John Dudley, 2nd Earl of Warwick

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John Dudley, 2nd Earl of Warwick (c. 1528 – October 18, 1554) was the heir of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland.

John was married to Anne Seymour, daughter of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, in a great ceremony attended by the future King Edward VI of England, and on the following day ‘Robart’, his brother (the fifth son of Northumberland), who was about 17 on the occasion of his wedding to Amy Robsart in 1550, was contracted, an event which was also attended by the Prince Edward, by whose invitation the ceremony was performed at his Palace at Sheen.

Not much is recorded about the short life of John Dudley, 2nd Earl of Warwick. He was the son of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, and was shut up in the Tower of London with his mother, following Northumberland's fall from power, for having signed the letters patent that declared Lady Jane Grey (wife of his brother Guilford Dudley) as heir apparent.

His release along with his surviving brothers was chiefly secured upon the tireless pleadings of their mother Jane Dudley. She rode into Essex as soon as she was released to meet Queen Mary and plead for the lives of her imprisoned family, but was turned away on Mary's orders. Northumberland was executed for treason.

Wyatt's rebellion sealed the fate of Guilford Dudley, but three of his brothers, Ambrose, Robert and Henry, were released in October 1554 and John himself soon afterwards. John, the eldest, having been much reduced in health, died only three days later at his brother in law, Henry Sidney’s castle of Penshurst in Kent.

Jane Dudley, the mother of John, Guildford, Ambrose and Robert died before her son’s release and was interred in her parish Church of Chelsea.