Robert Dudley, the handsome and ambitious earl…
August 1585 CE
Robert Dudley, the handsome and ambitious earl of Leicester, had failed to win the Queen's hand in marriage but remains her close friend.
Leicester had begun an affair with the dowager Lady Sheffield in 1571
They were almost certainly never married, and he had cast her off in 1578, when he had secretly wed Lettice Knollys, widow of Walter Devereux, earl of Essex.
A Puritan, Leicester has become the leader of those Protestants who favor vigorous action against Spain abroad and against the Roman Catholics at home.
His zeal has caused him to be attacked, presumably by a Catholic writer, in a famous but highly distorted exposé of his character known as Leicester's Commonwealth (1584).
Elizabeth sends Leicester in command of a force of six thousand troops to the United Provinces (the Netherlands) to assist their revolt against Spain in 1585.