روبرت ددلي، إرل لستر الأول Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester، KG (24 June 1532 or 1533 – أربعة September 1588) was an English nobleman and the favourite and close friend of إليزابث الأولى from her first year on the throne until his death. The Queen giving him reason to hope, he was a suitor for her hand for many years.

Dudley's youth was overshadowed by the downfall of his family in 1553 after his father, the Duke of Northumberland, had unsuccessfully tried to establish Lady Jane Grey on the English throne. Robert Dudley was condemned to death but was released in 1554 and took part in the Battle of St. Quentin under Philip II of Spain, which led to his full rehabilitation. On Elizabeth I's accession in November 1558, Dudley was appointed Master of the Horse. In October 1562 he became a privy councillor and in 1587 was appointed Lord Steward of the Royal Household. In 1564 Dudley became Earl of Leicester and from 1563 one of the greatest landowners in North Wales and the English West Midlands by royal grants.

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was one of Elizabeth's leading statesmen, involved in domestic as well as foreign politics alongside William Cecil and Francis Walsingham. Although he refused to be married to Mary, Queen of Scots, Dudley was for a long time relatively sympathetic to her until from the mid-1580s he strongly advocated her execution. As patron of the Puritan movement he supported non-conforming preachers, but tried to mediate between them and the bishops within the Church of England. A champion also of the international Protestant cause, he led the English campaign in support of the Dutch Revolt from 1585–1587. His acceptance of the post of Governor-General of the United Provinces infuriated Queen Elizabeth. The expedition was a military and political failure and ruined the Earl financially. Leicester was engaged in many large-scale business ventures and a main backer of Francis Drake and other explorers and privateers. During the Spanish Armada the Earl was in overall command of the English land forces. In this function he invited Queen Elizabeth to visit her troops at Tilbury. This was the last of many events he organised over the years, the most spectacular being the festival at his seat Kenilworth Castle in 1575 on occasion of a three-week visit by the Queen. Dudley was a principal patron of the arts, literature, and the Elizabethan theatre.

Robert Dudley's private life interfered with his court career and vice versa. When his first wife, Amy Robsart, fell down a flight of stairs and died in 1560, he was free to marry the Queen. However, the resulting scandal very much reduced his chances in this respect. Popular rumours that he had arranged for his wife's death continued throughout his life, despite the coroner's jury's verdict of accident. For 18 years he did not remarry for Queen Elizabeth's sake and when he finally did, his new wife, Lettice Knollys, was permanently banished from court. This and the death of his only legitimate son and heir were heavy blows. Shortly after the child's death in 1584, a virulent libel known as Leicester's Commonwealth was circulating in England. It laid the foundation of a literary and historiographical tradition that often depicted the Earl as the Machiavellian "master courtier" and as a deplorable figure around Elizabeth I. More recent research has led to a reassessment of his place in Elizabethan government and society.

النشأة

التعليم والزواج

Robert Dudley was the fifth son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, and his wife Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Guildford. John and Jane Dudley had 13 children in all and were known for their happy family life. Among the siblings' tutors figured John Dee,Thomas Wilson, and Roger Ascham. Roger Ascham believed that Robert Dudley possessed a rare talent for languages and writing, regretting that his pupil had done himself harm by preferring mathematics. The craft of the courtier Robert learnt at the courts of Henry VIII, and especially Edward VI, among whose companions he served.

In 1549 Robert Dudley participated in crushing Kett's Rebellion and probably first met Amy Robsart, whom he was to wed on أربعة June 1550 in the presence of the young King Edward. She was of the same age as the bridegroom and the daughter and heiress of Sir John Robsart, a gentleman-farmer of Norfolk. It was a love-match, the young couple depending heavily on both their fathers' gifts, especially Robert's. John Dudley, who since early 1550 effectively ruled England, was pleased to strengthen his influence in Norfolk by his son's marriage. Lord Robert, as he was styled as a duke's son, became an important local gentleman and a Member of Parliament. His court career went on in parallel.

المحظي الملكي

Robert Dudley was counted among Elizabeth's special friends by Philip II's envoy to the English court a week before Queen Mary's death. On 18 November 1558, the morning after Elizabeth's accession, he witnessed the surrender of the Great Seal to her at Hatfield. He became Master of the Horse on the same day. This was an important court position entailing close attendance on the sovereign. It suited him, as he was an excellent horseman and showed great professional interest in royal transport and accommodation, horse breeding, and the supply of horses for all occasions. Dudley was also entrusted with organising and overseeing a large part of the Queen's coronation festivities.

مصرع إيمي ددلي

الحياة في البلاط

الزملاء والسياسة

رعايته للعلوم والثقافة

الاستكشاف والأعمال

Robert Dudley was a pioneer of new industries; interested in many things from tapestries to mining, he was engaged in the first joint stock companies in English history. The Earl also concerned himself with relieving unemployment among the poor. On a personal level, he gave to poor people, petitioners, and prisons on a daily basis. Due to his interests in trade and exploration, as well as his debts, his contacts with the London city fathers were intense. وكان مستثمراً متحمساً في شركة موسكوڤي والمغامرين المتاجرين. العلاقات الإنگليزية مع دول الساحل البربري وخصوصاً المغرب كان يديرها لستر. This he did in the manner of his private business affairs, underpinned by a patriotic and missionary zeal (commercially, these relations were a losing business). وقد أبدى اهتماماً بالغاً بأعمال جون هوكنز وفرانسيس دريك منذ البداية، وكان الداعم الرئيسي لدريك في الابحار حول العالم. كما كان روبرت وأمبروز ددلي الراعيين الرئيسيين لـمارتن فروبيشر في بحثه عام 1576 عن الممر الشمالي الغربي. ولاحقاً اقتنى لستر سفينة، Galleon Leicester، والتي شغـّلها في تجريدة غير موفقة بقيادة إدوارد فنتون، وكذلك تحت قيادة دريك. وفيما يتعلق بالربح، فقد كانت قوة إنگلترة البحرية ماثلة في ذهنه، ولذلك فقد أصبح لستر صديقاً وداعماً رئيسياً لدم أنطونيو، المطالب بالعرش البرتغالي المنفي بعد 1580.

التفهم، المسرح، الفنون، والأدب

الحاكم العام للمقاطعات المتحدة

During the 1570s Leicester built a special relationship with Prince William of Orange, who held him in high esteem. The Earl became generally popular in the Netherlands. Since 1577 he pressed for an English military expedition, led by himself (as the Dutch strongly wished) to succour the rebels. In 1584 the Prince of Orange was murdered, political chaos ensued, and in August 1585 Antwerp fell to the Duke of Parma. An English intervention became inevitable; it was decided that Leicester would go to the Netherlands and "be their chief as heretofore was treated of", as he phrased it in August 1585. He was alluding to the recently signed Treaty of Nonsuch in which his position and authority as "governor-general" of the Netherlands had only been vaguely defined. The Earl prepared himself for "God's cause and her Majesty's" by recruiting the expedition's cavalry from his retainers and friends, and by mortgaging his estate to the sum of £25,000.

الأرمادا ووفاته

In July 1588, as the Spanish Armada came nearer, the Earl of Leicester was appointed "Lieutenant and Captain-General of the Queen's Armies and Companies". At Tilbury on the Thames he erected a camp for the defence of London, should the Spaniards indeed land. Leicester vigorously counteracted the disorganisation he found everywhere, having few illusions about "all sudden hurley-burleys", as he wrote to Walsingham. When the Privy Council was already considering to disband the camp to save money, Leicester held against it, setting about to plan with the Queen a visit to her troops. On the day she gave her famous speech he walked beside her horse bare-headed.

السلف

انظر أيضاً

• Alienation Office
• Cultural depictions of Elizabeth I of England
• Kenilworth (novel)
• Lady Catherine Grey
• Greenwich armour
• Maria Stuarda
• Mary Stuart (play)
• Sebastian Westcott

الهامش

ملاحظات

المراجع

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• Adams, Simon (1996): "At Home and Away. The Earl of Leicester" History Today Vol. 46 No.خمسة May 1996 Retrieved 2010-09-29
• Adams, Simon (2002): Leicester and the Court: Essays in Elizabethan Politics Manchester University Press ISBN 0-7190-5325-0
• Adams, Simon (2008a): "Dudley, Lettice, countess of Essex and countess of Leicester (1543–1634)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-04
• Adams, Simon (2008b): "Dudley, Robert, earl of Leicester (1532/3–1588)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. May 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-03
• Adams, Simon (2008c): "Dudley, Sir Robert (1574–1649)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-03
• Adams, Simon (2008d): "Sheffield, Douglas, Lady Sheffield (1542/3–1608)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Jan 2008 (subscription required) Retrieved 2010-04-03
• Adams, Simon (2011): "Dudley, Amy, Lady Dudley (1532–1560)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edn. Jan 2011 (subscription required) Retrieved 2012-07-04
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• Collinson, Patrick (1971): The Elizabethan Puritan Movement Jonathan Cape ISBN 0-224-61132-1
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• Haynes, Alan (1992): Invisible Power: The Elizabethan Secret Services 1570–1603 Alan Sutton ISBN 0-7509-0037-7
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وصلات خارجية

• "Dudley, Robert (DDLY564R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
• Archival material relating to روبرت ددلي، إرل لستر الأول listed at the UK National Register of Archives
• Lord Robert Dudley at The Internet Movie Database