Robert Dudley, styled Earl of Warwick

Robert Dudley (7 August, 1574 Sheen Palace, Surrey – 6 September, 1649 Florence) was the son of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and the author of Dell'Arcano del Mare.

Life Account

Robert Dudley was Leicester's son by the earl's secret relationship with Lady Douglas Sheffield, a daughter of William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham. The Earl of Leicester is thought to have married her in 1573, but always denied it. He died in 1588. Sixteen years later, Robert brought the matter to the attention of the Star Chamber, seeking to establish his claim to the title of Earl of Leicester and the right to inherit his uncle Ambrose Dudley's estate of Warwick Castle, Ambrose having no recorded issue.

Related Topics:
Lady Douglas Sheffield - William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham - 1573 - Star Chamber - Earl of Leicester - Ambrose Dudley - Warwick Castle

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Under oath, Douglas swore that Leicester had solemnly contracted to marry her in Cannon Row, Westminster in 1571 and that the marriage was at Esher in Surrey in May 1573. The Star Chamber failed to pronounce against the validity of the marriage, rejecting the evidence, arresting several of the witnesses to the marriage, to fine them for perjury or subordination. The papers in the case were impounded in the interests of ‘Public policy’ to prevent the issue from being raised again.

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Robert had entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1587 with the status of an Earl's son. On his father's death in 1588 Robert, aged fourteen inherited substantial property under the earl's will, and in the following year the property of Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick. It was at the age of nineteen in 1592 that young Robert first married, to a sister of Sir Thomas Cavendish, and from his father-in-law Robert gained a couple of ships with which he intended to harass the Spaniards in the southern seas. Although he did not win government approval for his plans, ships being valuable and his youth at the age of twenty depriving him of any experience, he managed to slip away to the West Indies and enthusiastically set about raiding Spanish shipping off Trinidad and then adventuring up the hitherto unexplored Orinoco river where he put his name to an island he discovered, calling it proudly 'Dudleiana'.

Related Topics:
Christ Church, Oxford - Thomas Cavendish - West Indies - Trinidad - Orinoco river

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In 1594-5 he commanded an expedition to the West Indies and the Guiana coast of South America. It was only after this bold venture that he returned to join his cousin Essex to serve as a commander on a vessel in the attack on Cadiz, (1596) for which he was knighted. Dudley fell from favour at the English court for his philandering and ill-considered support in the Essex rebellion.

Related Topics:
West Indies - Guiana - Cadiz - Essex

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In 1605, under the pressure of religious persecution, he left England to settle in Tuscany, Italy. He was accompasnied by his lover and cousin Elizabeth Southwell disguised as a page. Elizabeth was daughter of Sir Robert Southwell and Lady Elizabeth Howard, granddaughter of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham and Catherine Carey. He ‘married’ her by a Papal dispensation and settled in Florence having declared himself a Roman Catholic. When ordered to return home to provide for his deserted wife and family, he refused, and was outlawed, with his property being confiscated.

Related Topics:
1605 - Tuscany - Italy - Lady Elizabeth Howard - Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham - Catherine Carey - Florence - Roman Catholic

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From 1606 until his death in 1649 he lived in Florence and was an influential member of the Court under the patronage of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, a member of the Medici family. He continued his contact with the English Court by sending letters to King James I 'on the art of controlling refractory Parliaments', and he corresponded with the young Henry, Prince of Wales, on the subjects of navigation and shipbuilding.

Related Topics:
Medici family - James I - Henry, Prince of Wales

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Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor created him Duca di Northumbria in 1620. Dudley's third marriage, to Elizabeth Southwell, the daughter of Sir Robert Southwell and Lady Elizabeth Howard produced as many as at least 11 potential heirs but the European title fell into abeyance on the death of Ferdinando Dudley in 1757.

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Dudley was a skilled mathematician and architect, master of navigation, a designer of warships, practiced in medicine, instrument making, and cartography. Brilliant and ambitious, he became a skilled navigator, engineer, and chart maker, to the extent of making a voyage of discovery undertaken in the spirit of Sir Francis Drake, however like his father before him he acquired a reputation as a bigamist and privateer. Whilst in the service of the grand-duke he is said to have done some fighting against the Barbary pirates.

Related Topics:
Francis Drake - Barbary pirates

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Lady Alice (ne Leigh) Dudley, (daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh and Katherine, daughter of Sir John Spencer), whom he had married in 1596 and by whom he had four known daughters, and who was left behind some years later after his failed appeal to the Star Chamber, was created Duchess in 1645, the patent which recognises her husbands legitimacy conferring the precedence of a Duke’s daughters on her surviving children was confirmed by Charles II in 1660, legitimising its English status, having originally been granted to her by Ferdinand II.

Related Topics:
1596 - Charles II - Ferdinand II

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The Lady Alice died in 1668/9, at the age of 90, her Peerage thereafter seems to have fallen ‘extinct’. Of the Duchess of Dudley’s children it is recorded Alicia was born at Kenilworth Castle in 1597, but died young in 1621. Frances married Sir Gilbert Knifeton of Bradley, Derbyshire, she lived until 1644, but also died without issue and was likewise buried at St. Giles.

Related Topics:
Kenilworth - Derbyshire

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Another daughter was Katherine who married Sir Richard Leverson of Trentham. She lived until 1673. The other recorded daughter of the duchess being Lady Anne Dudley who married the Lawyer Sir Robert Holborne.

Related Topics:
Lady Anne Dudley - Sir Robert Holborne

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