Editing Amy Robsart (section)

==Death and inquest==
[[File:Amy robsart.jpg|thumb|Fantasy Portrait. ''Amy Robsart'' (1870) by [[William Frederick Yeames]]]]On Sunday, 8&nbsp;September 1560, the day of a fair at Abingdon, Amy Robsart was found dead at the foot of a set of stairs at Cumnor Place. Robert Dudley, at [[Windsor Castle]] with the Queen, was told of her death by a messenger on 9&nbsp;September and immediately wrote to his [[steward (office)|steward]] Thomas Blount, who had himself just departed for Cumnor. He desperately urged him to find out what had happened and to call for an [[inquest]]; this had already been opened when Blount arrived.<ref>Wilson 1981 pp. 118–120</ref> He informed his master that Lady Amy Dudley had risen early and
<blockquote>
would not that day suffer one of her own sort to tarry at home, and was so earnest to have them gone to the fair, that with any of her own sort that made reason of tarrying at home she was very angry, and came to Mrs. Odingsells … who refused that day to go to the fair, and was very angry with her also. Because [Mrs. Odingsells] said it was no day for gentlewomen to go … Whereunto my lady answered and said that she might choose and go at her pleasure, but all hers should go; and was very angry. They asked who should keep her company if all they went; she said Mrs. Owen should keep her company at dinner; the same tale doth Picto, who doth dearly love her, confirm. Certainly, my Lord, as little while as I have been here, I have heard divers tales of her that maketh me judge her to be a strange woman of mind.<ref>Skidmore 2010 pp. 381–382</ref>
</blockquote>
Mrs. Picto was Lady Amy Dudley's maid and Thomas Blount asked whether she thought what had happened was "chance or villany":<ref name="Skidmore p. 382" /> <blockquote>she said by her faith she doth judge very chance, and neither done by man nor by herself. For herself, she said, she was a good virtuous gentlewoman, and daily would pray upon her knees; and divers times she saith that she hath heard her pray to God to deliver her from desperation. Then, said I, she might have an evil toy [suicide] in her mind. No, good Mr. Blount, said Picto, do not judge so of my words; if you should so gather, I am sorry I said so much.<ref name="Skidmore p. 382" /></blockquote>
Blount continued, wondering: 
[[File:Bonington Amy Robsart and the Earl of Leicester.jpg|left|thumb|Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and his wife Amy Robsart. Painting of the [[Romantic era]] by [[Richard Parkes Bonington]]]]
<blockquote>My Lord, it is most strange that this chance should fall upon you. It passeth the judgment of any man to say how it is; but truly the tales I do hear of her maketh me to think she had a strange mind in her: as I will tell you at my coming.<ref name="Skidmore p. 382">Skidmore 2010 p. 382</ref>
</blockquote>

[[File:Dudley, Amy last letter.jpg|thumb|right|Amy's last letter to her London tailor on 24 August 1560.]]

The [[coroner]] and the 15 jurors were local gentlemen and [[yeomen]] of substance.<ref>Skidmore 2010 pp. 210, 378; Chamberlin 1939 p. 40</ref> A few days later Blount wrote that some of the jury were no friends of Anthony Forster (a good sign that they would not "conceal any fault, if any be") and that they were proceeding very thoroughly:<ref name="Gristwood 2007 p. 107" /> <blockquote>
they be very secret, and yet do I hear a whispering that they can find no presumptions of evil. And if I may say to your Lordship my conscience: I think some of them be sorry for it, God forgive me. … Mine own opinion is much quieted … the circumstances and as many things as I can learn doth persuade me that only misfortune
hath done it, and nothing else.<ref>Skidmore 2010 p. 384</ref>
</blockquote>
The jury's foreman assured Robert Dudley in a letter of his own that for all they could find out, it appeared to be an accident.<ref name="Wilson p. 122">Wilson 1981 p. 122</ref> Dudley, desperately seeking to avert damage from what he called "my case",<ref>Gristwood 2007 p. 104</ref> was relieved to hear the impending outcome, but thought "another substantial company of honest men" should undertake a further investigation "for more knowledge of truth".<ref name="Gristwood 2007 p. 107" /> This panel should include any of Lady Amy's available friends and her half-brothers John Appleyard and Arthur Robsart, both of whom he had ordered to Cumnor immediately after Amy's death.<ref name="Wilson p. 122" /> Nothing came of this proposal.<ref name="Gristwood 2007 p. 107">Gristwood 2007 p. 107</ref>

The coroner's verdict, pronounced at the local [[Assizes]] on 1&nbsp;August 1561,<ref>Skidmore 2010 p. 230</ref> was that Lady Amy Dudley, "being alone in a certain chamber … accidentally fell precipitously down" the adjoining stairs "to the very bottom of the same".<ref name="Skidmore p. 378">Skidmore 2010 p. 378</ref> She had sustained two [[head injuries]]—one "of the depth of a quarter of a thumb", the other "of the depth of two thumbs".<ref>Skidmore p. 232</ref>{{#tag:ref|Chris Skidmore interprets a thumb as the equivalent of about an inch (2,&nbsp;54&nbsp;cm), saying one wound was c.&nbsp;5&nbsp;mm deep, the other c.&nbsp;5&nbsp;cm; the locations of the head wounds are not specified in the coroner's report (Skidmore 2010 p. 232).|group="note"}} She had also, "by reason of the accidental injury or of that fall and of Lady Amy's own body weight falling down the aforesaid stairs", broken her neck, "on account of which … the same Lady Amy then and there died instantly; … and thus the jurors say on their oath that the Lady Amy … by misfortune came to her death and not otherwise, as they are able to agree at present".<ref name="Skidmore p. 378" />

Following her death, Amy Dudley's body was taken to [[Gloucester Hall, Oxford]], where it lay in the room which may now be the Junior Common Room of [[Worcester College, Oxford]]. Her coffin was covered with black cloth and the arms of the Earl of Leicester. She was buried at [[University Church of St Mary the Virgin|St. Mary's]], [[Oxford]], on 22 September 1560 with full pomp,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Ghosts of Oxford: Amy Robsart |date=7 February 2022 |url=https://www.oxfordcastleandprison.co.uk/about/news/the-ghosts-of-oxford-amy-robsart/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=22 September – The burial of Amy Dudley (née Robsart) |date=22 September 2020 |url=https://www.tudorsociety.com/22-september-the-burial-of-amy-dudley-nee-robsart/}}</ref><ref>Wilson 1981 pp. 122–123; Skidmore 2010 p. 217</ref> including attendance by the [[Garter King of Arms]] and other heralds,<ref>{{cite web |title=Diary: 1560 (July - Dec) Pages 239-247 The Diary of Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London, 1550-1563. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/camden-record-soc/vol42/pp239-247 |website=British History Online |publisher=Camden Society, 1848 |access-date=23 November 2022}}</ref> which cost Dudley some [[Pound sterling|£]]2,000 (roughly £1 million in 2021).<ref name="Doran 1996 p. 45" /> He wore mourning for about six months but, as was within custom, did not attend the funeral, at which Lady Amy Dudley's half-brothers and neighbours, as well as prominent city and [[Historic counties of England|county]] citizens, played leading parts.<ref>Doran 1996 p. 45; Wilson 1981 p. 123; Skidmore 2010 pp. 216–217; Adams 1995 p. 132</ref> The court went into mourning for over a month;<ref name="Wilson p. 122" /> Robert Dudley retired to his house at [[Kew]].<ref name="Adams / Archer / Bernard p. 66">Adams, Archer, and Bernard 2003 p.&nbsp;66</ref>