Is There Any Way for Elisabeth Tudor and Robert Dudley to marry?

In essence, is there any way for Elizabeth Tudor aka Elizabeth I aka the Virgin Queen to marry Robert Dudley while still ascending to the Throne of England and being well-regarded by most of England?

Failing that, is there any way for Elizabeth to marry anyone while still being queen and having a good reputation?
 

Kaze

Banned
Why is it always her and Dudley? Why not someone else?

Ivan the Terrible gave a marriage proposal. What he wanted out of it - a son to rule Russia and a place of exile if he is overthrown by his own people. What he got out of the marriage proposal - building of a English embassy in Russia and a small ten-foot boat which was warehoused until after his death. (Peter the Great took both. The embassy, he used to house his mistresses and start thinking of looking to the west. As for small boat, it became the first ship in the Russian navy.)
Yet there are no timelines where she and Ivan create a hybrid empire.
 
Dudley wed Amy Robsart (sp?) in the middle of 1550. He was not quite 18 and she was the same age. Elizabeth was a year younger. His father was an advisor to Edward VI, but Robert was a younger son, therefore NOT a suitable candidate for the daughter of the late king (even if she was a bastard). By the time Robert and Elizabeth became close, he was married and had spent time in the tower for his father's treason in placing Jane Grey on the throne. His wife died under questionable circumstances. (And he was suspected of engineering it.) This suspicion alone precluded her from wedding him without loss of prestige (and possibly the crown).

Elizabeth could have wed any number of foreign princes (the marriage contract would preclude them, like sister Mary's husband, from exercising power within England), she wasn't interested in marrying, she was interested in power and the attention it brought her (a mix of both parents, there). (She might have preferred girls for all I know, or the rumors that she equated marriage with death because of her mother (and Jane Seymour's death in childbirth) and Catherine Howard may be true.)
 
Yup - Dudley's marriage means it is hard to engineer a union with him and Elizabeth - she was well aware of Dudley's poorer qualities (his ambition, dominance, arrogance etc) as well as his attractive ones and aware that his character would not necessarily make his a passive consort - ie his elevation would dilute her own power and authority.

To be honest even if Amy's death was completely above board and witnessed by many it wouldn't really help Dudley in his royal ambitions - it would still be alleged he'd killed her to make way for the Queen - Amy's death in OTL was suspicious and conveniently timed and rumour's flowed across Europe.

Elizabeth was not a fool and however much she might have wanted Dudley she wanted her throne more - and marrying Dudley even had he not been married to Amy or she had died before Elizabeth's accession would have alienated her council at a time she was still establishing her reign and the church.

She was also vain, proud and high handed - marrying a subject was simply not done (her father's record in marrying commoners didn't exactly offer a shining example of it). Elizabeth's reaction's to Mary Stuart's marital adventure's show how the Queen valued her throne more than romance and marital misadventure and poor Mary's marriages were a shining example of how not to behave as a Queen Regnant in terms of choosing a royal husband.

Elizabeth had very few good examples of life for a royal wife - her sister's husband was not discreet about his disappointment in his wife's appearance and was happy to abandon her, her father's wives were treated badly and lived in fear even the one she was closest too (Katherine Parr) and she saw that stepmother rush into a final marriage for love that was also a let down, add the natural fear of childbirth (it had killed two of her stepmother's and a raft of court ladies) - it is hardly surprising she was reluctant to rush to the altar.

Then there was the general issue that even as a Queen Regnant she would still by the standards of the day have to be subservient to her husband no matter how much Parliament would rush to protect her royal rights as they did for Mary Tudor.

It was a lottery and there was no guarantee she would get a winning ticket.

In terms of a foreign equal match then she has a real issue - there were few high ranking royal of Protestant birth that would satisfy Parliament and her reform minded council and her own view of her status and rank, the preferred high status royals (France, Spain and the Empire and their allies) were all Catholic and whilst in status would satisfy Elizabeth in religion they would greatly offend her Parliament and the people - and the longer she left it the harder it became for her to make a foreign Catholic marriage as the country and her council became more firmly Protestant.

She also lost her major diplomatic tool - the hope of marriage to the Queen of England was even when in her late thirties a real bargaining tool to keep her and her country safe from war with the Catholic powers.
 
The most absurd thing about Mary Stuarts unfortunate marriages was who they were presented ho her as very sensible choices: Darnley was a relative with another claim to both England and Scotland and if only he was a smarter man would have been perfect, while Bothwell first forced Mary's hand in marrying him and second had the written support of most of the Scottish's nobility (sure that was really not much in Scotland but Mary was raised and educated in France and was unfortunately unable to understand the shades of Scottish's politics)

And I think who Amy Dudley was likely killed by someone near to the Queen who hoped to make her marriage to Robert impossible
 
@isabella, did you read the same book I did, where Cecil arranged it?
Do not remind where I read that, but yes for me Cecil is the person most likely to have arranged the entire affair (and I think many modern authors used that theory)...
Robert had just to wait for Amy's death (she was very ill and likely already dying) for being free to marry Elizabeth
 
I agree with mcdnab, no matter how 'above board' the death of Amy Dudley was, rumors would follow. Ergo, there is no realistic way for Elizabeth to wed the widower Dudley and still retain her reputation. If she did, it would be "proof" of the weakness of women and her judgment from then on would be openly questioned in ways (and for reasons) that did not occur OTL.
 
Even if Mr. Dudley had no hand in his wife's death, it would be a bad look for both him and Elizabeth if they married each other. Elizabeth's enemies would instantly accuse her of having Dudley's wife killed in order to marry Dudley ala how King David had Uriah killed in order to marry Bethsheba.
 
The only way for Elizabeth to wed Dudley would be if she had a whole string of legitimate siblings and she was a bastard.
 
Do not remind where I read that, but yes for me Cecil is the person most likely to have arranged the entire affair (and I think many modern authors used that theory)...
Robert had just to wait for Amy's death (she was very ill and likely already dying) for being free to marry Elizabeth


I believe the book that you're talking about is the historical novel LEGACY by Susan Kay.
Personally I don't know if I agree with this
theory or not- but I have read that modern
scholarship now does tend to absolve Dudley
of any blame in his unfortunate wife's death.
 
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