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Robert Dudley, Queen Elizabeth I and the Kenilworth Entertainment of 1575
23rd March 2021 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
A talk by Dr Gillian White. This talk will be streamed live online via Zoom, the link to enable members to join the Zoom meeting will be sent to our email distribution list a few days beforehand. Visitors are welcome – email nick.holmes9@gmail.com to request the link
On Saturday 9 July 1575, at about 8pm, Elizabeth I arrived on horseback at Kenilworth Castle, the Warwickshire power base of her favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. For nearly three weeks, the Queen, ladies-in-waiting and courtiers were housed in the castle and entertained by Dudley with music, masques, dancing, tilting, hunting and bear baiting. At the banquets, guests consumed up to 40 barrels of beer and 16 barrels of wine per day. The revels constituted Dudley’s last attempt – after 15 years of trying – to win the Queen’s hand.