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How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition - Online Exhibition /

Rule #13: Become the queen’s work spouse

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532–88) was Queen Elizabeth’s most powerful advisor, closest confidante, persistent suitor, and possible lover. Athletic, witty, and handsome, he proclaimed his love for her by lavishly entertaining her at his estate, wooing her at jousting tournaments, and joining her on private hunts. Leicester made other power players exceptionally jealous. His enemies launched an unsuccessful smear campaign against him and referred to him as Machiavellian.

Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels, that knew’st the very bottom of my soul

Henry V 

The queen’s googly eyes

Queen Elizabeth referred to Leicester as her “eyes.” In this letter, Leicester adds eyebrows to the double o’s in the phrases “your mõõst sweet majesty” and “my mõõst dear Lady.” He closes the letter “your most faithful and obedient” followed by a pair of eyebrowed eyes. Can you find them? He wrote to the queen as lieutenant of the army during the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada. She was broken hearted when he died a month later.

In the accompanying viewer, you can see a close-up of one instance of “googly eyes.” Navigate around the letter to see if you can find the other!

Letter from Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Tilbury, to Queen Elizabeth I, 3 August 1588 | Folger X.c.126
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Leicester addressed his letter “To the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty” and folded it into a small packet closed with green silk embroidery thread and a red wax seal bearing his “bear and ragged staff” crest. This style of letterlocking was considered very personal, and only a few individuals ever wrote to the queen in this manner.

A sheet of paper, mostly blank, with seven equidistant horizontal fold marks across it and one less crisp vertical fold down the center. In between the second and third fold the paper is worn, indicating that when the paper was folded, this face was outermost. This portion of the paper contains the address, to the queen from the Earl of Leicester, along with matching seals on either end holding down green cord. Their placement, along with the fold marks, indicates that originally this letter was folded horizontally, then vertically. The green cord was wrapped around the folded letter to keep it shut, and then the cords were subsequently cut in order to open it.
Letter from Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Tilbury, to Queen Elizabeth I, 3 August 1588 | Folger X.c.126
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Leicester’s playbooks

Leicester’s library included multiple leadership treatises, including these copies of The Golden Book of Marcus Aurelius and The Five Books of . . . Hieronimus Osorius. Both books are decorated with the crest from his coat of arms, a bear and ragged staff.

The front cover and spine of a book, bound in very dark, nearly black leather. The spime reads
Antonio de Guevara, The golden boke of Marcus Aurelius Emperour and eloquent oratour (London: W. Copland for Abraham Vele, 1557) | Folger STC 12442
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A book opened to reveal its entire cover, back, front, and spine; the book is bound in brown leather, with gold border tooling. On both the back and front is an oval ornament featuring a chained bear standing upright with its forepaws on a tree trunk.
Jerónimo Osório, The five bookes of the famous, learned, and eloquent man, Hieronimus Osorius, contayninge a discourse of  civill and Christian nobilitie (London: Thomas Marsh, 1576) | Folger STC 18886
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A real estate bonanza for the queen’s favorite power player

In 1574, as their relationship continued to deepen, the queen granted the Earl of Leicester gifts of lands across twenty-one counties in England and Wales. He was already one of the largest landholders in England and North Wales because of previous gifts from the queen. This grant consists of nine large parchment sheets, with the queen enthroned in the E of her name on the first one, shown here.

A large sheet filled with writing in blackletter hand. At the top is an ornate heading, beginning with the name
Letters patent from Elizabeth I, Queen of England, to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 5 April 1574 | Folger Z.e.5

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See this exhibition at the Folger

How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition
A man dressed in court fashions during the reign of James I

How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition

Social climbing was a competitive sport in Tudor England, requiring a complex range of skills, strategies, and techniques. This exhibition explores what it takes to become an early modern mover and shaker.
Through July 2025
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Rose Exhibition Hall