ROBERT DUDLEY, EARL OF LEICESTER, SIXTH MASTER. 69 



When the Duke of Anjou definitely decided to return to 

 Antwerp, the Queen, to make up for having jilted him, resolved 

 to see him off with befitting dignity. He had been elected 

 King of the Netherlands, and his subjects were clamouring 

 for the presence of their new sovereign. On February 1, 

 1582, the Duke, accompanied by the Queen and a splendid 

 retinue, departed from Greenwich en route to Sandwich, from 

 which port he was to embark to Flushing. At Canterbury 

 Elizabeth parted from him in tears. As he pursued his journey 

 he received from her repeated messages of inquiry after his 

 health; and for greater distinction she ordered the Earl of 

 Leicester, with six lords and as many knights, and a numerous 

 train of gentlemen, to accompany him, not only to the seaside, 

 but as far as the city of Antwerp. On his arrival there he was 

 solemnly invested with the ducal mantle as Duke of Brabant, 

 and afterwards at Ghent was crowned as Earl of Flanders. 

 During the summer, aided by England and France, he opposed 

 with chequered success the attempts of the Prince of Parma ; 

 but observing that the States were jealous of his followers, and 

 that the real authority was possessed not by himself but by 

 the Prince of Orange, he conceived the idea of giving the law 

 to his inferiors, by seizing most of the principal towns in the 

 country. However, the attempt failed in almost every instance, 

 many thousands of his followers were slain, and he escaped, 

 disheartened and ashamed, into France. His death on June 

 10, 1584, freed Queen Elizabeth from a passion which might 

 have led her into a repetition of her amour in that quarter, 

 and removed the greatest rival in her affections that Leicester 

 had ever encountered. 



On his return to England, the Earl of Leicester was gra- 

 ciously received at Court, where he resumed his normal duties, 

 and continued to be the recipient of remunerative emoluments 

 which still flowed upon him with a prosperous tide. Thus, 

 during the year 1582, he obtained, jointly with John Morley, 

 Esq., a grant of every cloth-mill that could be appropriated, 

 for their sole use and benefit throughout the country ; and on 

 December 16, the former obtained an acquittance from the 



