Dudley, Robert (Earl of Leicester)

Sacred to the God of the Living. In certain hope of a resurrection in Christ, here lieth the most illustrious Robert Dudley, fifth son of John, Duke of Northumberland, Earl of Warwick, Viscount Lisle, &c. He was Earl of Leicester, Baron of Denbigh. Knight both of the order of the Garter and St. Michael, Master of the Horse to Queen Elizabeth, (who distinguished him by particular favor) soon after steward of the Queen's Household. Privy Counsellor, Justice in Eyre of the Forests, Parks, Chases, &c. on this side Trent, from the year 1585 to the year 1587, Lieutenant and Captain General of the English Army sent by the said Queen Elizabeth to the Netherlands; Governor General and Commander of the Provinces united in that place; Lieutenant Governor of England against Philip the Second of Spain, in the year 1588, when he was preparing to invade England with a numerous fleet and army. He gave up his soul to God his Saviour, on the 4th day of September, in the year of Salvation, 1588. - His most sorrowful wife, Letitia, daughter of Francis Knolles, Knight of the order of the Garter, and Treasurer to the Queen, through a sense of conjugal love and fidelity, hath put up this monument to the best and dearest of husbands. [Translation from "A Brief Description of the Collegiate Church and Choir of St. Mary's (Warwick, 1819).]