Robert Devereux was born on the 10th of November 1565 at Netherwood in Herefordshire, the eldest son of Walter Devereux and Lettice Knollys, but his destiny was sealed before he could speak. From the moment of his birth, he was inextricably linked to Queen Elizabeth I through a web of blood and favor that would define his entire life. His mother served as a Maid of the Privy Chamber to the Queen, and his godfather was none other than Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, who had been Elizabeth's favorite for decades. This connection was not merely ceremonial; it was a bloodline inheritance. His maternal great-grandmother, Mary Boleyn, was the sister of Anne Boleyn, making the young Robert a first-cousin-twice-removed of the Queen. When his father died in September 1576, leaving the family £18,000 in debt, the ten-year-old boy became a ward of the Crown. He was placed under the guardianship of Lord Burghley, the Master of the Court of Wards, and raised by prominent courtiers including the Earl of Sussex and the Earl of Huntingdon. Despite his tender years and a reputation for being weak and tender, the boy was described as very courteous, modest, and comely, speaking both Latin and French by the time he was twelve. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in early May 1577, matriculating by 1579 and graduating with a Master of Arts in 1581, setting the stage for a life that would oscillate between the heights of glory and the depths of treason.
The Sword And The Queen
In September 1585, the young nobleman stepped onto the military stage of the Spanish Netherlands, where he would forge his reputation in blood and fire. Appointed colonel-general of the English cavalry, Essex accompanied his stepfather, the Earl of Leicester, on a military apprenticeship that would transform him from a courtier into a war hero. The Battle of Zutphen in September 1586 became the defining moment of his early career. Essex and his horsemen successfully attacked a much larger Spanish force, earning him the title of knight-banneret. In a gesture of profound significance, the mortally wounded Philip Sidney bequeathed one of his best swords to Essex, effectively transferring to him the dual roles of England's champion of Protestantism and Leicester's right-hand man. Upon his return to England in late October 1586, the handsome nobleman quickly caught the Queen's eye, becoming a constant companion by May 1587. Elizabeth, weary of the Anglo-Spanish War and the impending execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, found a welcome distraction in Essex's lively mind and eloquence. He was appointed Master of the Horse in December 1587 and elected a Knight of the Garter five months later. Even after Leicester's death in September 1588, Essex's status continued to grow, and in January 1589, Elizabeth granted him Leicester's monopoly on sweet wines, providing him with significant revenue. He became a member of the Privy Council in 1593, and his influence seemed unassailable, yet his arrogance began to show. He underestimated the Queen's ability to rule and wield power, and his behavior towards her lacked due respect, culminating in an incident where he half-drew his sword on her during a heated debate.
The year 1599 marked the beginning of the end for Robert Devereux, as he was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland to suppress the Nine Years' War. Elizabeth had selected him to lead a massive expeditionary force of 17,000 troops and 1,500 horses, the largest English army ever dispatched to the country. Essex boasted that he would beat Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, in the field, yet his campaign proved to be a catastrophic failure. Instead of confronting O'Neill in Ulster as he had declared to the Privy Council, he led his army into southern Ireland, where he fought a series of inconclusive engagements, wasted his funds, and dispersed his army into garrisons. While the Irish won two important battles in other parts of the country, Essex's numbers dwindled to only 4,500, and Tyrone, whose army far outnumbered his, refused to give battle. In late August, heavily berated by the Queen, Essex left for Ulster only to find Tyrone had lightly skirmished with his forces and then refused to engage. The Queen told him that if she had wished to abandon Ireland, it would scarcely have been necessary to send him there. Essex's decision to desert his post and return to England on the 24th of September 1599 without orders was a direct violation of his commission. He reached London four days later and presented himself in the Queen's bedchamber before she was properly wigged or gowned, an act of insolence that led to his confinement. The Privy Council declared his truce with O'Neill indefensible and his flight from Ireland tantamount to desertion of duty. He was committed to the custody of Sir Richard Berkeley and later tried before a commission of 18 men on the 5th of June 1600, where he had to hear the charges and evidence on his knees. Convicted and deprived of public office, he was returned to virtual confinement, his reputation in ruins.
The Ring And The Rebellion
By August 1600, Essex's freedom was granted, but the source of his basic income, the sweet wines monopoly, was not renewed, leaving him in a desperate financial situation. His situation shifted from sorrow and repentance to rage and rebellion, and in early 1601, he began to fortify Essex House, his town mansion on the Strand, gathering his followers. On the morning of the 8th of February, he marched out of Essex House with a party of nobles and gentlemen, some of whom would later be involved in the Gunpowder Plot, and entered the city of London in an attempt to force an audience with the Queen. The Crown immediately proclaimed him a traitor, and a force under John Leveson placed a barrier across the street at Ludgate Hill. When Essex's men tried to force their way through, his stepfather, Christopher Blount, was injured in the resulting skirmish, and Essex withdrew with his men to Essex House. A force under Crown forces besieged the house, and Essex surrendered. The nature of his relationship with Elizabeth has been the subject of speculation, particularly regarding the famous Essex ring. Legend holds that Elizabeth had given Essex a ring after the expedition to Cádiz, instructing him to send it to her if he was in trouble. After his trial, he tried to send the ring to Elizabeth via the Countess of Nottingham, but the Countess kept the ring because her husband was an enemy of Essex. As a result, Essex was executed. On her deathbed, the Countess is said to have confessed this to Elizabeth, who angrily replied that she never could forgive her. While some historians consider this story a myth, it forms the basis of the plot of Gaetano Donizetti's opera Roberto Devereux, where Essex is depicted as cheating on both the Queen and his best friend, leading to the Countess's betrayal. The actual question of Devereux's genuine guilt or innocence is often sidelined in these dramatizations, but the failure of the ring to reach the Queen remains a pivotal moment in the narrative of his downfall.
The Executioner And The Queen
On the 19th of February 1601, Essex was tried before his peers on charges of treason, and the evidence against him was damning. Part of the evidence showed that he was in favor of toleration of religious dissent, and in his own evidence, he countered the charge of dealing with Catholics, swearing that papists had been hired and suborned to witness against him. He also asserted that Robert Cecil had stated that none in the world but the Infanta of Spain had a right to the Crown of England, whereupon Cecil stepped out to make a dramatic denial, going down on his knees to give thanks to God for the opportunity. The witness whom Essex expected to confirm this allegation, his uncle William Knollys, was called and admitted there had once been read in Cecil's presence a book treating such matters. The book may have been The Book of Succession, supposedly by R. Doleman but probably by Robert Persons, or Persons' A Conference about the Next Succession to the Crown of England, works which favored a Catholic successor friendly to Spain. Essex was found guilty and returned to the Tower, where he begged to be given a private execution rather than in front of a mob on Tower Hill. This was granted. On the morning of the 25th of February 1601, he was taken to a courtyard within the Tower with a small audience. Walter Raleigh was a witness to the execution. After praying, Essex doffed his cap and coat and indicated that he was ready. It took three strokes for executioner Thomas Derrick to complete the beheading. Derrick held the head aloft, proclaiming God save the Queen. Previously, Derrick had been convicted of rape but had been pardoned by the Earl of Essex on the condition that he become an executioner at Tyburn. In that same trial, Raleigh also denied that he had stood at a window during the execution of Essex's sentence, disdainfully puffing out tobacco smoke in sight of the condemned man. Essex in the end shocked many by denouncing his sister Penelope, Lady Rich, as his co-conspirator, but the Queen, who was determined to show as much clemency as possible, ignored the charge. When Elizabeth was informed of Essex's death, she was playing the virginals. She paused at the news, then continued playing, her silence speaking volumes about the end of her favorite.