John Dudley (1501 – August 22/23, 1553) was a
Tudor general, admiral and politician, who became de facto ruler of England, tried to make
his daughter-in-law Queen of England and was executed for high treason by Queen
Mary I of England.
Life
Descent and family
His grandfather was a Knight of the Garter and Steward to King Henry V; his mother was Elizabeth, suo jure Baroness Lisle,
great-great-great-granddaughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl
of Warwick. John was the eldest of Edmund Dudley’s sons. Jerome, Oliver, William,
and Andrew Dudley were his brothers.
Early life
When Edmund Dudley was executed, Sir Edward
Guilford—a partner in many of Edmund's ‘profitable outrages’—acquired the ward-ship of John Dudley when the boy was nine
(and apparently also of one of his brothers, possibly Andrew, who was later made Admiral of the North
Sea), who were then taken into the home of Sir Richard Guilford. Within two years, in 1512,
he was able to persuade King Henry VIII to repeal Edmund's attainder. In order to prosper under his new-found liberty, as a young man Dudley married Edward's daughter
Jane Guilford in 1520 and took part as Guilford's lieutenant in the
campaign of 1523 in France under the king’s brother-in-law,
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and won a knighthood on the field for gallantry after his valour at the crossing of the
Somme. He was soon to gain prominence in the mock warfare of
the royal court and as a protégé of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, and so joined the group whose
task it was to amuse the king. He went to France with Wolsey in 1527, and again with Wolsey and the
king in 1532.
It is at about the time of the birth of his fifth son, Robert, in 1532/1533 that Sir John Dudley was appointed Master of the Armoury in the
Tower of London. To it he brought the reputation of being the ablest commander both by
land and sea that had then been of service to the Tudors. This helped rehabilitate the name of Dudley. At the coronation of
Anne Boleyn in 1533 he was invited to be a cup-bearer, and he would lead the procession at
the christening of the Princess Elizabeth.
Inheritance from Edward Guilford
Edward then died in 1534. As he was without a will and
without male issue, the Guilford estate was to be the cause of a dispute between Dudley (claiming through Jane Guilford, Edward's daughter and only child, whom he had married in 1520)
and Guilford's nephew. Dudley claimed the manor of Halden,
and other lands in Kent and Sussex, despite John Guilford's assertion that his uncle had intended him to inherit. Five years later Dudley
sold the manor with others to Thomas Cromwell, whose protégé he
became after Wolsey's fall - both he and Wolsey recognised his extraordinary abilities.
Under Henry VIII
From 1536 he appears to have encountered some difficulties that led him to part with much of his
inheritance in favour of the Midlands estate of his cousin, John Sutton, 3rd Lord Dudley; he exchanged his reversionary interest in the lands left to him by his mother to Sir Richard for
life. He then made extensive purchases, especially in Staffordshire and the
Welsh marches. In addition, he was given several manors by the
King, including the extensive estates of Halesowen Abbey on the Dissolution of the Monasteries, so that his land base shifted to the central and west
Midlands. He was elected sheriff of Staffordshire in 1536
after helping to put down the northern rebellion. In 1537 Dudley was sent on a mission to Spain and also began the connection with the
Admiralty which, with his military commands from 1542, was to bring him to the fore during the
closing years of Henry's reign. In January 1542 he resumed his seat in the Commons as one of the
knights for Staffordshire, and upon his stepfather's death was created Viscount Lisle (derived from his mother) and made Lord Admiral for
life, entering the Lords the following day to sit in regular attendance for the rest of the session.
Exercising his new prerogative, Dudley dispatched the French from the English Channel and stormed Boulogne-sur-Mer, for which he was
to become a Knight of the Garter and was on the April
23, 1543, admitted as a member of the Privy Council. As Lord Admiral he directed the naval operations of the next
two years and his presence at the third session of that Parliament was respectively shortened. To his other duties there was
added in late 1544 the governorship of Boulogne. Also in 1544 he accompanied his future rival,
Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford to the capture and burning of
Edinburgh. A large English force, supported by a naval fleet, under Hertford's command,
invaded the east coast of Scotland, sacking Leith and
Dunbar and capturing Edinburgh.
After attending the first session of the Parliament of 1545 Dudley was to direct the operations
of the fleet in the Battle of the Solent which frustrated the French attack on Portsmouth and the Isle of
Wight. He went with the embassy to Paris to ratify and conclude the peace in
1546. On his return Dudley was absent from Council meetings on the grounds of ill-health, although
the imperial ambassador ascribed his retirement to a difference of opinion with Bishop Stephen
Gardiner, whom he had assaulted in the Council. He returned before the King died, and was in attendance at the final
session of Parliament. By 1547, the year of the King’s death, he was Lieutenant General of all His
Majesty's armed forces.
Under Edward VI
Henry had appointed sixteen regents to govern the kingdom during his son's minority,
John Dudley being amongst them, but Edward's uncle the Duke of Somerset had disregarded this fact and elected himself sole Protector just before the coronation. That year Dudley sought and was duly granted the right to bear
the arms of the Earls of Warwick, with the distinctive badge of the Bear and the Ragged Staff.
By the end of 1549 most of the King’s Council (including Thomas Cranmer,
Arundel, Paulet, and William Cecil) was united behind Dudley, a man with the ambition, will and determination to lead the
Council in ousting Somerset. Dudley took the initiative in this, leading the Palace rebellion against Somerset in
1549, Somerset's subsequent imprisonment and eventual execution in 1552, and in the light of these facts history has been unforgiving.
Rebellions
Also in 1549 Dudley achieved his great political victory over the Norfolk rebels in their efforts to remove the enclosure system. He was popularised, not only for his skill and courage, but for his mercy towards the
prisoners. When his small troop was faced with destruction and outnumbered, he drew his sword, kissed the blade and spoke of
death before dishonour. When the conflict was over, he responded to his officers' protests for revenge with: "Is there no place
for pardon?" He asked "What shall we then do? Shall we hold the plough ourselves, play the carters and labour the ground with our
own hands?"
It has also been noted that during this period there were considerably fewer executions on the grounds of religious
intolerance and for a while England became a refuge for the persecuted from many lands.
Foreign Policy
One of Dudley's first actions after Somerset's fall was to end the wars with France and Scotland that Somerset had initiated .
He surrendered the besieged town of Boulogne which, whilst weakening the English
position in France, gained £133,000 for the struggling economy, liberated England from a financially burdensome territory and
resulted in a defensive alliance between France and England with the Treaty of
Boulogne. He also withdrew the English garrisons from Scotland.
Economy
In order to compensate for the economic legacy of the Duke of Somerset, Dudley
ceased debasement of the coinage, although, poorly advised by economists, he did take that action one last time. Using melted
church plate, the coins were revalued in 1551 and began to slow down the rapid inflation that had been ravaging the country.
However, Dudley's tendency towards profiteering - allowing himself and other Privy Councillors to enrich themselves at the
expense of the state when it was nearing bankruptcy - has been severely criticised, although some such profiteering was required
in order to ensure Councillors' support.
Social problems
Vagrancy, enclosure, poverty and rising population were all very immediate problems
facing Dudley's regency. This was exacerbated by poor harvest and subsequent lack of food.
Domestic Politics
Unlike Somerset, whom he had outmanoeuvered, Dudley did not take the title of Lord Protector, and encouraged Edward VI to
proclaim his majority and formally become king. Nonetheless, Northumberland effectively ruled the country by holding two offices:
Lord President of the Council and Great
Steward of the King's Household. Dudley obtained such an influence over Edward that the King was ready to make it appear
that Dudley's ideas were actually his own. Whether or not it was justified, Dudley acquired a bad reputation, becoming known as a
"tyrant", sometimes referred to as the merciless "bear of Warwick". Despite some criticisms,
Dudley was certainly better than his predecessor, Somerset. He consulted the Privy
Council regularly and did not make any executive decisions, and did not use the title 'Lord Protector' that Somerset had done.
Dudley also began the political education of the young Edward VI.
Dudley was given the title of Duke of Northumberland in
1551.
Lady Jane Grey, and execution
When Edward was dying, he wrote a document which barred both Elizabeth and
Mary I (the remaining children of King Henry
VIII) from the throne, in favour of Lady Jane Grey (who had married Dudley's
youngest son, Guilford Dudley, only six weeks previously). The decision to name
Lady Jane Grey as an heir was based on the lack of 'heirs male' from other royals and noble families with royal connections. The
motivation to exclude the previous heir-presumptive (Mary Tudor) stemmed from a desire
to prevent a Catholic succession and restoration, as well as question marks over Mary's legitimacy - she had been barred from the
succession by an Act of Parliament after Henry divorced Catherine of Aragon, though
Henry's will reinstated her in the order of succession. Although Guildford Dudley was married to Lady Jane who was named as heir,
he would not have been named King. In fact, Edward's device for the succession was entirely predicated upon one of those noble
families producing a male to inherit the throne, rather than simply handing power to the Greys. It is uncertain just how much
influence Dudley had over the document, as no corroborating papers survive. Although Edward was in the habit of consulting with
the Duke of Northumberland, he was also more than capable of formulating his own
ideas, as various council minutes show, and it is probable he felt the succession was part of his royal prerogative.
Mary was summoned back to London, but she refused and wrote to the Council demanding to be recognised as Queen of England.
Dudley was at his country residence having complained of illness (which is probably reason enough to exonerate him of plotting to
disbar Mary, as he would have known he needed to be in London), and in his absence the council wavered. Mary, having gathered
support from nobles in East Anglia marched into London with no opposition. The main reason for the popular support for Mary was
caused by general dislike of Dudley and respect for Mary's legitimacy. The people - even some Protestants - would rather a
legitimate heir than a Protestant 'usurper'.
Dudley was forced to surrender to Mary I. He was arrested and executed for high
treason in 1553. All his sons were imprisoned with him but only Guilford was executed.
Marriage and issue
By Jane Guilford,
- sons, in order
- daughters, including
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