A rare signed letter to Queen Elizabeth I from her lifelong friend and possible love interest, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, has been sold for £32,700 – four times more than the estimated price.
The document contains an enigmatic reference to an unspecified great matter of state, said to bear directly on the Queen’s life and likely relating to England’s policy towards Scotland in the aftermath of the Throckmorton plot of 1583.
This was a conspiracy between English Catholics and continental powers to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots.
The earl also apologises in the letter for his elusiveness during his recent journey across the Midlands of England.
His marriage in 1578 to Lettice, dowager countess of Essex, who Elizabeth loathed, is believed to have contributed to his absence and he was forced to keep his marriage half-hidden as a result.
The statesman and Queen had known one another since childhood and although he had failed to win her hand in marriage, they remained close friends until his death.
Experts at Lyon & Turnbull, the auctioneers who sold the letter on Wednesday, traced just two other autographed letters from the earl to Elizabeth.
One is now at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington. The other, at the National Archives in London, was written by him a few days before his death.
Meanwhile, a letter written and signed by Henry VIII’s elder daughter Mary I, Queen of England and Ireland, known as Bloody Mary, fetched £37,700 – more than double the asking price.
Signed “Mary the quene”, it was written to William, Lord Paget, on the outbreak of Wyatt’s Rebellion, on January 28, 1554.
Wyatt’s Rebellion was intended by its leaders – members of parliament alarmed by Mary’s imminent marriage to Prince Philip of Spain – as a series of four co-ordinated uprisings to take place in Devon, Herefordshire, Leicestershire and Kent.
Mary, who was avowedly Catholic, hoped the marriage would produce a son and heir and re-establish the Catholic faith across England and Ireland.
In addition, a handwritten notebook filled with remedies and recipes sold in the auction for £10,080, more than double its estimate.
The snapshot into the life and times of mid-17th century England reflects a period when the country was gripped by civil war and beset by the plague.
It contains 82 pages of remedies, at least 25 of them written by Dr William Fyffe, who was honorary physician to the King for the county of Lancashire.
Many were for treating the plague, which was rife at the time, and for wounds caused by sword or gunshot.
Dominic Somerville-Brown, specialist in rare books and manuscripts at Lyon & Turnbull, said: “The letter to Elizabeth from her lifelong favourite Robert Dudley provides a window on to one of history’s most famous love stories.
“Mary’s letter is a vivid snapshot of her thinking at a pivotal moment in her rule.
“This was a stunning pair of results for two documents of first-rate importance.
“Bidders were drawn to the contrasting portraits of England’s two Tudor Queens and came together to produce a succession of dramatic saleroom battles.
“There was also substantial interest and correspondingly strong prices for other historical manuscripts in the sale, including the 17th century English cookery book.”
