EOBEKT DUDLEY, EARL OF LEICESTEE, SIXTH MASTER. (37 



to the goods of the Church. The Archbishop got the best 

 of the arguments, but the Master of the Buckhounds got 

 the temporalities in question, which he appropriated for 

 his own personal uses. The following year (April 20, 1574) 

 he obtained another vast grant of Crown lands in various 

 counties in sundry parts of the kingdom; and on July 19 

 ensuing he received a grant of the old palace of Maidstone, 

 with other estates in the county Kent and various other locali- 

 ties. Some of these manors were soon after sold to different 

 persons, and on February 13, 1575, he got licence to alienate the 

 manor of Cumnor, county Bucks, to Henry Lord Norries, where 

 his first wife, the Countess Amy, was done to death. The Queen 

 gave him another annuity of 1,000^. a year for life by patent, 

 dated Westminster, July 17 of this year, and two days after- 

 wards he obtained a very considerable grant of lands in Mon- 

 mouthshire. He was appointed Chancellor and Chamberlain 

 (camerar) of North Wales, where he had large mineral works 

 and plenary mining monopolies, by patent dated September 26, 

 1575. It was in the summer of this year that he entertained the 

 Queen at Kenilworth. Admitting the Royal visit entailed the 

 heavy expense attributed to it, the magnitude of the grants 

 the Earl received from the Queen during this year alone must 

 have been ample recompense, and well repaid the cost of the 

 festivities at Kenilworth. At this period the Earl of Leicester 

 had many avowed enemies, and some rivals who aspired to 

 supplant him in the mighty Court favour which he so 

 absolutely controlled, having met with a sudden and unexpected 

 death, were said to have been poisoned by his means. But 

 to the impartial investigator of those intriguing times, little, 

 if any, justification will be found in support of such charges, 

 which most likely were the outcome of envy and disappoint- 

 ment. At any rate, the Master of the Buckhounds continued 

 in the favour of his sovereign until the arrival of the Duke of 

 Anjou's ambassador in October, 1578, to negotiate a marriage 

 contract between the Duke and Elizabeth. This envoy ex- 

 celled in the accomplishments of a courtier — his manners, his 

 wit, and his gallantry made an irresistible impression. Aware 



