Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex


Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex was an English nobleman, soldier and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I.
A charismatic and ambitious youth, Essex grew up in a family of courtiers with strong ties to the queen. He became a royal ward following his father's death in 1576. He entered court in 1585 as a member of the Earl of Leicester's entourage. Essex rose quickly at court and developed a close personal relationship with the queen. He played a prominent role in England’s military campaigns during the Anglo-Spanish War and Eighty Years' War, including expeditions to Portugal and the Azores which gave him celebrity status among the London elite.
Towards the end of the 1590s Essex's position at court was threatened by Robert Cecil. Essex was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland during the Nine Years' War. Despite considerable resources, his 1599 campaign against the Irish confederacy was a military disaster, ruining his reputation and straining his relationship with the queen. He deserted his post and was subsequently placed under house arrest, leading to a nervous breakdown. In February 1601, he led a failed coup against the government and was arrested, tried for treason, and executed by beheading at the Tower of London.
The nature of Essex's turbulent relationship with Elizabeth I has been speculated on by both historians and dramatists.

Early life

Robert Devereux was born on 10 November 1565 at Netherwood in Herefordshire, the eldest son of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, and his wife Lettice Knollys. From birth, the young Robert Devereux had a strong association with Queen Elizabeth I. Lettice was a close friend of Elizabeth and served as her Maid of the Privy Chamber. Robert Devereux was presumably named after his godfather Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who was the queen's favourite for many years. Additionally, Devereux's maternal great-grandmother Mary Boleyn was a sister of Anne Boleyn making him a first-cousin-twice-removed of the queen.
Devereux had two older sisters, Penelope and Dorothy, a younger brother, Walter, and another brother Francis who died soon after birth. Devereux and his siblings were brought up at the family seat at Chartley in Staffordshire. From 1573, Devereux's father Walter was involved in a disastrous scheme to colonise Ulster and thus spent much of his time in Ireland.
Walter died in September 1576, and 10-year-old Robert Devereux became a ward of the Crown. Prominent minister Lord Burghley was Master of the Court of Wards and thus took on chief responsibility for young Essex's welfare. He was also brought up by leading courtiers Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex and Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon. Essex was an intelligent and promising child; a report of November 1576 described him as "very courteous and modest, rather disposed to hear than to answer, given greatly to learning, weak and tender, but very comely and beautiful". By this time he could speak both Latin and French.
Essex's late father had crippled his family's finances and left the young earl £18,000 in debt. His father's legal advisor Richard Broughton oversaw the family estate whilst he was still a minor. In January 1577, Essex left Chartley to travel to London, where he briefly stayed at Burghley's residence Cecil House. He also spent time at Theobalds, Burghley's estate in Hertfordshire, where he mixed with Burghley's son Robert Cecil.
As a boy he was tutored by Thomas Ashton, headmaster of Shrewsbury School and a family servant, then by Ashton's protégé Robert Wright. In early May 1577, Essex entered Trinity College, Cambridge. He matriculated by 1579, and in 1581 he graduated with a Master of Arts. He spent the following four years travelling the British countryside.

Early career

Apprenticeship in Netherlands

In 1585 Essex came under pressure from his mother to establish a career as a courtier. He joined the entourage of his new stepfather Leicester and visited the royal court in September 1585. Leicester became a significant patron for his stepson, and he instilled in Essex a sense of unity with fellow Protestants across Europe. Despite his later status as a royal favourite, Essex went unnoticed by the queen in his early visits to court; she was preoccupied by both the Anglo-Spanish War and the Eighty Years' War. Essex was granted permission to accompany Leicester on a military apprenticeship in the Spanish Netherlands. He was appointed colonel-general of the English cavalry in the Netherlands, a prestigious position which signified his status as Leicester's new protégé. In September 1586 Essex and his horsemen successfully attacked a much larger Spanish force in the Battle of Zutphen, for which Leicester made him a knight-banneret. Leicester's nephew Philip Sidney, a beloved courtier mortally wounded at Zutphen, bequeathed one of his best swords to Essex. In effect, Sidney transferred to Essex his dual roles as England's champion of Protestantism and Leicester's right-hand man.

Royal favourite

Essex returned to England as a war hero in late October 1586 and quickly caught the queen's eye. The handsome noble was a welcome distraction from Elizabeth's angst over the impending execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Leicester, himself a former favourite, backed Essex at court to further his own interests and weaken the standing of his rival Walter Raleigh. Essex was appointed Master of the Horse in December 1587, and five months later he was elected a Knight of the Garter. Despite Leicester's death in September 1588, Essex's status continued to grow, and in January 1589, Elizabeth granted him Leicester's monopoly on sweet wines.
By May 1587 he was a constant companion of the queen. The queen relished Essex's lively mind and eloquence, as well as his skills as a showman and in courtly love. In June 1587 he replaced the Earl of Leicester as Master of the Horse. After Leicester's death in 1588, the queen transferred the late Earl's royal monopoly on sweet wines to Essex, providing him with revenue from taxes. In 1593, he was made a member of her Privy Council.
It is reported that his friend and confidant Francis Bacon warned him to avoid offending the queen by attempting to gain power and underestimating her ability to rule and wield power.
Essex did underestimate the queen, however, and his later behaviour towards her lacked due respect and showed disdain for the influence of her principal secretary, Robert Cecil. On one occasion during a heated Privy Council debate on the problems in Ireland, the queen reportedly cuffed an insolent Essex round the ear, prompting him to half draw his sword on her.
In 1589, he took part in Francis Drake's English Armada, which sailed to Spain in an unsuccessful attempt to press home the English advantage following the defeat of the Spanish Armada, but the queen had ordered him not to take part. The English Armada was defeated with 40 ships sunk and 15,000 men lost. In 1591, he was given command of a force sent to the assistance of King Henry IV of France. In 1596, he distinguished himself by the capture of Cádiz. During the Islands Voyage expedition to the Azores in 1597, with Walter Raleigh as his second-in-command, he defied the queen's orders, pursuing the Spanish treasure fleet without first defeating the Spanish battle fleet.
In 1590, he married Frances Walsingham, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham and Sidney's widow.
Essex took part in the 1591 Siege of Rouen, in which his brother Walter died.
When the Third Spanish Armada first appeared off the English coast in October 1597, the English fleet was far out to sea, with the coast almost undefended, and panic ensued. This further damaged the relationship between the queen and Essex, even though he was initially given full command of the English fleet when he reached England a few days later. Fortunately, a storm dispersed the Spanish fleet. A number of ships were captured by the English and though there were a few landings, the Spanish withdrew.

Ireland

Essex began a rivalry at court with a faction led by Robert Cecil. Essex sought to establish himself as the queen's primary advisor and policy-maker.
In the 1590s, the Nine Years' War broke out as a confederacy of Irish lords, led by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, resisted the Tudor conquest of Ireland. The war cost Queen Elizabeth I £2,000,000 to suppress—eight times more than had been spent on all continental wars waged during her reign. The confederacy's success at the Battle of the Yellow Ford in 1598 was the greatest victory by Irish forces against England.
After much hesitation, Elizabeth I selected Essex as the new Lord Deputy of Ireland in December 1598. Essex boasted "by God, I will beat Tyrone in the field, for nothing worthy of her Majesty's honour hath yet been achieved". His father Walter was one of Tyrone's early allies.
Essex had orders to put an end to the rebellion. He departed London to the cheers of the queen's subjects, and it was expected the rebellion would be crushed instantly. He landed in Ireland on 15 April 1599 with an expeditionary force of 17,000 troops and 1,500 horses—the largest English army dispatched to the country. Essex had declared to the Privy Council that he would confront O'Neill in Ulster. Instead, he led his army into southern Ireland, where he fought a series of inconclusive engagements, wasted his funds, and dispersed his army into garrisons, while the Irish won two important battles in other parts of the country. Despite his resources, Essex's campaign proved to be a disaster. Many royal soldiers died from sickness and in battle. In late August, Essex left for Ulster to confront Tyrone, having been heavily berated by the queen. Tyrone lightly skirmished with Essex's forces as the latter approached the borders of Ulster. Essex's numbers had dwindled to only 4,500 and Tyrone, whose army far outnumbered Essex's, refused to give battle. Tyrone sent an envoy on 5 September to request a parley, and Essex stubbornly agreed only after Tyrone had asked three times. The queen told Essex that if she had wished to abandon Ireland it would scarcely have been necessary to send him there.
In all of his campaigns, Essex secured the loyalty of his officers by conferring knighthoods, an honour the queen dispensed sparingly, and by the end of his time in Ireland more than half the knights in England owed their rank to him. The 38 knights he created in Ireland were later ritually degraded, and stripped of their knighthood by Elizabeth. The rebels were said to have joked that, "he never drew sword but to make knights", but his practice of conferring knighthoods could in time enable Essex to challenge the powerful factions at Cecil's command.
He was the second Chancellor of the University of Dublin, serving from 1598 to 1601. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin.

First trial

Relying on his general warrant to return to England, given under the great seal, Essex sailed from Ireland on 24 September 1599 and reached London four days later. The queen had expressly forbidden his return and was surprised when he presented himself in her bedchamber one morning at Nonsuch Palace, before she was properly wigged or gowned. On that day, the Privy Council met three times, and it seemed his disobedience might go unpunished, but the queen did confine him to his rooms with the comment that "an unruly beast must be stopped of his provender."
Essex appeared before the full Council on 29 September, when he was compelled to stand before the council during a five-hour interrogation. The Council—his uncle William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury included—took a quarter of an hour to compile a report, which declared that his truce with O'Neill was indefensible and his flight from Ireland tantamount to the desertion of duty. He was committed to the custody of Sir Richard Berkeley in his own York House on 1 October, and he blamed Cecil and Raleigh for the queen's hostility. Raleigh advised Cecil to see to it that Essex did not recover power, and Essex appeared to heed advice to retire from public life, despite his popularity with the public.
During his confinement at York House, Essex probably communicated with King James VI of Scotland through Baron Mountjoy, although any plans he may have had at that time to help the Scots king capture the English throne came to nothing. In October, Mountjoy was appointed to replace him in Ireland, and matters seemed to look up for the Earl. In November, the queen was reported to have said that the truce with O'Neill was "so seasonably made... as great good... has grown by it." Others in the council were willing to justify Essex's return from Ireland, on the grounds of the urgent necessity of a briefing by the commander-in-chief.
Cecil kept up the pressure and, on 5 June 1600, Essex was tried before a commission of 18 men. He had to hear the charges and evidence on his knees. Essex was convicted, deprived of public office, and returned to virtual confinement.

Essex's rebellion

In August, his freedom was granted, but the source of his basic income—the sweet wines monopoly—was not renewed. His situation had become desperate, and he shifted "from sorrow and repentance to rage and rebellion." In early 1601, he began to fortify Essex House, his town mansion on the Strand, and gathered his followers.
On the morning of 8 February, he marched out of Essex House with a party of nobles and gentlemen and entered the city of London in an attempt to force an audience with the queen. Cecil immediately had him proclaimed a traitor.
A force under John Leveson placed a barrier across the street at Ludgate Hill. When Essex's men tried to force their way through, Essex's stepfather, Christopher Blount, was injured in the resulting skirmish, and Essex withdrew with his men to Essex House. Essex surrendered after Crown forces besieged Essex House.

Treason trial and death

On 19 February 1601, Essex was tried before his peers on charges of treason. Laura Hanes Cadwallader summarised the indictment:
Part of the evidence showed that he was in favour of toleration of religious dissent. In his own evidence, he countered the charge of dealing with Catholics, swearing that "papists have been hired and suborned to witness against me." Essex also asserted that Cecil had stated that none in the world but the Infanta of Spain had right to the Crown of England, whereupon Cecil stepped out to make a dramatic denial, going down on his knees to give thanks to God for the opportunity. The witness whom Essex expected to confirm this allegation, his uncle William Knollys, was called and admitted there had once been read in Cecil's presence a book treating such matters. The book may have been either The book of succession supposedly by R. Doleman but probably by Robert Persons or Persons' A Conference about the Next Succession to the Crown of England, works which favoured a Catholic successor friendly to Spain. Knollys denied hearing Cecil make the statement. Thanking God again, Cecil expressed his gratitude that Essex was exposed as a traitor while he was found an honest man. Essex was found guilty.
Essex was returned to the Tower, where he begged to be given a private execution rather in front of a mob on Tower Hill. This was granted. On the morning of 25 February 1601, he was taken to a courtyard within the Tower with a small audience. Walter Raleigh was a witness to the execution. After praying, Essex doffed his cap and coat and indicated that he was ready. It took three strokes for executioner Thomas Derrick to complete the beheading. Derrick held the head aloft, proclaiming "God save the Queen!" Previously Derrick had been convicted of rape but had been pardoned by the Earl of Essex on the condition that he become an executioner at Tyburn. In that same trial, Raleigh also denied that he had stood at a window during the execution of Essex's sentence, disdainfully puffing out tobacco smoke in sight of the condemned man. Essex in the end shocked many by denouncing his sister Penelope, Lady Rich, as his co-conspirator: the queen, who was determined to show as much clemency as possible, ignored the charge. Essex was buried in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula on Tower Green. When Elizabeth was informed of Essex's death, she was playing the virginals. She paused at the news, then continued playing.
Some days before the execution, Captain Thomas Lee was apprehended as he kept watch on the door to the queen's chambers. His plan had been to confine her until she signed a warrant for the release of Essex. Captain Lee, who had served in Ireland with the Earl, and who acted as a go-between with the Ulster rebels, was tried and put to death the next day.
Essex's conviction for treason meant that the earldom was forfeit and his son did not inherit the title. However, after the queen's death, King James I of England reinstated the earldom in favour of the disinherited son, Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex.

The Essex ring

There is a widely repeated romantic legend about a ring given by Elizabeth to Essex. There is a possible reference to the legend by John Webster in his 1623 play The Devil's Law Case suggesting that it was known at this time, but the first printed version of it is in the 1695 romantic novel The Secret History of the most renowned Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex, by a Person of Quality. The version given by David Hume in his History of England says that Elizabeth had given Essex a ring after the expedition to Cádiz that he should send to her if he was in trouble. After his trial, he tried to send the ring to Elizabeth via the Countess of Nottingham, but the countess kept the ring because her husband was an enemy of Essex. As a result, Essex was executed. On her deathbed, the countess is said to have confessed this to Elizabeth, who angrily replied: "May God forgive you, Madam, but I never can". The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries in Westminster Abbey possess a gold ring which is claimed to be this one.
Some historians consider this story of the ring to be a myth, partly because there are no contemporaneous accounts of it. John Lingard in his history of England says the story appears to be fiction. Lytton Strachey states "Such a narrative is appropriate enough to the place where it was first fully elaborated—a sentimental novelette, but it does not belong to history", and Alison Weir calls it a fabrication.
Nevertheless, this version of the story forms the basis of the plot of Gaetano Donizetti's opera Roberto Devereux, with a further twist added to the story, in that Essex is cheating on both the queen and his best friend by having an affair with Lady Nottingham : and that this turns out to be the reason why Lord Nottingham turns against his now former friend, when he discovers the ring in question and prevents her sending it, and is the ultimate reason for Queen Elizabeth withdrawing her support for Essex at his trial. The actual question of Devereux's genuine guilt or innocence is sidelined, and the trial is presented as effectively a Parliamentary witch-hunt led by Cecil and Raleigh.

Poetry

Like many other Elizabethan aristocrats Essex was a competent lyric poet, who also participated in court entertainments. He engaged in literary as well as political feuds with his principal enemies, including Walter Raleigh. His poem "Muses no more but mazes" attacks Raleigh's influence over the queen.
Other lyrics were written for masques, including the sonnet "Seated between the old world and the new" in praise of the queen as the moral power linking Europe and America, who supports "the world oppressed" like the mythical Atlas. During his disgrace, he also wrote several bitter and pessimistic verses. His longest poem, "The Passion of a Discontented Mind", is a penitential lament, probably written while imprisoned awaiting execution.
Several of Essex's poems were set to music. English composer John Dowland set a poem called "Can she excuse my wrongs with virtue's cloak?" in his 1597 publication First Booke of Songs: these lyrics have been attributed to Essex, largely on the basis of the dedication of "The Earl of Essex's Galliard", an instrumental version of the same song. Dowland also sets the opening verses of Essex's poem "The Passion of a Discontented Mind" in his 1612 collection of songs. Orlando Gibbons set lines from the poem in the same year. Settings of Essex's poems "Change thy minde" and "To plead my faith" are published in A Musicall Banquet, a collection of songs edited by Robert Dowland.

Issue

In 1590, he secretly married Frances Walsingham, daughter of Francis Walsingham and widow of Philip Sidney, by whom he had several children, three of whom survived into adulthood. Frances also experienced stillbirths in 1596 and 1598.
Essex's mistress, Elizabeth Southwell, gave birth to an illegitimate son:
Besides Elizabeth Southwell, Essex was also known to have affairs with Mary Howard, Mrs. Russell, and the "fairest Brydges".

Cultural depictions

Literature

One of the best known literary works about Essex is Lytton Strachey's book Elizabeth and Essex: A Tragic History.
At least two fencing treatises are dedicated to Robert, Earl of Essex. They are as follows:
Robert Devereux's death and confession became the subject of two popular 17th-century broadside ballads, set to the English folk tunes Essex Last Goodnight and Welladay. Numerous ballads lamenting his death and praising his military feats were also published throughout the 17th century.

Opera

Il Conte d'Essex by Saverio Mercadante, with libretto by Felice Romani

Stage

Film

TV

Video game

Ancestry

Primary sources

  • • vol II, 1575–1588 • vol III, 1589–1600 • vol IV, 1601–1603 • • vol VI, 1603–1624
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Secondary sources

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