Arthur Dudley

Abt 1572 - Yes, date unknown    Has more than 100 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Arthur Dudley
  Birth	Abt 1571-1572
  Gender	Male
  Death	Yes, date unknown
  Person ID	I77393	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	3 May 2001

  
  

  Father	Earl Robert Dudley,   b. 24 Jun 1533   d. 4 Sep 1588, Cornbury (Age 55 years)
  Mother	Queen Elisabeth I Tudor,   b. 7 Sep 1533, Greenwich, London, England d. 24 Mar 1603, Richmond (Age 69 years)
  Family ID	F13919	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  by Sandy Sellers On June, 1597 a Spanish ship patrolling the coast off San Sebastian intercepted a boat from San Sebastian bound for France. On board was a young Englishman aged about 25, who told them that he was Catholic and had been in Spain to fulfill a vow to go to the shrine of Our Lady on Monserrat and now wished to go to France. As this was the time Spain was forming the Armada, he was suspected of being a spy and imprisoned at San Sebastian. After a few days he asked to see Sir Francis Englefield and was taken to Englefield's house in Madrid. The story he told was long and at the request of Englefield was put into writing which was sent immediately sent to the King. He said his name was Arthur Dudley. His earliest recollection was being brought up as a small child in a village some 60 miles from London with several other children whom he thought were his brothers and sisters by Robert Southern, whom he assumed was his father. Southern was a servant of Katherine Ashley, Queen Elizabeth's former governess. When Arthur was about 5, Southern took him to London and placed him in the care of Katherine Ashley's husband, John Ashley, though Southern's other children remained in the village. Arthur was given a gentlemen's education, was taught Latin, French, Italian, fencing, music and dancing, and the principles of English Law. Then John Ashley appointed Southern to be his deputy in supervising the Queen's house at Enfield. Arthur spent the winters in London, but in the summer was taken to Enfield to avoid the danger of plague. When Arthur was about 14 or 15, he told Ashley and Southern that he would like to travel abroad, like many other young gentlemen of his age. He was told that this was impossible; so he ran away to Milford Haven, intending to embark on a ship bound for Spain. There he was arrested and sent back to London by the local justices of the peace, who showed him an order which had come from the Priviy Council, commanding that he be prevented at all costs from leaving the kingdom. He was eventually allowed to enlist as a volunteer to fight in the Netherlands, and in 1580 he travelled to Ostend in the care of a servant of the Earl of Leicester. Towards the end of 1583 he received a message asking him to return to England at once, as his father was very ill and wished to tell him something important before he died. He found Southern dying at Evesham. Southern told him that he was not his father, but that one day he had been ordered by Kate Ashley to go to Hampton Court where Lady Herington, who was one of the Queen's ladies-in- waiting, had delivered to him a new-born baby. She told him that the baby was illegitimate son of one of the ladies of the court who would be ruined if the Queen got to hear of her misconduct, and was therefore giving the child to Southern to bring him up in his village as his own son. Afterwards Ashley ordered him to bring the child to him. Southern told Arthur that he was this child, and that it was Ashley, not Southern who had paid for his education. Arthur asked the dying Southern who his father was. At first, Southern said that he knew but dared not say; but in the end he told Arthur that he was the illegitimate child of Leicester and the Queen. At this point, Arthur Dudley's story to Englefield became very long and complicated. It involved Arthur's travels in the Netherlands, France and Germany, his attempt to betray a town in Holland to the Spaniards, how his act was discovered and he was arrested but protected by Leicester, and his meetings with Leicester, Walsingham, and Mauvissiere. It ended with his decision, having become a devout Catholic, to go on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Monserrat near Barcelona, and how he had them tried to go to France when he heard of the indignation there at the Queen of Scots' death. He told Englefield that he was afraid that Elizabeth's agents would try to murder him in order to hush up the scandal of his birth, but offered, if King Philip would guarantee him protection, to write a book disclosing the truth. Englefield was very suspicious. After consulting Philip, he set a number of trick questions for Arthur Dudley, in order to test the truth of his statement that he had had a good education and his knowledge of Elizabeth's household and the people whom he claimed to have known in England. Englefield had to admit that Arthur passed all these test satisfactorily, but was nevertheless convinced that he was an English spy and was only pretending to be a Catholic. The explanation which Englefield put forward to Philip was nearly as involved as Arthur's narrative. Englefield believed that Elizabeth had invented the story about Arthur being her illegitimate son so that she could, as a last resort, acknowledge him and have him nominated as heir to the throne by an Act of Parliament. This would defeat the claim of the King of Scots, which who she had quarrelled as a result of the execution of his mother; and above all, it would obstruct King Philip's claim to the throne. But Elizabeth hoped to make use of the lie that Arthur Dudley was her son without openly acknowledging her misconduct with Leicester: by merely telling the tale, Arthur would divide the Catholics, for some of them would support him as a Catholic candidate to the throne of England instead of Philip, or 'perhaps they may be making use of him in some other way of their iniquitous ends'. Philip told Englefield that, as there was obviously some doubt about Arthur Dudley, and as it was not easy to foretell what the effect would be if his story were made public, it would be best to have him incarcerated for a time being in some some Spanish monastery. There is no further reference to him in the surviving Spanish state papers. Perhaps he was detained in the monastery for the rest of his life. Sources: Elizabeth I, The Shrewdness of Virtue, Jasper Ridley, pp 275 to 277. References cited for the work; Spanish Calendar--Elizabeth, iv. 101 through 112