Sir Robert Dudley<\/a>, Earl of Leicester, had in mind when he had written to his queen less than two weeks before, asking her to visit the troops at Tilbury: \u201cThus shall you comfort, not only these thousands, but many more that shall hear of it.\u201d It was no accident that he stood beside her on that day as she publicly commended him: \u201cMy lieutenant general\u2026 whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy general.\u201d The words were recorded for posterity, just as he had intended them to be.<\/p>\nThat Robert Dudley, the brother, son and grandson of traitors, should stand beside the queen at such a moment would have shocked many. Four years earlier, he had been described in the pamphlet Leicester\u2019s Commonwealth as a man \u201cof so extreme ambition, pride, falsehood and treachery, so born, so bred up, so nuzzled in treason from his infancy, descended of a tribe of traitors\u201d. Nevertheless, every Tudor monarch had relied on the Dudley family for security, support and popularity. Members of the house of Dudley had been sacrificed to build up the house of Tudor. The Dudleys had, in turn, climbed high on the favour of their Tudor monarchs, at times almost supplanting them. Theirs is a story of passion, ambition, bloodshed and love, with the crown as the highest prize, and the executioner\u2019s block reward for a fall.<\/p>\n
On the podcast: Joanne Paul reveals how the might of the Tudor dynasty was built on the blood and sweat of three generations of another family \u2013 the Dudleys:<\/strong><\/p>\n