ON THIS DAY - 29 August 1588

On This Day (29 Aug) in 1588, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester wrote to Elizabeth I from Rycote, Oxon, less than a week before his death.

© The National Archives

56yo Robert Dudley had recently played an integral role as Elizabeth's Lieutenant General, in the defence of England against the attempted invasion of England by the 'Spanish Armada' earlier that summer. It was Dudley who had arranged for the Queen to travel to the camp at Tilbury, where she delivered her famous rallying speech to her troops on 09 Aug 1588.

Following the defeat of the Spanish, Dudley had returned to London for the celebrations; however, he was described as "weak" and "exhausted". He therefore left London prematurely, accompanied by his wife Lettice Knollys, Countess of Leicester, with the intention of heading north to the Midlands - initially to his home in Kenilworth and then on to Buxton to "take the waters'.

The couple's first planned stopped was at Rycote, the home of Henry Norris, kinsman of Lettice, and old friend of Dudley's (and the Queen's). It was here that Dudley wrote to Elizabeth, thanking her for the 'meddycyn' that she had sent her, and sending her best wishes for her own health.

He signed the letter "by your most faythful and obedyent servant. R Leycester". This letter was found in a small casket next to the Queen's bed after her own death in Mar 1603; she had labelled it 'his Last Lettar', and there was evidence she had re-read it many times.

Shortly after sending this letter, the couple continued their journey hoping to finde perfect cure at the bath"; however, Dudley's health quickly deteriorated, forcing them to break their journey at Cornbury Park, a former royal hunting lodge in Oxfordshire; it was here that Dudley died a few days later on 04 Sep 1588.