Read Online GREAT UNSOLVED CRIMES (True Crime) by Rodney Castleden - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Rodney Castleden
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the property had been occupied by a royal physician called Dr Owen and then, from 1558, by Antony Forster, Treasurer of the Household of Robert Dudley, later to become Earl of Leicester.
On the evening of 8 September 1560, his wife, Amy Robsart, was found dead at the foot of a staircase at Cumnor Hall.
Her death was a great scandal. Not only was it a sudden and suspicious death that might well have been murder – Robert Dudley was the great favourite of the queen, Elizabeth I, and Dudley wanted to marry her instead. The death of Amy Robsart, or Amye Duddley as she signed herself in letters, was very timely as far as Dudley was concerned. The queen had her twenty-seventh birthday the day before Amy’s death and she was clearly infatuated with Dudley. There had been speculation, not only in England but in courts all over Europe, that if Dudley should ever be widowed or divorced he would become Elizabeth’s king-consort. It had been openly discussed and there was no surprise at all when Amy was found dead: only scepticism about the explanation that it had been an accidental fall.
A pamphlet of the time gave the common view of Robert Dudley. ‘When he was in full hope to marry the queen, he did but send his wife aside to the house of his servant, Forster of Cumnor, where shortly after she had the chance to fall from a pair of stairs and break her neck, but yet without hurting of the hood that stood upon her head.’ The ‘pair of stairs’ did not mean there were only two steps for her to fall down, which would have defied credibility completely, but a returning staircase with two flights and a landing halfway up. It was even so clearly a fall down a short flight of steps. In the circumstances, it was an accident that should have resulted in a few bruises at worst.
An inquest was held and its verdict was that Amy had died accidentally. Amy’s body was buried immediately at Cumnor. Presumably her burial was recorded in the parish register, though this was subsequently destroyed. Later, Dudley arranged a full-scale funeral for his wife in Oxford, but the coffin buried afterwards in the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford High Street was, when it was opened in the twentieth century, found to be empty.
What the queen made of Amy Robsart’s death is not known for certain. She was fully aware of the political damage to herself of what appeared to have happened. She certainly did not want it to appear that she had connived with her favourite to marry him as soon as he had murdered his wife. She immediately acted against Dudley in Council, though the detail of this action are not known as the Council’s minutes for that year have disappeared.
Many historians of the period are pro-Elizabeth to a point where they will not countenance the possibility that the queen knew what was in Dudley’s mind, that she knew beforehand that he was going to arrange his wife’s murder. One result of that has been a certain amount of bending of evidence, much of it involving adjusting dates. One Elizabethan scholar, for instance, described a conversation as taking place ‘probably on 8 September’ when it is known to have happened on 6 September, two days before Amy Robsart’s death. This may sound like a minor detail of no importance, but there is a great deal of difference between discussing someone’s sudden death on the Sunday, when they are known to be dead, and discussing it two days beforehand. Then it clearly shows foreknowledge. The fact is that Elizabeth was sufficiently infatuated with Robert Dudley to turn a blind eye to his plan to murder his wife.
Exactly how Amy Robsart was killed is not known. She may have died as a result of being strangled, smothered or having her neck broken. A fall down the stairs could not conceivably have been the cause, so we may suspect that an expert assassin was hired, though another suspect exists. On the day when Amy Robsart died it is known that there were two other people at Cumnor Hall
On the evening of 8 September 1560, his wife, Amy Robsart, was found dead at the foot of a staircase at Cumnor Hall.
Her death was a great scandal. Not only was it a sudden and suspicious death that might well have been murder – Robert Dudley was the great favourite of the queen, Elizabeth I, and Dudley wanted to marry her instead. The death of Amy Robsart, or Amye Duddley as she signed herself in letters, was very timely as far as Dudley was concerned. The queen had her twenty-seventh birthday the day before Amy’s death and she was clearly infatuated with Dudley. There had been speculation, not only in England but in courts all over Europe, that if Dudley should ever be widowed or divorced he would become Elizabeth’s king-consort. It had been openly discussed and there was no surprise at all when Amy was found dead: only scepticism about the explanation that it had been an accidental fall.
A pamphlet of the time gave the common view of Robert Dudley. ‘When he was in full hope to marry the queen, he did but send his wife aside to the house of his servant, Forster of Cumnor, where shortly after she had the chance to fall from a pair of stairs and break her neck, but yet without hurting of the hood that stood upon her head.’ The ‘pair of stairs’ did not mean there were only two steps for her to fall down, which would have defied credibility completely, but a returning staircase with two flights and a landing halfway up. It was even so clearly a fall down a short flight of steps. In the circumstances, it was an accident that should have resulted in a few bruises at worst.
An inquest was held and its verdict was that Amy had died accidentally. Amy’s body was buried immediately at Cumnor. Presumably her burial was recorded in the parish register, though this was subsequently destroyed. Later, Dudley arranged a full-scale funeral for his wife in Oxford, but the coffin buried afterwards in the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford High Street was, when it was opened in the twentieth century, found to be empty.
What the queen made of Amy Robsart’s death is not known for certain. She was fully aware of the political damage to herself of what appeared to have happened. She certainly did not want it to appear that she had connived with her favourite to marry him as soon as he had murdered his wife. She immediately acted against Dudley in Council, though the detail of this action are not known as the Council’s minutes for that year have disappeared.
Many historians of the period are pro-Elizabeth to a point where they will not countenance the possibility that the queen knew what was in Dudley’s mind, that she knew beforehand that he was going to arrange his wife’s murder. One result of that has been a certain amount of bending of evidence, much of it involving adjusting dates. One Elizabethan scholar, for instance, described a conversation as taking place ‘probably on 8 September’ when it is known to have happened on 6 September, two days before Amy Robsart’s death. This may sound like a minor detail of no importance, but there is a great deal of difference between discussing someone’s sudden death on the Sunday, when they are known to be dead, and discussing it two days beforehand. Then it clearly shows foreknowledge. The fact is that Elizabeth was sufficiently infatuated with Robert Dudley to turn a blind eye to his plan to murder his wife.
Exactly how Amy Robsart was killed is not known. She may have died as a result of being strangled, smothered or having her neck broken. A fall down the stairs could not conceivably have been the cause, so we may suspect that an expert assassin was hired, though another suspect exists. On the day when Amy Robsart died it is known that there were two other people at Cumnor Hall
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