Essex's Rebellion was an unsuccessful rebellion led by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, in 1601 against Queen Elizabeth I of England and the court faction led by Sir Robert Cecil to gain further influence at court. [1]
Essex's Rebellion was an unsuccessful rebellion led by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, in 1601 against Queen Elizabeth I of England and the court faction led by Sir Robert Cecil to gain further influence at court. [1]
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1565–1601), was the main leader of Essex's Rebellion in 1601. The main tensions that led to the rebellion began in 1599, when Essex was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. [2] He was sent to Ireland with the mission of subduing the revolts led by the Earl of Tyrone, leading one of the largest expeditionary forces ever sent to the country.
It was expected that Essex would crush the rebellion immediately, but he fought a series of inconclusive battles, squandered his funds, and was unable to face the Irish in any sort of engagement. [3] Given these difficulties, Essex eventually made a truce with Tyrone. This truce was seen as a disgrace to England and a challenge to the authority of those in power. He proceeded to leave Ireland and returned to England. His time spent as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland proved disastrous to him; his return was in express defiance of the orders of the Queen. She spoke out on his behaviour, calling it "perilous and contemptable". [4] Essex was deprived of his offices in June 1600 and promptly placed under house arrest. His ambition had been to direct an anti-Habsburg foreign policy for England while covertly facilitating the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne.
Essex's loss of position at court fuelled his sense of grievance towards the Cecil "faction". This may have made him fearful of assassination attempts and suspicious of a Cecilian policy of seeking peace with Spain. [5] [ page needed ] In disgrace as well as in political and financial ruin, Essex wrote several letters of submission to the Queen, and by August 1600 he was able to move freely except to return to court. He spent further time sending letters in an attempt to gain permission to do so. In November 1600, the Queen refused to renew his government-granted monopoly on sweet wine, an action that placed Essex in even deeper financial difficulties. He began to create plans to seize the court by force. [1]
Essex's London residence, Essex House, became a focal point for people who were upset with Elizabeth's government. On 3 February 1601, five of the conspiracy leaders met at Drury House, the lodging of the Earl of Southampton. Hoping to avoid suspicion, Essex himself was not present. The group discussed Essex's proposals for seizing the court, the Tower and the City. Their goal was to force the Queen to change the leaders in her government, particularly Sir Robert Cecil, even if this attempt meant causing harm to the Queen's people. [6]
On 7 February, some of Essex's followers went to the Globe Theatre to ask the Lord Chamberlain's Men to stage a special performance of Richard II with the deposition scene included. The company was hesitant to perform such a controversial play, but eventually agreed once they were promised a payment of 40 shillings (equivalent to £558in 2023) [7] "more than their ordinary". [8] [ page needed ] On the same day, the Privy Council summoned Essex to appear before them, but he refused. He had lost his chance to take the court by surprise, so he fell back on his scheme to rouse the City of London in his favour with the claim that Elizabeth's government had planned to murder him and had sold out England to Spain. [9]
Essex and his followers hastily planned the rising. At about 10 a.m. the next morning (8 February), Sir Thomas Egerton (the Lord Keeper) and three others came to Essex in the name of the Queen. Essex seized the four messengers and kept them hostage while he and his followers (about 200 people) made their way to the city. They timed their arrival to coincide with the end of the sermon at Paul's Cross, because they expected the Lord Mayor to be there. [10] Meanwhile, Cecil sent a warning to the Lord Mayor and the heralds, denouncing Essex as a traitor. Once the word "traitor" was used, many of Essex's followers disappeared, and none of the citizens joined him as he had expected. Essex's position was desperate, and he decided to return to Essex House. When he got there, he found the hostages gone. The Queen's men, under the Earl of Nottingham (the Lord High Admiral), besieged the house. By that evening, after burning incriminating evidence, Essex surrendered. Essex, Southampton, and the other remaining followers were placed under arrest. [6]
Less than two weeks after the aborted rebellion, Essex and Southampton were tried for treason. The trial lasted only a day, and the guilty verdict was a foregone conclusion. Though Essex had burnt incriminating evidence to save his followers prior to his arrest, he was convinced by the Reverend Abdy Ashton to purge his soul of guilt: in turn Essex confessed everyone who was involved, including his sister, Penelope, Lady Rich, on whom he put a great deal of the blame, although no action was taken against her. [9]
On 25 February 1601, Essex was beheaded in the confines of the Tower of London, and buried there in the Church of St Peter ad Vincula. [11] The government was concerned about sympathy for Essex on the occasion and took care to brief the preacher at Paul's Cross (William Barlow) on how to address Essex's confession and execution. [12] Southampton and Sir Henry Neville, however, survived the Tower, to be freed upon the accession of James I. Sir Christopher Blount, Sir Gelli Meyrick, Sir Henry Cuffe, Sir John Davies, and Sir Charles Danvers all stood trial for high treason on 5 March 1601 and were all found guilty. Davies was allowed to leave, but the other four were executed. There were no large-scale executions, however; the other members of the conspiracy were simply fined. [6]
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599. In 1601, he led an abortive coup d'état against the government of Elizabeth I and was executed for treason.
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, was an English statesman noted for his direction of the government during the Union of the Crowns, as Tudor England gave way to Stuart rule (1603). Lord Salisbury served as the Secretary of State of England (1596–1612) and Lord High Treasurer (1608–1612), succeeding his father as Queen Elizabeth I's Lord Privy Seal and remaining in power during the first nine years of King James I's reign until his own death.
Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, KG, was an English nobleman and general. From 1573 until his death he fought in Ireland in connection with the Plantations of Ireland, most notably the Rathlin Island massacre. He was the father of Robert, 2nd Earl of Essex, who was Elizabeth I's favourite during her later years.
Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devonshire, KG was an English nobleman and soldier who served as Lord Deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I, and later as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under King James I.
Viscount Hereford is the oldest extant viscountcy in the Peerage of England, making the holder the Premier Viscount of England. The title was created in 1550 for Walter Devereux, 10th Baron Ferrers of Chartley.
Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, was the only son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, and Mary Browne, daughter of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu. Shakespeare's two narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, were dedicated to Southampton, who is frequently identified as the Fair Youth of Shakespeare's Sonnets.
Lettice Knollys, Countess of Essex and Countess of Leicester, was an English noblewoman and mother to the courtiers Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Lady Penelope Rich. By her second marriage to Elizabeth I's favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, she incurred the Queen's unrelenting displeasure.
Penelope Rich, Lady Rich, later styled Penelope Blount was an English court office holder. She served as lady-in-waiting to the English queen Anne of Denmark. She was the sister of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and is traditionally thought to be the inspiration for "Stella" of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella sonnet sequence. She was married to Robert Rich, 3rd Baron Rich and had a public liaison with Charles Blount, Baron Mountjoy, whom she married in an unlicensed ceremony following her divorce from Rich. She died in 1607.
The Nine Years' War, sometimes called Tyrone's Rebellion, took place in Ireland from 1593 to 1603. It was fought between an Irish confederation—led mainly by Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone and Hugh Roe O'Donnell of Tyrconnell—against English rule in Ireland, and was a response to the ongoing Tudor conquest of Ireland. The war began in Ulster and northern Connacht, but eventually engulfed the entire island. The Irish alliance won numerous victories against the English forces in Ireland, such as the Battle of Clontibret (1595) and the Battle of the Yellow Ford (1598), but the English won a pivotal victory against the alliance and their Spanish allies in the siege of Kinsale (1601–02). The war ended with the Treaty of Mellifont (1603). Many of the defeated northern lords left Ireland to seek support for a new uprising in the Flight of the Earls (1607), never to return. This marked the end of Gaelic Ireland and led to the Plantation of Ulster.
Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland was the eldest surviving son of John Manners, 4th Earl of Rutland and his wife, Elizabeth nee Charleton. He travelled across Europe, took part in military campaigns led by the Earl of Essex, and was a participant of Essex's rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I. He was favoured by James I, and honoured by his contemporaries as a man of great intelligence and talent. He enjoyed the friendship of some of the most prominent writers and artists of the Elizabethan age and Jacobean age. In 1603 he led an Embassy to Denmark, homeland of James' Queen Anne of Denmark.
Essex in Ireland refers to the military campaign pursued in Ireland in 1599 by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, during the Nine Years War.
Thomas Lee was an English army captain, who served under Queen Elizabeth I and spent most of his career in Ireland during the Tudor conquest of that country. Although of middle rank, he played a turbulent role in the factional politics of the time and was highly active during the Nine Years' War (1595–1603). He was put to death at Tyburn for his involvement in the treason of the 2nd Earl of Essex.
Sir Christopher Blount was an English soldier, secret agent, and rebel. He served as a leading household officer of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. A Catholic, Blount corresponded with Mary, Queen of Scots's Paris agent, Thomas Morgan, probably as a double agent. After the Earl of Leicester's death he married the Dowager Countess, Lettice Knollys, mother of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. Blount became a comrade-in-arms and confidant of the Earl of Essex and was a leading participant in the latter's rebellion in February 1601. About five weeks later he was beheaded on Tower Hill for high treason.
The Prince Tudor theory is a variant of the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, which asserts that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the works published under the name of William Shakespeare. The Prince Tudor variant holds that Oxford and Queen Elizabeth I were lovers and had a child who was raised as Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. The theory followed earlier arguments that Francis Bacon was a son of the queen. A later version of the theory, known as "Prince Tudor II" states that Oxford was himself a son of the queen, and thus the father of his own half-brother.
Sir Robert Mansell (1573–1656) was an admiral of the English Royal Navy and a Member of Parliament (MP), mostly for Welsh constituencies. His name was sometimes given as Mansfield and Maunsell.
Sir Thomas Smythe was an English merchant, politician and colonial administrator. He was the first governor of the East India Company and treasurer of the Virginia Company from 1609 to 1620 until enveloped by scandal.
Thomas Grey, 15th Baron Grey de Wilton was an English aristocrat, soldier and conspirator. He was convicted of involvement in the Bye Plot against James I of England.
Sir Edward Littleton was a Staffordshire landowner, politician and rebel from the extended Littleton/Lyttelton family. A supporter of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, he was the victim of a notorious electoral fraud in 1597 and a participant in the Essex Rebellion, although he escaped with his life. In the reign of James I he was elected a member of the parliament of England.