I normally don't read non-fiction books but I was actually intrigued when I saw 'Death and the Virgin Queen: Elizabeth I and the dark scandal that rocked the throne' by Chris Skidmore. It focuses on Elizabeth's relationship with Robert Dudley, Amy Dudley's sudden death and the aftermath.
In the beginning, it seems that Amy and Robert had a good relationship since they did marry for love. Even though Amy barely saw her husband, he always seemed to managed to send her gifts via servants, which is different from Robert not doing anything for his wife while he was at court. There is a possible picture of Amy in the book but since the painting does not say who it is but the author makes a possible explanation that it could actually be a picture of Amy Dudley. The close relationship of Elizabeth and Robert is also looked at. It was so close that she had contemplated on marrying him after his wife died. Did she know that Amy was to die soon?
Of course the mystery of Amy's death is speculated in the book. Robert wanted to investigate his wife's untimely death right away so as not to damage his reputation. At the time, he was hoping to marry the queen so any link to him would hurt his chances. The book also goes into what if Amy was murdered. If so, who could have done it? The book makes an interesting case that maybe it was one of Robert's servants. The talk of poison by bribing a doctor makes an interesting case. Robert's servants would want to do away with his wife to speed up her so called sickness.
The book also goes into the years after Amy's death. How Robert's chances of marrying the queen was slipping away that it came to the point that Robert realized that he would never marry the queen. I didn't know that Amy's half brother wanted to take matters into his own hands by finding out what had happened to his sister. After the first year of Amy's death, any speculation about her death started to fade and things went back 'to normal'.
The most interesting fact is the Leicester's Commonwealth, which was written some years after Amy's death. It was a book that wanted to bring damage to Robert's reputation. After all, by then, he accumulated so many enemies. Most people thought that he was the reason why the queen never married. The most damage was pointing the finger at Robert for the death of his wife. It's interesting as to why the author thought that it was Robert's fault, even bringing evidence that wasn't really known. Elizabeth was quick to renounce this book but those during that time remembered the sudden death of his wife. As Cecil thought, the death of Amy Dudley would forever haunt Robert. I believe it did even though he was proven innocent during the initial investigation of Amy's death.
The book was interesting by stating facts and bring into light about the mystery of Amy's sudden death and the aftermath. I don't see many fiction books that looked into the sudden death of Amy Dudley so this was a change from what I normally read. I may look into Chris Skidmore's book 'Edward VI' in the future.
