He was 56 years old.
Leicester wrote his final letter to Elizabeth I, who he’d been close to since childhood, on 28th August. It was a letter which Elizabeth kept at her bedside for the rest of her life and which she marked “His last letter”
“I most humbly beseech your Majesty to pardon your poor old servant to be thus bold in sending to know how my gracious lady doth, and what ease ofher late pains she finds, being the chiefest thing in this world I do pray for, for her to have good health and long life. For my own poor case, I continue still your medicine and find that (it) amends much better than with any otherthing that hath been given me. Thus hoping to find perfect cure at the bath, with the continuance of my wonted prayer for your Majesty’s most happy preservation, I humbly kiss your foot. From your old lodging at Rycote, this Thursday morning, ready to take on my Journey, by your Majesty’s most faithful and obedient servant,
R Leicester
Even as I had writ thus much, I received Your Majesty’s token by Young Tracey.”
Elizabeth I was devastated by the death of the man she referred to as her “Eyes”, or as “Sweet Robin”. It was reported that she shut herself in her chamber for days and refused to speak to anyone, eventually the room had to be broken into. Leicester was buried in the Beauchamp Chapel of the Collegiate Church of St Mary’s in Warwick, the same place as his son by Lettice.