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Note: JOHN, Duke of Northumberland NOTE: this article is written by Sandy Sellers. <A class=lnk href="http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/8388/john.html"><code>http://​www.​geocities.​com/​Heartland/​Hills/​8388/​john.​html</code></A> [edited by Roderic A. Davis, 2nd] John Dudley was the eldest son of Edmund Dudley, Henry VII's chief minister, whom Henry VIII executed, with his fellow-lawyer and associate Empson, as soon as he came to the throne. John Dudley's origins were noble; his paternal grandfather was a Knight of the Garter and Steward to Henry V; his mother, Elizabeth de Lisle, was a descendant of Warwick, the KingMaker. John was born 1501. After his father's execution in 1509 he was adopted by Sir Richard Guilford, whose daughter he married in 1520. In the course of the next twenty years, he became Lord High Admiral, Master of the Horse, Viscount Lisle and father of thirteen children, seven of whom survived to follow his fortunes. A first-class athlete (he was the finest jouster of his day), an elegant, handsome and accomplished courtier of a skilled administrator, he remained one of the King's most valued servants. When Henry VIII died and Somerset (Edward Seymour) was made Protector, Dudley showed his adaptability by relinquishing the Admiralty to Thomas Seymour in exchanged for the earldom of Warwick and a place on the Council Board, without complaint; but he resented Somerset's forcing him to do so. In 1549, he achieved his greatest triumph by his victory over the Norfolk rebels in their attempt to destroy the enclosure system. He was much praised, not only for his skill and courage, but also for his mercy towards the prisoners. When his small force was threatened with extinction, he drew his sword, kissed the blade and spoke of death before dishonor. When the campaign was over, he replied to his officers' appeals for revenge with more practical rhetoric. "Is there no place for pardon?" he demanded "What shall we then do? Shall we hold the plough ourselves, play the carters and labor the ground with our own hands?" Between the summer of 1550 and the autumn of 1551, Northumberland (now titled and bore as his name) worked so unobtrusively that even his closest associates-and certainly not Somerset whose daughter Anne had just married John Dudley (Northumberland's oldest son) -- perceived the extent of his power. His primary object was the subjugation of the King, whom he fascinated and impressed by his skill at games-he always, somehow, made time to shoot with Edward at the butts-by his fervent Protestantism and, most important of all, by his stressing of the royal prerogative. He treated the conscientious, high minded, enthusiastic boy as if he had already attained his majority. While advising, he deferred to, consulted Edward in private, and insisted on his presence at Council meetings. Two people disliked from the beginning to the end of his relationship: the Princess Mary and Lady Jane. In Mary's case, there was good reason, for she and Northumberland were natural enemies; yet even when he stood at the head of the state (although he refused all official positions) as the "thunderbolt and terror of the Papists" and the King's right hand, Jane appears to have hated him. She shrank indeed from all the Dudley's; but then she was not a girl who took to people easily. Northumberland's fatal mistake was that he never considered the people and completely discounted the personality of Lady Jane. Northumberland in his fifty-second year was still one of the best looking men of his day. He and his sons-John, now Earl of Warwick, Henry, Ambrose, Guilford, and Robert, the tallest and handsomest of them all, who had recently married Amy Robsart-had brilliant good looks and bore themselves with superb hauteur. Indeed, it seems as if this family put everyone else in the shade. Mary Dudley, the wife of Henry Sidney, Edward's cupbearer and one of his greatest friends, was then at her best. (A few years later she was completely disfigured by small pox.) Guilford, fair-haired, graceful and elegant, was his mother's favorite, and she was allowed to spoil him. "Of all of Dudley's brood", a seventeenth century historian, "he had nothing of the father in him". He would have liked to emulate his father, who domination of the government was to last two more years. His political acumen was acknowledged by his peers-this consisted in his command of the King, absolute control of the state and maintenance of England as an international power, holding the balance between the great empires of France and Spain. Northumberland's technique is best described by Sir Richard Morrison. "This Earl", he said, "had such a head that he seldom went about anything but he three or four purposes beforehand". The Guilford/Lady Jane marriage is told on another page of this website. The marriage and the events leading to that tragic event are well documented and very complex, as they would be with such a powerful and devious person as Northumberland directing. The Dudley sons were well disciplined and always worked in concert for the good of the Dudley family. Before Northumberland's death, he did profess to the Catholic religion of his youth. He was under a sentence of death, not to be pardoned as others who put aside Protestantism as he was convicted of high treason but still asked for time before execution so that he could reconcile himself to the Catholic faith. This appeal was granted and he was given three days to so make his peace with God. His body was doomed; with characteristic thoroughness, he prepared to save his soul. A single blow ended John Dudley's life, August 1553. Abstracted from various sources: Lady Jane Grey by Hester Chapman Elizabeth I by Ridley Other Dudley's mentioned in these works are: Temperance Dudley, daughter of John, who died at age 7. Andrew Dudley, brother of John
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