Amy Robsart was born in Norfolk, England. She was born into money with her father being a wealthy landowner who was known as Sir John Robsart and his wife's name was Elizabeth Scott. It just happened that the Robsarts were neighbors to the John Dudley the 1st Duke of Northumberland. Despite all of this Amy's life would take on some twist and turns that nobody could have foreseen when she was a child.
At the age of 17 Amy married Robert Dudley the youngest son of John Dudley. Uncommon in those days, when Amy married Robert it was for love and with both families having money there was no opposition from either of the families. There was a contract that was drawn up at that time that the marriage would only take place if it was based on love and agreed by both parties.
The wedding took place with Edward the VI attending; little did they know that the marriage would turn very sour in a very short time. It happened that Elizabeth I ascension to the throne took place shortly after. This should not have any bearings on the marriage of Amy and Robert but Robert had ambitions of getting to the throne himself and started spending quite a bit of time with the Queen. It wasn't long before rumors spread that Robert and the Queen was carrying on an illicit affair. Robert certainly became the Queens favorite and spent many hours at her side which was the envy of every man that looked on. He would not allow his wife to attend court as he thought it would anger Elizabeth to be constantly reminded that he was married.
1560 found Amy living in the Robsart house which was located in what is now called Oxford shire. She was not there alone as some of Dudley's friends were staying there as well; it just happened that the house was owned by some of Dudley's friends. There was talk of Amy being held there as a prisoner but the thought of today is that she did have all the freedom she wanted.
It is sad to realize that the only thing Amy Dudley will be remembered for is her death and that took place on September 8, 1560 at the home she was staying in. On that day there was a fair taking place at Abingdon. The mystery starts before Amy's death when she sent all her servants home and gave them permission to go to the fair. Some people say Amy didn't go due to the fair being held on a Sunday. With the servants gone the only people that was left in the house was Amy's companion Mrs. Oddingsell, Mrs. Owens who was the mother of the previous owner of the house, Mrs. Forster who was the wife of the present owner and a few servants that belonged to these ladies.
After a day at the fair the servants returned back home to find Amy at the bottom of the stairs with her neck broke. There were only a few steps on the stairs up to Amy's room and certainly not enough to kill her if she fell. When Robert was told of his wife's death both him and the Queen appeared shocked. What was uncommon is that Dudley sent his friend to the home where Amy had died to take care of things for him and he did not go to the funeral. This set tongues wagging as in them days this was considered more than disrespectful.
There were many conclusions made after Amy's death. Some said that Dudley had his wife killed which would have left him free to marry the Queen. This was eliminated after a time as killing his wife would have crushed any chance of him marrying the Queen. Some believe that the Queen had something to do with it, after telling the Spanish Ambassador that Amy was near death. Another theory was that the Queens secretary took it upon himself to have Amy murdered. He had a strong motive due to Dudley being in the Queens favor and pushing him aside besides if Dudley became King Consort, by killing Amy this could never happen once again making room for the secretary which is just what happened as time passed but this is just a theory and there is no positive proof.
Now Amy already was the sickly type and some people think she could have been suffering from breast cancer or an aneurism. If it was cancer her bones could have become very brittle which would account for her neck breaking on very few stairs. Of course there is another theory and that is that Amy committed suicide she certainly has enough to contend with to put her over the edge.
We will never know what happened to Amy Dudley. Regardless of the explanations offered there is no absolute proof for any of the ideas. Therefore we will always wonder just what happened to Amy Dudley whose death was her legacy to the future.