Leaving Ireland behind, Walter set sail for home, landing in October. He would soon be reunited with his wife and his children, something that filled him with anticipation. However, it was not long before gossip of an unsavoury nature began to reach his ears: it involved both the Earl of Leicester and his wife, and was far from the homecoming that Walter could have hoped for.
CHAPTER 9
Great Enmity
THE REVELRIES OF Kenilworth and the Queen’s visit to Chartley seemed all but forgotten when Walter landed in South Wales in October 1575. Having ‘much wasted his patrimony’ in Ireland, after an arduous journey he quickly proceeded to Lamphey.1 Upon his arrival he was ‘very much weather-beaten, where he is driven to stay to recover himself, and to attend his servants’ arrival, who were by the same tempest dispersed from his company’.2 From Lamphey he may have journeyed to Chartley to be reunited with his family, whom he was eager to see. It had been more than two years since Lettice had last seen her husband, and there is no reason to believe that it was anything other than a warm and friendly reunion. Much had changed during Walter’s absence: his eldest daughter, Penelope, was approaching her thirteenth birthday, and was growing into a beautiful young woman. Her father had high hopes for her, and in due course he confidently expected to arrange a marriage for her with Sir Philip Sidney, son of the Lord Deputy of Ireland, and nephew of the Earl of Leicester. Dorothy was also a pretty creature, and then there were his sons. Robert and Walter were both continuing their education at home, where their mother doted on them.
Pleasant though this family reunion may have been, it was not long before Walter’s thoughts had once again returned to business. On 10 November, Sir Francis Walsingham wrote to Burghley from Windsor that ‘I met with a messenger sent from the Earl of Essex with letters to Her Majesty, by the which he did give Her Majesty to understand that he hath arrived within this country, and that he presently desired that he might have leave to come to see Her Majesty.’3 Walter was already eager to return to court; he was feeling deflated from the disastrous Irish campaign, and was heavily in debt. It was for this reason that he was keen to obtain an audience with the Queen, and plead his case in person. Elizabeth had responded to his letters, telling him that ‘she was glad of his arrival, and was well pleased that he should repair to the court, with condition that with over much haste he did not distemper his body’.4
The Queen’s reply gave Walter all of the encouragement he needed, and he wasted no time in preparing to journey south to London, taking Lettice, and also possibly his children, with him. He was, he said, residing in the capital ‘partly in view of my own poor estate, which I find far altered from that it was at my departure into Ireland’.5 Walter’s comment can be interpreted in one of two ways. It is beyond question that his finances had been severely depleted in the Queen’s service, and his remark could, therefore, have been an attempt to highlight this to the Queen in order to incur her sympathy, in the hope of gaining financial recompense. It is unclear whether he was referring to the physical state of Chartley, or the broader issue of his finances. In either scenario, Chartley and the running of Walter’s estates had been entrusted to Lettice’s care in his absence, and the other explanation is that he was genuinely unhappy with what he found upon his return. At the point of his departure into Ireland he had felt confident that – though financially stretched – enough provision had been set aside for Lettice and their children. Neither he nor Lettice could have predicted the length of his absence, and it may be the case that, finding that Walter was away for longer than she anticipated, Lettice had genuinely struggled to maintain her husband’s estate on a limited income. In such circumstances, the past two years would have been both stressful and full of uncertainty for Lettice, who would have been forced to make many decisions about her husband’s estate alone. The past two years had been demanding for Walter, but Lettice, also, is likely to have faced challenges of her own.
With or without their children, the Earl and Countess of Essex spent Christmas in the capital, almost certainly residing at Durham Place. The return to London may have come as a welcome change to Lettice, although as the court was in residence at Hampton Court on the outskirts of the city, she is unlikely to have participated in any of the celebrations there. It is probable, however, that they travelled there for New Year in order to present their gifts to the Queen. Walter gave his mistress ‘one whole piece of black velvet, the ground white satin fringed with black knots’, while Lettice presented ‘a forepart of a kirtle, a pair of sleeves and a partlet of green satin cast over with net work’.6 Revelries, though, were very far from Walter’s mind, and he was instead busy seeking financial compensation for his losses in Ireland. Whether Lettice accompanied him on each of the many occasions that saw Walter travelling back and forth from the court to Durham Place is unknown, but in any case she would certainly not have lacked for company or entertainment.
Walter recognized that ‘this Christmas time [was] altogether dedicated to pastimes, and, therefore unapt for such as be suitors’, but he could not resist talking about business.7 In his letter to the Privy Council on 29 December, written from Durham Place, he claimed that since his return he had conferred with those to whom he had entrusted the management of his estates. It was through them, he said, that ‘I find how heavy mine Ireland service hath been to me, by consideration of mine expenses past, my debts present, and the danger that my lineage resteth in, if order be not presently taken in it.’8 Furthermore, ‘my servants in household’ were many, and ‘more than I am willing to continue about me’.9 His plea suggests that he and Lettice were living an extravagant lifestyle that was beyond their means, but was almost certainly exaggerated in order to obtain sympathy. Trips to Buxton and the court were not cheap, and the funds for Lettice’s outings while Walter was away had come directly from his coffers. Walter begged the lords of the Council to ‘be suitors with Her Majesty to grow to some speedy resolution in that which shall be determined concerning me; for upon that determination resteth the course of my life hereafter’.10 Unhappily, there was to be no quick fix and, with no money forthcoming, Walter instead turned his attentions to petitioning the Queen.
Lettice was still with her husband at Durham Place, when he wrote to the Queen on 13 January 1576. By now she was aware that her husband’s debts were increasing, as was his distress that the matter was being dragged out by the Queen’s failure to compensate him. It would no doubt have been a constant topic of conversation between the couple, as they waited to hear what Walter’s future would hold. He implored the Queen for her intervention, telling her honestly that
finding that my ability to serve you, or to maintain that estate whereunto your Majesty hath called me, resteth much upon your gracious dealings with me for my charge past, I have, upon the comfort of your Majesty’s former favourable writings and speeches, been bold to press the Lords of your Privy Council to be earnest with your Majesty for your speedy resolution concerning me.11
He had received no answer from the Privy Council, and as such was becoming increasingly irritated. To make matters worse, it seems that in order to ease his worries the Queen had made him several offers, all of which he had rejected. This left Elizabeth offended, and Burghley exasperated. Precisely what these offers were is unknown, but Walter felt that they were not good enough to compensate him and held out for more. Following Burghley’s counsel, he had written a draft of a letter to the Queen in which he explained his reasons for declining. Having sent the letter first to Burghley for his perusal, he was annoyed when ‘he hath added many things to humiliate my style’.12 He was a proud man, and was determined to stand his ground – he would not grovel. Given Lettice’s later behaviour and the tone she exercised in her extant letters, it seems likely that she encouraged her husband in this. Such behaviour towards the Queen, though, was unwise, and, perhaps realizing that he had pushed her too far, by 5 February Walter had changed his tune. By this time he and Lettice were preparing to leave London, for they were s
o indebted that ‘no man will give me credit for any money’.13 A later inventory of Lettice’s possessions shows ample examples of finery, all appropriate to her rank, and as such she would not have taken kindly to having been deprived of her luxuries. Walter wrote to Sir Francis Walsingham, asking him to deliver a letter to the Queen, and ‘to promise in my behalf that I will ever be ready to adventure my life, and to spend in Her Majesty’s service every thing that her highness shall think good to bestow on me’.14 Above all, ‘my desire is, that you will labour to keep me in Her Majesty’s good favour, which I more regard than all that I have spent’.15 Having done all that he could and hoping to retain the Queen’s good grace, Walter and Lettice left London behind and returned home to Chartley.
Fortunately for Walter and his family, in March he received word that he was to return to Ireland. Quite what prompted the Queen to send him back is unclear, as is Walter’s initial reaction. He was, however, persuaded to resume his post once more, and his spirits were bolstered when in May the Queen granted him an additional three hundred soldiers, of which a hundred were cavalry.16 For Lettice and her children, Walter’s acceptance meant that he would once more be leaving home, and though she may have been dismayed to be losing his company, Lettice was relieved at the prospect of resolving their financial problems. For Walter, it appeared that all of his campaigning and hard work in Ireland had not been in vain, and it was with a renewed sense of vigour that he began to make preparations to leave home once more.
IN WALTER’S ABSENCE, rumours about the nature of the relationship between Lettice and the Earl of Leicester had been circulating; according to the hostile authors of Leicester’s Commonwealth, an affair was now in full swing, resulting in unbearable tension between Lettice’s husband and her supposed lover. The Commonwealth was not released until after Walter’s death, but it nevertheless reflected the rumours that were current in London at the time. Chief among these, as reported by a Spanish agent, was that ‘whilst Essex was in Ireland his wife had two children by Leicester’.17 Such a notion was absurd and had no basis in fact – to start with, for at least part of Walter’s absence Leicester had been conducting a relationship with Lady Douglas Sheffield. It is also unlikely that a woman of Lettice’s standing would have allowed herself to become embroiled in an affair by which she was forced to conceal two children. Such a liaison could not have been hushed up, and would have caused a great scandal. The authors of the Commonwealth later related a similar story, claiming that Walter had returned from Ireland ‘with intent to revenge himself upon my Lord of Leicester for begetting his wife with child in his absence’.18 Although the authors mention one child rather than two, they went further by claiming that the child that Lettice bore was a daughter, who was raised by Lady Dorothy Chandos, the wife of Lettice’s brother William.19
The gossip was both damaging and scandalous, but it was probably not the reason that the Spanish agent wrote of the ‘great enmity which exists between the Earl of Leicester and the Earl of Essex’.20 Neither was it the reason that ‘great discord is expect in consequence’.21 Similarly, Walter had certainly not returned from Ireland ‘openly threatening Leicester’, as Camden claimed, ‘whom he suspected to have done him injuries’.22
In recent years, Walter and Leicester had not had the easiest of relationships, and there is no doubt that the rumours about the Earl and his wife would have reached Walter’s ears. They were humiliating for all parties – particularly Walter, and there was little that they could do in order to stop the rumours circulating. Retaining a dignified silence, they chose not to respond and instead waited for the gossip to die down. Whether the rumours placed a strain on the couple is unknown, but if Walter did harbour suspicions about his wife and Leicester, they did not concern him unduly – at least not on the surface. After all, he had another Irish campaign to prepare for, and it was one that required all of his energies.
CAMDEN INSINUATED THAT it was Leicester who contrived to have Walter returned to Ireland ‘by his cunning court tricks’, but there is no evidence of this.23 In the time that had passed since Walter and Lettice’s departure from London, Walter had been busy sorting out his affairs. As he informed Walsingham, ‘I have made some disposition of my lands, one part of the conveyance remaineth with myself, the other, my desire is, shall rest in your keeping.’24 He had entrusted a servant to deliver the necessary paperwork to Walsingham, and with ‘the conveyance of my lands there is also my will; my earnest desire is, that you will take them into your custody’.25 It is interesting that though he had left her in charge of his lands, he chose not to entrust his will into Lettice’s safe-keeping – when its contents later emerged, his reason became abundantly clear.
Lettice had been reunited with her husband for a little over six months, when she had to bid farewell to him once more. In distant Staffordshire, the rumours that had been circulating about her in London seemed to be nothing but a dull and unpleasant memory. Nevertheless, it may have been a cause of both relief and concern to her when her husband left home. If the rumours had caused tension in her marriage, she would have been relieved to have had some space from Walter in order to allow things to heal; his absence, however, left Lettice vulnerable to further gossip. Whatever the state of matters between them, as Walter left Chartley and England behind once more, he can have had no idea that he would never see his wife and children again.
Walter left Chartley in mid-July, and after a smooth crossing he arrived in Dublin on 23 July. He received a ‘good welcome the same day by the citizens of Dublin, and the gentlemen of the country that came to him at his landing’.26 Back in Ireland with a renewed sense of vigour, Walter spent much of the rest of July and August in pleasantries and entertainments: on 24 July the Chancellor, with whom he resided in Dublin until 9 August, hosted a splendid feast for him. He was also ‘invited to sundry of his friends’, including the Archbishop of Dublin and the Countess of Kildare.27 While he was there, the Lord Deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, joined him. It was Sidney who ‘solemnly caused my Lord’s patents of Earl Marshal’ to be read and published, and ‘invested my Lord in his office’.28 Walter was once again Earl Marshal of Ireland. Despite Camden’s claims that it was a ‘vain title’, for Walter it was a great honour, and served as some small reward for his services.29 Sadly, he was not to enjoy it for long.
THE KENILWORTH GAME Book, in which Lettice features regularly, shows that in 1576 she visited the Earl of Leicester’s estate to enjoy the hunt. Hunting was a passion shared by both Lettice and Leicester, and on this occasion there was ‘killed by my Lady Essex a buck’.30 It is unclear whether this visit took place before or after Walter’s departure for Ireland, or whether indeed Leicester was present – it was not unusual for his friends and family to hunt on his estate in his absence – but in either circumstance, given the whispers about Lettice and Leicester, the timing of the visit is interesting. Equally interesting is that on two other undated occasions that year, Leicester sent ‘to my Lady to the court’ – Lettice – two separate gifts of game.31 That they were friends is certain, but was there more than friendship on their minds? By this time Leicester’s relationship with Douglas Sheffield was well and truly over, and he had realized that the Queen would never be able to offer him anything more than friendship. Lettice was an attractive woman who he had known for many years, and he had flirted with her before. In turn, though Lettice certainly had once loved her husband and probably still did in many ways, their enforced separation meant that for several years they had spent very little time together. As such, it is perfectly plausible that they had grown apart, and that Lettice had become lonely. Leicester may even have become her confidant. That she and Leicester now began to view one another in a romantic capacity is not beyond the bounds of possibility, but Lettice was still a married woman. Even so, Kenilworth was not too great a distance from Chartley, so it is certainly possible that when Lettice journeyed there in order to hunt, she also met with Leicester, perhaps on more than one occasion. The gifts of game he
sent to her at court could have been nothing more than a friendly gesture, or maybe something more. Given what later transpired, an affair of some sorts between the pair is possible at this time, but if this was the case then given Lettice’s marriage neither of them had any reason to believe that matters between them would develop any further.
ACCORDING TO THE account of Walter’s trusted servant, Edward Waterhouse, on the evening of Thursday 30 August, ‘having dined and supped at his own house, he [Walter] was seized with a flux [diarrhoea]’.32 At first there seemed to be no cause for alarm, but in the coming days Walter’s illness continued to plague him. Matters were made worse by the fact that ‘he travelled rapidly’, but although he ‘ate as usual’ he occasionally complained of ‘grief in his belly, and would say that he never had hearty grief of mind but a flux must accompany it’.33 Initially, he was suspicious of the cause of his illness, for his servant had also fallen sick, and he wrote to his lawyer, Richard Broughton, that this ‘maketh me suspect of some evil received in my drink’.34 However, when his servant recovered, both he and those around him quickly dismissed that notion.
Eventually returning to his own lodgings in Dublin, Walter began to grow gradually weaker. A contemporary informant wrote to Walsingham to advise him that since 8 September, Walter had been ‘marvellously tormented with pains in the stomach’ that were becoming worse.35 Edward Waterhouse described his master’s symptoms in detail, relating that he had been passing ‘twenty or thirty stools everyday, and is already many times bloody and the rest of his stools black burnt colour’.36 In an attempt to affect a cure Walter had tried many remedies, including the popular ‘unicorn’s horn which has made him vomit many times’.37
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