EGBERT DUDLEY, EARL OF LEICESTER, SIXTH MASTER. 63 



his homage to the Princess Elizabeth on his knees. At this 

 time he is said to have been furnished with all possible 

 advantages both of mind and body. His person was comely, 

 and well proportioned, his countenance open and liberal, his 

 bearing affable and engaging; and to these were added a 

 graceful action and delivery, and such an absolute command 

 of temper, that he could naturally adapt himself to every one's 

 humour or designs, as he saw occasion. Thus when he pre- 

 sented himself so opportunely before Elizabeth, his beauty, 

 stature, and florid youth were such powerful recommendations, 

 that she then and there nominated him Master of the Horse, 

 and confirmed the appointment by patent under the Great 

 Seal, dated Westminster, January 11, 1559, by virtue of which 

 he obtained a fee of 100 marks (66^. 13s. 4c?.) per annum, 

 payable out of the Exchequer half yearly, at Easter and 

 Michaelmas, by equal proportions, in as full and ample manner 

 as enjoyed by his predecessors in that office. It may, however, 

 be mentioned that he held this appointment subject to the 

 Queen's pleasure, in contradistinction to the various other 

 grants and offices that had been showered on him, from time 

 to time, during the reign of his Royal Mistress, which were 

 usually given to him for life, or to him and his heirs for ever. 

 From this time the gay young knight (who bore the courtesy 

 title of Lord Robert Dudley until he was advanced to the 

 Earldom of Leicester in 1554) became a star of the first 

 magnitude at the Court of good Queen Bess, with whom he 

 was a prime favourite. It would fill volumes to recount the 

 many parts he played during the twenty-nine years of his 

 sway at the Court of Queen Elizabeth, as he had not only a 

 finger, but a whole hand, in every pie from which a plum 

 could be extracted. From the highest honours, the richest 

 emoluments, the greatest grants, and the best monopolies, to 

 the most trivial things imaginable, over which the Crown had 

 any dispensation, were grasped by this avaricious courtier. 

 In commerce he was the leading merchant of the era. His 

 speculations in mines and minerals savoured of insanity. He 

 adventured largely " beyond the seas," while, as a manufacturer 



