Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/124

Dudley and gathered' among themselves money to purchase for Leicester 'a cup of silver and gilt,' and subsequently 'an ox of unusual size.'

In July 1575 Leicester entertained the queen at Kenilworth. The royal party arrived at the castle on Saturday, 9 July, and remained there till Wednesday, 27 July. As early as 1570 Leicester had begun to strengthen the fortifications of his palace, and to celebrate the queen's visit he is said to have added largely to the munition and artillery there. Elaborate pageants were arranged, and all the festivities were on an exceptionally gorgeous scale. Shakespeare is believed to have witnessed some part of the fantastic entertainments. Oberon's vision in 'Midsummer Night's Dream' (ii. 148-68) has been explaiend as a description of what the poet actually saw in Kenilworth Park. In the lines on Cupid's shaft aimed 'at a fair vestal throned by the west' and falling on 'a little western flower,' a covert hint has been detected of Leicester's relations both with the queen and Lady Sheffield (cf., Oberon's Vision Illustrated, Shakspere Soc, 1843). Two full reports of the reception accorded to Elizabeth at Kenilworth were issued in 1576 — one by Robert Laneham, clerk of the council, and the other (entitled 'Princely Pleasures at the Courte at Kenelwoorth') by George Gascoigne. In July 1576 Leicester was in ill-health, and his doctors insisted on his drinking Buxton waters.

Leicester's ambition was still unsatisfied. In September 1577 Elizabeth was contemplating the despatch of an army to fight against Spain in the Low Countries, and Leicester resolved to obtain the post of commander-in-chief. He had wholly abandoned his flirtations with Spain, and took shares in Drake's expedition, which sailed in November. Elizabeth raised no objection to Leicester's application for the generalship, but, after giving a definite promise to help the Low Countries, she suddenly, in March 1578, declined to send an army abroad. Leicester was deeply disappointed, but private affairs were again occupying him. Although unable to rid himself of Lady Sheffield, he was making love to Lettice, the widowed countess of Essex, with whose late husband, Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex [q. v.], he had been on very bad terms. When Essex died at Dublin in 1576, it was openly suggested that Leicester had poisoned him, but the report proved baseless. Lady Essex, who was well known to the queen, and interchanged gifts with her on New Year's day 1578, had long been on intimate terms with Leicester, and had stayed at Kenilworth during the festivities of 1575, while her husband was in Ireland. Early in 1578 the Duke of Anjou, now Duke d'Alençon, renewed his offer of marriage to Elizabeth, and it was seriously entertained for a second time. Astley, a gentleman of the bedchamber, reminded the queen that Leicester was still free to marry her. She grew angry and declared it would be 'unlike herself and unmindful of her royal majesty to prefer her servant whom she herself had raised before the greatest princes of Christendom' ({{sc|Camden). In 1578 Leicester, having finally abandoned all hopes of the queen's hand, married Lettice Knollys, countess of Essex. The ceremony was first performed at Kenilworth, and afterwards (21 Sept. 1578) at Wanstead, in the presence of Leicester's brother, Warwick, Lord North, Sir Francis Knollys, the lady's father, and others. Wanstead, which was henceforth a favourite home of Leicester, had been purchased a few months before, and the queen visited him there in the course of the year ({{sc|Nichols}}, Progresses, ii. 222 ). The fact of the marriage was kept carefully from Elizabeth's knowledge, although very many courtiers were in the secret. In August 1579 M. de Simier, the French ambassador, who was negotiating Alençon's marriage, suddenly broke the news to the queen. Elizabeth behaved as if she were heartbroken, and three days later promised to accept Alençon on his own terms. She ordered Leicester to confine himself to the castle of Greenwich, and talked of sending him to the Tower, but Sussex advised her to be merciful. Leicester's friends declared that he voluntarily became a prisoner in his own chamber on the pretence of taking physic ({{sc|Greville}}, Life of Sir P. Sidney).

The queen rapidly recovered from her anger and Leicester returned to court, resolved to avenge himself on De Simier, and to put an end to the French marriage scheme. He was credited with endeavouring to poison the ambassador, and when a gun was accidentally discharged at the queen's barge on the Thames, while Elizabeth, De Simier, and Leicester were upon it, it was absurdly suggested that De Simier had been shot at by one of Leicester's agents. Alençon arrived in 1580. Leicester attended him and the queen, and in February 1580-1 accompanied the duke on his way to the Low Countries as far as Antwerp by Elizabeth's order. On Leicester's return Elizabeth had an interview with him and reproached him with staying too long abroad. Rumours were spread that Leicester aimed at becoming prinee of the protestant provinces of Holland, and the queen openly charged him with conspiring with the Prince of Orange against her. Leicester did not deny that his ambition lay in the direction {{hws|indi|indicated}}