Victorian artist Edward Matthew Ward is famous for his English Civil War paintings, my favourite being The Concealment of the Fugitive by Alice Lisle, whose execution, I have written about before. His 1866 work 'Leicester and Amy Robsart at Cumnor Hall' covers an earlier time, depicting the relationship between Robert Dudley and his wife Amy Robsart. Ward takes his inspiration from Walter Scott's book Kenilworth.
Amy, as you can see, is depicted as a tragic, romantic heroine, whose true cause of death, on the 8th September in 1560, has never come to light.
Amy Robsart, as you will know was the wife of Elizabethan courtier Robert Dudley who sent away her servants from her house at Cumnor Place in Oxford, was later found dead at the foot of a flight of stairs with a broken neck and two wounds on her head. The coroner found that she had died from a fall downstairs; the verdict was 'misfortune' therefore an accidental death. History has looked at Amy's death three ways, she died as a result of an accident, she took her own life or she was murdered. The letter, dated the 24th August 1560 you see in the image below was written by Amy to her tailor in London which reads
'Edney, with my hearty commendations this shall be to desire you to take the pains for me as to make this gown of velvet which I send you with such a collar as you made my russet taffeta gown you sent me last, & I will see you discharged for all. I pray you let it be done with as much speed as you can & sent by … the carrier of Oxford, & thus I bid you most heartily farewell from Cumnor this 24th of August.'
Your assured friend,
Amye Duddley
Amy Robsart, as you will know was the wife of Elizabethan courtier Robert Dudley who sent away her servants from her house at Cumnor Place in Oxford, was later found dead at the foot of a flight of stairs with a broken neck and two wounds on her head. The coroner found that she had died from a fall downstairs; the verdict was 'misfortune' therefore an accidental death. History has looked at Amy's death three ways, she died as a result of an accident, she took her own life or she was murdered. The letter, dated the 24th August 1560 you see in the image below was written by Amy to her tailor in London which reads
'Edney, with my hearty commendations this shall be to desire you to take the pains for me as to make this gown of velvet which I send you with such a collar as you made my russet taffeta gown you sent me last, & I will see you discharged for all. I pray you let it be done with as much speed as you can & sent by … the carrier of Oxford, & thus I bid you most heartily farewell from Cumnor this 24th of August.'
Your assured friend,
Amye Duddley
Amy Robsart was dead fourteen days later, did she plan to take her own life, ordering a new dress as she does in the letter you could argue suggests not.
Is Amy's story been turned into a melodrama, but was there more to it than meets the eye?
Is Amy's story been turned into a melodrama, but was there more to it than meets the eye?
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