Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick

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Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick : biography

c. 1530 – 21 February 1590

Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, KG (c. 1530 – 21 February 1590) was an English nobleman and general, and an elder brother of Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Their father was John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who led the English government from 1550–1553 under Edward VI and unsuccessfully tried to establish Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the King’s death in July 1553. For his participation in this venture Ambrose Dudley was imprisoned in the Tower of London and condemned to death. Reprieved, his rehabilitation came after he fought for Philip II of Spain (then England’s co-monarch) in the Battle of St. Quentin.

On Queen Elizabeth’s accession in November 1558 Dudley was appointed Master of the Ordnance, in which capacity he was to unofficially assist William the Silent in his struggle against Spain by delivering English weaponry. As the senior member of his family, Dudley was created Earl of Warwick in December 1561. In 1562–1563 he commanded the army Elizabeth sent to Le Havre to garrison the town and assist the Huguenots in the First French War of Religion. This campaign ended in failure when the French belligerents agreed on a peace and the English surrendered because of the plague which was decimating their ranks. Dudley, who had acted honorably throughout, returned with a severe leg wound which was to hinder his further career and ultimately led to his death 27 years later. His last military engagement was against the Northern rebels in 1569. From 1573 he served as a privy councillor.

Despite three marriages, Ambrose Dudley remained childless after the death of an infant daughter in 1552. This had serious repercussions for the survival of his dynasty, since his only surviving brother Robert equally died without legitimate issue. With him, Ambrose Dudley had a very close relationship, and in business and personal life they did many things together. Like Robert Dudley, Ambrose was a major patron of the Elizabethan Puritan movement and supported non-conforming preachers in their struggle with the Church authorities. Due to his homely way of life—and in contrast to the colourful Earl of Leicester—Ambrose Dudley became known to posterity as the "Good Earl of Warwick".

Serving Elizabeth I

Ambrose Dudley became one of the leading patrons of moderate Puritanism, the principal concern of which was the furtherance of preaching.Stone 1967 p. 338; Adams 2002 pp. 230–231 Discouraged by the official Church, this was largely dependent on private initiatives by influential noblemen. In 1567 the two Dudley earls, together with local gentry, founded a consortium which provided for "the preachers of the Gospel in the county of Warwick."Stone 1967 p. 339; Wilson 1981 p. 199 Ambrose Dudley also helped the preacher John Field when he got into trouble over a subversive book he had published in 1565; and when he was imprisoned in 1572, Leicester and Warwick worked his transfer into comfortable confinement in a London alderman’s house before he was released altogether by his patrons’ means.Stone 1967 p. 340 Like his brother, Ambrose Dudley invested in exploration and privateering voyages; in Martin Frobisher’s 1576 search for the Northwest Passage he was the principal patron, although he contributed only the relatively modest sum of £50.Adams 2008a; Wilson 1981 p. 164

The two Dudley brothers were on the closest personal terms and Ambrose said of Robert: "there is no man [that] knoweth his doings better than I myself", while Robert’s recurrent phrase about Ambrose was: "him I love as myself". Elizabeth, who liked Warwick,Jenkins 2002 p. 54 loved to joke that he was neither as graceful nor as handsome as his brother—and stouter as well.Jenkins 2002 pp. 94, 221; Adams 2008a Lacking a grand London residence of his own, Warwick had his suite of rooms in the palatial Leicester House: "the Lord of Warwick’s bedchamber, the Lord of Warwick’s closet, the Lord of Warwick’s dining parlour".Jenkins 2002 p. 162 In the administration of their lands the brothers shared their estate managers and lawyers, while their local affinities consisted of the same gentry families. Privately, they were "almost inseparable", passing time together whenever possible. When Robert Dudley had incurred the Queen’s wrath while serving in the Netherlands as Governor-General in 1586, Ambrose wrote to him: "if I were you … I would go to the furthest part of Christendom rather than ever come into England again. … Let me have your best advice what is best for me to do, for that I mean to take such part as you do."Bruce 1844 p. 151; Adams 2008a