in September 1560, an ominous rumour began to take voice.
Dudley's wife had been poisoned--by her husband, it was said with bated
breath. The Queen herself heard, and repeated the report to the Spanish
Ambassador; varying it on the following day by the statement that "Lord
Robert's wife had broken her neck. It appears that she fell down a
staircase." And this amended version proved to be tragically true. While
Dudley was dallying with his Queen amid the splendours of the Court, his
devoted wife was found, with her neck broken, lying at the foot of a
staircase in the house of a Norfolk neighbour, whose guest she was.

How had this tragedy happened? and had Dudley any hand in it? were the
questions that passed fear-fully from mouth to mouth, from end to end
of England. The story, as told at the inquest, throws little light on
what must always remain more or less a mystery.

This story was as simple as it was tragic. It seems that Amy Robsart
(for by her maiden name she will always live in memory and in pity) rose
early on Sunday morning, the 8th of September, the day of her death, and
suggested that the entire household at Cumnor Place, at which she was
staying, should leave her alone and spend the day at a neighbouring fair
at Abingdon. "As for me," she said, "I shall be quite happy alone. I
have no taste for pleasure; but I always like to know that others are
enjoying themselves, even if I cannot." Eagerly responsive to such a
welcome suggestion the entire household repaired to the fair, except the
hostess (Mrs Owen) and a lady guest; and with them as companions Amy
Robsart spent a quiet and peaceful day. During the evening she rose
suddenly from the card-table, at which the three ladies were playing,
and left the room; and nothing more was seen of her until the servants
returning from the fair found her dead body at the stair-foot.

Was it suicide or a brutal murder? The bucolic jury shrank from either
conclusion, and gave as their verdict "accidental death." That Amy
Robsart ended her own life is far from improbable; for it was no secret
to her friends that she was weary of it, and would welcome the release
death alone could bring. But the general opinion, so far from supporting
this plausible theory, turned to thoughts of murder, and branded Dudley
as slayer of his wife. It was even commonly whispered that he had bribed
one of his minions, Anthony Foster, to hurl her down the stairs to her
death.

Whatever may be