Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (/ˈdɛvəˌruː/; 10 November 1565 – 25 February 1601) was an English nobleman, soldier and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I.

Quick facts Tenure, Predecessor ...

The Right Honorable The Earl of Essex KG PC
Portrait after Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger^[1]
Tenure	1576 – 1601
Predecessor	Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex
Successor	Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex
Born	Robert Devereux 10 November 1565 Netherwood, Herefordshire, England
Died	25 February 1601(1601-02-25) (aged 35) Tower Green, London, England
Buried	Church of St Peter ad Vincula, London
Spouse(s)	Frances Walsingham (m. 1590)
Issue Detail	Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex Walter Devereux Henry Devereux Frances Seymour, Duchess of Somerset Lady Dorothy Stafford Walter Devereux (ill.)
Parents	Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex Lettice Knollys
Signature

A charismatic and ambitious youth, Essex grew up in a family of courtiers with strong ties to the queen. He became a royal ward following his father's death in 1576. He entered court in 1585 as a member of the Earl of Leicester's entourage. Essex rose quickly at court and developed a close personal relationship with the queen. He played a prominent role in England’s military campaigns during the Anglo-Spanish War and Eighty Years' War, including expeditions to Portugal and the Azores (particularly a victory at Cádiz)^[2] which gave him celebrity status among the London elite.

Towards the end of the 1590s Essex's position at court was threatened by Robert Cecil. Essex was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland during the Nine Years' War. Despite considerable resources, his 1599 campaign against the Irish confederacy was a military disaster, ruining his reputation and straining his relationship with the queen. He deserted his post and was subsequently placed under house arrest, leading to a nervous breakdown.^[3] In February 1601, he led a failed coup against the government and was arrested, tried for treason, and executed by beheading at the Tower of London.

The nature of Essex's turbulent relationship with Elizabeth I has been speculated on by both historians and dramatists.^[4]

Early life

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Essex's parents, Walter Devereux and Lettice Knollys

Robert Devereux was born on 10 November 1565^[5] at Netherwood in Herefordshire,^[6] the eldest son of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, and his wife Lettice Knollys.^[7] From birth, the young Robert Devereux had a strong association with Queen Elizabeth I. Lettice was a close friend of Elizabeth and served as her Maid of the Privy Chamber.^[8]^[9] Robert Devereux was presumably named after his godfather Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who was the queen's favourite for many years.^[10] Additionally, Devereux's maternal great-grandmother Mary Boleyn was a sister of Anne Boleyn (Elizabeth I's mother) making him a first-cousin-twice-removed of the queen.^[11]

Devereux had two older sisters, Penelope and Dorothy, a younger brother, Walter, and another brother Francis who died soon after birth.^[12] Devereux and his siblings were brought up at the family seat at Chartley in Staffordshire.^[13] Local tradition holds that Devereux's parents took the children to Lamphey, Pembrokeshire each summer, but there is no evidence to prove this.^[14] From 1573, Devereux's father Walter was involved in a disastrous scheme to colonise Ulster and thus spent much of his time in Ireland.^[15]

Walter died in September 1576, and 10-year-old Robert Devereux (who acceded to the earldom as 2nd Earl of Essex) became a ward of the Crown.^[16] Prominent minister Lord Burghley was Master of the Court of Wards and thus took on chief responsibility for young Essex's welfare.^[17] He was also brought up by leading courtiers Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex and Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon.^[7] Essex was an intelligent and promising child; a report of November 1576 described him as "very courteous and modest, rather disposed to hear than to answer, given greatly to learning, weak and tender, but very comely and beautiful". By this time he could speak both Latin and French.^[16]

Essex's late father had crippled his family's finances and left the young earl £18,000 in debt (equivalent to £6.6 million in April 2025).^[16]^[18] His father's legal advisor Richard Broughton oversaw the family estate whilst he was still a minor.^[16] In January 1577, Essex left Chartley to travel to London, where he briefly stayed at Burghley's residence Cecil House. He also spent time at Theobalds, Burghley's estate in Hertfordshire, where he mixed with Burghley's son Robert Cecil.^[19]

As a boy he was tutored by Thomas Ashton, headmaster of Shrewsbury School and a family servant, then by Ashton's protégé Robert Wright.^[20] In early May 1577, Essex entered Trinity College, Cambridge.^[21] He matriculated by 1579, and in 1581 he graduated with a Master of Arts.^[7] He spent the following four years travelling the British countryside.^[22]

Early career

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Netherlands

In 1585 Essex came under pressure from his mother to establish a career as a courtier.^[23] He joined the entourage of his new stepfather Leicester (Lettice and Leicester married in 1578) and visited the royal court in September 1585. Leicester became a significant patron for his stepson, and he instilled in Essex a sense of unity with fellow Protestants across Europe.^[24] Despite his later status as a royal favourite, Essex went unnoticed by the queen in his early visits to court; she was preoccupied by both the Anglo-Spanish War and the Eighty Years' War.^[23] Essex was granted permission to accompany Leicester on a military apprenticeship in the Spanish Netherlands. He was appointed colonel-general of the English cavalry in the Netherlands, a prestigious position which signified his status as Leicester's new protégé. In September 1586 Essex and his horsemen successfully attacked a much larger Spanish force in the Battle of Zutphen, for which Leicester made him a knight-banneret.^[25] Leicester's nephew Philip Sidney, a beloved courtier mortally wounded at Zutphen, bequeathed one of his swords to Essex. In effect, Sidney transferred to Essex his dual roles as England's champion of Protestantism and Leicester's right-hand man.^[26]^[27]

Royal favourite

Essex returned to England as a war hero in late October 1586 and quickly caught the queen's eye. The handsome Essex was a welcome distraction from Elizabeth's angst over the impending execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Leicester, himself a former favourite, backed Essex at court to further his own interests and weaken the standing of his rival Walter Raleigh.^[28] Essex was appointed Master of the Horse in December 1587, and five months later he was elected a Knight of the Garter. Despite Leicester's death in September 1588, Essex's status continued to grow, and in January 1589, Elizabeth granted him Leicester's monopoly on sweet wines.^[29]

By May 1587 he was a constant companion of the queen. One of his servants boasted that even at night "my lord is at cardes or one game or another with her, that he commeth not to his owne lodginge tyll the birdes singe in the morninge".^[30] The queen relished Essex's lively mind and eloquence, as well as his skills as a showman and in courtly love. In June 1587 he replaced the Earl of Leicester as Master of the Horse.^[31] After Leicester's death in 1588, the queen transferred the late Earl's royal monopoly on sweet wines to Essex, providing him with revenue from taxes. In 1593, he was made a member of her Privy Council.^[32]

It is reported that his friend and confidant Francis Bacon warned him to avoid offending the queen by attempting to gain power and underestimating her ability to rule and wield power.

Essex did underestimate the queen, however, and his later behaviour towards her lacked due respect and showed disdain for the influence of her principal secretary, Robert Cecil. On one occasion during a heated Privy Council debate on the problems in Ireland, the queen reportedly cuffed an insolent Essex round the ear, prompting him to half draw his sword on her.^[34]

In 1589, he took part in Francis Drake's English Armada, which sailed to Spain in an unsuccessful attempt to press home the English advantage following the defeat of the Spanish Armada, but the queen had ordered him not to take part. The English Armada was defeated with 40 ships sunk and 15,000 men lost.^[35] In 1591, he was given command of a force sent to the assistance of King Henry IV of France. In 1596, he distinguished himself by the capture of Cádiz.^[36] During the Islands Voyage expedition to the Azores in 1597, with Walter Raleigh as his second-in-command, he defied the queen's orders, pursuing the Spanish treasure fleet without first defeating the Spanish battle fleet.

In 1590, he married Frances Walsingham, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham and Sidney's widow.

Essex took part in the 1591 Siege of Rouen, in which his brother Walter died.^[37]

When the Third Spanish Armada first appeared off the English coast in October 1597, the English fleet was far out to sea, with the coast almost undefended, and panic ensued. This further damaged the relationship between the queen and Essex, even though he was initially given full command of the English fleet when he reached England a few days later. Fortunately, a storm dispersed the Spanish fleet. A number of ships were captured by the English and though there were a few landings, the Spanish withdrew.

Ireland

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This section needs additional citations for verification. (June 2017)

Essex began a rivalry at court with a faction led by Robert Cecil.^{[citation needed]} Essex sought to establish himself as the queen's primary advisor and policy-maker.^[38]

Essex's greatest failure was as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a post which he talked himself into in 1599.^[36] The Nine Years' War (1593–1603) was in its middle stages, and no English commander had been successful. More military force was required to defeat the Irish chieftains,^{[according to whom?]} led by Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, and supplied from Spain and Scotland.

Essex led the largest expeditionary force ever sent to Ireland^[39]—16,000 troops^[40]—with orders to put an end to the rebellion. He departed London to the cheers of the queen's subjects, and it was expected the rebellion would be crushed instantly, but the limits of Crown resources and of the Irish campaigning season dictated otherwise.

Essex had declared to the Privy Council that he would confront O'Neill in Ulster.^[41] Instead, he led his army into southern Ireland, where he fought a series of inconclusive engagements, wasted his funds, and dispersed his army into garrisons, while the Irish won two important battles in other parts of the country. Rather than face O'Neill in battle, Essex entered a truce that some^[who?] considered humiliating to the Crown and to the detriment of English authority. The queen told Essex that if she had wished to abandon Ireland it would scarcely have been necessary to send him there.

In all of his campaigns, Essex secured the loyalty of his officers by conferring knighthoods, an honour the queen dispensed sparingly, and by the end of his time in Ireland more than half the knights in England owed their rank to him. The 38 knights he created in Ireland were later ritually degraded, and stripped of their knighthood by Elizabeth.^[42] The rebels were said to have joked that, "he never drew sword but to make knights",^[43] but his practice of conferring knighthoods could in time enable Essex to challenge the powerful factions at Cecil's command.^{[according to whom?]}

He was the second Chancellor of the University of Dublin, serving from 1598 to 1601. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin.^[44]

First trial

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Relying on his general warrant to return to England, given under the great seal, Essex sailed from Ireland on 24 September 1599 and reached London four days later.^[45] The queen had expressly forbidden his return and was surprised when he presented himself in her bedchamber one morning at Nonsuch Palace, before she was properly wigged or gowned.^[46]^[47] On that day, the Privy Council met three times, and it seemed his disobedience might go unpunished, but the queen did confine him to his rooms with the comment that "an unruly beast must be stopped of his provender."^{[citation needed]}

Essex appeared before the full Council on 29 September, when he was compelled to stand before the council during a five-hour interrogation. The Council—his uncle William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury included—took a quarter of an hour to compile a report, which declared that his truce with O'Neill was indefensible and his flight from Ireland tantamount to the desertion of duty. He was committed to the custody of Sir Richard Berkeley^[48] in his own York House on 1 October, and he blamed Cecil and Raleigh for the queen's hostility. Raleigh advised Cecil to see to it that Essex did not recover power, and Essex appeared to heed advice to retire from public life, despite his popularity with the public.

During his confinement at York House, Essex probably^{[according to whom?]} communicated with King James VI of Scotland through Baron Mountjoy, although any plans he may have had at that time to help the Scots king capture the English throne came to nothing. In October, Mountjoy was appointed to replace him in Ireland, and matters seemed to look up for the Earl. In November, the queen was reported to have said that the truce with O'Neill was "so seasonably made... as great good... has grown by it."^{[citation needed]} Others in the council were willing to justify Essex's return from Ireland, on the grounds of the urgent necessity of a briefing by the commander-in-chief.

Cecil kept up the pressure and, on 5 June 1600, Essex was tried before a commission of 18 men. He had to hear the charges and evidence on his knees. Essex was convicted, deprived of public office, and returned to virtual confinement.

Essex's rebellion

In August, his freedom was granted, but the source of his basic income—the sweet wines monopoly—was not renewed.^[47] His situation had become desperate, and he shifted "from sorrow and repentance to rage and rebellion." In early 1601, he began to fortify Essex House, his town mansion on the Strand, and gathered his followers.

On the morning of 8 February, he marched out of Essex House with a party of nobles and gentlemen (some later involved in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot) and entered the city of London in an attempt to force an audience with the queen. Cecil immediately had him proclaimed a traitor.

A force under John Leveson placed a barrier across the street at Ludgate Hill. When Essex's men tried to force their way through, Essex's stepfather, Christopher Blount, was injured in the resulting skirmish, and Essex withdrew with his men to Essex House.^[49] Essex surrendered after Crown forces besieged Essex House.^[50]

Treason trial and death

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This section needs additional citations for verification. (February 2016)

Sir Edward Coke

Sir Francis Bacon

Chief legal officials at the Earl of Essex trial

On 19 February 1601, Essex was tried before his peers on charges of treason.^[51] Laura Hanes Cadwallader summarised the indictment:

The indictment charged Essex with "conspiring and imagining at London...to depose and slay the queen, and to subvert the Government." It also stated that Essex had "endeavoured to raise himself to the Crown of England, and usurp the royal dignity," and that in order to fulfill these intentions, he and others "rose and assembled themselves in open rebellion, and moved and persuaded many of the citizens of London to join them in their treason, and endeavoured to get the City of London into their possession and power, and wounded and killed many of the queen's subjects then and there assembled for the purpose of quelling such rebellion." Essex was charged also with holding the Lord Keeper and the other Privy Councillors in custody "for four hours and more."^[52]

Part of the evidence showed that he was in favour of toleration of religious dissent. In his own evidence, he countered the charge of dealing with Catholics, swearing that "papists have been hired and suborned to witness against me."^{[citation needed]} Essex also asserted that Cecil had stated that none in the world but the Infanta of Spain had right to the Crown of England, whereupon Cecil (who had been following the trial at a doorway concealed behind some tapestry) stepped out to make a dramatic denial, going down on his knees to give thanks to God for the opportunity.^[53] The witness whom Essex expected to confirm this allegation, his uncle William Knollys, was called and admitted there had once been read in Cecil's presence a book treating such matters. The book may have been either The book of succession supposedly by R. Doleman but probably by Robert Persons or Persons' A Conference about the Next Succession to the Crown of England, works which favoured a Catholic successor friendly to Spain.^[54] Knollys denied hearing Cecil make the statement. Thanking God again, Cecil expressed his gratitude that Essex was exposed as a traitor while he was found an honest man.

Essex was found guilty^[55] and was returned to the Tower. There he begged to be given a private execution. This was granted to him. On the morning of 25 February 1601, he was taken to the Tower's courtyard. After praying, he doffed his cap and coat and indicated that he was ready.^[56] He beheaded on Tower Green,^[55] and was the last person to be beheaded in the Tower of London.^{[citation needed]} It took three strokes^[56] by the executioner Thomas Derrick to complete the beheading. Derrick^{[citation needed]} held the head aloft, proclaiming "God save the Queen!"^[56] Previously Derrick had been convicted of rape but had been pardoned by the Earl of Essex (clearing him of the death penalty) on the condition that he become an executioner at Tyburn. At Sir Walter Raleigh's own execution on 29 October 1618, it was alleged that Raleigh had said to a co-conspirator, "Do not, as my Lord Essex did, take heed of a preacher. By his persuasion, he confessed, and made himself guilty."^{[citation needed]} In that same trial, Raleigh also denied that he had stood at a window during the execution of Essex's sentence, disdainfully puffing out tobacco smoke in sight of the condemned man. Essex in the end shocked many by denouncing his sister Penelope, Lady Rich, as his co-conspirator: the queen, who was determined to show as much clemency as possible, ignored the charge.

Essex was buried in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula on Tower Green.^[57]

Some days before the execution, Captain Thomas Lee was apprehended as he kept watch on the door to the queen's chambers. His plan had been to confine her until she signed a warrant for the release of Essex. Captain Lee, who had served in Ireland with the Earl, and who acted as a go-between with the Ulster rebels, was tried and put to death the next day.

Quick facts Restitution of the Earl of Essex's Children Act 1603, Long title ...

Restitution of the Earl of Essex's Children Act 1603
Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Long title	An Act for the restitution of the son and two daughters of Robert late earl of Essex.
Citation	1 Jas. 1. c. 4 Pr.
Territorial extent	England and Wales
Dates
Royal assent	7 July 1604
Commencement	19 March 1604^[a]
Status: Current legislation

Essex's conviction for treason meant that the earldom was forfeit and his son did not inherit the title. However, after the queen's death, King James I of England reinstated the earldom in favour of the disinherited son, Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex.

The Essex ring

There is a widely repeated romantic legend about a ring given by Elizabeth to Essex. There is a possible reference to the legend by John Webster in his 1623 play The Devil's Law Case suggesting that it was known at this time, but the first printed version of it is in the 1695 romantic novel The Secret History of the most renowned Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex, by a Person of Quality. The version given by David Hume in his History of England says that Elizabeth had given Essex a ring after the expedition to Cádiz that he should send to her if he was in trouble. After his trial, he tried to send the ring to Elizabeth via the Countess of Nottingham, but the countess kept the ring because her husband was an enemy of Essex. As a result, Essex was executed. On her deathbed, the countess is said to have confessed this to Elizabeth, who angrily replied: "May God forgive you, Madam, but I never can".^{[citation needed]} The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries in Westminster Abbey possess a gold ring which is claimed to be this one.

Some historians consider this story of the ring to be a myth, partly because there are no contemporaneous accounts of it. John Lingard in his history of England says the story appears to be fiction. Lytton Strachey states "Such a narrative is appropriate enough to the place where it was first fully elaborated—a sentimental novelette, but it does not belong to history",^{[citation needed]} and Alison Weir calls it a fabrication.^[58]

Nevertheless, this version of the story forms the basis of the plot of Gaetano Donizetti's opera Roberto Devereux, with a further twist added to the story, in that Essex is cheating on both the queen and his best friend by having an affair with Lady Nottingham (who in the opera is given the wrong first name of Sarah rather than Catherine): and that this turns out to be (a) the reason why Lord Nottingham turns against his now former friend, when he discovers the ring in question and prevents her sending it, and (b) is the ultimate reason for Queen Elizabeth withdrawing her support for Essex at his trial. The actual question of Devereux's genuine guilt or innocence is sidelined (as is his actual failed rebellion), and the trial is presented as effectively a Parliamentary witch-hunt led by Cecil and Raleigh.

Poetry

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Like many other Elizabethan aristocrats Essex was a competent lyric poet, who also participated in court entertainments. He engaged in literary as well as political feuds with his principal enemies, including Walter Raleigh. His poem "Muses no more but mazes" attacks Raleigh's influence over the queen.^[59]

Other lyrics were written for masques, including the sonnet "Seated between the old world and the new" in praise of the queen as the moral power linking Europe and America, who supports "the world oppressed" like the mythical Atlas. During his disgrace, he also wrote several bitter and pessimistic verses. His longest poem, "The Passion of a Discontented Mind" (beginning "From silent night..."), is a penitential lament, probably written while imprisoned awaiting execution.^[59]

Several of Essex's poems were set to music. English composer John Dowland set a poem called "Can she excuse my wrongs with virtue's cloak?" in his 1597 publication First Booke of Songs: these lyrics have been attributed to Essex, largely on the basis of the dedication of "The Earl of Essex's Galliard", an instrumental version of the same song. Dowland also sets the opening verses of Essex's poem "The Passion of a Discontented Mind" ("From silent night") in his 1612 collection of songs. Orlando Gibbons set lines from the poem in the same year.^[59] Settings of Essex's poems "Change thy minde" (set by Richard Martin) and "To plead my faith" (set by Daniel Bacheler) are published in A Musicall Banquet (1610), a collection of songs edited by Robert Dowland.

Issue

In 1590, he secretly married Frances Walsingham, daughter of Francis Walsingham and widow of Philip Sidney, by whom he had several children,^[60] three of whom survived into adulthood. Frances also experienced stillbirths in 1596 and 1598.^[61]

Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex (11 January 1591 – 10 September 1646), married Frances Howard, then Elizabeth Paulet^[62]
Walter Devereux (bap. 21 January 1592 – bur. 19 February 1592)^[61]
Henry Devereux (bap. 14 April 1595 – 7 May 1596)^[61]
Frances Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (30 September 1599^[61] – 24 April 1674), married William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset^[63]
Dorothy Stafford (c. 20 December 1600 – 30 March 1636), married Sir Henry Shirley, 2nd Baronet, then William Stafford^[64]

Essex's mistress, Elizabeth Southwell, gave birth to an illegitimate son:^[61]^[65]

Walter Devereux (1591^[61] – July 1641)^[66]

Besides Elizabeth Southwell, Essex was also known to have affairs with Mary Howard, Mrs. Russell, and the "fairest Brydges".^[67]

Portrayals

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There have been many portrayals of Essex throughout the years:

Opera

Saverio Mercadante's 1833 opera Il Conte d'Essex with libretto by Felice Romani
Gaetano Donizetti's 1837 opera Roberto Devereux with libretto by Salvadore Cammarano based mainly on François Ancelot's Elisabeth d'Angleterre.
Benjamin Britten's 1953 opera Gloriana is based on Lytton Strachey's Elizabeth and Essex.

Stage

In the 1956 essay Hamlet oder Hekuba: der Einbruch der Zeit in das Spiel (Hamlet or Hecuba: the Irruption of Time into the Play), the German legal theorist Carl Schmitt suggests that elements of the Earl's biography, in particular his final days and last words, were incorporated into William Shakespeare's Hamlet at both the level of dialogue and the level of characterisation. Schmitt's overall argument investigates the relationship between history and narrative generally.
Essex is briefly alluded to in Shakespeare's Henry V at 5.0.22–34.^[68]
Essex is said by editor David L. Stevenson to be alluded to in Much Ado About Nothing at 3.1.10–11.
Gauthier de Costes, seigneur de la Calprenède, Le Comte d'Essex (1639).
Thomas Corneille, Le Comte d'Essex (1678).
Claude Boyer, Le Comte d'Essex, tragedie. Par Monsieur Boyer de l'Academie françoise (1678).
John Banks, The Unhappy Favourite; Or the Earl of Essex, a Tragedy (1682).^[69]
The night of Essex's execution is dramatised in the Timothy Findley play Elizabeth Rex.
Essex is the love interest in La Reine Elizabeth, play by Émile Moreau, 1912, starring Sarah Bernhardt
Maxwell Anderson's 1930 play Elizabeth the Queen dramatised the queen's relationship with Devereux, ending with his execution.

Film

The 1939 film The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn, is based on Anderson's play and Lytton Strachey's biographical account Elizabeth and Essex.
Their relationship also provided material during the silent era, as in the 1912 film Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (The Loves of Queen Elizabeth), with Sarah Bernhardt as the queen and Lou Tellegen as Essex.
Essex was played by Sam Reid in the 2011 film Anonymous, a fictional biopic that posits that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of William Shakespeare's plays and where both Essex and the Earl of Southampton are the illegitimate sons of Queen Elizabeth (the latter also being de Vere's son who is stated by Robert Cecil to have been Elizabeth's first bastard, making Southampton the product of incest)

TV

Charlton Heston portrayed the Earl of Essex opposite Judith Anderson's Elizabeth I in a 1968 television adaption of Maxwell Anderson's Elizabeth the Queen, for the Hallmark Hall of Fame series.
The Earl of Essex was portrayed by Robin Ellis in the fifth and sixth episodes of the BBC series Elizabeth R (1971) starring Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth I.
The queen's relationship with Essex (played by Hugh Dancy) and his stepfather Leicester (played by Jeremy Irons) was also covered by a 2005 Channel 4/HBO co-production Elizabeth I, starring Helen Mirren.
In the 2005 The Virgin Queen, Hans Matheson played the ill-fated Earl of Essex.
In the 2017 BBC documentary mini-series Elizabeth I's Secret Agents, the Earl of Essex was portrayed by Joe Wredden.

Video game

He is voiced by Rich Keeble in the video game Astrologaster.^[70]

Essex in literature

The best known biographical work about Robert Devereux is Lytton Strachey's masterpiece Elizabeth and Essex.

At least two fencing treatises are dedicated to Robert, Earl of Essex. They are as follows:

Vincentio Saviolo – His Practice (1595)^[71]
George Silver – Paradoxes of Defence (1599)^[72]

Robert Devereux's death and confession became the subject of two popular 17th-century broadside ballads, set to the English folk tunes Essex Last Goodnight and Welladay.^[73]^[74] Numerous ballads lamenting his death and praising his military feats were also published throughout the 17th century.^[75]