Biography of Elizabeth Tailboys Countess Warwick 1520-1563

On 25th May 1553 a triple wedding was celebrated at Durham Place, the London townhouse of [her father-in-law] John Dudley 1st Duke Northumberland (age 49), father of [her brother-in-law] Guildford Dudley (age 18) and [her sister-in-law] Katherine Dudley Countess Huntingdon (age 15) ...

Guildford Dudley and Lady Jane Grey (age 17) were married. She the daughter of Henry Grey 1st Duke of Suffolk (age 36) and Frances Brandon Duchess of Suffolk (age 35). He the son of John Dudley 1st Duke Northumberland and [her mother-in-law] Jane Guildford Duchess Northumberland (age 44). They were third cousin once removed. She a great granddaughter of King Henry VII of England and Ireland.

Henry Hastings 3rd Earl Huntingdon (age 18) and Katherine Dudley Countess Huntingdon were married. She the daughter of John Dudley 1st Duke Northumberland and Jane Guildford Duchess Northumberland. He the son of Francis Hastings 2nd Earl Huntingdon (age 39) and Catherine Pole Countess Huntingdon (age 42). They were fourth cousin once removed.

Henry Herbert 2nd Earl Pembroke (age 15) and Catherine Grey Countess Hertford (age 12) were married. She the daughter of Henry Grey 1st Duke of Suffolk and Frances Brandon Duchess of Suffolk. He the son of William Herbert 1st Earl Pembroke (age 52) and Anne Parr Countess Pembroke. They were fourth cousins. She a great granddaughter of King Henry VII of England and Ireland.

On 22nd August 1553 [her father-in-law] John Dudley 1st Duke Northumberland (age 49) was beheaded at Tower Hill [Map]. Duke Northumberland, Earl Warwick and Viscount Lisle forfeit. [her brother-in-law] John Dudley 2nd Earl Warwick (age 26), his son, was also attainted, with the Earldom of Warwick forfeit.

Thomas Palmer and John Gates (age 49) were hanged, drawn and quartered.

On 8th September 1560, the day of the Abingdon Fair, Amy Robsart (age 28) died from falling down stairs at Cumnor Place, Abingdon [Map]. She was married to [her brother-in-law] Robert Dudley 1st Earl of Leicester (age 28), favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland (age 27), who was with Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland at Windsor Castle [Map] at the time. Foul play was suspected but not proven. The event was regarded as suspicious by many. The Queen's reputation being tarnished she could not risk a marriage with Dudley.

The inquest into her death concluded ...

Inquisition as indenture held at Cumnor [Map] in the aforesaid county [Oxfordshire] on 9 September in the second year of the reign of the most dread Lady Elizabeth, by the grace of God queen of England, France, and Ireland, defend of the faith, etc., before John Pudsey, gent, a coroner of the said lady queen in the aforesaid county, on inspection of the body of Lady Amy Dudley, late wife of Robert Dudley, knight of the most noble order of the garter, there lying dead: by oath of Richard Smith, gent., Humphrey Lewis, gent., Thomas Moulder, gent., Richard Knight, Thomas Spyre, Edward Stevenson, John Stevenson, Richard Hughes, William Cantrell, William Noble, John Buck, John Keene, Henry Lanlgey, Stephen Ruffyn, and John Sire: which certain jurors, sworn to tell the truth at our request, were adjourned from the aforesaid ninth day onwards day by day very often; and finally various several days were given to them by the selfsame coroner to appear both before the justices of the aforesaid lady queen at the assizes assigned to be held in the aforesaid county and before the same coroner in order there to return their verdict truthfully and speedily, until 1 August in the third year of the reign of the said lady queen; on which day the same jurors say under oath that the aforesaid Lady Amy on 8 September in the aforesaid second year of the reign of the said lady queen, being alone in a certain chamber within the home of a certain Anthony Forster, esq., in the aforesaid Cumnor, and intending to descend the aforesaid chamber by way of certain steps (in English called 'steyres') of the aforesaid chamber there and then accidentally fell precipitously down the aforesaid steps to the very bottom of the same steps, through which the same Lady Amy there and then sustained not only two injuries to her head (in English called 'dyntes') - one of which was a quarter of an inch deep and the other two inches deep - but truly also, by reason of the accidental injury or of that fall and of Lady Amy's own body weight falling down the aforesaid stairs, the same Lady Amy there and then broke her own neck, on account of which certain fracture of the neck the same Lady Amy there and then died instantly; and the aforesaid Lady Amy was found there and then without any other mark or wound on her body; and thus the jurors say on their oath that the aforesaid Lady Amy in the manner and form aforesaid by misfortune came to her death and not otherwise, as they are able to agree at present; in testimony of which fact for this inquest both the aforesaid coroner and also the aforesaid jurors have in turn affixed their seals on the day.