BESS's BOYS

See Also: DEVELOPMENTS Dr Nicholas Barbon; ESTATES The Cecil Estates; LOCAL GOVERNMENT Cambridgeshire; THE TOWER OF LONDON Prisoners, Sir Walter Raleigh; TOWNHOUSES, DISAPPEARED

Queen Elizabeth I was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She acceded to the throne of England in 1558. She appointed Robert Dudley to be the royal household's Master of the Horse. Their close association dated back to their childhoods. While their relationship was chaste, he was the central figure in her emotional life. She required him to be at court almost continuously.

From time to time, in order to try to best serve the interests of the state, each of them tried to promote the marriage of the other. At one point, Elizabeth, in one of her less realistic moods, put forward the idea that Dudley could marry Mary Queen of Scots and that the couple would then live at the English court. For diplomatic reasons, her own suitors included the French prince Henri duc d Anjou, who was eighteen years her junior, and subsequently his younger brother Fran ois duc d Alen on. As matters turned out, she and the latter prince spent several days together at Greenwich Palace and discovered that they enjoyed being in one another's company. (A marriage did not come about because parties that were opposed to the prospective union whipped up public opinion against it.)

For several years Dudley was married to Amy Robsart. Elizabeth regarded the woman as being an irrelevance and did not create a role for her within the court. The Dudleys lived separate lives. In 1560 Amy broke her neck and expired. A coroner's jury ruled that she had died by misadventure. For the rest of the favourite s life, the circumstances of her death were to engender rumours and conjecture. However, in the present, her demise enabled him to devote more time to serving the queen.

Despite coming from one of the country's principal noble families, Dudley, as a younger son, had no territorial base of his own. In 1563 Elizabeth gave him a number of estates that were located in Warwickshire and North Wales. These, together with a number of subsequent bestowals that the monarch was to make, were to render him one of the country's principal landowners. In 1564 she conferred the Earldom of Leicester upon him.

At Elizabeth's accession, her other close associates had included William Cecil, whom she had appointed to be her Secretary of State. He did not have an emotional bond with her in the way that the earl did. However, he was an administrator of great ability. He and the monarch developed a relationship in which they shared many views and in which she trusted him.

Leicester, through his ability to influence the distribution of royal patronage, sought to develop a personal following that was akin to those that had been possessed by the feudal magnates of the 14^thC. By contrast, Cecil did not seek to build up one. The latter was a bureaucrat not an aspirant warlord. He had clients but, for the most part, he bestowed favours as a form of political horse-trading. In such instances, he regarded himself as being owed a debt that was commensurate to the benefit that he had been responsible for. He did not expect the beneficiary of his endorsement to be prepared to follow him into battle in the way that was implied by the relationship that the earl sought to foster with his own adherents.

For most of her reign Elizabeth succeeded in having a high level of collegiality within her Privy Council. The body s members debated issues freely amongst themselves. While particular individuals might have a tendency to agree with one another on a range of issues, these associations did not harden into being factions. The opposition that individuals expressed towards specific matters was a sincere expression of opinion rather than being instances of opportunistic positioning that was intended to garner some future advantage. Ultimately, it was the queen who made the important decisions of state. Once her will was known, her servants sought to realise it. They did this irrespective of whatever their previously voiced views might have been.

Leicester s outlook was more ardently Protestant than Elizabeth's was. His position on the religious spectrum did not act as a bar upon him having at least one mistress and maintaining a company of actors.¹ In 1568 religious conflicts broke out in both the Low Countries and France. Dutch and French Protestants made appeals to the queen for aid. The earl believed that the monarch should answer these calls; she was not as inclined to do so as he wished she might be. Concurrently, Spain resolved the various issues that had been causing her to concentrate upon the Mediterranean region.² Therefore, Madrid was able to start addressing issues in the northern European portion of her vast empire. This included The Netherlands.

Elizabeth raised Cecil to the peerage as Baron Burghley in 1571. The following year he moved offices from the Secretaryship of State to the Lord Treasurership.

The previous year Leicester had acquired Paget Place, a property that lay to the south-west of Temple Bar. The house and its grounds were to be his principal London residence for the rest of his life. The mansion was renamed Leicester House. In the months that followed, the earl began an affair with Lady Sheffield, who was a widow.³

Christopher Hatton had been a figure within the court's social aspect for several years. In 1572 Elizabeth made a number of gestures that indicated that he was a rising figure in her esteem. These included appointing him to be the Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard. This was the first time in the reign that anyone had been built up as a new favourite. The commoner never sought to challenge Leicester's pre-eminence in the queen's affections. The two men developed a respectful mutual accord. Unlike the earl, Hatton never married nor did he seek to build up a following. The intellect that he employed to strike the poses of courtly love that entertained the queen also enabled him to act as one of her senior officers of state. However, in matters of policy he was always to be someone who responded to developments rather than being a person who sought to initiate them.

Towards the end of 1573 Elizabeth conferred the Secretaryship of State upon the diplomat Francis Walsingham. This appointment was welcomed by both Leicester and Burghley. Walsingham viewed himself as being their junior colleague. While his stature was to grow, he never enjoyed a close rapport with Elizabeth and so never became a figure of the first order. He was given to nagging her about state business. She tolerated this behaviour. Perhaps, in part, the forbearance stemmed from the fact that they shared a mordant sense of humour.

Spain s residual authority within the Low Countries collapsed in 1576. Subsequently, it became apparent that Madrid was prepared to devote extensive resources towards trying to re-impose her will upon the rebel provinces. Elizabeth and Burghley hoped that an alliance of England and France might be able to induce Spain to allow The Netherlands a degree of autonomy that might satisfy the rebels aspirations. Leicester came to increasingly desire some form of military intervention, whether on a formal basis or an informal one; for him it held out the prospect of martial glory. Walsingham leaned towards the earl's stance on the issue although his reasons for doing so were rooted in pragmatism. Contemporary social attitudes meant that, as a woman, the queen was unable to participate in military campaigns. Part of the reason for her wishing that England should not engage in an overseas adventure was that it would involve her making a major, temporary delegation of an important part of her authority.

At some point after the summer of 1578 Leicester married the widowed Countess of Essex.⁴ Elizabeth's regard for him was unaltered by this development. However, her attitude towards the new countess was hostile. The queen chose to adopt the view that the woman, by marrying the earl, had wronged Lady Sheffield. Whenever the peer attended court, which was how he spent most of his time, he did so by himself.

Walter Raleigh came from a background that, while it had some connections to the court, was not closely associated with it. Among his kinsmen were several experienced sailors. As a young man he served both at sea and as a soldier. In the early 1580s he decided to try to establish himself as a figure within the court. He was able to gain access to it and succeeded in catching the interest of Elizabeth. He was an ardent bibliophile and had already developed a considerable intellectual hinterland. This compounded his other appeals for her.

The favours that Elizabeth conferred upon Raleigh included the use of Durham House, the former London residence of the Bishops of Durham. However, for all the charms that the West Countryman was able to exercise upon the queen, he was an incomplete courtier. In contrast to Hatton, who had no enemies, Raleigh's often acid tongue riled many of those with whom he spent time. Such people came to look upon him as being an intruder within their community.⁵

In early 1585 it became apparent that the French were not going to aid the Dutch. If the revolt in the Low Countries failed then Spain would both have the provinces resources at her disposal and an excellent forward base from which to launch an invasion of England at a time of King Philip's own choosing. Therefore, Elizabeth and Burghley decided that England should aid the rebels militarily. A formal treaty of alliance was concluded with them. Leicester was appointed to command an English expedition. The earl had spent most of his adult life being a courtier. Therefore, he should have admitted that he had insufficient military experience to accept the position.

Many of those who accompanied Leicester to the Low Countries were members of the personal following that he had developed. Once he had arrived in the theatre of war, he came to appreciate that Elizabeth and his hosts had agendas that were different from one another and that both parties expected him to fulfil their own particular wishes. Given the limited resources of his expeditionary force and the slow, multi-participant nature of Dutch decision-making, the peer found himself to be mired.

The English soldiers took to bickering amongst themselves. The earl's situation was made worse by the fact that bad weather conditions meant that communications across the North Sea were impossible for weeks at a time. However strong the queen's affections for the peer were, as a political survivor, paranoia was her default outlook. As a result, her letters to him were steeped in reproach and suspicion.

At Leicester's request Elizabeth had allowed him to resign from the Mastership of the Horse. Then, also at his behest, she had appointed his stepson Essex to the vacant office. The young earl soon caught her attention. It became apparent to Leicester that the youth had the potential to act as a means of undercutting Raleigh's place within the monarch's regards.

Essex was not the same type of favourite as Leicester and Hatton were. They were people of the same generation as Elizabeth. They appreciated just how close England was to slipping back into the anarchy of civil war. As with Burghley and Walsingham, their actions were always tempered by a knowledge of how thin the socio-political veneer was and of how much there was at risk. Essex was too young to have this worldview. As a result, ultimately, he did not possess the self-restraint that their actions were informed by. There may have been a maternal aspect in the queen's relationship with him. This would have made it different from her attitude towards her contemporaries. She and the earl developed an intense bond that upon occasion ignited into their having blazing rows with one another.

In 1587 Hatton stepped down as the Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard in order to become Lord Chancellor.⁶ The former office was conferred upon Raleigh. At the end of the year Leicester returned to court; Burghley expressed solidarity with him. The peer s homecoming prompted Elizabeth to make a series of generous gifts to his stepson Essex.

The following year Spain launched the Armada against England. The expedition failed.

In September Leicester died. Subsequently, the simmering rivalry that had developed between Essex and Raleigh flared up. At one point Elizabeth and the Privy Council had to order the pair not to duel one another. The young peer was supported by many senior courtiers, including Burleigh and Hatton. He was regarded by them as being one of their own, whereas the West Countryman was held to be an arriviste.

Both the commoner and the peer had obstinate temperaments. They also had similar political outlooks. With time, their mutual competitiveness tempered in part so that they were able to co-operate with one another on some issues. However, they both appreciated that in essence they were adversaries.

Essex had a talent for first antagonising Elizabeth and then being able to induce her to forgive him. In 1590 he secretly married Walsingham's daughter. When the queen learnt of the match, she was furious. With time her rage subsided. However, the new Countess of Essex was never given any scope to become a figure within the court.

Walsingham died the same year. Elizabeth declined to appoint anyone to the vacant Secretaryship of State. Burghley assumed the execution of the office's functions while continuing to be Lord Treasurer. In order to help him address his increased workload, he used the services of his younger son Robert, who proved to be a gifted and industrious administrator.

Raleigh s mistress was Bess Throckmorton, who was one of Elizabeth's Maids of Honour. Miss Throckmorton became pregnant and she and Raleigh wed in secret in late 1591. The following spring the queen learnt of what had happened. Her displeasure at it was intense. Both husband and wife had restrictions placed upon where they might go. At the start of the autumn the couple's situation was improved after a privateering expedition that the West Countryman had sent out to The Azores returned with a large haul of treasure.

Essex had witnessed the martial phase of Leicester's career. This may have been a factor in his desire to establish himself as a military figure. He was aware of how the older courtiers were dying off and that eventually such would be the queen's fate. He regarded himself as having the potential to become the arbiter of England's future course with regards to Europe.

In 1591 the young earl commanded an English expedition that fought in Normandy on behalf of King Henry IV of France. The experience made him appreciate the importance of possessing pre-eminence within the court. He realised that Robert Cecil was likely to prove to be his principal rival there. For the first time in her reign, Elizabeth allowed her senior servants to coalesce into factions. This was something that she had never tolerated before. In part, this forbearance was caused by the passing of the generation of men with whom she had so long been associated and whom she was now outliving.⁷

Matters came to a head in 1594 when Essex accused the royal physician Roderigo Lopez of trying to poison the queen. Burghley, with his deeper knowledge and understanding of the court, pooh-poohed the idea. However, the earl was able to furnish evidence of a plot having existed. The doctor was tried, convicted, and executed. Sir Robert brokered a deal between his father and the favourite. The young peer assumed oversight of military affairs, foreign relations, and intelligence collection. The baron's agreed spheres were domestic policy and Irish matters.

King James VI of Scotland regarded Burghley as being the reason for much of England's meddling in his own country's affairs. Therefore, he viewed the baron in an antagonistic light. Essex's rivalry with the Cecils had improved his standing with the Caledonian monarch. The sovereign and the earl took to cultivating one another. The peer regarded James as being the probable source of his future influence once Elizabeth was dead, while the king appreciated that Essex might well be the key factor in ensuring his own accession to the English throne. At the time, this was not guaranteed because the queen had been careful not to allow the emergence of a reversionary interest that might have undermined her own exercise of power. As the decade progressed, it became ever more apparent that the earl was James's principal agent south of the border.

In the mid-1590s it became apparent to Essex that Elizabeth wished to disengage England from her involvement in European affairs. This ran counter to his vision of himself. She and the Cecils were unreceptive to his opinion that Spain was preparing to launch another invasion attempt. Madrid had no such intention, however, some Spanish sea captains raided the Cornish coast. This development seemed to vindicate the earl's view.

Preparations for a counterstrike were set in motion. The peer was appointed to serve as the venture's joint commander. In June 1596 the force captured Cadiz. Essex had developed a belief that his troops would be able to retain control of the city. This would commit England to being involved actively in Europe. However, this plan was dashed when it proved to be impracticable to hold on to the settlement militarily.

During the summer Elizabeth finally appointed Sir Robert to the vacant Secretaryship of State. This conferral acknowledged the reality of the work that he was already performing.

Following the expedition's return, it became apparent that much of its plunder had gone missing. This antagonised Elizabeth. She had the Cecils launch an inquiry into the matter. Essex felt that his achievement was not being given its due. However, Spain's intention of avenging the raid soon allowed the earl, in his military aspect, to strut as England's defender.

Within both the court and the Privy Council, a general view began to coalesce that was hostile towards the peer. A potential beneficiary of this development was Raleigh. His maritime expertise had led to his appointment as one of the leaders of the Cadiz expedition. In the wake of the venture's success he was readmitted to the court for the first time since 1592; he was allowed to resume his Captaincy of the Yeomen of the Guard. He attributed this improvement in his fortunes to Cecil.

Sir Robert and Essex struck a deal. The commoner was ceded a number of advantages at court, while the peer was given a second opportunity to seize a Spanish settlement. It was intended that he should try to retain it. Raleigh was brought into the scheme and appointed to be the earl's deputy for the expedition.

Once the venture had started, nearly everything that could go wrong for Essex did go wrong. Contrary winds delayed the fleet's departure. During the wait disease broke out in the encamped army. As a result, the number of soldiers who ended up embarking was reduced. Therefore, a raid upon a mainland Spanish town was no longer viable. The undertaking turned into being solely a maritime one. The earl's nautical expertise was minimal. He could have addressed this shortcoming by ceding de facto command of the endeavour to his deputy. He did not do so.

Essex and Raleigh learnt that a Spanish fleet was transporting a cargo of silver from Latin America to Europe. Its capture would have provided a means of salvaging the situation. However, they missed encountering the flotilla by a few hours. When the expedition returned to England, it was apparent that the earl's military reputation had suffered a setback. His rivals at court were already of the view that he needed to be humbled. The enterprise had furnished them with a large body of material with which they could try to undermine his standing with Elizabeth.

In May 1598 Spain and King Henry IV of France agreed a peace treaty at Vervins. Elizabeth wanted England to strike a similar pact with Madrid. The Dutch were opposed to such a development; Essex shared their outlook. He sought to communicate his views to the English political nation by writing his Apologie. The work was circulated in manuscript form.

The earl's importance in Elizabeth's emotional life was as great as it had ever been. However, to him she was the factor that was preventing him from realising what he took to be his destiny. Upon occasion their interactions could be highly confrontational. In July 1598, during a Privy Council discussion of Irish business, she made a disdainful comment about something that he had said. His response to this was to turn his back upon her. This was a major breach of court protocol. She responded to it by boxing him about the head. In turn, he reached for his sword handle. The action of a fellow councillor prevented him from unsheathing the weapon. An impasse set in. This was broken when he succumbed to an illness and she felt herself to be free to express her concern for his well-being. In early September he resumed attending conciliar meetings.

A revolt in Ireland had broken out in 1595. It was led by the 2^nd Earl of Tyrone. The English state required that the insurrection should be suppressed. Essex wished to embark upon further military adventures in Europe but found himself to be blocked upon the score by Cecil. Elizabeth conferred the Lord Lieutenancy of her western kingdom upon the earl. It was not an appointment that the peer welcomed. He sailed to Dublin. During the course of the spring and summer of 1599 it became apparent to the peer that he had insufficient men and resources to be able to resolve the matter militarily. The queen's letters to him made clear her scorn at his conduct. In the end, he met with the rebel leader. The two men agreed a truce between their forces.

Essex knew that back in England his every action was being given a negative interpretation. He decided to deal with the situation directly. As Lord Lieutenant, he needed official permission to be able to leave the country. He crossed back over the Irish Sea without having applied for this. He met with Elizabeth twice on 28 September. During the second of these encounters, she instructed him to explain his conduct to the Privy Council. The monarch and the favourite were never again to lay eyes upon one another.

Essex underwent a physical and mental collapse. At one point, he was close to death. He recovered. With regard to his conduct in Ireland, he was tried by the Council, in its aspect as the Star Chamber court, in early June 1600. The body resolved that he should be sequestered from his offices and placed under house arrest at the queen's pleasure.

Following Leicester's death, Elizabeth had conferred upon Essex a grant of the customs on sweet wines that his stepfather had enjoyed. The cash that this bestowal had generated had become central to his finances. The lease for the concession was due to expire soon. As his movements were controlled, he was unable to exert his charms upon the queen to induce her to renew it. If she did not do so, the reduction in his income looked as though it would cause his vast debts to bankrupt him.

Essex s personal following contained a wide range of people. One element that was present within it was composed of military adventurers. These men advised the earl that he should resolve the matter by force of arms. There were also alternative, moderate counsels being offered to him. In October the queen declined to renew the grant. The earl allowed himself to be persuaded that he should stage a coup d tat.

In January 1601 Essex led a body of 300 armed men eastwards into the City of London. His purpose in doing so was to try to trigger a rising against the Crown. The settlement's inhabitants were not inclined to rebel. The earl's men were soon countered militarily. He and a rump of them succeeded in making their way back to Essex House.⁸ There, they were laid siege to by forces that were loyal to Elizabeth. When the beleaguers placed two cannons ready for use against the building, the peer bowed to the inevitable and surrendered.

The following month Westminster Hall hosted Essex's trial for treason. He was convicted of the charge. Six days later he was beheaded within the Tower of London. His corpse was interred within its Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula.

James responded to Essex's departure from the political scene by seeking to establish a secret correspondence with Cecil. Legally, for the Secretary of State to respond to this overture was to commit an act of treason. However, he allowed his sense of realpolitik to prevail. A trust developed between the two men. This was to be a major factor in facilitating the Scottish monarch's smooth accession to the English throne in 1603.

Location: Salisbury House, 80 Strand, WC2R 0RL. Shell-Mex House now occupies the site. (blue, orange)

Durham House, Durham House Street, WC2N 6HG. The site of the home of Raleigh. (orange, blue)

Essex House, Essex Street, WC2R 3AA (red, orange)

Hatton House, Ely Place, EC1N 6RY (purple, red)

¹. Puritans tended to be suspicious of the theatre.

². Spain was ruled by King Philip II. He had been the husband of Mary, who had been Elizabeth's older, Catholic, half-sister, whom she had succeeded upon the throne.

³. Lady Sheffield was the daughter of the 1st Baron Howard of Effingham. He - and therefore she - was a blood relative of Elizabeth.

⁴. The Countess of Essex was also a blood relative of Elizabeth.

5. Raleigh's contacts and expertise enabled him both to play a major role in the establishment of the Colony of Virginia and to orchestrate and send out privateering expeditions. For some of those who invested in the establishment of Virginia, the Colony's principal purpose was to act as a forward base in the western hemisphere from which raids could be made into Latin America and sorties could be sent out into the Atlantic in order to try to intercept Spanish treasure convoys.

⁶. The legal profession was affronted by Hatton's appointment as Lord Chancellor. His legal experience consisted of a spell as a student at the Inner Temple, the purpose of which had been to round out his education rather than to enable him to practice as a barrister.

⁷. Leicester (1588), Walsingham (1590), and Hatton (1591).

⁸. The renamed Leicester House.

David Backhouse 2024