The Original Staircase: The Death of Amy Dudley

hello and welcome back to the channel if you're new here hi you're very welcome this is reading the past and I'm dr. Kat [Music] today's video is slightly Halloween themed as we go hurtling towards that particular celebration and whether you celebrate it or not I hope I'm not the only one that's thinking where has 2018 gone seriously this year is going by far too fast I can't believe it's nearly Christmas and I have to do more shopping that makes me sad but as we are going towards Halloween I thought we could do a discovery of an early modern murder mystery the murder mystery in question is the death of Amy Dudley now a quick Google search where you just put in the words the death of Amy Dudley comes up with this result where the cause of death is listed as staircases staircases really well if you are like me at all and interested in true crime and the owner of a Netflix account which seemingly is most of the world then you probably have come across this documentary so in a wonderful example of all of this happened before and all this will happen again let's deep dive the original staircase [Music] amy dudley was born Amy rocks art on the seventh of June 15:32 she was the sole heir of her father Sir John Rob's art on the 4th of June 1550 she marries Robert Dudley he is the fifth son of the incredibly powerful Duke of Northumberland a man who has toppled Protector Somerset to become the leading minister at the boy King Edward the six court so Amy starts her married life in an incredibly wonderful position she has married into the most powerful family in England excluding the Tudors but this position was in jeopardy because the boy King was not to be very long-lived and as he sickened it looked evermore possible that his half-sister the dogmatically Catholic marry the first might take the throne the Dudley's had firmly aligned themselves with Edwards Protestant regime so the likelihood of them maintaining their power under Mary wasn't very high the Duke of Northumberland was very keen to ensure that this wasn't going to happen so Amy Dudley was to find herself sister-in-law to a future Queen and King consort of England namely her brother-in-law Guildford Dudley and his future wife Lady Jane Grey also known as the nine days queen the coup to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne fails and the entire Dudley family find themselves attainted for treason Amy goes from being married into the most powerful family in England to visiting her husband in the Tower of London where he is under charge of treason and in danger of his life however with the accession of Elizabeth everything changes again Robert resentful he is made the Queen's master of the horse and this is a role that isn't just politically powerful because of its proximity to the Queen's person it's also a sign that he is personally favored the master of the horse is the person that's there for the times of fun so clearly Elizabeth wants to spend time with Robert personally as well as politically amy is not invited to court however she still lives in considerable comfort as befits the station of the Queen's favorite Robert also allows her to make use of her own inheritance quite uncommon for the time to provide herself with her own household servants and clothing and lifestyle so Amy finds herself moving through various nobleman's households where she sets up her own rooms with her own servants it's quite hard to keep track of Amy during this period but we're fairly certain that by December 15 59 she is staying with Anthony Foster had come to place in Berkshire we know this because on the 8th of September the following year 1560 Amy is found dead at the bottom of the set of stairs her neck is broken but according to reports her hood is still perfectly intact almost immediately the conspiracies begin and the gossip and chatter swirls is this a suicide is this a horrible accident or is this murder at the time the principal suspects in the argument for it being a murder is her husband Robert but as time has moved on other suspects have presented themselves and in this video I'd like to explore those suspects looking at their means motive opportunity and also where relevant other actions that they took in their lives that may make it likely that they behaved in similar ways surrounding this particular death in 2008 in the National Archives this document surfaced on closer inspection it was found to be the Latin inquest report into the death of Amy Dudley now the National Archives have provided an English translation and there are moments in it that are particularly interesting I think to our investigation so here is a close-up of the Latin inquest report and I'm going to pick out some key moments that have been translated so it talks about that lady Amy on the 8th of September was alone in a chamber in the home of Anthony foster at Cumnor that she intends to descend the chamber by some steps and when doing so she quote accidentally fell precipitously down the steps it then says that in this fall the lady Amy there and then sustained not only two injuries to her head in English called dints one of which was a quarter of an inch deep and the other two inches deep it also says that through this accidental fall lady Amy breaks her neck the inquest views this fracture in her neck as being a incident cause of death it finishes by saying the aforesaid lady Amy was found there and then without any other mark or wound on her body and thus the jurors say on their oath that the aforesaid lady Amy in the manner and form aforesaid by misfortune came to her death and not otherwise so for the inquest jurors this is an accident this is not a murder this is not a suicide for me though those bits on her head the two injuries one two inches deep that strikes me as ringing very similar with the injuries found in the Netflix documentary the staircase is it possible that someone can fall down a flight of stairs break their neck and have two significant head injuries one is deep as to cheese I'm not a post-mortem scientist but to me that feels awfully deep for a simple tumble down the stairs by accident another factor with these two dents that are found in the coroner's report is that that doesn't quite chime with the report of her being found at the bottom of the stairs with her hood still on how does somebody fall down a flight of stairs break their neck you have two enormous lacerations in their head one as deep as two inches so that's going through the skull into the brain and still have their hood on is that even possible to me it doesn't seem like that makes any sense at all also surely if that is what had happened she'd be found in a puddle of blood and I would imagine that somebody reporting on having found her would have said she's found in a puddle of blood wouldn't they so does that mean that she dies somewhere else and is moved to the bottom of the stairs where she's arranged her hood is put back on that's certainly one line of argument that has been made that she is killed somewhere else perhaps even by an axe the back of the head and then moved bottom the stairs and place there from the summer of 1559 there is no record that Amy ever saw her husband again so from the summer just before we think she moved to come a place however she did live there in comfort as I mentioned she was able to keep her own household she had we think about 10 servants and in the week preceding her death she was writing to her tailor in London this is the letter she sends we have a copy of it here and in it she says Edney with my hearty commendations this shall be to desire you to take the pains for me as to make this gown of velvet which I send you with such a collar as you made my russet taffeta you sent me last and I will see you discharged for all I pray you let it be done with as much speed as you can and sent by this bearer fuen to the carrier of Oxford and thus IBG most heartily farewell from Konar this 24th of August you're assured friend amy dudley this letter has been provided as evidence that Amy had no intention of taking her life the week before her death why would she be ordering new gowns if she was planning on killing herself but of course that isn't necessarily evidence that she didn't take her own life either by her own design or by an accident on the day of her death amy reportedly angrily dismisses all of her servants she demands that they all go to the local fair now this may not seem that unusual to us we are quite honestly used to being alone in our own homes but this was completely unusual for the time people weren't alone and certainly noble women wouldn't have dismissed every servant they had to be alone for a whole afternoon her servants attempted to argue with her to dissuade her and she got more and more agitated till eventually they capitulated now we have to ask ourselves why does Amy dismiss her servants what could have inspired that action and we'll look at that as we go into the cases for each suspect also of note is the reports that Amy was very careful about what she ate now some people have read this as a sign of an eating disorder perhaps a symptom of her stress or depression the sort of thing that could have led her to attempt suicide others have read it as evidence that she feared that she was being poisoned perhaps because she was or perhaps because she was experiencing the paranoid delusions of mental illness it has also been reported that amy was her praying for deliverance from her situation now what situation that was is not made clear but this is the report that comes down a Spanish report dated for April 1560 so the months before Amy's death suggests that amy was unwell in fact the symptoms they list sound a lot like breast cancer so we have perhaps evidence that Amy is ill either in mind or body that she perhaps was agitated and distressed that she is praying for deliverance from her situation now the deliverance therefore could be her illness or it could be the fact that she hasn't seen her husband since the previous summer it's unclear and that's where the mystery lies and that's where rumors and occasionally political deception and propaganda can fill the gaps so let's have a look at those suspects suspect number one Queen Elizabeth the first in terms of means there is quite simply nobody with the power or influence within England that comes even close to equivalent to hers so it's entirely plausible that she was able to convince somebody to act on her behalf in the death of Amy Dudley she would also have had to be very sure that the person that she convinced to do this would have remained quiet about their role in it but Elizabeth is a very savvy operator and it's entirely likely for me that she would have been able to know who she could trust in terms of motive Elizabeth I believe was entirely in love with Robert Dudley also she has her counselors pushing her to marry and produce an heir she had seen the disastrous forum match that her sister had undertaken with Philip of Spain so perhaps an English match with a childhood friend who she found personally agreeable made a lot of sense to her in the production of an heir perhaps Amy Dudley is a wife in the way of this marriage that the Queen wishes to make in terms of opportunity who could get Amy Dudley to clear her house well speaking personally if I'm being completely honest if our Queen wrote to me and said look you need to clear your house for everybody no one can know I'm coming it needs to be completely private it's a issue of national security would i clear my house and not only buddy Rick the reason why yes I probably would is it therefore likely that Amy Dudley living when she did under the monarch she lived under who had even more power would be inspired to act in a similar way quite possibly she is the wife of the Queen's favorite if the Queen tells her to do something whatever she may feel about the particular favoritism shown to her husband she knows the power and prestige it brings is it likely that she would Bay harmonica no it's not in terms of Elizabeth's character is she capable of this level of deception well during the reign of her sister Mary the first she certainly knew that Wyatt was planning to rebel against her and to kill Mary the first Elizabeth receives a letter talking about exactly that which she doesn't report to anybody she also manages to slip the proverbial noose of being tied up in the treason that that was so she is capable of deception and she is also capable of being conniving enough to get the taint of treason off of her against an incredibly suspicious half-sister equally Elizabeth is prone to jealousy we can see that in the fact that she doesn't permit wives to come to court the fact that Amy is kept separate from her husband also when later in her reign Robert secretly marries let his knowledge she loses her mind she banishes them both from court they are in total disgrace and when Robert slowly makes his way back into the fold letteth is absolutely not allowed to come back to court it's still no wives allowed however if she did plan the death of Amy Dudley in this way why doesn't she marry Robert if that's the motive behind it why doesn't she move forward is it because she didn't have any part in the death and she's as horrified as everybody else because of the scandal that it surrounds or was she not aware of the scandal that would be caused that to me seems unlikely Elizabeth is a chess player in my mind she's always about eight moves ahead it's unfathomable to me that she wouldn't have thought that Amy being found bludgeoned at the bottom of the set of stairs wouldn't have raised a few eyebrows if she wanted to do away with Amy I think poison is a much effective solution and perhaps a me suspicion about poisoning her food maybe somebody like Elizabeth was moving in that direction suspect number two the husband Robert Dudley does he have the means well as the Queen's master of the horse he occupies a position of extraordinary influence so yes it's possible that he could have convinced somebody to act on his behalf before her move to come now it's believed that Amy may have been staying with Sir Richard Vernie who is a close client of Roberts now if she was concerned about being poisoned perhaps it starts in his household perhaps even that's what inspires her move to come now there she is under the roof of Anthony foster some people suggest that foster is actually her kinsman but he is also listed as being a servant of Robert Dudley now if he's a servant of Robert Dudley at the time of Amy's death does this make him willing to open up his household to a potential assassin or to even perpetrate such an assassination himself perhaps what's Robert Dudley's motive he may well have been in love with the Queen I think he was almost certainly are in love with the idea that he might be the husband of the Queen and de-facto king he comes from a family we're staying close to power seems to be in the bloodline in terms of opportunity now this is where for me the Robert Dudley angle is slightly Bhagya I'm not sure that a husband writing to a wife and saying dismiss all of your servants I'm coming home don't tell anybody I'm not sure that this would be something that she would have kept secret particularly if they actually did have a happy marriage she would have wanted to ensure that he came home to a comfortable place where there was food prepared and I think that the idea that she wouldn't have had to tell her kitchen staff to produce extra food is very unlikely so if robert is getting Amy to clear the house secretly he's probably going to have to get somebody else to do it for him now that's entirely possible but I don't think a letter from him would have necessarily meant that Amy would have cleared the house and kept it a secret she might have cleared the house but I'm not sure of the secrecy angle that doesn't seem quite likely to me I suppose in terms of past behavior being an indicator of future action Robert and his family in being involved with the plot to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne to me shows that there is simply no depth and no risk that the Dudley's and I'm including Robert in that would take to get close and maintain their hold on power marriage to the Queen would do just that particularly if in doing so you father an heir to England being the father of the future king or queen makes your position unassailable it is essentially the best thing that an ambitious power-hungry person can do is marry the monarch and give them a child however Robert Dudley also ensures that there is an inquest or an investigation into Amy's death he's very keen to find out what happens he makes sure that she is buried with the full honours that are requisite to her estate in life but he doesn't turn up to the funeral and he also doesn't erect a monument to her honor so on the one hand he's acting like a loving concerned husband but on the other he's completely dismissive by not turning up the funeral and certainly by not erecting a monument to her honor the gossip goes around that it is much his discredit that he behaved in such a way the rumors continue to swirl about Robert Dudley's involvement in his wife's death indeed as late as 1580 for a libel entitled lest his Commonwealth is published which accuses Robert of trying to poison and eventually arranging to kill his wife this does not go away and it follows him throughout the rest of his life now he may be an ambitious man but he's not a stupid one so once again having her bludgeoned to death at the bottom of the stairs is going to look bad while I could certainly see him having her poisoned I don't know if he would have her killed in this incredibly blatant way in a way that is so questionable suspect number three Lord Burleigh William Cecil I want to make it clear that I'm not saying that any of the three suspects I've listed put their hands on Amy themselves and caused her injuries in fact I think it's incredibly unlikely particularly in the case of these three they are so high-profile that then being missing from court and at this point the court was at Windsor to do the over a day's ride even on the fastest horse to come in a place I think that then being missing that long from court and having no other way to account for their whereabouts with a death as high-profile and as gossiped about as this one is quite unlikely however their position and their visibility also brings with it as I've mentioned in the two other cases a lot of power and a lot of influence and William Cecil as Elizabeth's chief political advisor has just that level of influence he has people I believe in virtually every household in England working as his spies he knows what's going on now we know Francis Walsingham as Elizabeth's spy master but I think it's entirely possible that William Cecil has a similar network of spies to the one that washing him is famous for having so William Cecil clearly has exactly the same means to commit on perpetrate this act as Robert Dudley and even as the Queen herself he has the power influence to get somebody to work on his behalf and he quite possibly has spies and factors working in every household of the country including come to place and if foster is indeed by this point a servant of Dudley's that's a household that William says is going to want to be in he doesn't particularly like Dudley very much so anybody who's associated with him he's going to want to have spies in that household but what's William Cecil's motive why on earth would he kill his rivals wife and therefore free him up to marry the Queen well that's just it by having Amy found dead at the bottom of the stairs with these dents in her head controversy is naturally going to swirl gossip and rumor are going to run rife if he had been worried that Amy might die of some other cause perhaps undetectable poison or a creeping illness as had been rumored he perhaps felt that he had to act to kill Amy and leave her in such a way that Robert Dudley's reputation would be irrevocably tarnished that any potential marriage to the Queen would have to be called off Queen Elizabeth cannot find herself in a position where she is marrying a man who is accused of killing his wife so that he can marry her it simply has to negative a look on the global political stage with Amy dying in this way it ensures for William Cecil that Robert Dudley will never be his king or his King consort now in terms of opportunity unlike Robert Dudley I think that William Cecil occupies a position in Amy's mind that would be fairly like Elizabeth the First's William Cecil essentially like a prime minister if the Prime Minister writes to you and says clear your house don't anybody who's coming this has to be a secret it's about national security do you clear your house I think quite possibly you do and do you clear your house secretly yes I think you do so would William Cecil have been able to write to Amy and encourage her to clear her household secretly very possibly is there anything in William Cecil's character or behaviors that would point to him being capable of acting in such a way well if we look later in the rain specifically to the actions that took place around the execution of Mary Queen of Scots I think that we can see a slight consistency in behavior Elizabeth had signed Mary's death warrant she'd hand it over on the explicit instructions that it was not to be sent or acted upon without her prior consent unbeknownst to her cess will cause a meeting of the Privy Council where they decide to act on this execution warrant Mary Queen of Scots is executed at Fotheringay castle before Elizabeth apparently knows what's happening certainly she presents as being absolutely enraged that such a deed has taken place behind her back what this speaks to for me is William Cecil's willingness and capacity to act against or without the authority of the Queen because he believes that he knows what is best for England at that time he saw Mary Queen of Scots as the greatest threat to the realm he believed that Elizabeth was incapable of seeing how dangerous she was and of acting against her is it possible that earlier in the rain he'd already done something similar that his fear that Robert Dudley might do away with his wife or that his sick wife might pass from natural causes is it possible that he saw this as the greatest threat facing the realm at that time the thought that Robert Dudley could become husband to the Queen did he act in backhanded and bat-channel ways to ensure that such a thing could never by killing Amy Dudley of course there is also suspect number four and suspect is perhaps the wrong word but I suppose responsible party number four and that is of course Amy Dudley herself we can't ignore the fact that it's entirely possible that this was an accident Tudor houses are not built to the same specifications as us and staircases can be slippery and uneven and have very sharp edges on them so yes on a Tudor staircase perhaps somebody could fall down and cause those sorts of injuries to their head but if it wasn't an accident would Amy have taken her own life suicide then and now is a taboo but then it had the added Fear Factor that it's a mortal sin in an incredibly religious world it's unthinkable that a woman like Amy would have believed that in taken her own life she would not have been opening herself up to an eternity of persecution in purgatory or he'll most likely hell as she came from a Protestant family taking her own life as a mortal sin would have meant that she would have been irredeemable also if her suicide had been ruled as such she wouldn't have even been allowed to be buried in a Christian setting so on that regard she would have had to be under extraordinary duress to attempt or complete suicide so what could of course that duress well if we believe the Spanish reports that she was suffering from an illness perhaps breast cancer maybe she was an extraordinary pain if her reticence to eat certain foods was a symptom of her depression or perhaps even problems with her stomach maybe again illness mental or physical drove her to see that she couldn't see another way out apart from taking her own life perhaps that is what she was overheard praying for for deliverance from her situation perhaps a situation in question is this incredible physical pain perhaps they was mental anguish she may have believed that her husband was in love with the Queen maybe she was frightened or had heard rumors that he was playing to annul their marriage so that he could marry Elizabeth could the distress of that betrayal or upheaval have been enough for her to attempt to take her own life and have been successful there are a number of things about this case that are confusing and don't seem to make sense Amy's actions on the day of her death that anger of making people leave the household is this because she's received a letter demanding it and she's quite worried about who's coming or if she attempting to clear the house so she can do what she has intended to do but then why then 15 days previously was she cheerfully writing to her tailor ordering new dresses is this really the mark of somebody who has got a prolonged period of distress so much so that they culminate in taking their own life if 15 days earlier she's Joe Vuli writing to her tailor asking about dresses similarly even if someone can fall down the stairs break their neck and have these dents in their head why is there a report that mentions that her hood is still in place and makes no mention of a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs there are so many things and it's so far a historical remove that make very little sense and I don't think that we're ever going to find the real answer but that's what you're here for and that's why I'm going to leave this poll card up at the top because I don't really have a full idea on who I think or what I think is responsible for the death of Amy Dudley I find the fascinating thing to be the Ferrari that surrounds it and this gossip circle that still today people are investigating so I hope you'll take part in the poll and tell me who or what you think was responsible for the death of Amy Dudley I hope you've enjoyed this video and found it useful I've certainly enjoyed spending this time with you if you have enjoyed it please give it a like if you're not already subscribe the channel and click the bell icon so you get notifications of when I'm next uploading I'm going to leave the links to my social media in the description box down below so feel free to come and find me over there as well I'm happy to chat with you in the comments or on my social media I hope you have a great day whatever you're doing and I look forward to seeing you all next time bye bye for now [Music] [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 129,070

Rating: 4.9403424 out of 5

Keywords: True Crime, The Staircase, Michael Peterson, Kathleen Peterson, Education, Literature, Culture, History, Early Modern, Renaissance, Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, Amy Dudley, Amy Robsart, William Cecil, Muder?, Accident?

Id: F6OioqfBA9g

Length: 34min 26sec (2066 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 26 2018