With no signs of improvement, Walter had resolved to return home in order to promote his recovery. Not wishing to make the whole laborious journey home to Chartley, he instead planned to embark for Milford Haven and ‘repose myself at my house at Lamphey til I shall understand how God will work his will in me’.38 His physician, Dr Peny, had been instructed to meet him there, and Waterhouse had advised the doctor to ‘bring all things necessary for this disease’.39 Walter would also have sent word to Lettice of his plans, although it is unlikely that he would have expected her to travel the long distance to Lamphey to meet him. Sadly, he never made it home.
Although Walter and those around him had optimistically expected him to recover, as September progressed he grew weaker; it soon became clear that he was dying. He himself had accepted this, and looking to the future he began to put his affairs in order. On 20 September, he wrote to the Queen, calmly informing her that the hour of his death was approaching. He begged her forgiveness for any offence he had ever caused her: ‘not only for my last letters wherewith I hear your Majesty was much grieved but also with all other actions of mine that have been offensively conceived by your Majesty’.40 This proud man was now much humbled, and in his final days he sought forgiveness of the whole world, and looked only to God. He commended his ‘poor children’ to the Queen, begging that ‘since God doth now make them fatherless’, she should be ‘as a mother’, and ensure that they continued to receive a good education.41 He was concerned that, thanks to his dwindling resources, as a widow Lettice would not have the means to support the children herself, hence his petition to the Queen. Walter also implored his royal mistress to allow his heir, Robert, ‘upon whom the continuance of my house remaineth’, to inherit some of his lands.42 There was one point, though, on which he was adamant: ‘I do not wish him mine office of Earl Marshal here [Ireland].’43 His worries in this quarter were understandable, so it is little wonder that he ended thus: ‘he is my son, and may be fit for more in his life than his unfortunate father hath in his possession at his death’.44 For the time being, his wishes would be granted, but in the future Robert and Ireland would come to be closely entwined.
The welfare of his heir continued to trouble Walter, and the following day he wrote to Burghley. Commending Robert to him, he once again expressed his hope that his son ought to be allowed to join his household for the continuation of his education. If he were able to divide his time during his minority between Burghley and Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex,
to the end that as he might frame himself to the example of my Lord of Sussex in all the actions of his life tending either to the war or to the institution of a nobleman, so he might also reverence your Lordship for your wisdom and gravity, and lay up your counsels and advices in the treasury of his heart.45
Having done all that he could, Walter ended his letter with a final farewell: ‘And so to the Lord I commit you, sequestering myself from henceforth from all worldly causes.’46 Walter’s letter to Burghley may have been the last he ever wrote; if he did write a final letter of farewell to Lettice then it has not survived. His letters to the Queen and Burghley reveal that he was more concerned for his children’s welfare than that of his wife – Lettice would have to take care of herself. Certainly, for the most part, children were the primary concern of parents who were approaching their end, and Walter could feel confident that Lettice, as a resilient woman who had coped with his long periods of absence from home thus far, would be able to do so again.
At eleven o’clock on the morning of 22 September, Walter died at Dublin Castle. He was thirty-seven years old. The previous evening he had called for his musician, William Hewes, to sing and play the virginals for him, and from there he had gone rapidly downhill.47 Whispers of a suspicious death caused by poisoning immediately surfaced, and though he was not directly accused, the Earl of Leicester was the prime suspect. Camden later wrote that ‘This death of so noble a man, was not without suspicion of poison amongst the vulgar sort’, an assertion that was influenced by Leicester’s Commonwealth, whose authors claimed that Walter died ‘of an extreme flux, caused by an Italian recipe, as all his friends are well assured’.48 This, they said, was the work of a surgeon, ‘A cunning man and sure in operation’, who had been employed by Lettice.49 In their scandalous claim, the authors asserted that
if the good lady had been sooner acquainted and used his help [the surgeon], she should not have needed to have sitten so pensive at home and fearful of her husband’s former return out of the same country, but might have spared the young child in her belly, which she was enforced to make away for clearing the house against the goodman’s arrival.50
The claims that Lettice had had a child by Leicester have already been quashed, but the Commonwealth now portrayed her as a murderess.
These assertions did not, however, emerge until later. It is therefore important to recognize that when rumours that Walter had been poisoned began to circulate, nobody pointed the finger in Lettice’s direction. Leicester’s Commonwealth was printed eight years after Walter’s death, and its authors were the only source that directly accused her of having any involvement in the decease of her first husband. At the time, she was not suspected – at least not openly – of having had any involvement in Walter’s demise, and for good reason.
In order to quell suspicions of poison, the Lord Deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, with ‘diligent inquisition’ immediately ordered that a postmortem be conducted on the late Earl’s body.51 Sidney held Walter in high regard, asserting that he was ‘a lusty, strong, and pleasant man’, whose ‘breath was out of his body’ completely unexpectedly.52 Sidney was in no doubt that Walter’s soul was ‘in Heaven; for in my life I never heard of a man to die, in such perfectness’.53 As such, the post-mortem was taken with the utmost seriousness, but as Sidney himself announced, ‘there was no appearance or cause of suspicion, that could be gathered that he died of poison’.54 The Earl of Essex, it was declared, had died of natural causes. The results of the post-mortem report were also supported by the account of Walter’s secretary, Edward Waterhouse, and his chaplain Thomas Knell, ‘an honest preacher in this city’, declared the same.55 It is thus clear that despite the rumours, in reality few of Walter’s contemporaries believed that he had been poisoned. The likeliest cause of his death is dysentery. Even Camden, who was hostile to Leicester, had to admit that although he believed that Walter was ‘pining away with grief and sorrow’, it was unlikely that he was poisoned.56 As he had heard it, in the Earl’s final moments, he
piously rendered his soul to Christ, dying of a flux with most grievous torments, after he had prayed standers by, to warn his son being then scarce ten years old, to set always before his eyes the six and thirtieth year of his age, as the uttermost scope of his life, which neither he nor his father had passed.57
The circumstances of how Lettice learned of her husband’s death are unknown, as is her reaction. Sir Henry Sidney later revealed that in his final hours Walter ‘forgot not to send weighty warnings to some of his absent friends by message’, but whether this included a final message for Lettice is unclear.58 Outwardly, she displayed all of the signs of grief that would have been expected of her. A later inventory of Leicester House records a portrait of her during her tenure as Countess of Essex, dressed in mourning; it is reasonable to assume that this was for Walter, and such portraits were not uncommon.59 However far apart they may have drifted in recent years, a circumstance caused by Walter’s absence, she had loved him once, and in many ways probably still did. Walter’s death had also left her four young children fatherless, and his loss was keenly felt.
Following the completion of the post-mortem, Walter’s body was returned home for burial. It was taken to Carmarthen, the town of his birth, although it was not, by all accounts, an easy journey. When the party landed in Wales, they were forced to travel to their destination ‘with most painful labour of his servants in extreme tempestuous weather upon their backs, where horses with litters could not go�
��.60 Waterhouse had been sent to Chartley ‘to have attended on my Lord of Essex to the burial of his father’, and it may indeed have been he who broke the news of Walter’s death to his family.61 He related that the young Earl was unable to travel to Carmarthen, for having ‘conferred with such as are about the Earl, and understood by them the tenderness of his body, I durst not consent to take him from hence in this extreme cold weather, to so long a journey’.62 Lettice was among those to whom Waterhouse referred, and her concern for her young son is understandable. Robert does appear to have been genuinely ill at this time, and he himself wrote to Lord Burghley begging to be excused.63 As such, the role of chief mourner at Walter’s funeral was assigned to his brother, George Devereux.64
On 26 November, Walter was laid to rest in the chancel of St Peter’s Church in Carmarthen, the sermon being preached by Richard Davies, Bishop of St David’s.65 In accordance with custom, Lettice did not attend her husband’s funeral, and Walter’s grave is unmarked.
At thirty-three, Lettice was now a widowed mother with four young children to support. Knowing the debts that her husband had incurred during his time in Ireland, this was a source of great concern to her, as would shortly become clear. Walter’s final will, entrusted to Sir Francis Walsingham before his final journey to Ireland, had been made on 14 June.66 His primary concern had been the welfare and provision of his children: at his death, Lettice’s eleven-year-old son Robert succeeded his father as the second Earl of Essex. In monetary terms, thanks to Walter’s Irish campaign it was a poor inheritance, and ‘Young Robert was the poorest Earl in England.’67 On his deathbed, Walter had vested the responsibility for ‘the burden and care of the now young Earl of Essex causes during the Earl’s minority’ to his lawyer, Richard Broughton of the Inner Temple.68 He felt that Broughton could manage them better than Lettice. Robert was Walter’s main concern, and much of his will was taken up with his thoughts for his future. He had also expressed his cherished hope that his eldest daughter Penelope, now thirteen, would be married to Leicester’s nephew and heir, Sir Philip Sidney. He was so desirous of the match that he had started referring to Philip as ‘son’. Sadly for Walter, it was a wish that was never to be fulfilled.
Walter’s will made few mentions of Lettice. On the occasions her name does appear, there is nothing to suggest that his feelings for her were anything other than affectionate. He referred to her as ‘my right well beloved wife the Lady Lettice Countess of Essex’, and made provision for her jointure – the lands and estates that would be settled on her for the time during which she survived Walter.69 These included properties in Essex, and manors in the counties of Hertford, Gloucester, Pembroke and Brecknock. He also gave her the use of ‘my said manor and park of Benington’, a house that he had inherited from Anne Bourchier.70 It was a house that Lettice would make use of in later years. These estates rendered a total of £550 (£95,600) a year: it was a reasonable, if not a sizeable income for a woman of Lettice’s status. In addition, though, Walter also ordered that ‘the disposition of my goods, jewels, plate and household stuff I will and bequeath that my said wife the Countess of Essex shall have’.71 This boosted her income in terms of moveable goods, although she would later complain bitterly that it was not enough. There was, however, one other major problem with Walter’s will: it made no provision for Lettice to remain at Chartley. While her son Robert would now inherit the property, he was a minor who had no jurisdiction over who remained in his house and who would live elsewhere until he attained his majority, so she would be forced to move out. It was only through the good graces of Lord Burghley, who now assumed Robert’s care, that she and her children were allowed to remain there until Christmas. This meant that Lettice now not only had to contend with finding a new home, but also had to deal with the many financial issues that needed to be addressed following Walter’s death. It was certainly not a situation to be envied, and it was one that Lettice greatly resented.
With Walter now dead, had Lettice and the Earl of Leicester wished to be together they were now at liberty to do so. They were both widowers who had experienced the loss of a spouse, and there was a spark of attraction between them. Just one obstacle remained: the Queen’s jealousy. After all, it was Elizabeth’s ‘Sweet Robin’ that Lettice was on the verge of seducing. For the time being, neither she nor Leicester made any move: there may have been a spark, but it had yet to develop into a burning flame.
CHAPTER 10
Up and Down the Country
AT THE TIME of their father’s death, Lettice’s children were with their mother at Chartley. On 14 November 1576, Edward Waterhouse arrived at the house, where Lettice’s eleven-year-old son Robert, now Earl of Essex, impressed him. Feeling a natural loyalty to the boy on behalf of his late father, Waterhouse wrote to Sir Henry Sidney to inform him that ‘I do not think that there is at this day so strong a man in England of friends, as the little Earl of Essex, nor any man more lamented than his father, since the death of King Edward.’1 Given his affinity to Walter, it is little wonder that Waterhouse had exaggerated the effects of his death, but nevertheless it is clear that the welfare of his heir was considered to be of great importance.
Just days before Walter’s funeral, Lord Burghley had written to the young Earl, acknowledging that his ‘father commended me to your Lordship on his deathbed for your Lordship’s wisdom’.2 It was a responsibility that Burghley took seriously, and at the turn of the new year, on 11 January 1577, young Robert left Chartley behind as he journeyed to join Burghley’s household in accordance with his father’s wishes. He travelled to Cecil House, Burghley’s London residence, and over the next few months his time was divided between there and Theobalds, Burghley’s Hertfordshire estate.3 While he was there, he was given the opportunity to mix with other young boys, including Burghley’s heir, also called Robert – all may have been harmonious between the two boys now, but that would later change.4 This would have been a new experience for Robert, who had never been away from home before, and had previously relied on his sisters and his younger brother for company. It was also the first time that he had not been under his mother’s watchful supervision, and instead Burghley’s wife, Lady Mildred, oversaw his care. Mildred was herself a great scholar who had been praised as one of the most learned women in the kingdom, and Lettice could not but be impressed by the positive influence she would wield over her son.5 She herself later wrote to Burghley, giving ‘thanks for the great goodness and fatherly love and friendship it pleaseth you to show to my son, who may say he hath happily met with a second father instead of a guardian’.6 Although Robert had now been removed from her protective care, she did at least appreciate the opportunity he was being given. She may also have taken the chance to visit him upon his arrival at Cecil House, for she herself was already in the south.
WITH WALTER LAID to rest, Lettice moved forward with her life. Having been forced to remove herself from Chartley after Christmas in accordance with the terms of Walter’s will – her home for more than a decade – she had no option but to turn to her family for support. She had arranged to stay with her father at her childhood home of Greys Court, and at some time shortly after Christmas she began her journey south, taking her daughters and her younger son Walter with her. Given the circumstances, she could have been forgiven for omitting to send a New Year’s gift to the Queen, but she did not. Now more than ever she needed her royal kinswoman’s support, and so in January 1577, less than four months after Walter’s death, she almost certainly paid a visit to court before travelling to Greys. The Queen was at Hampton Court, and listed among her numerous sumptuous New Year’s gifts from her courtiers was one from Lettice: ‘the forepart and bodice of a kirtle of ash colour covered with a net of silk and gold, lined with crimson sarcenet’.7 It was a thoughtful gift, and one that was perhaps also intended to remind the Queen that Lettice was now a poor widow who faced an uncertain future. Given the favour in which the Queen had held Walter and her fondness for Lettice, she took the opportunity t
o condole her kinswoman on her loss, but there is no indication that she offered Lettice any practical help at this time.
Unsurprisingly, Walter had died deeply in debt, and it was not long before his creditors came knocking at Lettice’s door. Not only did he owe £6,190 (£1,000,000) to the Queen, but he had also accrued large debts elsewhere.8 Besides this, Lettice already had enough to deal with, for she and her children had lost their home and she resented the small jointure which Walter had assigned to her. This rankled so much that she ‘by some forward advice did utterly renounce and refuse the jointure to her assigned by her late husband’.9 But Lettice was no meek widow; rather than accepting what Walter had felt that she should have, she was determined to pursue what she believed to be rightfully hers: in short, she wanted more. She was at her father’s home, Greys Court, when on 22 January she took up her pen and wrote to Lord Burghley and the lords of the Council, voicing her contestation of her jointure. In the first of her surviving letters, she made her feelings clear in no uncertain terms:
My very good Lords,
Remembering my hearty commendations to you, forasmuch as I do sufficiently understand by the estate wherein my late Lord, my husband, hath left his son, that my demands of dower of all the possessions his Lord was seized of would be sundry ways very prejudicial unto my son, and considering withal that the portion devised unto me by my Lord his will is over small for the maintenance of mine own estate, a reasonable mean between both would be used whereunto your Lordships shall find me willing to yield, so far as shall appertain to the natural care that a mother ought to have of her son. My demand is, to have by your Lordships’ consent such lands annexed to my jointure (somewhat to further my maintenance withal), as are not mentioned in my Lords will, and are most convenient to be spared, until my son shall come to his full age, wherein as I have already made request to my father to deal with your Lordships.10
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