1586, but was sent again to the Netherlands in the following June—to the grief of his wife, as the young Earl of Essex remarked in a letter. The Earl's funeral at Warwick in October 1588 was attended by his widow as well as numerous members of her family circle.

Blount and Essex

thumb|150px|Lettice Knollys, c.1595, by [[Nicholas Hilliard]]

Lettice Dudley was left a wealthy widow. Leicester's will appointed her as executrix and her income from both her husbands' jointures amounted to £3,000 annually, to which came plate and movables worth £6,000. However, her jointure was to suffer greatly from paying off Leicester's debts, which at some £50,000 were so overwhelming that she was advised to decline the responsibility of dealing with her husband's financial legacy. The marriage was a great surprise, and the Earl of Essex complained that it was an "unhappy choice". In the face of tittle-tattle that had reached even France,—explained her choice with being a defenceless widow; like her marriage to Leicester, the union proved to be a "genuinely happy" one.

left|thumb|Lettice's eldest son, [[Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, ]]

Lettice's second son, Walter Devereux, died 1591 in France while on military duty at the siege of Rouen and in subsequent years she was anxious for her elder son's safety. She addressed him "Sweet Robin", longing for his letters and helpless about his moodiness and depression. In 1593, she sold Leicester House to him, after which it became known as Essex House. She moved to Drayton Bassett near Chartley in Staffordshire, which would be her main residence for the rest of her life. She travelled to London, staying at Essex House from January till March 1598, Her efforts to get sight of her son made matters worse: "Mislike is taken that his mother and friends have been in a house that looks into York Garden where he uses to walk, and have saluted each other out of a window."

Litigation and old age

thumb|upright|left|[[Effigy of Lettice Knollys, Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick]]

The executions and attainders of Essex and Blount led to a legal dispute over the Countess of Leicester's remaining property. In this context she claimed that Blount, in the process of paying off Leicester's debts, had squandered her jewels and much of her landed wealth.

In 1603, Dudley initiated moves to prove that he was the legitimate son of his parents and thus the heir to the earldoms of Warwick and Leicester. If successful, this claim would not only have implied that Lettice Knollys' union with Leicester had been bigamous, but have nullified her jointure rights. Until their respective deaths in 1607 and 1619, her daughters Penelope and Dorothy were her closest companions. The young third Earl of Essex, also called Robert, shared much of his life with the old Countess at Chartley and Drayton Bassett. Widely mourned as a symbol of a by-gone age, she wished to be buried "at Warwick by my dear lord and husband the Earl of Leicester with whom I desire to be entombed". Her request was respected and she came to rest in the Beauchamp Chapel of Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick, opposite the tomb of her son, young Lord Denbigh.

| 5 =5. Lettice Penystone

| 7 =7. Mary Boleyn

| 9 =9. Elizabeth Troutbeck

| 12=12. Sir Thomas Carey

| 13=13. Margaret Spencer

| 15=15. Elizabeth Howard

Notes

Citations

References

Adams, Simon (ed.) (1995): Household Accounts and Disbursement Books of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1558–1561, 1584–1586 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Adams, Simon (2002): Leicester and the Court: Essays in Elizabethan Politics Manchester: Manchester University Press
Adams, Simon (2008a): "Dudley, Lettice, countess of Essex and countess of Leicester (1543–1634)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-06-27
Adams, Simon (2008b): "Dudley, Robert, earl of Leicester (1532/3–1588)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. May 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-03
Adams, Simon (2008c): "Dudley, Sir Robert (1574–1649)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-03
Bruce, John (ed.) (1844): Correspondence of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leycester, during his Government of the Low Countries, in the Years 1585 and 1586 London: Camden Society
Freedman, Sylvia (1983): Poor Penelope: Penelope Rich. An Elizabethan Woman London: The Kensal Press
Hammer, P.E.J. (1999): The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics: The Political Career of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex 1585–1597 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Hammer, P.E.J. (2008): "Blount, Sir Christopher (1555/6–1601)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Jan. 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-04
Hume, Martin (ed.) (1896): Calendar of...State Papers Relating to English Affairs...in...Simancas 1558–1603 Vol. III London: HMSO
Jenkins, Elizabeth (2002): Elizabeth and Leicester London: The Phoenix Press
Lacey, Robert (1971): Robert, Earl of Essex: An Elizabethan Icarus London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Slater, Victor (2007): "Knollys, William, first earl of Banbury (c.1545–1632)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Oct 2007 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-11
Varlow, Sally (2007): The Lady Penelope: The Lost Love and Politics in the Court of Elizabeth I London: André Deutsch
Wilson, Derek (1981): Sweet Robin: A Biography of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester 1533–1588 London: Hamish Hamilton