Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester KG (24 June 1532 – 4 September 1588) is an English nobleman, and the favorite and close friend of Elizabeth I of England from her first year on the throne until his death.

For many years he is a suitor for the Queen's hand; she giving him reason to hope.

Dudley's youth is overshadowed by the downfall of his family in 1553 after his father, the Duke of Northumberland, had unsuccessfully tried to establish Lady Jane Grey on the English throne.

Robert Dudley is condemned to death but is rehabilitated with the help of Philip II of Spain, England's king consort.

On Queen Elizabeth's accession in November 1558, Dudley is appointed Master of the Horse.

In October 1562, he becomes a privy councilor and in 1587 is appointed Lord Steward of the Royal Household.

In 1564 Dudley becomes Earl of Leicester and from 1563 one of the greatest landowners in North Wales and the English West Midlands by royal grants.

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester is one of Elizabeth's leading statesmen, involved in domestic as well as foreign politics alongside William Cecil and Francis Walsingham.

Although he adamantly refuses to be married to Mary, Queen of Scots, Dudley is for a long time relatively sympathetic to her.

From the mid-1580s, however, he strongly advocates her execution.

As patron of the Puritan movement he supports non-conforming preachers, but tries to mediate between them and the bishops within the Church of England.

A champion also of the international Protestant cause, he leads the English campaign in support of the Dutch Revolt from 1585–1587.

His acceptance of the post of Governor-General of the United Provinces infuriates Queen Elizabeth.

The expedition is a military and political failure and ruins the Earl financially.

Leicester is engaged in many large-scale business ventures and a main backer of Francis Drake and other explorers and privateers.

During the Spanish Armada the Earl is in overall command of the English land forces.

In this function he invites Queen Elizabeth to visit her troops at Tilbury.

This is the last of many events he organizes over the years, the most spectacular being the festival at his seat, Kenilworth Castle, in 1575 on occasion of a three-week visit by the Queen.

Dudley is a principal patron of the arts, literature, and the Elizabethan theater.

Robert Dudley's private life interferes with his court career and vice versa.

When his first wife, Amy Robsart, falls down a flight of stairs and dies in 1560, he is free to marry the Queen.

However, the resulting scandal very much reduces his chances in this respect.

Popular rumors that he had arranged for his wife's death continue throughout his life, despite the coroner's jury's verdict of accident.

For eighteen years, he does not remarry for Queen Elizabeth's sake and when he finally does, his new wife, Lettice Knollys, is permanently banished from court.

This and the death of his only legitimate son and heir are heavy blows.

Shortly after the child's death in 1584 a virulent libel known as Leicester's Commonwealth is best-selling in England.

It lays the foundation of a literary and historiographical tradition that often depicts the Earl as the Machiavellian "master courtier" and as a deplorable figure around Elizabeth I.

More recent research has led to a reassessment of his place in Elizabethan government and society.