The Manner of Amy's Death (28 page)

       The rich were not so different from us in matters of love either.  There was marital unfaithfulness, and divorce was not uncommon, although there had to be a good reason.  Secret, passionate assignations took place in bedchambers and there were resulting pregnancies that women tried to hide by letting out the laces of their gowns.  But, of course, such things could not be hidden for long.  Members of the aristocracy who married without the permission of the Queen risked imprisonment in the Tower – or worse!  But even this did not stop those who had ‘the hots’ for each other marrying in private so that any resulting children would not be illegitimate.  From then onwards it would have been relatively easy to escape from the court for a few moments of satisfying passion.  Elizabethan women usually wore no underwear other than a long washable linen shift which doubled as a nightdress!

       There is however no proof that Elizabeth and Robert’s affair went any further than a longing, a closeness and outrageous displays of affection.  On the other hand neither was there proof that they did not have a sexual relationship.  No one knows.  Elizabeth never tried to hide her love for him and, at first, rather seemed to revel in the notoriety it caused.  She called him her eyes, ‘OO’ in written correspondence.  As the eyes were the window to the soul we may say today that he was her ‘soul-mate’.

       However it would be wrong to suggest that life was one long party.  The Elizabethans worked hard and played hard; they took their responsibilities and duties seriously.  For women it was a new age of intellectual freedom and the daughters of the wealthy were educated more and more to the same standards as their brothers.  Elizabeth herself, Lady Jane Grey, Katherine Parr, Anne Askew and Bess of Hardwick were just some of the educated and free thinking women of the time.  Anne
Askew was tortured and executed by Henry VIII for her unwavering stance on religious reform while Bess became a fabulously wealthy and astute business woman.

       Into this vipers’ nest of strong, sometimes reckless, women and ambitious, greedy men steps a gentleman farmer’s daughter from
Norfolk, Amy Robsart.

       Little is known of Amy’s life so I have put her into situations where she may, or may not, have been involved …. Lady Jane Grey’s brief reign, for example.  It is, however, entirely possible that Amy interacted with all the rich and famous of the time for she was married to Robert Dudley, the son of the most influential nobleman of them all, the Duke of Northumberland.  And this, ultimately, led to her downfall. 

History is fun!
  If you have enjoyed this fictional account of a four hundred and fifty year old murder mystery, you may wish to read the non-fiction secondary sources for this book.  But remember that true historians go back to primary sources as well, national archives, manuscripts and documents preserved in castles, university archives and the British Library, where there must be many documents relating to mysterious and important historical events still waiting to be discovered.  Only recently has the Coroner’s Report into Amy’s death been found in the National Archives at Kew, under the section for October 1561.  Previously, when historians searched for this document, they naturally assumed it would be filed alongside those documents relating to autumn 1560 and hence it was assumed to be lost.  This discovery cast a whole new light on the mystery of Amy Robsart’s death.

Non fiction Sources for The Manner of Amy’s Death

De Lisle, Leand
a, The Sisters Who Would be Queen (HarperPress, 2008)

Fraser, Antonia, Mary Queen of Scots (World Books, 1969)

Jones, Gwyn and Jones, Thomas (translators), The Mabinogion (Everyman, 1949)

Lipscomb, Suzannah, A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England (Ebury Press, 2012)

Rowse, A. L., The Elizabethan Renaissance, The Life of the Society (Macmillan, 1971)

Skidmore, Chris , Death and The Virgin (
Phoenix, 2011)

Starkey, David,
Elizabeth (Vintage, 2001)

Whitelock, Anna, Mary Tudor (
Bloomsbury, 2009)