30 October – Elizabeth I’s favourite is driven to desperation

On this day in Tudor history, 30th October 1600, Queen Elizabeth I refused to renew Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex’s monopoly on sweet wines, saying that “an unruly horse must be abated of his provender, that he may be the easier and better managed.”

It may not sound like a major event, but it was for Essex and it drove him to desperation and, ultimately, to the scaffold.

Why? What was going on? How could the queen's refusal to renew this monopoly lead to Essex's undoing?

Find out what was happened in 1600 and what happened next with the queen and her favourite, in today's talk.

Also on this day in Tudor history, 30th October 1485, Henry Tudor, 2nd Earl of Richmond and son of Lady Margaret Beaufort and the late Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, was crowned King Henry VII at Westminster Abbey in London. Henry VII had, of course, become king following the defeat of King Richard III's forces, and the death of Richard, at the Battle of Bosworth Field in August 1485. Find out about his coronation celebrations and his mother Lady Margaret Beaufort's reaction to his coronation, in last year’s video:

More videos about Robert Devereux:

Also on this day in history:

• 1549 – Following the arrest of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, a royal proclamation was issued accusing “certain lewd and seditious persons (more favouring the said Duke than remembering their duties to his highness and natural country” of causing “sedition and division” and saying that “the good laws made for religion should now be altered and abolished and the old Romish service, mass, and ceremonies eftsoons renewed and revived”. As Diarmaid MacCulloch points out, this was an “emphatic reaffirmation that the evangelicals were in charge at Westminster”.

Transcript:

On this day in Tudor history, 30th October 1600, Queen Elizabeth I refused to renew Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex’s monopoly on sweet wines, saying that “an unruly horse must be abated of his provender, that he may be the easier and better managed.”

But Essex was her favourite wasn’t he? Why would she leave him on the brink of bankruptcy and why did she view him as unruly?
Well, if you remember my talk from 28th September, you’ll know that a year earlier Essex had been in trouble for abandoning his post as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and returning to England without the queen’s permission, on top of making a truce with the Irish rebel leader, again without the queen’s permission. He’d tried to explain himself to the queen, striding into her bedchamber unannounced and before the queen was properly dressed, on 28th September 1599, which wouldn’t have gone down well with Elizabeth, but he was still interrogated by her council and then put under house arrest for his actions in Ireland and desertion of his duty. In June 1600, Essex appeared before a special court, charged with insubordination during his time in Ireland, and was punished by being deprived of his public office and being confined to his home.

Then, when he applied for the renewal of his monopoly on sweet wines, Elizabeth refused. Essex had held this royal monopoly since his stepfather Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester’s death in 1588 when the queen had transferred it to him, and it was worth a lot of money, and in fact was one of his main sources of income. The loss of this monopoly would ruin him, and this shows just how much he’d fallen out of favour with the queen. She was cutting off his provender, his income, to better control him. This backfired though, rather than Essex falling into line, this made him even more convinced that the queen was being turned against him by Robert Cecil, Elizabeth I’s secretary of state, and his faction which included the Earl of Nottingham, Lord Buckhurst, Lord Cobham and Sir Walter Ralegh. It couldn’t be that the queen was fed up of his rebellion, disobedience and defiance, it had to be his enemies manipulating her, of course. Don’t you wish you could go back in time and shake the man?!

Essex was now a desperate man and that December he wrote to King James VI of Scotland, with whom he been corresponding for a number of years in the hope that he’d continue in royal favour once James became king of England. He appealed to James for help against his enemies, telling him that there was a plot to divert the succession from the Scots king to the Spanish Infanta Isabella. Historian Susan Doran points out in her book “Elizabeth I and Her Circle” that Essex was correct in viewing Cecil and the others as his enemies as they were very much concerned about a situation where James was king and Essex his chief minister. However, although they were certainly intent on bringing Essex down, they were not plotting a Spanish succession.

The Cecil faction did not have to bring Essex down though, he did that himself by planning a coup to seize control of the court, Tower of London and city of London, and to remove his enemies from power. Unfortunately for Essex, his coup in February 1601, known as Essex’s Rebellion, failed. He could not get the citizens of London’s support and he was forced to surrender to Lord Admiral Nottingham. This one-time favourite of Queen Elizabeth I ended up on the scaffold on Tower Green as a traitor, being beheaded on 25th February 1601. He’d been impetuous and arrogant, and had taken the queen’s affection for him for granted.