#Earl of Leicester

[earlgodwin]

"Elizabeth’s relationship with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was perhaps the most important in her life. The savage possessiveness with which she wrote of him - ‘a creature of our own’, as she described him, with all the imperiousness of the royal ‘we’ - in no way diminished his importance in her eyes. For a woman so short of surviving blood relations, he was the nearest thing she had to family."

— Sarah Gristwood, Elizabeth and Leicester: The Truth about the Virgin Queen and the Man She Loved.

[earlymodernbarbie]

“And I never think of him, except on midnights like this…” Midnight Rain by Taylor Swift//Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley

[imjustasmith]

Now will I end, that do imagine I talk still with you, and therefore loathly say farewell ôô, though ever I pray God bless you from all harm, and save you from all foes with my millions of legion of thanks for all your pains and cares. 

 As you know, ever the same, E.R.

[filmjunky-99]

e l i z a b e t h i, 2005 📺 dir. tom hooper

[blackswaneuroparedux]

And Englishmen like posing as gods.

- E.M. Forster

The bowler has travelled widely since its beginnings in London in 1849. Appropriated by everyone from cowboys in the American West to Quechua women in Bolivia, who were introduced to the hat by British railway workers in the 1920s, the iconic piece of headwear began with two men called - perhaps unsurprisingly - Edward Coke and Thomas Bowler.

Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester, walked into the famous London hat-makers Lock & Co with a problem. The top hats worn by his gamekeepers on the Holkham Hall estate in Norfolk kept falling off but they needed to wear something to protect their heads from low-hanging branches and poacher attacks.

Bowler, Lock’s chief hat-maker, rose to the challenge and put together a prototype. To test the hat’s strength, the story goes that Coke threw it on the floor and jumped up and down on it. The resilient bowler passed with flying colours and Coke paid 12 shillings for it.

The bowler’s combination of practicality and style has made it appeal to a wide range of people throughout its history. Railway workers and American cowboys - think Butch Cassidy or Billy the Kid - adopted it as their own because it would not blow off easily when they were on horseback or hanging their heads from the windows of speeding trains.

In Britain, the bowler was first worn by the Victorian working classes but by the 1950s and 1960s it came to epitomise the “City gent” - along with a pinstripe suit and a black umbrella.

Today, cavalry officers still wear bowler hats and suits for their annual parade in Hyde Park on what is known as Cavalry Sunday in May. The tradition stems from the fact the outfit was considered correct dress just before the First World War and officers are still expected to wear their City gent attire whenever they are in London on duty.

One of Britain’s most famous hat devotees, Winston Churchill is known to have favoured the Homburg, but he pulled off a bowler with aplomb. To this day, Lock & Co still sell thousands of Cokes each year to City workers and ex-military customers, while the Earl of Leicester continues to buy the hat to which his ancestor gave his name for his gamekeepers on the completion of one year’s service.

[mametupa]

[bibliophilicstranger]

Things I learned today:

As a child, Queen Victoria occasionally played with Sir John Conroy's daughters (one was also named Victoria)

There is an opera/ballet called Kenilworth based on Queen Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, and Amy Robsart.

Queen Victoria "went to the opera and saw the ballet, of which she was very fond, several times."

Queen Victoria had a whole set of dolls based on this ballet. She made Amy and Robert Dudley herself.

[thefollyflaneuse]

Leicester Tower and Obelisk, Evesham, Worcestershire

The Battle of Evesham took place on a site near the town in 1265, but it was several centuries later that two memorials to the hero of the hour, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, were erected. In 1842 Edward Rudge, a civic figure, botanist and antiquary, built a tower and obelisk in the grounds of his home and dedicated them to the battle and the earl. Continue reading Leicester Tower and…

[washedupuriel]

So modern AU RPF for Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester/ Elizabeth I Queen of England based on a Taylor Swift song is a thing that exists.

If you understand that string of words I'm sorry but also that's kinda your fault really

[rub-the-rest-with-yellow]

Information

Robert Dudley, First Earl of Leicester

Steven van der Meulen 1532

Steven van der Meulen was one of many Flemish artists that practiced in England during the reign of Elizabeth the first. There are arguments about whether he or another Flemish painter, Steven van Herwijck, were the artists behind works that were contemporarily identified as being by the Flemish 'paynter Steven'. There are a few pieces that other historians argue were actually by a guy called George Gower. The point is that artists around that time just trusted people knew who did what, and they started signing more as time went on. In a similar way, I wonder if in the future more songs will have the artist sign off in the song, like they already do in certain countries.

[mypepemateosus]

[earlymodernbarbie]

“I knew you tried to change the ending…”cardigan by Taylor Swift//Robert and Amy Dudley

[imjustasmith]

The Queen is in very good terms with you, and, thanks be to God, well pacified, and you are again her “sweet Robin”. Raleigh to Dudley, 1586.

[catherinesvalois]

Elizabeth Tudor & Robert Dudley BECOMING ELIZABETH

[outrowingss]

Alicia Von Rittberg and Jamie Blackley as Elizabeth Tudor and Robert Dudley in Becoming Elizabeth (2022)

[mametupa]