Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky.
Speaker 2: Listener discretion advised. Hi, this is Danish Schwartz. Just a
Speaker 2: quick bit of housekeeping before we get started with the episode.
Speaker 2: There is a Noble Blood Patreon if you want to
Speaker 2: support the show. We have episode scripts, there are exclusive stickers,
Speaker 2: and my friend Carama Donqua and I do a full
Speaker 2: rewatch podcast of the television show Rain about Mary, Queen
Speaker 2: of Scott's. So all of that is available on the Patreon.
Speaker 2: The link is in the bio. We also have merch
Speaker 2: there's a link for that. And also very exciting, I'm
Speaker 2: teaching a writing class this fall that I'm so thrilled about.
Speaker 2: It's going to be a course on horror writing. There's
Speaker 2: a link in the episode description. What's really exciting is
Speaker 2: it's a virtual class, so you can be absolutely anywhere.
Speaker 2: It's completely remote and over zoom. I just I love
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Speaker 2: and you're a writer at any stage of your career,
Speaker 2: let's work together. Let's have some fun. So I think
Speaker 2: that's it for housekeeping. Let's get on with the episode.
Speaker 2: The British painter William Frederick James returned to London in
Speaker 2: eighteen fifty nine after a few years spent studying and
Speaker 2: adventuring around Italy. Once he was home, Emes set up
Speaker 2: a studio, and, like many other artists of his day,
Speaker 2: he sought a group of like minded friends that he
Speaker 2: could paint with. Before long he succeeded, and the Saint
Speaker 2: John's Would Click was born, an association consisting of Yemes
Speaker 2: and seven other painters who all lived around you guessed it,
Speaker 2: the Saint John's Wood area of London. The members of
Speaker 2: the Saint John's Would Clique all shared an interest in
Speaker 2: historical subjects as well as narrative paintings, resulting in a
Speaker 2: body of work that recreated or reimagined moments from history
Speaker 2: with a flare for the dramatic. James in particular was
Speaker 2: drawn to the popular genre of the quote problem picture,
Speaker 2: in which the painting depicts a scene in immediate tension
Speaker 2: and the viewer has to speculate what happens for the
Speaker 2: rest of the story. One of the most famous problem
Speaker 2: pictures was a painting by Emes in which a young
Speaker 2: boy in a Royalist household during the English Civil War
Speaker 2: is being interrogated by roundheads. The painting is called and
Speaker 2: when did you last see your father? The audience has
Speaker 2: to fill in the rest of the story. Does the
Speaker 2: young boy, no doubt, taught to be honest, inadvertently betray
Speaker 2: his father? There's no way of knowing. That's the fun
Speaker 2: of a problem picture. What better subject for a problem
Speaker 2: picture Eames must have thought than Amy Robesart. On September eighth,
Speaker 2: fifteen sixty, Amy was found dead at the bottom of
Speaker 2: a staircase at her home. She was only twenty eight
Speaker 2: years old. Eames imagined her lying on her back at
Speaker 2: the very bottom of the staircase, her red hair trailing
Speaker 2: gently down across her extended on. She wears a light
Speaker 2: pink gown, silken and nearly matching the pallid color of
Speaker 2: her skin. The fabric is draped almost gracefully across the
Speaker 2: stairs she had just fallen from. In reality, when Amy
Speaker 2: Robsart fell, she sustained two head injuries and a broken neck.
Speaker 2: In the painting, however, there is no clear injury to
Speaker 2: indicate a cause of death at all, she looks as
Speaker 2: though she is simply gracefully sleeping at the bottom of
Speaker 2: a staircase. Eames chose to depict the moment of the
Speaker 2: discovery of Amy's body. Approaching her In the painting are
Speaker 2: two men, perhaps servants, one older and one younger. Their eyes,
Speaker 2: no doubt, like the viewers of the painting, are drawn
Speaker 2: in shock and awe to the beautiful young woman at
Speaker 2: the bottom of the staircase. They are faced with the
Speaker 2: same question that we are, what happened to Amy Robesart.
Speaker 2: As intriguing as Amy Robsart's death at the bottom of
Speaker 2: the stairs may be, it's not the murder mystery that
Speaker 2: constitutes the only problem in her problem picture life, because
Speaker 2: Amy Robsart was not just any young woman dying under
Speaker 2: suspicious circumstances. She was the long neglected and now dead
Speaker 2: wife of Robert Dudley, the favorite and rumored lover of
Speaker 2: none other than her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, the First of England.
Speaker 2: Problem for Amy, Indeed, I'm Danish Schwartz and this is
Speaker 2: noble blood. As is too often the case with women
Speaker 2: in this period, we know precious little of Amy Robesart's
Speaker 2: early life. She was born in fifteen thirty two into
Speaker 2: wealth and influence, but not nobility. She was the daughter
Speaker 2: of a gentleman farmer whose success had manifested itself in
Speaker 2: several estates, the opportunity to serve as Norfolk's justice of
Speaker 2: the peace, and according to records over three thousand sheep.
Speaker 2: Amy was her parents only legitimate child together, but she
Speaker 2: was far from lonely. Her mother had four children from
Speaker 2: a previous marriage, and her father had a son born
Speaker 2: out of wedlock. We have basic details that indicate a
Speaker 2: relatively good young life for Amy. Her family was low
Speaker 2: charge with a good reputation, and Amy received a good education.
Speaker 2: Her father, Sir John Robesart, had recorded her birth in
Speaker 2: his personal prayer book, describing her as his beloved daughter.
Speaker 2: Amy seems to have been slated for a pleasant and respectable,
Speaker 2: if relatively unremarkable life in the country, and then fate
Speaker 2: stepped in. In the early summer of fifteen forty nine,
Speaker 2: when Amy was just seventeen, a peasant uprising was bubbling
Speaker 2: in Norfolk.
Speaker 1: A man named.
Speaker 2: Robert Kett, who happened to be forgive me for this,
Speaker 2: Amy's Mother's former brother in law. Through her previous marriage.
Speaker 2: Began the rebellion in July, following a dispute with again
Speaker 2: forgive me, Amy's half sister's father in law, Sir John
Speaker 2: Flowerdew over the latter's enclosure of some common land. By August,
Speaker 2: the rebels held the town of Norwich, then England's second
Speaker 2: largest city. After a failed first attempt to quash the rebellion,
Speaker 2: the Duke of Somerset, who was Lord Protector of England,
Speaker 2: sent a large army under John Dudley, the Earl of Warwick.
Speaker 2: Kett's rebellion had important consequences at English Court, but for
Speaker 2: our current purposes, the important thing to note is that Dudley,
Speaker 2: the Earl brought in to quash the rebellion, and his
Speaker 2: officers were quartered at Sir John Ropesart's home at Wyndham.
Speaker 2: Also in tow were two of the Earl's sons, Ambrose
Speaker 2: and Robert Dudley, both going to the wars for the
Speaker 2: first time. Robert was seven, in fact, just a few
Speaker 2: weeks younger than Amy. Although Kett's rebellion would be finished
Speaker 2: within just a few days of the army's arrival, clearly
Speaker 2: young Robert and Amy had made a lasting impression on
Speaker 2: one another. Less than a year later, the two would
Speaker 2: be married. They tied the knot on June fourth, fifteen fifty,
Speaker 2: just days before Amy turned eighteen and weeks before Robert did.
Speaker 2: The then twelve year old King Edward the sixth noted
Speaker 2: their wedding in his famously boring child king diary, which
Speaker 2: we covered recently in the episode Edward the Sixth. Among
Speaker 2: the women, he seemed to have had fun at the festivities,
Speaker 2: noting in particular some sort of goose killing contest he observed,
Speaker 2: But he didn't enjoy Robert and Amy's wedding as much
Speaker 2: as he did a wedding he went to the day before,
Speaker 2: between Robert's older brother John and Anne, daughter of the
Speaker 2: Duke of Somerset. Praises abounded in Edward's diary for that
Speaker 2: Dudley Somerset wedding, which boasted mock battles, a masquerade, and
Speaker 2: a delicious banquet. Edward's tween delight aside, John, Dudley and
Speaker 2: Anne's wedding had been strictly political, meant as a show
Speaker 2: of renewed friendship after the Earl of Warwick had led
Speaker 2: a coup against imprisoned and then released Somerset events for
Speaker 2: another episode. But Amy's and Robert's marriage, on the other hand,
Speaker 2: would later be described as a quote carnal marriage, a
Speaker 2: somewhat alarming term meant to suggest impropriety given that it
Speaker 2: was a love match. Although Amy's family was plenty respectable
Speaker 2: and decently wealthy, she would have otherwise been an odd
Speaker 2: choice of bride for the son of one of the
Speaker 2: most powerful men in England. But something drew the two
Speaker 2: of them together, and for the first few years of
Speaker 2: their marriage they seemed to live a happy, comfortable in
Speaker 2: love life. By the time that King Edward the sixth
Speaker 2: died at fifteen years old on July sixth, fifteen fifty three,
Speaker 2: things had been going well for Amy and Robert. Despite
Speaker 2: the political turmoil of the time, they had seemingly lucked
Speaker 2: their way into comfort and influence. Robert's father became a
Speaker 2: duke and then the head of Edward's Privy Council, and
Speaker 2: for several years he was the de facto ruler of England.
Speaker 2: Robert himself had joined the King's privy Chamber and held
Speaker 2: several offices at court. Less than a year after the
Speaker 2: Duke of Somerset was executed in fifteen fifty two on
Speaker 2: trumped up treason charges that Dudley's Somerset wedding did not
Speaker 2: in fact renew much friendship or goodwill. It turns out
Speaker 2: Robert was made the keeper of Somerset House, which meant
Speaker 2: that he and Amy now had a lavish London estate
Speaker 2: of their own. Everything was simply put coming up Dudley.
Speaker 2: But as crises of succession tend to do, the death
Speaker 2: of the King changed everything for the Deadley's and would
Speaker 2: in turn put Amy's previously blissful life upside down. As
Speaker 2: had been the case for much of her life, it
Speaker 2: was one of Amy Dudley's many confusing in laws who
Speaker 2: would cause the trouble that would begin to offend her
Speaker 2: peaceful existence. In May fifteen fifty three, just a few
Speaker 2: months before King Edward died, Robert's younger brother Guildford, Dudley
Speaker 2: married Lady Jane Gray. If that name sounds familiar, it's
Speaker 2: perhaps because she's best known as the Nine Days Queen
Speaker 2: for her brief disputed stint as Queen of England between
Speaker 2: the young Edward and his Catholic half sister Mary Tudor.
Speaker 2: We've covered that crisis of succession before on this podcast,
Speaker 2: so I won't bore you with the details again, but
Speaker 2: just know that when Jane was deposed on the nineteenth
Speaker 2: of July fifteen fifty three, Mary Tudor and her supporters
Speaker 2: saw the Dudley family as a threat to her session. Robert,
Speaker 2: his father, and four of his brothers were all imprisoned
Speaker 2: in the Tower of London and condemned to death. Amy
Speaker 2: was allowed to visit her husband in the tower beginning
Speaker 2: that September, but he remained imprisoned for over a year,
Speaker 2: and both his father and his brother Guildford were executed.
Speaker 2: His other brother, John, the one who had gotten married
Speaker 2: a day before him in a more fun wedding, died
Speaker 2: of an illness shortly following his release from prison. Robert
Speaker 2: Dudley's mother worked tirelessly for her remaining son's release, and
Speaker 2: she managed to secure it after befriending the nobles who
Speaker 2: arrived with Queen Mary's new husband, Philip the second of Spain.
Speaker 2: Robert would finally be freed from the tower in October
Speaker 2: fifteen fifty four. Robert dudley imprisonment was certainly a turning
Speaker 2: point in Amy's life. After an unimaginably terrifying year spent
Speaker 2: worrying that her husband might be sent to the scaffold
Speaker 2: at any moment. Amy also had to contend with newfound
Speaker 2: financial precarity. In June fifteen fifty four, Amy's dad, Sir
Speaker 2: John Robsart, had died, and under different circumstances, his estate
Speaker 2: would have passed to his only legitimate child. However, Robert
Speaker 2: and Amy's marriage contract had stipulated that she would not
Speaker 2: receive anything from her father's estate until both of her
Speaker 2: parents had passed. This would have been all well and
Speaker 2: good had Robert Dudley not been attained following his release,
Speaker 2: meaning he was stripped of any property and hereditary titles.
Speaker 2: The Dudleys were left with almost nothing to call their own,
Speaker 2: rocked by scandal and relying on the goodwill of friends
Speaker 2: and family just to survive. But something else, something quieter,
Speaker 2: had begun brewing during that faithful year Robert spent in
Speaker 2: the Tower of London. A few months into his imprisonment,
Speaker 2: Robert was reunited with an old childhood friend who was
Speaker 2: jailed for a suspected role in a recent Protestant rebellion.
Speaker 2: That friend just happened to be the younger half sister
Speaker 2: of the Queen, who in just a few short years
Speaker 2: would ascend to the throne herself as Queen Elizabeth the First.
Speaker 2: Over the years following Robert Dudley's release from the Tower
Speaker 2: of London, things slowly began to look up for Robert
Speaker 2: and Amy, although they were not quite restored to their
Speaker 2: former financial glory. When Amy's mother passed in fifteen fifty seven,
Speaker 2: Amy and Robert were able to claim her father's estate,
Speaker 2: which allowed them to begin paying off debts. In early
Speaker 2: fifteen fifty eight, Parliament had lifted the attainder against the
Speaker 2: Dudly brothers, which restored their hereditary titles, though they could
Speaker 2: still not claim their late father's possessions. And throughout all
Speaker 2: the ups and downs, Amy and Robert seem to have
Speaker 2: maintained a caring relationship. We can't know what either of
Speaker 2: them truly felt about the other, but we know Robert
Speaker 2: entrusted Amy with the care of their affairs when he
Speaker 2: went to war in fifteen fifty seven. And what's more,
Speaker 2: although he was entitled by law to control his wife's
Speaker 2: inheritance himself, he allowed her to have her own income.
Speaker 2: Despite their troubles, they were making things work, and seemed
Speaker 2: to care for one another. But then, on November seventeenth,
Speaker 2: fifteen fifty eight, Queen Elizabeth the First succeeded to the throne.
Speaker 2: We have no reason to believe that anything untoward was
Speaker 2: happening between Elizabeth and Robert in the years leading up
Speaker 2: to her ascension. Many have imagined, for example, some sort
Speaker 2: of furtive prison romance while they were both in the
Speaker 2: Tower of London. This is unlikely, but they did certainly
Speaker 2: know each other. Dudley would later remark to a French
Speaker 2: ambassador that they had been friends since the Queen was
Speaker 2: eight years old. Elizabeth may have been among the guests
Speaker 2: at Robert's wedding to Amy, and so Although oh we
Speaker 2: have no specific record of any interaction between Robert and
Speaker 2: Elizabeth while they were both imprisoned in the tower, let
Speaker 2: alone romantic or sexual interaction, it is believed that their
Speaker 2: shared experience became a point of connection for them. From
Speaker 2: the moment of Elizabeth's ascension, Dudley was rarely away from
Speaker 2: her side. He was declared Master of the Horses within
Speaker 2: a day of her taking the throne, which sounds like
Speaker 2: a made up job, but was in fact not only important,
Speaker 2: but also guaranteed close personal access to the queen. Rumors
Speaker 2: began to swirl almost immediately of a brewing romance between
Speaker 2: the queen and her favorite. The favorite's wife was not
Speaker 2: invited to court. Amy remained in residents at Throcking at Hertfordshire,
Speaker 2: north of London. We know almost nothing of how she
Speaker 2: filled her days while her once beloved husband was busy
Speaker 2: planning his new queen's coronation, rising to stardom at court,
Speaker 2: and receiving favor after favor along the way. It's likely
Speaker 2: she visited relatives, given that she spent the Christmas season
Speaker 2: in Lincolnshire. Of course, it's entirely possible that Amy was
Speaker 2: content or even happy with this existence. After marrying so
Speaker 2: young and going through so much, maybe she and Robert
Speaker 2: simply grew apart. This kind of de facto separation was
Speaker 2: also quite normal in this time for a couple of
Speaker 2: Amy and Robert's social class, and after their financial troubles,
Speaker 2: Robert could not afford to abandon court simply to spend
Speaker 2: time with his wife in the country. It's entirely possible
Speaker 2: that Amy wasn't suspicious of the amount of time her
Speaker 2: husband spent at court without her, although her own lack
Speaker 2: of an invitation might have given her pause. We know
Speaker 2: that wherever they were, Amy and Robert sent messengers back
Speaker 2: and forth with letters, money, and other goods, although the
Speaker 2: letters have since been lost, along with the rest of
Speaker 2: the deadly family correspondence. Given how much we can't know
Speaker 2: for sure, I think it's important for us not to
Speaker 2: instinctually turn Amy into a trope, the bitter jilted wife
Speaker 2: suffering in silence while her husband flaunt his affair. But
Speaker 2: then again, it's hard to believe that the woman who
Speaker 2: had once had a cardinal match with the handsome teenage
Speaker 2: son of an earl staying in her home, who fell
Speaker 2: in love and got married, and had been through so
Speaker 2: much with him to come out the other side, would
Speaker 2: just be fully chill about him, visibly closing up to
Speaker 2: the Queen of England. Robert managed to make it home
Speaker 2: for a few days during Parliament's Easter recess in April
Speaker 2: fifteen fifty nine, although his visit seemed to have been
Speaker 2: primarily focused on work. By this time, just five months
Speaker 2: into Elizabeth's reign, it seemed to be public knowledge at
Speaker 2: court that the Queen and Robert were a little too close.
Speaker 2: Shortly after Robert's return to court in April, a Spanish
Speaker 2: diploma at the Count Afaria noted in a report that
Speaker 2: Amy had been very ill quote in her breast, which
Speaker 2: scholars have guessed could refer to some sort of cancer,
Speaker 2: and that Elizabeth seemed primed to marry Robert should Amy's
Speaker 2: illness claim her life. In the same report, he observed
Speaker 2: Robert's immense power at court, as well as the fact
Speaker 2: that quote her Majesty visited him in his chamber day
Speaker 2: and night. The last time it's believed Robert Dudley ever
Speaker 2: saw his wife was a month or so later. When
Speaker 2: Amy came to London for a month beginning in May
Speaker 2: fifteen fifty nine, she seemed in better health. It's likely
Speaker 2: that this visit was in celebration of Robert's election as
Speaker 2: a Knight of the Garter, which cemented his place as
Speaker 2: one of the most important men in England. In June,
Speaker 2: Robert moved to Greenwich with the rest of the court.
Speaker 2: Amy went back to Suffolk. By the fall of fifteen
Speaker 2: fifty nine, rumors regarding Elizaeabeth and Robert's relationship were reaching
Speaker 2: a fever pitch. Elizabeth was dragging her feet with a
Speaker 2: bevy of foreign suitors, while many diplomats at court lamented
Speaker 2: that Robert never seemed to leave her side. It was
Speaker 2: known that Robert was married, although few at court seemed
Speaker 2: to have ever laid eyes on his wife. Eventually, people
Speaker 2: began to assert in diplomatic correspondence no less that Elizabeth
Speaker 2: never had any real intentions for her suitors, and was
Speaker 2: in fact conspiring with her favorite Robert, to poison Amy
Speaker 2: Dudley that they could marry, or maybe Elizabeth was pregnant
Speaker 2: with Robert's child, a story that would follow Elizabeth for
Speaker 2: the rest of her reign. One anonymous source claimed that
Speaker 2: Elizabeth actively tried to keep Robert away from his wife,
Speaker 2: going so far as to make him swear that he
Speaker 2: quote did nothing with her on the very rare occasions
Speaker 2: that he did see his wife. Of course, many of
Speaker 2: these gossipy diplomats and courtiers had a vested interest in
Speaker 2: Elizabeth marrying one of their foreign suitors or in depriving Robert,
Speaker 2: the favorite of power at court, So we have to
Speaker 2: take all of these assertions with a huge grain of salt. Nevertheless,
Speaker 2: one thing was clear. Amy Dudley was an obstacle to
Speaker 2: whatever it was Robert was trying to do at court.
Speaker 2: Toward the end of fifteen fifty nine, away from the
Speaker 2: churning gossip mill that was the English Court, Amy moved
Speaker 2: to cunn Palace, a beautiful estate not far from Oxford
Speaker 2: in what was then part of Burke County. She was
Speaker 2: a guest there of Anthony Forster and his family, who
Speaker 2: had been close in the Dudley's orbit for many years.
Speaker 2: Her chambers were on the south end of the complex,
Speaker 2: accessible from the outside and at the top of a
Speaker 2: set of stairs. Amy brought a small entourage of servants.
Speaker 2: She was almost certainly the highest ranking person in Cumnor,
Speaker 2: but she was likely well integrated into the community, socializing
Speaker 2: with the other women and spending a great deal of
Speaker 2: her time at church. The following several months seemed to
Speaker 2: have passed without much change. Robert attempted a plan to
Speaker 2: visit his wife in the summer of fifteen sixty, but
Speaker 2: it didn't pan out. Rumors continued about his unusually close
Speaker 2: relationship with the Queen. He became so widely hated as
Speaker 2: court that he took to wearing a light coat of
Speaker 2: mail to protect himself from potential assassins. Amy's life continued,
Speaker 2: it seems a pace At Cumnor. On Sunday, September eighth,
Speaker 2: fifteen sixty, Amy woke up early for some reason. That
Speaker 2: day she insisted on sending all of her servants and
Speaker 2: anyone else in the household she could out for the
Speaker 2: day to a fair at Abington. Go go to the fair,
Speaker 2: she insisted. Witnesses later stated that she seemed angry with
Speaker 2: those who questioned her wish to be alone or who
Speaker 2: refused to go to the fair that day. When everyone
Speaker 2: returned a few hours later from the fair, there she
Speaker 2: was lying at the bottom of the stairs leading up
Speaker 2: to her chamber. Amy Dudley was dead. There is perhaps
Speaker 2: no better feeling for a historian or an archivist than
Speaker 2: discovering a piece of evidence that helps to answer a
Speaker 2: long burning historical question. It can be a historic moment
Speaker 2: in and of itself, finding something that had been lost
Speaker 2: or that we never knew existed, something that changes how
Speaker 2: we see the past. That must have been the feeling
Speaker 2: for the person who found the coroner's report on Amy's death,
Speaker 2: which was believed to have been lost in the UK
Speaker 2: National Archives until two thousand and eight. Before this, there
Speaker 2: were a few primary theories as to what happened. First,
Speaker 2: there was the worst case scenario and also the most intriguing,
Speaker 2: that Amy Robesart was murdered. This is an old suspicion,
Speaker 2: dating back practically to the moment Amy died. In his
Speaker 2: letters written to his steward during the immediate aftermath, Robert
Speaker 2: Dudley seemed keenly aware that suspicion could fall on him.
Speaker 2: For what it's worth, it seems unlikely that Robert did
Speaker 2: orchestrate his wife's death. In fact, her death proved disastrous
Speaker 2: for Dudley. Although he remained a prospect for marriage for
Speaker 2: Elizabeth to some extent for several more years, the scandal
Speaker 2: that ensued from Amy's death all but confirmed that he
Speaker 2: and Elizabeth would never marry. People whose spouses die under
Speaker 2: mysterious circumstances usually don't marry Queens of England. Historians have
Speaker 2: also noted Dudley's apparent distress in his correspondence following Amy's death,
Speaker 2: which seems to indicate that he didn't expect it. Nevertheless, many,
Speaker 2: especially Robert's enemies at court, suspected or pretended to suspect
Speaker 2: him of following through on a plot to kill his
Speaker 2: wife so that he could marry Elizabeth and become King.
Speaker 2: John Appleyard, Amy's half brother, suspected foul play, although he
Speaker 2: did not believe Robert Dudley to be responsible. Several years later,
Speaker 2: in fifteen sixty seven, John was approached, apparently on behalf
Speaker 2: of the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Sussex,
Speaker 2: whose representatives offered a cash reward in exchange for John
Speaker 2: publicly accusing Robert Dudley of having murdered Amy. By this point,
Speaker 2: Dudley was the Earl of Lester, and the accusations certainly
Speaker 2: would have helped jealous rivals take his reputation down a peg,
Speaker 2: but Appleyard reportedly refused, and he went to Robert with
Speaker 2: his concerns. Robert was apparently furious both at the plot
Speaker 2: against him and that his wife's death remained a matter
Speaker 2: of speculation despite the case having been closed for several years.
Speaker 2: The Privy Council investigated the plot and imprisoned Appleyard to
Speaker 2: interrogate his claims regarding these high level officials. John was
Speaker 2: questioned by members of the Privy Council but recanted his
Speaker 2: story In the end, and he requested to see the
Speaker 2: coroner's report, which he said alleviated his concerns. Given Amy's
Speaker 2: strange behavior on the mourning of her death, not to
Speaker 2: mention her marital woes, Rumors of suicide also abounded. This
Speaker 2: theory seems to have been first put forward by Amy's
Speaker 2: d devoted Maide Missus Picto, who, despite saying she believed
Speaker 2: the death was an accident, admitted that Amy could have
Speaker 2: had thoughts of suicide. For those of you who love
Speaker 2: the CW show Rain like I do, you know that
Speaker 2: this theory has had some cultural sticking power. Spoiler alert
Speaker 2: for future seasons of Rain. The fictionalized Amy Robesart in
Speaker 2: the show ended her own life in order to create
Speaker 2: a scandal that would prevent her husband from marrying Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: That's almost certainly an intriguing, dramatic twist on an already
Speaker 2: unlikely theory, but the folks at Rain were not the
Speaker 2: first to think of it. The coroner's report reflects the
Speaker 2: third alternative, a simple tragic accident. It was previously believed
Speaker 2: that Amy's injuries could not have been sustained accidentally from
Speaker 2: a fall. In fact, this belief was grounded in a
Speaker 2: detail that stems from a satirical pamphlet published after her death,
Speaker 2: which stated that her head dress or her hood remained
Speaker 2: upright on her head following the supposed quote unquote fall.
Speaker 2: But that was just a bit of gossip. There was
Speaker 2: no factual truth to that story. In the twentieth century,
Speaker 2: professor of medicine, Ian Aird put forth what became a
Speaker 2: prevailing theory, which was that Amy indeed suffered from breast
Speaker 2: cancer which metastasized to her spine and weakened it, which
Speaker 2: could have made a relatively short fall fatal. In fact,
Speaker 2: because we know that the head dress detail was fabricated,
Speaker 2: it's entirely possible that Amy did have an unfortunate, deadly fall,
Speaker 2: unaided by illness or outside forces. Although the discovery of
Speaker 2: the report provided answers in some ways and perhaps helps
Speaker 2: us narrow down the potentialities, the intrigue surrounding Amy's death
Speaker 2: is too big to be tamped down by a single
Speaker 2: piece of paper. The discovery in two thousand and eight
Speaker 2: brought speculation to a new level not seen in many years,
Speaker 2: but it just continued the mystery because, according to the
Speaker 2: coroner's report, the head injuries listed could reasonably have resulted
Speaker 2: from accident, suicide, or foul play. She fell down the
Speaker 2: stairs and hit her head. We don't know how or
Speaker 2: why she fell down the stairs. In a confused using twist,
Speaker 2: the report opened up the possibility of an accident, but
Speaker 2: aside from offering us the official opinion of a jury,
Speaker 2: it doesn't rule out the alternatives. While most modern historians
Speaker 2: have absolved Robert Dudley of responsibility for his wife's death,
Speaker 2: and many have issued the idea of foul play altogether,
Speaker 2: the idea of a murderous plot has remained enticing. Some
Speaker 2: have ventured that someone at court with reason to smear
Speaker 2: Robert Dudley, that is, just about anyone, could have orchestrated
Speaker 2: the murder to frame him. Some scholars and enthusiasts have
Speaker 2: put forth Elizabeth's chief adviser, William Cecil, although it seems
Speaker 2: unlikely he would have risked either the Queen's or his
Speaker 2: own reputation just to ruin Roberts. Several scholars have suggested
Speaker 2: that though the jury in the end did decide the
Speaker 2: official cause of death was an accident, someone, maybe even
Speaker 2: Robert Dudley, could have influenced the jury, but that raises
Speaker 2: even more questions. He could have influenced them to say
Speaker 2: it was an accident to cover up a murder, but
Speaker 2: it also could have been to cover up a suicide,
Speaker 2: because an accident would have been considered less shameful. Amy's
Speaker 2: grave has been lost, although a floor slab remains dedicated
Speaker 2: to her at Saint Mary's Church in Oxford. Without a body,
Speaker 2: we may never know for sure what happened to her,
Speaker 2: and it's likely that speculation will continue as it has
Speaker 2: in waves, possibly forever. For his part, Robert Dudley went
Speaker 2: on to remain at the center of Elizabeth's court for
Speaker 2: the rest of her life. Although he and perhaps Elizabeth
Speaker 2: also entertained hopes that they might someday be able to wed,
Speaker 2: Eventually Robert accepted the fact that it would never happen.
Speaker 2: He married Latise Knowles, a cousin and, if portraits are
Speaker 2: to be believed, a look alike of Queen elizabeths in
Speaker 2: secret in fifteen seventy eight. When Elizabeth found out about
Speaker 2: the nuptials, she permanently banned Latis from court and refused
Speaker 2: to even acknowledge the marriage. But no scandal would ever
Speaker 2: stick to Robert, quite like his first wife, Amy Robsart.
Speaker 2: The satirical pamphlet that first put forth the Headdress Story,
Speaker 2: a story that furthered the murder theory for literally hundreds
Speaker 2: of years, and which was the first appearance of Amy's
Speaker 2: death in print, was published in fifteen eighty four, almost
Speaker 2: twenty five years after Amy's death and six years into
Speaker 2: Robert's new marriage. When it comes to gossip and scandal
Speaker 2: at court, you never forget your first That's the story
Speaker 2: of Amy Robesart. But stick around after a brief sponsor
Speaker 2: break to hear a bit more about the longer legacy
Speaker 2: of her tragic death. William Frederick Eames was not the
Speaker 2: only painter to find a perfect elusive subject in Amy Robsart.
Speaker 2: Earlier in the nineteenth century, the romantic artist Richard Parkes
Speaker 2: Bonington depicted her alive with Robert Dudley. Although the term
Speaker 2: romantic in the artistic sense referred to a painting style
Speaker 2: rather than literal romance in the subject, Bonnington's painting was romantic. Robert,
Speaker 2: who in reality had ignored Amy for much of their marriage,
Speaker 2: is depicted looking lovingly at his wife, who faces him,
Speaker 2: hand on his chest, looking demurely and perhaps even flirtatiously downward.
Speaker 2: The painting is saturated with warm hues, with Amy's vibrant
Speaker 2: orange dress drawing the eye to her and her beloved.
Speaker 2: A pet dog looks up at its owners, completing the
Speaker 2: scene of domestic bliss. It is certainly a different story
Speaker 2: from the one we remember best. The nineteenth century saw
Speaker 2: the first quote revival of interest in Amy's death following
Speaker 2: the eighteen twenty one publication of Sir Walter Scott's novel
Speaker 2: Kenilworth dramatizing the topic. Speculation about Amy's death roared back
Speaker 2: to life, and artists were enthralled by the figure of
Speaker 2: Amy as the tragically beautiful victim of adultery, murder, or
Speaker 2: possibly both. Painters took the opportunity to imagine her likeness,
Speaker 2: and fantasy portraits, usually sad and contemplative, she pines for
Speaker 2: her husband or looks off into the distance. One painting
Speaker 2: has her at the top of those fateful stairs, also
Speaker 2: gazing wistfully off in the distance as she begins her
Speaker 2: final descent. Then there's EM's painting, which gets right to
Speaker 2: the point in showing us that interest in Amy's life
Speaker 2: is really almost always interest about her death. Bonnington's painting, however,
Speaker 2: offers us a rare glimpse into something else, the life
Speaker 2: Amy and Robert had early on in their marriage, or
Speaker 2: perhaps the life they could have had if things turned
Speaker 2: out differently. Amy's gaze is not out into the great beyond,
Speaker 2: but centered within the painting, toward her husband and her pet.
Speaker 2: A hint of a smile plays at her lips. Here.
Speaker 2: Amy Robesart is not Elizabeth's foil, the jilted other woman,
Speaker 2: or an obstacle to Robert's social climbing. She's a person,
Speaker 2: loving and beloved with her own hopes and dreams for
Speaker 2: how her life would turn out, and not just what
Speaker 2: would happen at the end of it.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and
Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is created and hosted
Speaker 1: by me Dana Shwarts, with additional writing and researching by
Speaker 1: Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman.
Speaker 1: The show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and
Speaker 1: rima Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive
Speaker 1: producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.