Claiming that her income was so pitiful that it did not provide enough to live on, Lettice had already sought her father’s intervention to help resolve the matter. Her demands amounted to a claim that she was entitled to a third of the revenues from Walter’s lands, but she was also concerned by the debts that her son Robert had inherited by right of his father. It was this that caused her to continue,
supposing you will not deal so straightly with me as to urge me to prosecute my right of dower already brought only for the recording my refuse of jointure, I am not unmindful of the great debts wherein my son is left, which I trust by your Lordships’ good order will be well mitigated during his minority with the revenues of the lands and leases left for the discharging thereof, chiefly if her Majesty vouchsafe to deal graciously with him touching the debt due unto her (as I trust she will).11
Evidently believing that all of her requests were with her children’s best interests in mind, she insisted that ‘I am content to respect my children more than myself, which is seldom done by any in my case.’12 Her appeals, however, were not at an end. Remembering that ‘I am now to provide for a house of mine own for my abode’, something which she was ‘by no means able’ to achieve by reason of ‘being so hard and barely left of all manner of furniture’, she sought the lords’ assistance.13
I must rather become a suitor unto your lordships to let me have some such things of my late Lord’s as he hath left meet to supply my wants therein, otherwise I must be unwillingly driven to seek my friends houses from time to time as presently I do, for that my portion is scant able to find me and my company meat and drink.14
For some reason, she had not been permitted to take the household goods that Walter had willed her, and she was now feeling desperate. She ended her letter with a plea that the lords would ‘see me somewhat like a noble woman used in these respects’, hoping to receive a favourable outcome to her suit.15
While she waited on the ‘good considerations’ of the Council, the following month Lettice had returned to Hampton Court, where the court was still in residence.16 Perhaps she hoped for some news about her jointure, and she may also have been seeking the Queen’s favour for her suit. During her stay she took the opportunity to let loose and enjoy the frivolities of court life, something of which she had been largely deprived for more than a decade. Alongside the dancing and the Queen’s musicians, a payment was made to the Countess of Essex’s players ‘for presenting a play before her Majesty on Shrove Tuesday at night’.17 This is the only mention of Lettice employing a company of actors, and their association with her suggests that she patronized and employed them regularly. There is also a further indication of the favour in which she was held by the Queen at this time; significantly, on the same Shrove Tuesday evening, the Earl of Leicester’s players had also made their ‘repair to the court with their whole company and furniture to present a play before her Majesty’, but ‘the play by her Majesty’s commandment was supplied by others’.18 That the Queen chose to be entertained by Lettice’s players rather than those provided by her favourite is a sign of her esteem for her kinswoman.19
While she was at court, Lettice had the opportunity to socialize and catch up with her friends, but her problems had yet to be resolved, and by the end of February she was still residing at Greys Court. Once again she wrote to Lord Burghley, and although she was ‘sorry that I have cause to be yet more troublesome unto you’, she was again seeking his help – this time with some troublesome tenants.20 Yet again, she complained of her ‘slender allowance’, and hoped that Burghley would provide her with a ‘friendly answer’ to her suit, as well as to her request for the ‘import for wines’.21 She had no issue with bewailing her circumstances in order to illicit sympathy, but unfortunately for Lettice there was bad news to come, and her claim to receive a third of Walter’s lands was eventually refuted. Though she was furious, this left her with no choice but to make do with what she had been assigned, with an additional £60 (£10,000) per annum ‘by her demanded’.22 Perhaps sensing that Lettice’s complaints were not at an end, as a compromise, in April she was also granted a life interest in Benington, her husband’s former Hertfordshire estate. It may have been here that she eventually chose to settle, but if this was the case then her movements show that she probably did not take up residence there until early the following year.
As the spring of 1577 got underway, Lettice and her daughters left the familiar surroundings of Greys Court and travelled to the Midlands. Her son Walter was no longer with her, for in his will her husband had left instructions that his younger son and two daughters were to join the household of his cousin, Henry Hastings, third Earl of Huntingdon, ‘for maintenance’.23 In accordance with his father’s wishes, little Walter had gone on ahead, so was therefore not with Lettice and her daughters when they arrived at Coleshill, the Warwickshire home of her friends, the Digbys. As they were close friends, Lettice intended to stay with the Digbys for some time; they had small children, and so Penelope and Dorothy would not have lacked for young company.24 Meanwhile, Lettice still had other things on her mind, and it was from Coleshill that, on 30 April, she once more wrote to Burghley about financial matters. She did, this time, take the time to be courteous, thanking him for ‘your friendship both to my son and me’.25
Coleshill was just ten miles from Kenilworth, the Earl of Leicester’s magnificent home that had witnessed the Princely Pleasures of 1575. During her stay with the Digbys, Lettice took the opportunity to ride to Kenilworth on several occasions, there to participate in the regular hunting parties that gathered in Leicester’s deer park. The hunting at Kenilworth was exceptional, and it was not the first time that she had hunted there, or received the gifts of the kill from its owner. On this occasion, though, there may have been a difference. In June, nine months had elapsed since Walter’s death, and with her affairs settled – albeit not to her satisfaction – life was beginning to resume its normal course. As she arrived at Kenilworth, Lettice’s thoughts were once more turned towards its owner.
That same month, Leicester spent two weeks at Kenilworth with his brother, Ambrose, as they journeyed towards Buxton in order to take the waters for their health. While he was there, he had the pleasure of welcoming the Countess of Essex and her eldest daughter, Penelope, to hunt in his park. Lettice’s hosts, the Digbys, who were also close friends of the Earl, joined them. Lettice’s brother William and his wife Dorothy had likewise seized on the opportunity of a summer holiday, and were determined to join the party. Lettice was an expert huntswoman, and with her bow and arrow she had managed to kill nine deer that season.26 However, hunting deer may not have been the only thing on her mind, and it is possible that it was during this time that Lettice and Leicester’s romance began to kindle.
Immediately after Walter’s death, Camden claimed that Leicester ‘more openly made love to Lettice’, whom he had used ‘at his good liking before, for satisfying of his own lust’, during her husband’s lifetime.27 Whether the couple were having an affair or not, they were attracted to one another, and it is clear that at some point in 1577 their friendship developed into something more. Witnesses later confirmed that Leicester had been talking of a marriage with Lettice for almost a year prior to their wedding, which took place in September 1578.28 Further evidence to corroborate this comes in the form of orders that Lettice gave for three bucks, killed by others at Kenilworth, to be sent to two of her friends.29 Given that they were not her bucks to bestow, that she did so suggests that her relationship with the master of Kenilworth had become more significant.
Walter had been dead for less than a year, and so the assertion of Leicester’s Commonwealth that his demise led to Leicester’s ‘hasty snatching up of the widow’ can be partially justified.30 By contemporary standards, however, this was not necessarily unusual. Exactly two weeks after the execution of her first husband in 1554, Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, had wed Adrian Stokes, her Master of Horse. And she was not alone.31 Moreover, in the sum
mer of 1577 there is no indication that Lettice and Leicester had even spoken of marriage, let alone anything more. Prior to this, Lettice had more pressing issues to deal with, chiefly the perilous state of her finances.
Lettice and Leicester’s initial relationship was conducted with such secrecy that we have no indication as to how or where it was conducted. That it was staged away from London and the court is a given, for in the capital gossip was always rife, and it would have been impossible to keep their romance under wraps. Kenilworth and the Midlands seem like the likeliest locations, and here Lettice and Leicester would have been afforded relative privacy. Equally uncertain is whether or not it was consummated at this stage, although it was later intimated that it was. Sadly, no letters between the couple have survived – they certainly once did, but may have been burned in an attempt to maintain secrecy. Secrecy was vital, for not only was Lettice in official mourning for Walter, but Leicester was also still the Queen’s favourite – Elizabeth did not like to share. Relationships, sexual or otherwise, were often hidden from the Queen, and both Lettice and Leicester were aware that Elizabeth was likely to fall into a jealous rage if she discovered the truth. According to Leicester’s Commonwealth, in order to manage their relationship, Leicester sent Lettice ‘up and down the country from house to house by privy ways, thereby to avoid the sight and knowledge of the Queen’s Majesty’.32 There are elements of this that have a ring of truth about them. Given that Lettice spent most of 1577 travelling between houses, it is possible that she managed to arrange meetings with Leicester. As mutual friends, it is also likely that the Digbys were aware of their relationship, and may have contrived to help Lettice in this quarter – Coleshill might even have been used as a location for trysts. If they did so, though, they would have been taking a considerable personal risk. Nobody, especially the Queen, could ever find out.
ELSEWHERE, IN MAY, after only a few months in Lord Burghley’s household, Lettice’s son Robert was sent to Trinity College Cambridge, to continue his studies. It was from here that he wrote to Burghley, acknowledging ‘your Lordship’s great care of placing me here in the University, where, for your Lordship’s sake, I have been very well entertained, both of the University and the town’.33 The Master of Trinity was the ‘pious and learned’ Dr John Whitgift, who would later become Queen Elizabeth’s Archbishop of Canterbury, and was by her side at the time of her death.34 Robert’s tutor, Robert Wright, himself a former Cambridge student, accompanied him, and it was he who recorded the young Earl’s expenses. By the summer Robert was in ‘extreme necessity of apparel’, and Wright petitioned Richard Broughton to speak to Burghley about releasing funds.35 The response was positive, and Wright recorded that among a multitude of other items, gloves, a hat, a velvet cap and lace for the Earl’s stockings had been purchased.36 Robert would remain at Cambridge for the next four years, diligently applying himself to his studies, much to Lettice’s pride. However, the plague often visited the city during the summer months, and on these occasions Robert abandoned Cambridge, perhaps taking the opportunity to visit his mother.37
BY THE AUTUMN, the time was fast approaching for Lettice to send her daughters north to join her younger son in the Earl of Huntingdon’s household. Determined to spend one more Christmas with them, she left the hunting parties of Kenilworth and her friends the Digbys behind as, together with Penelope and Dorothy, she travelled to London. Winter was no time to be in the country, for everyone usually gathered at court to enjoy the season’s entertainment – including Leicester.
It was late October by the time Lettice and her daughters arrived in the capital, for on 5 November Richard Broughton related that ‘My lady of Essex came to Hackney a week past.’ Hackney was then a fashionable hamlet on the outskirts of the city, where many members of the nobility owned properties. It is unclear exactly where in Hackney Lettice and her daughters were residing, and it has been suggested that she may have been the guest of the Queen’s cousin, Lady Margaret Lennox.38 Lady Lennox was the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots’ murdered husband, Henry Darnley, and she was also a friend of the Earl of Leicester.39 It is possible that Lettice may have stayed with Lady Lennox, who was by now in her sixties, but aside from their common connection in Queen Elizabeth there is no evidence of a friendship between the two women.
By December, Lettice and her daughters had removed from Hackney, and were now staying in Bedford House on the Strand. They were the guests of Bridget Russell, Countess of Bedford, and here they would remain to celebrate the New Year.40 It is unlikely that Lettice would have confided in the Countess about her relationship with Leicester, for it would have been considered too risky. She would have had an opportunity to see him when she presented her New Year’s gift of ‘ruff’s of lawn white work edged with seed pearl’ to the Queen.41 But the couple would have been careful to keep their distance to avoid the sharp tongues of the court gossips.42
SHORTLY AFTER THE New Year’s celebrations of 1578 had been concluded, Lettice was forced to say goodbye to her daughters. It was time for Penelope and Dorothy to join the Earl of Huntingdon’s household, and they duly set out for the north. Described by the Spanish Bishop de Quadra as ‘a great heretic’, Huntingdon was a zealous Protestant.43 He was also married to the Earl of Leicester’s youngest sister, Katherine, who, like her husband, was stringently religious. The couple had no children, but were responsible for overseeing the education of several children from noble families. In 1572, Huntingdon had been appointed president of the Council of the North, and had established his household at the King’s Manor in York.44 It was here that Penelope and Dorothy were to travel to meet their brother and their new guardians, bidding farewell to both London and their mother.
While in Huntingdon’s household the Devereux children were to live by a strict moral code of behaviour. All three of them continued with their lessons, and it was also expected that their guardian would arrange marriages for them. Although the elder of Lettice’s two sons did not spend as much time with him as his younger siblings, when Huntingdon died in 1595 Essex would declare that he was one ‘whose name without sorrow I shall never mention’.45 Walter had been hopeful that Penelope would wed Sir Philip Sidney, and it is a pairing that Lettice is also likely to have had high hopes of. Sidney was a good match for Penelope, and he was also Leicester’s nephew. He had spent several years travelling in Europe, and when he returned he was a cultured young man, skilled at poetry.46 Given Leicester’s lack of legitimate issue, Philip was also his heir. Ultimately, though, all hopes of a marriage between Philip and Penelope would come to nothing.
With the departure of her daughters for the north, Lettice no longer had any children in her care. She felt their loss keenly. However, that year there were plenty of other matters to occupy her mind. Her movements are unclear; it is possible that, having spent a year travelling around the country staying with friends and family, she finally established herself at Benington, the Hertfordshire home that had been settled on her the previous year. If this were true, then she would have been well placed for attending court, bringing her into regular contact with the Earl of Leicester. Perhaps significantly, Benington was just a little over thirty miles from Wanstead, the Essex home that Leicester had purchased in 1577. He would soon put it to good use. No matter how their relationship may have started out, and whatever Leicester’s initial intentions towards Lettice had been, one thing was certain: Lettice had seen the way that Leicester had cast away his former lover, Douglas Sheffield, and was determined that she would not go the same way. What was more, by now she had fallen deeply in love with Leicester, and he in turn with her. As such there was no longer any question of them continuing their relationship under the guise of friendship, or arranging clandestine meetings. They both wanted more, and only marriage would do. It was a momentous decision for Leicester, who had avoided such a commitment for almost two decades following the death of his first wife – all on the Queen’s behalf. Though the Queen did not know it, she now had a rival.
Lettice’s sister was not the only one who had been thinking about matrimony: Lettice, too, was preparing to marry.
CHAPTER 11
A Marriage in Secret
FOLLOWING THE DEATH of his first wife, Amy Robsart, in 1560, Leicester had spent more than a decade trying everything in his power to persuade the Queen to marry him. He had come closer than any Englishman ever would. The Queen had encouraged him to hope, and many of her advisors had worried that it was a strong possibility. However, Leicester had long since come to the realization that such a marriage would never transpire, and he had given up all hope. As time had progressed, the nature of the relationship between them had changed from that of courting lovers, to good friends who were genuinely fond of one another. Even so, in order to retain the Queen’s favour Leicester had also avoided marrying elsewhere – until now.
Elizabeth's Rival Page 20