lizlyon

Almost certainly Amy was murdered on the orders of Lord Burleigh, who was convinced that Elizabeth and Dudley would marry and was prepared to do anything to prevent this. Implicating Dudley in the murder of his wife would make any marriage with the Queen impossible. The servants were sent out for the day, to Abingdon Fair, as poor Amy thought Robert was coming to pay her a very rare visit when in fact it was her murderer. Whether Robert loved the Queen is hard to say, obviously Ambition and status came into it, but at the end of the day it is safe to say that they were both very fond of each other.

Louise C

I don't think it is by any means certain that Burleigh had anything to do with Amy Robsart's death. It isn't certain that she was murdered. it is known that she was seriously ill, and that she behaved very strangely on the day of her death, sending all her servants out for the day etc. Her death may have been an accident, or it may have been suicide.

Crystal Rainbow

Burleigh was a villain at Elizabeth's court he was always planning and plotting other peoples downfalls. I would not like to have his Karma he was a nasty piece of work. The lady was a devout catholic reason enough for Burleigh men who did his dirty work, to call the servants away and tell her that her husband is on his way. To await her murderer and make it look like Dudley did it.

lizlyon

Precisely my point, Burleigh was very devoted to the Queen, (and his position!) I'm not sure that he was a villain as such bearing in mind the intrigue that went on at Court, and Elizabeth's somewhat tenuous position compared to the Queen of Scots. The Court was desperate for Elizabeth to marry a Prince, have children and secure the throne and the Protestant religion, NOT Robert Dudley who was considered a jumped up neer do well particularly with his somewhat doubtful family record. If Amy wasn't murdered then her death was timely and convenient!!

Louise C

Burghley was a very astute statesman and served Elizabeth loyally for most of her reign. He certainly didn't like Dudley, and it is possible that he may have had something to do with her death, but she was known to be suffering from 'a malady in the breast' (assumed nowadays to be breast cancer), and she had been depressed. It could have been suicide, it could also have been an accident (I understand that one of the effects of breast cancer can be to make the bones brittle, making it easier to have a fatal accident).

There is the evidence given by Amy's maid, Mrs Pirgo:

in asking Pirgo what she might think of this matter, either chance or villainy, she saith by her faith that she doth judge very chance, and neither done by man or by herself. Lady Dudley was a good, virtuous gentlewoman, and daily would pray upon her knees, and at divers times Pirgo hath heard her pray to God to deliver her from desperation.

In 'Elizabeth the Queen' Alison Weir writes:

'No one at the time thought to attribute Amy's death to natural causes, but since 1956, when a new theory was suggested by Professor Ian Laird, most modern historians have done so. Aird considered the possibility that Amy was suffering from breast cancer. This disease causes in about fifty percent of its suffereds a weakening of the bones due to cancerous deposits that break away from the original tumour and are carried through the bloodstream to settle in the bones, particularly the spine, which becomes unnaturally brittle. Thus if Amy was in the last stages of the disease, even the slight exertion required to walk down a flight of stairs could have caused a spontaneous fracture of the vertebrae. However, if this theory is correct, it offers no explanation of Amy's unusual behaviour on the day of her death. '

Alison Weir points out that Burghley was the one who benefited from the death of Amy Robsart - he was restored to favour and the possibility of the Queen marrying Dudley receded. Alison Weir writes:

'it would have been easy for Cecil, with the co-operation of an accomplice at Cumnor Place - perhaps Mrs Ownes or Mrs Odlingsells - to invent a pretext to keep Amy at home on the afternoon of the 8th. Given her perilous state of health, it would have been the work of a moment for a hired assassin to break her neck and then aly her body at the bottom of the stairs. Cecil didnot normally resort to violence, but he might have felt that such an act would have been justified by its beneficial consequences.

there is of course no direct evidence to support such a theory, but the fact remains that Cecil had a compelling motive for doing away with Amy, and was the person who profited most from her death. He himself being a patriotic man, devoted to the service of the stae, would have said that it was his country and his Queen who had been the chief beneficiaries.'

I wouldn't rule out Burghley having something to do with it, but suicide and accident remain possibilities as well.

halomanuk

I dont think it would have been suicide.As mentioned above she was a devout Catholic,and to commit suicide is a terrible thing to do and would 'prevent her entry to heaven in the afterlife'.

Indeed Louise,her bones would have been brittle,all it would have taken is a push on the stairs,or a stumble .

I believe from seeing footage of the stairs that it turns to the left as it approaches the bottom so it may have been with some force that she fell to go all the way to the floor.

It is very convenient that she died at the time she did so i would slightly swing towards the murder theory,plus the fact that she fell all the way down including the turning point of the stairs which should have slowed her descent down ,but we will never know.

lizlyon

Exactly, we never will know the details of how Amy died or if anyone was actually responsible, there simply is no proof, but I don't THINK that Amy would have committed suicide bearing in mind that she was a devout Catholic, and would, of course, be committing a mortal sin which she would have vehemently believed in. Amy of course was suffering from terminal cancer, but throwing herself downstairs was no guarantee of death as apparently Cumnor Hall had three or four (maybe more) small flights of stairs going down in succession, not a long flight without a break. SO?!! All I do know is that poor Amy suffered a lot and was a tragic figure who deserves all our sympathy.

halomanuk

Indeed,there were a lot of other ways to commit suicide and guarantee death - the stairs are not a surefire way of killing yourself.

Welcome to the forum by the way liz !!

lizlyon

Thanks for the welcome, I'm really into history, so it's nice to find like minded folk to discuss this and that with!

TudorRose

I don't have any doubt that Robert Dudley was the great love of Elizabeth's life. I also totally believe that he loved her. I think that the fact that she kept his last letter by her bedside and wrote on it "his last letter" speaks volumes - she kept it until her dying day and knew that it would be found. Also many years before when she was ill with smallpox and it was feared that she might die, in the event of her death she wanted him to be made protector of the Country.