
''Leicester's Commonwealth'' (originally titled ') (1584) is a scurrilous book that circulated in Elizabethan England and attacked
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...
's
favourite
A favourite was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In Post-classical Europe, post-classical and Early modern Europe, early-modern Europe, among other times and places, the term was used of individuals delegated signifi ...
,
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. The work was read as
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
propaganda against the political and religious policy of Elizabeth I's regime, particularly the
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
sympathies fostered by Leicester. In doing so, it portrayed Leicester as an amoral opportunist of "almost satanic malevolence" and circulated lurid stories of his supposed scandalous deeds and dangerous plots.
The text is presented as "a letter written by a Master of Art of Cambridge to his friend in London, concerning some talk passed of late between two worshipful and grave men about the present state and some proceedings of the Earl of Leicester and his friends in England". The title ''Leicester's Commonwealth'' was first used in the 1641 edition. The book significantly influenced Leicester's historical reputation in the ensuing centuries.
Content
The book takes the form of a dialogue between a
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
scholar, a lawyer and a gentleman. It begins as a plea for
religious toleration
Religious tolerance or religious toleration may signify "no more than forbearance and the permission given by the adherents of a dominant religion for other religions to exist, even though the latter are looked on with disapproval as inferior, ...
by asserting that Catholics who are loyal to the Queen and country should be free to profess their religion. The lawyer, who professes to be a moderate "papist", expresses the view that religious differences do not undermine the patriotism of citizens and gives examples of religiously divided populations that have united to defend their country against external enemies.
The text quickly veers into an attack on the
Earl of Leicester
Earl of Leicester is a title that has been created seven times. The first title was granted during the 12th century in the Peerage of England. The current title is in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and was created in 1837.
History
Earl ...
by making all kinds of accusations against him, most notably a number of murders. His first is that of his wife,
Amy Robsart
Amy, Lady Dudley (; 7 June 1532 – 8 September 1560) was the first wife of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favourite of Elizabeth I of England. She is primarily known for her death by falling do ...
, who according to the tract was found at the bottom of a short flight of stairs with a broken neck, her headdress still standing undisturbed "upon her head". Leicester's hired assassin later confesses on his death bed while "all the devils in hell" tear him into pieces. Meanwhile, the assassin's servant, who witnessed the deed, has already been dispatched in prison by Leicester's agents before he could tell the story. With the expert help of his Italian physician, Dr. Giulio, Leicester goes on to remove the husbands of his lovers
Douglas, Lady Sheffield and
Lettice, Countess of Essex (ladies referred to as "his Old and his New Testaments"), including
John Sheffield, 2nd Baron Sheffield
John Sheffield, 2nd Baron Sheffield , of Butterwick ( – 10 December 1568) was an English nobleman.
Early life
John Sheffield was born in Butterwick, Lincolnshire to Edmund Sheffield, 1st Baron Sheffield and Lady Anne De Vere, dau ...
. The
Cardinal of Chatillon,
Nicholas Throckmorton,
Lady Margaret Lennox, and the
Earl of Sussex
Earl of Sussex is a title that has been created several times in the Peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. The early Earls of Arundel (up to 1243) were often also called Earls of Sussex.
The fifth creation came in the Pee ...
are dispatched in the same manner, by poison. After the murder of
Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex
Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex (16 September 1539 – 22 September 1576), was an English nobleman and general. From 1573 until his death he fought in Ireland in connection with the Plantations of Ireland, most notably the Rathlin Island ...
, Leicester pays
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...
to kill
Thomas Doughty, who knows too much about the situation (Doughty had been executed by Drake for mutiny at sea).

The work also reveals Leicester's monstrous sexual appetite and his and his new wife's lewd private lives, including abortions, illnesses and other shortcomings. The death of their little son, which occurred shortly before the book's publication, is commented on with a biblical allusion in a
stop press marginal note: "The children of adulterers shall be consumed, and the seed of a wicked bed shall be rooted out".
[Jenkins 2002 p. 294]
A born traitor in the third generation who has "nothing of his own, either of his ancestors, or of himself",
Leicester is also accused of systematically despoiling the lands the queen has granted him and of ruthlessly extorting money from those in his power. The mathematician
Thomas Allen Thomas Allen may refer to:
Clergy
*Thomas Allen (nonconformist) (1608–1673), Anglican/nonconformist priest in England and New England
*Thomas Allen (dean of Chester) (died 1732)
*Thomas Allen (scholar) (1681–1755), Anglican priest in England
* ...
is said to be employing the art of "figuring" to further Leicester's unlawful designs and of having endeavoured to bring about a match between his patron and
Queen Elizabeth by
black magic
Black magic (Middle English: ''nigromancy''), sometimes dark magic, traditionally refers to the use of Magic (paranormal), magic or supernatural powers for evil and selfish purposes.
The links and interaction between black magic and religi ...
. Leicester, a "perpetuall dictator" who hates and terrorises the helpless Queen, is to blame that England has no heir of Elizabeth's body since he has prevented her marriage to a foreign prince by falsely claiming to be engaged to her and showing her suitors' ambassadors "a most disloyal proof" thereof. Having failed to attain the supreme power through marriage, he has no religion himself but is building up a party of misled Puritans to assist him in dethroning Elizabeth in favour of his brother-in-law, the
Earl of Huntingdon. He will then get rid of Huntingdon and place the crown on his own head. Leicester's immediate arrest and execution are recommended as the most beneficial act that the Queen could ever do to her country.
As the book progresses, it increasingly becomes a defense of
Mary Stuart's succession rights, which by 1584 had become imperilled by her involvement in several plots to assassinate Elizabeth.
Authorship
The authorship of the pamphlet has been much disputed.
Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham ( – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her " spymaster".
Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wa ...
, in charge of Elizabeth's secret service, thought that
Thomas Morgan, the exiled agent of Mary Stuart, to be its author when it first surfaced in August 1584. Dudley likewise believed that Mary was involved in its conception: "Leicester has lately told a friend that he will persecute you to the uttermost", one of her spies informed her. The Jesuit
Robert Persons soon became popularly associated with it, which was published under his name in later editions. Although he denied authorship in his memoirs, he was involved in smuggling the book from France to England. Scholars now generally believe that Persons was not the author.
Ralph Emerson, a Catholic activist, was arrested in possession of several copies but could not or would not identify the author when questioned.
Some modern scholars have suggested that there was no single author and that several members of the exiled Catholic community based in France wrote the text as a group effort, the chief candidates being
Charles Arundell and
Charles Paget. The original intention of the text is probably linked to a factional struggle at the French court. It favoured the party of the
Guises, supporters of the
Catholic League, against those with a more positive attitude to Elizabeth and England.
Suppression
The work was welcomed by exiled Catholics as the best weapon that they had.
Francis Englefield, who served
Philip II of Spain
Philip II (21 May 152713 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and List of Sicilian monarchs, Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He ...
, wrote on hearing of it: "Instead of the sword which we cannot obtain, we must fight with prayer and pen". Those kinds of books, he thought, "ought to be to this Queen of England's annoyance... who I hope shall have a fall at last".
Elizabeth's government made considerable efforts to suppress the work, but according to D. C. Peck, "from the evidence of the book's circulation and its later effects, however, the government's attempts at suppression must be said largely to have failed". The Queen published an official condemnation of the libel: "Her majesty
estifiethin her conscience, before God, unto you, that her Highness not only knoweth in assured certainty, the libels and books against the said Earl, to be most malicious, false and slanderous, and such as none but the devil himself could deem to be true". She offered an amnesty for anyone who handed in the book but threatened imprisonment for those found with it in their possession.
[Dorothy Auchter, ''Dictionary of literary and dramatic censorship in Tudor and Stuart England'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, p.199] Attempts to identify and suppress printing of it in France were unsuccessful, but imported copies were seized and Elizabeth managed to get King
James VI of Scotland
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...
to impound copies. Nevertheless, handcopied versions of the book circulated widely.
Sir Philip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age.
His works include a sonnet sequence, '' Astrophil and ...
wrote a defence of his uncle against the attacks in ''Leicester's Commonwealth'' and dismissed most of the charges as alehouse talk but instead concentrated on defending the noble lineage and character of his grandfather
John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland and even rhetorically challenged the author to a duel. However, Sidney's reply remained unpublished.
[Jenkins 2002 pp. 294–295] The work was eventually printed in Collins's "Sydney Papers" in 1746.
The book highly influenced Leicester's historical reputation, as later writers, from
William Camden
William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland that relates la ...
onward, relied heavily on it. It thus laid the foundation of a
historiographical
Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
tradition that depicted him as the classical
Machiavellian courtier and as the evil spirit of Elizabeth's court.
References
External links
Modern edition with critical apparatus
''Leicester's Commonwealth: The Copy of a Letter Written by a Master of Art of Cambridge (1584) and Related Documents'' (ed. by D.C. Peck, Ohio University Press, 1985)
The printed edition of 1641
''Leycesters common-wealth''
{{Authority control
1584 books
Early Modern English literature
Propaganda books and pamphlets