Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/120

Dudley entertain the match with the archduke, but in the following November he told Norfolk, its chief champion, that no good Englishman would allow the queen to marry a foreigner. De Quadra, De Feria's successor, reported that the queen's encouragement of Dudley's 'over-preposterous pretensions' so irritated Norfolk and other great noblemen that the murder of both sovereign and favourite had been resolved upon. In January 1559-60 De Quadra designates Dudley 'the king that is to be,' and describes his growing presumption and the general indignation excited by 'the queen's ruin.' On 13 Aug. 1560 Anne Dowe of Brentford was the first of a long line of offenders to be sent to prison for asserting that Elizabeth was with child by Dudley.

Meanwhile Lady Amy, Dudley's wife, lived for the most part in the country. Extant accounts kept by her husband's stewards show that at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign she was travelling about in Suffolk and Lincolnshire, and paid occasional visits to Christchurch, Camberwell, and London. Her most permanent home seems to have been the house of a Mr. Hyde at Denchworth, near Abingdon. Hyde had a brother William who was M.P. for Abingdon; he had bought land of Dudley's father, and was friendly with Dudley himself. Dudley's account-books show that he frequently visited Lady Amy at Mr. Hyde's in 1568 and 1559. She spent large sums on dress, for which her husband's stewards paid. A letter addressed by her to a woman tailor, William Edney of Tower Royal, respecting an elaborate costume is still preserved at Longleat. Another of her letters (Harl. MS. 4712), dated 7 Aug. (1558 or 1559), and addressed to John Flowerdew, steward of Siderstern, gives, in her husband's name, several detailed directions about the sale of some wool on the Siderstern estate, which had become the joint property of her husband and herself on her father's death in 1557. The language suggests a perfect understanding between husband and wife. Early in 1560 Lady Amy removed to Cumnor Place, which was not far from Mr. Hyde's. Anthony Forster or Forrester, the chief controller of Dudley's private expenses and a personal friend, rented Cumnor of its owner, William Owen, son of George Owen, Henry VIII's physician, to whom the house had been granted by the crown in 1546. Forster was M.P. for Abingdon in 1572, purchased Cumnor in the same year, and nothing is historically known to his discredit. Besides Forster and his wife, Lady Amy found living at Cumnor Mrs. Odingsells, a widow and a sister of Mr. Hyde of Denchworth, and Mrs. Owen, William Owen's wife. On Sunday, 8 Sept. 1560, Lady Amy is said to have directed the whole household to visit Abingdon fair. The three ladies declined to go, but only Mrs. Owen dined with Lady Amy. Late in the day the servants returned from Abingdon and found Dudley's wife lying dead at the foot of the staircase in the hall. She had been playing at tables with the other ladies, it was stated, had suddenly left the room, had fallen downstairs and broken her neck.

Dudley heard the news wbjle with the queen at Windsor, and directed a distant relative, Sir Thomas Blount, to visit Cumnor. Blount was instructed to encourage the most stringent public inquiry, and to communicate with John Appleyard, Lady Amy's half-brother. All manner of rumours were soon abroad. Mrs. Pinto, Lady Amy's maid, said that she had heard her mistress 'pray to God to deliver her from desperation,' and although she tried to remove the impression of suicide which her words excited, Dudley's reported relations with Elizabeth go far to account for Lady Amy's alleged 'desperation.' Thomas Lever, a clergyman of Sherburn, wrote to the privy council (17 Sept.) of 'the grievous and dangerous suspicion and muttering' about Lady Amy's death, and it was plainly hinted that Dudley had ordered Anthony Forster to throw Lady Amy downstairs. On 13 Sept. Dudley repeated to Blount his anxiety for a thorough and impartial investigation, and (according to his own account) corresponded with one Smith, foreman of the jury. lie added that all the jurymen were strangers to him. A verdict of mischance or accidental death was returned. Dudley seems to have suggested that a second jury should continue the inquiry, but nothing followed. On a Friday, probably 20 Sept., his wife's body was removed secretly to Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford, and on Sunday, 22 Sept., was buried with the most elaborate heraldic ceremony in St. Mary's Church. The corporation and university attended officially. Dudley was absent, and 'Mrs. Norrys, daughter and heire of the Lord Wylliams of Thame,' acted as chief mourner. John Appleyard was also present. Dr. Francis Babington [q. v.], one of Dudley's chaplains, preached the sermon, and is said to have tripped once and described the lady as 'pitifully slain' (Leicester's Commonwealth, pp. 22, 36).

That Dudley was, as Cecil wrote a few years later, 'infamed by his wife's death' is obvious. If the court gossip reported by the Spanish ambassador is to be credited, Dudley, in his desire to marry the queen, had talked of divorcing or of poisoning his wife many months before she died. De Quadra, indeed, wrote home at the time that the news of her