For details on the death, and the various theories--breast cancer leading to fragility of the spine leading to death by an accidental fall? breast cancer leading to suicide? murder by her husband?--see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Robsart Anyway, however unlikely it is that Robert Dudley murdered his wife, the suspicions ruined whatever chance he had of marrying Elizabeth. So the obvious question is, What if Amy had died in a non-suspicious, obviously natural or obviously accidental way?
Two thoughts:
(1) Could there even *be* such a thing as a non-suspicious death for Amy? People were at least as prone to wild conspiracy theories then as they are today. And the Dudleys in particular seemed to attract suspicion--indeed, it was widely though absurdly believed that Robert Dudley's father had poisoned Edward VI. So even the most natural death for Amy could be rumored to have been caused or at least hastened by poisoning, etc.
(2) I have serious doubts Elizabeth would have married anyone, even someone she liked as much as Robert Dudley. To quote Richard Rex (*The Tudors*, p. 185), "The Tudor age was not sentimental about marriage, and Elizabeth was shrewd enough to draw reasonable conclusions from what she saw around her. Her own mother's marriage had ended on the block, and the rest of her father's matrimonial record would hardly have filled her with enthusiasm for the holy state. The one wife of Henry's with whom she had established a close relationship, Catherine Parr, had died in labour. Her elder sister's marriage was a palpable disaster. Nor was her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, conspicuously well-served by the immature boy, the feckless youth, and the reckless adventurer with whom she successively linked herself...Elizabeth herself knew well enough the authority that contemporary opinion vested in husbands over their wives, and was probably reluctant to imperil her sovereign position by submitting to any man in any degree. Mary Tudor had looked on marriage as her destiny. Elizabeth certainly did not, and given her inclinations and her experience, her decision not to marry was in many ways a coolly sensible one." https://books.google.com/books?id=oEchnmfzL4MC&pg=PT491 And of course, specifically in the matter of a marriage to Robert Dudley, there would be many influential men (most obviously William Cecil) who would see it as a menace and argue against it as they did in OTL.
Two thoughts:
(1) Could there even *be* such a thing as a non-suspicious death for Amy? People were at least as prone to wild conspiracy theories then as they are today. And the Dudleys in particular seemed to attract suspicion--indeed, it was widely though absurdly believed that Robert Dudley's father had poisoned Edward VI. So even the most natural death for Amy could be rumored to have been caused or at least hastened by poisoning, etc.
(2) I have serious doubts Elizabeth would have married anyone, even someone she liked as much as Robert Dudley. To quote Richard Rex (*The Tudors*, p. 185), "The Tudor age was not sentimental about marriage, and Elizabeth was shrewd enough to draw reasonable conclusions from what she saw around her. Her own mother's marriage had ended on the block, and the rest of her father's matrimonial record would hardly have filled her with enthusiasm for the holy state. The one wife of Henry's with whom she had established a close relationship, Catherine Parr, had died in labour. Her elder sister's marriage was a palpable disaster. Nor was her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, conspicuously well-served by the immature boy, the feckless youth, and the reckless adventurer with whom she successively linked herself...Elizabeth herself knew well enough the authority that contemporary opinion vested in husbands over their wives, and was probably reluctant to imperil her sovereign position by submitting to any man in any degree. Mary Tudor had looked on marriage as her destiny. Elizabeth certainly did not, and given her inclinations and her experience, her decision not to marry was in many ways a coolly sensible one." https://books.google.com/books?id=oEchnmfzL4MC&pg=PT491 And of course, specifically in the matter of a marriage to Robert Dudley, there would be many influential men (most obviously William Cecil) who would see it as a menace and argue against it as they did in OTL.