Robert Dudley, styled Earl of Warwick
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Robert Dudley (7 August 1574 Sheen Palace, Surrey – 6 September 1649 Florence) was the possibly illegitimate son of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. He was a privateer, navigator, shipbuilder and the author of Dell'Arcano del Mare.
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[edit] Early Life
Robert Dudley was the son of the Earl of Leicester and Lady Douglas Sheffield, daughter of William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham. The Earl of Leicester is thought to have married her in 1573 but he denied it in public at the time, because he feared the wrath and loss of favour of Queen Elizabeth I. He also bigamously married Lady Lettice Knollys in 1578. When Lady Lettice, also bigamously, married Edward Stafford and left for the continent with him, Leicester took his son into his household but did not have him declared officially legitimate.
Robert was enrolled into Christ Church, Oxford in 1587 with the status of filius comitis, Earl's son. There his mentor was Thomas Chaloner who also became his close friend.
In 1588, when the Spanish Armada threatened Britain, the 14-year-old Robert joined his father who was commanding the army and fleet preparing to resist a Spanish invasion. On September 4 Earl of Leicester died. Earl's will gave Robert an large inheritance, including his castle and estate at Kenilworth and his lordship of Denbigh and Chirk. Eighteen months later Robert also inherited from Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick.
In 1591 the 17-year-old Dudley married Margaret Cavendish, sister of Sir Thomas Cavendish - Dudley had probably invested in his last voyage - who soon died without having children. His father-in-law Robert gave her two ships, Leicester and Roebuck.
[edit] Expedition to West Indies
In 1594 Dudley assembled a fleet of ships, including his flagship the galleon Beare, Beare's Whelpe and pinnaces Earwig and Frisking. He intended to use them to harass the Spaniards in the Atlantic. The Queen did not approve of his plans because of his inexperience and the value of the ships. She did commission him as a General but insisted that he sail to Guiana instead.
Dudley recruited 275 veteran sailors, including navigator Abraham Kendal, and captains Thomas Jobson and Benjamin Wood. Dudley's fleet sailed on November 6, 1594 but a sudden storm separated the ships and drove the vessels back to different ports. He sent word to the captain of the Beare's Whelp to join him in the Canary Islands or Capo Blanco and sailed again.
At first Dudley's trip proved unlucky - the Earwig sunk and most of the vessels they encountered were friendly. Dudley led only one raid in the Gulf of Lagos. In December the expedition finally managed to capture two Spanish ships at Tenerife. Dudley renamed them Intent and Regard, manned them with his sailors and put Captain Woods in charge. He sailed to Capo Blanco, expecting to meet the Bearer's Whelpe there but it did not show up. Dudley's fleet sailed to Trinidad and anchored at Cedros Bay on January 31, 1595. There he discovered an island he claimed for the English crown and named "Dudleiana". Then he sailed to Paracoa Bay for repairs and made a reconnaissance to San Jose de Oruna but decided not to attack it.
Dudley divided his forces, sending Intent and Regard to the north. In Trinidad Dudley recruited a Spanish-speaking Indian who promised to escort an expedition to a gold mine up the Orinoco River. The expedition lead by Captain Jobson returned after two weeks - their guide had deserted them and they had struggled back. Dudley returned to Trinidad.
On March 12 Dudley's fleet sailed north where they finally captured a Spanish merchantman. Then it sailed to Capo Roho, Puerto Rico, waited for suitable prey for some time and then sailed towards Bermuda. A storm blew the Beare north to near what is now New England before the fleet finally reached the Azores.
Low on provisions and working guns, Dudley sailed for home but met a Spanish man-of-war on the way. Dudley managed to outmanoeuvre and cripple it in a two-day battle but decided not to board it. The Beare arrived to St Ives at the end of May 1595 and Dudley heard that Captain Woods had taken three ships.
[edit] Intervening years
The next year Dudley joined his cousin Essex to serve as a commander of the Nonpareil in the "counter-Armada" that attacked Cadiz in 1596. He was later knighted for his conduct in that battle although what he did was not recorded. Shortly afterwards he married Alice Leigh.
In 1597 Dudley sent Captain Woods to China with the Beare and Beare's Whelp but they never returned.
[edit] Trying to claim legitimacy
In May 1603 Dudley silently begun to try to establish his claim to the title of Earl of Leicester and the right to inherit his uncle Ambrose Dudley's estate of Warwick Castle, because Ambrose had no known sons. The case ended up in the Star Chamber and became public and forced James I to create a law that made bigamy a felony.
The case included 90 witnesses for Dudley and 57 for the Countess of Leicester, the former Lady Lettice Knollys. Various witnesses contradicted each other when both sides tried to establish their claims to legitimacy. Under oath, Lady Douglas swore that Leicester had solemnly contracted to marry her in Cannon Row, Westminster in 1571 and that they were married at Esher in Surrey in May 1573.
However, the Star Chamber rejected the evidence for Dudley, arrested several of the witnesses to the marriage and fined them for perjury or subordination. The papers of the case were impounded in the interests of "Public policy". King James ratified the judgment against Dudley and it was handed down on May 10, 1605.
[edit] A new life in Italy
Dudley left England in July 1605 by Calais. His lover and cousin Elizabeth Southwell accompanied him disguised as a page. Elizabeth was daughter of Sir Robert Southwell and Lady Elizabeth Howard, granddaughter of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham and Catherine Carey. Both declared that they had converted to Catholicism. Dudley married her in Lyons in 1606, after they had received a Papal dispensation because they were blood relatives, and they first settled in Florence. He began to use his father's titles of Earl of Leicester and his uncle's titles of Earl of Warwick.
Dudley begun to design and build warships for the arsenal of Tuscany and became a naval advisor to Ferdinand I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, of the Medici family. He received an annuity of 2000 ducats. In 1608 Dudley convinced the duke to send the privateer galleon Santa Lucia Buonaventura to Guiana and northern Brazil.
[edit] Attempts of reconciliation
James I revoked Dudley's travel license in 1607. When he ordered Dudley to return home to provide for his deserted wife and family, he refused. Dudley was declared an outlaw and his estate was confiscated. He continued contacts with the English Court through Sir Thomas Chaloner, who was now a chamberlain to the Henry, Prince of Wales. He corresponded with the young Prince on the subjects of navigation and shipbuilding and in 1611 tried to broker a marriage bwetween him and Caterina, daughter the Duke Ferdinand.
Dudley also tried to reconcile with the king in negotiations that included a sale of his former estate of Kenilworth to the Prince. The deal collapsed when both Chaloner and the Prince died in 1612.
In 1618 James I transferred the Earldoms of Leicester and Warwick to others. In 1620 Dudley convinced Grand Duchess Maria Maddalena, wife of the new duke Cosimo II to ask her brother Ferdinand II, the Holy Roman Emperor, to recognize his claim to his grandfather's vacant claim to the title of Duke of Northumberland. James I severed all negotiations for conciliation.
[edit] Later years
Elizabeth died of plague in 1631. Later Dudley incorporated his notes into Six Books of the Secret of the Sea, self-published in 1646-1647. He also wrote a Maritime Directory as a manual for the Tuscan Navy but it was never published. He also fought the Barbary pirates.
In 1644 Charles I granted Lady Alice the title of Duchess - without significant prerogatives - and recognised Dudley's legitimacy but did not restore his titles and estate.
Robert Dudley died September 6, 1649 outside Florence in Villa Rinieri.
[edit] Achievements
Dudley was a skilled mathematician and architect, master of navigation, designer of warships, and practiced in medicine, instrumentmaking and cartography. He became a skilled navigator, engineer, and chartmaker. However like his father he acquired a reputation as a bigamist and privateer.
In addition to shipbuilding, Dudley created many projects in Livorno, including the city's breakwater, harbour fortifications, draining local swamps and a palace in the heart of Florence. He also designed new galleys for Tuscany. He also wrote his memoirs of navigation and seamanship between 1610 and 1620.
[edit] Dell'Arcano del Mare (Secrets of the Sea)
Dudley wrote Dell'Arcano del Mare[1], (Secrets of the Sea), the first maritime atlas to cover the whole world. It includes a comprehensive treatise on navigation and shipbuilding and it has become renowned as the first atlas of sea charts of the world.
Dell' Arcano del Mare consists of six known volumes that illustrate Dudley's knowledge of navigation, shipbuilding and astronomy and it includes one hundred and thirty original maps.
Dudley's maps are all of his own creations and were, unusually for the period, not copied from existing maps. They were originally published at Florence in 1645 in the local Italian. They represent a collection of all contemporary naval knowledge. The Atlas also includes a proposal for the construction of a fleet of five rates (sizes) of ships, which Dudley had designed and described. Dell' Arcano del Mare was reprinted in Florence in 1661 without the charts of the first edition.
The distinctive character of Dudley's charts was influenced by the Italian baroque engraving contributed by Antonio Francesco Lucini. Later mapmakers chose not to copy Dudley's style and so it became a unique and rare relic in the history of cartography. Lucini recorded that he had spent 12 years and 5000 pounds of copper to produce the plates.
[edit] Other significant maps
"Carta Particolare Che Mosta Il Capo Buona Speranza" was one of the 130 sea maps of Dudley's Dell'Arcano illustrating the coast from south-west Africa to Cape Fria and the Cape of Good Hope. Engraved by Lucini for Dell' Arcano del Mare (Florence 1646), the map was said to be "the first English sea-atlas of the whole World".
"Carta Quarta Generale di Europa", (1646): shows the west coast of France, southward from la Rochelle, and the northernmost coast of Spain.
"Carta Particolare della Costa Australe scoperta dalla Ollandesia", (1646): According to Tooley this map "is the first separately printed map of Australia" of historical significance".
"Carta Particolare della Rio d' Amazone con la costa sin al fiume Maranhan" also of 1646 records the tributaries of the Amazon River.
"Carta particolare che comincia con l' Isola di S. Tomaso o Tome" is a partial atlas showing the coast of Africa, including several islands and illustration.
"Carta particolare della Brasilia Australe che comincia dala Poro del Spirito Santo e finisce con il capo Bianco" shows a section of the Brazilian south coast at Sao Paulo with the region now known as Rio de Janeiro.
Of all the pages in the Dudley atlas only two maps are untitled. They contain only dedications to the Grand Duke and Duchess of Tuscany
permission to quote source. Susan Melton Bruneni. Date: 01 June 2004
[edit] Noble titles
Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor accepted Dudley as Duke of Northumberland in 1620. Dudley's third marriage to Elizabeth Southwell produced at least 11 potential heirs but the European title fell vacant on the death of Ferdinando Dudley in 1757.
Lady Alice (ne Leigh) Dudley, (daughter of Sir Thomas Leigh and Katherine, daughter of Sir John Spencer) was created Duchess in 1645. The patent recognised her husband's legitimacy and conferred the precedence of a Duke’s daughters on her surviving children. Charles II confirmed the patent in 1660, legitimising the English status of the Duke of Northumberland. The Lady Alice died in 1668 or 1669 at the age of 90, and her Peerage seems to have fallen "extinct".
[edit] Children
Dudley's marriage to Alice Leigh lead to the birth of four children:
- Alice Dudley (born at Kenilworth Castle 1597 - May 21, 1621). She was wife to Sir Ferdinando Sutton (September 4, 1588 - November 23, 1621), son of Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley and Theodosia Harrington.
- Catherine Dudley (1598 - February, 1673). She was married around 1609 to Richard Levenson.
- Frances Dudley (d. 1644) Married to Sir Gilbert Knifeton of Bradley, Derbyshire. She died without children and was likewise buried at St. Giles.
- Lady Anne Dudley, married the lawyer Sir Robert Holborne of Bradley, Derbyshire.
Dudley's affair and marriage to Elizabeth Southwell resulted in the birth of nine children:
- Henry Dudley.
- Anna Dudley (d. 1629).
- Mary Dudley.
- Carlo Dudley, Duca di Northumbria (1614 - October 26, 1686).
- Ambrose Dudley.
- Fernando Dudley.
- Teresa Dudley.
- Cosmo Dudley.
- Anthony Enrico Dudley (b. September 12, 1631).
[edit] References
- Raymond E. Role - Sir Robert Dudley Duke of Northumberland (History Today March 2003)
