Tudor Times is the online repository for all things Tudor and Stewart (1485–1625)

On 29th September 1564, Lord Robert Dudley, son of the late Duke of Northumberland, was granted the title of Earl of Leicester, and a great swathe of lands in the Midlands of England, with Kenilworth among them. The new earl was a close friend of Queen Elizabeth I who had appointed him as her Master of Horse within a few days of her accession. There had been speculation from the first days of her reign that she would marry him, complicated only by the fact that he already had a wife. Lady Dudley was not invited to court and Elizabeth and Dudley flirted shamelessly, although she swore, when she was ill with small-pox that nothing more than flirting had ever happened.

Dudley had believed she would grant him an earldom earlier, but the Queen humiliated him by tearing up the patent in front of the court – perhaps to signify that, despite her affection, she remained in charge. The Earldom granted in 1564 was designed to make Dudley more palatable as a potential husband for Mary, Queen of Scots. It is difficult to believe that Elizabeth really thought Mary would marry a man whose name had been so closely connected with her own, but a great parade of offering Dudley to her was made. He had no desire whatever for the match, and promoted Lord Darnley’s suit instead. Whatever dignity Elizabeth was hoping to confer on Dudley was somewhat tarnished by her tickling his neck during the ennoblement proceedings.

On 28th September 1582 George Buchanan died aged about 74. Buchanan was born in the Highlands, but travelled to France when he was around 14 to continue his education at the University of Paris. He returned to Scotland, graduating from the University of St Andrews in 1525. He then returned to Paris and immersed himself in Humanist and Renaissance thought, not initially aligning himself with Lutheranism, but criticising the Church fairly freely. He taught at the College of Ste-Barbe. He went home to Scotland, and, whilst he enjoyed the favour of James V (becoming tutor to one of his illegitimate children) he incurred the wrath of Cardinal David Beaton, one of James’ most influential advisors, by his attack on the Franciscans in two polemics.

He escaped to France, and then Portugal, but was obliged to leave when accused of heresy. He continued to publish, largely in Latin. When Mary, Queen of Scots returned to take up personal rule in 1561, Buchanan was a strong supporter, and worked with the Queen on her Latin. Nevertheless, his primary loyalty was to Mary’s half-brother, James, Earl of Moray, whose religion he shared. After the death of Darnley, Buchanan turned against Mary and was a prime mover in developing the case against the Queen that was used to support allegations that she had murdered her husband.

Buchanan’s educational works were used as references for many generations.

On 27th September 1547 Lady Eleanor Brandon, Countess of Cumberland, died. Eleanor was the younger daughter of Mary, the French Queen and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. She probably spent the majority of her youth at her parents' home, Westhorpe Hall, Suffolk, prior to being married in 1537, when she was about eighteen, to Henry Clifford, son of the Earl of Cumberland. The marriage had been arranged a few years earlier, and may have been a factor in keeping the Earl loyal during the Pilgrimage of Grace when other northern nobles showed sympathy, if not outright support for the rebels.

By the Succession Act of 1544, Lady Eleanor was moved up the line of royal succession by the cutting out of the descendants of Henry VIII’s elder sister, and its settlement on the descendants of Mary, the French Queen, after his own children. Lady Eleanor never benefited from this, as she died only nine months after her uncle. Her daughter, Lady Margaret Clifford, was considered a possible heir to the throne during Elizabeth’s reign. So far as is known, Lady Eleanor led the traditional life of a noblewoman, mainly at Skipton Castle in North Yorkshire. One public office she did perform, was that of Chief Mourner at the funeral of Katharine of Aragon in January 1536.