Robsart, Amy

Related Category: British and Irish History: Biographies

(rŏb´särt), 1532–60, maiden name of the wife of Robert Dudley, later earl of Leicester, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I of England. When Lady Dudley was found dead at the foot of a staircase in Cumnor Hall, Berkshire, rumor had it that her husband had arranged her murder so that he might be free to wed the queen. An investigating jury returned a verdict of accidental death, but posterity has kept open the question of Leicester's involvement. A version of the story appears in Scott's novel Kenilworth.