In some respects, this was the most remarkable man of his age. He may
be said to have risen from nothing, for though his mother was Elizabeth,
eleventh Viscountess Lisle in her own right, his father was Edmund
Dudley, the mean and avaricious favourite of Henry the Seventh. The
marriage of Dudley and Elizabeth was apparently forced upon the
Viscountess, then a mere girl of some twenty years of age or under; and
when she was left free, she re-married Sir Arthur Plantagenet (Viscount
Lisle), to whom it seems probable that she had been originally
betrothed. John Dudley was the eldest child of this ill-matched pair,
and was born in 1502. The solitary object of his love was John Dudley,
and the one aim of his existence was to advance that gentleman's
fortunes. From a worldly point of view, he succeeded remarkably well.
He passed gradually through the several gradations of Knight, Viscount
Lisle (March 12, 1542), Lord High Admiral (1544), Governor of Calais
(about 1545), Earl of Warwick, (February 17, 1547), Duke of
Northumberland (October 11, 1551). The last title placed him at the
very summit of his ambition. There were only two other Dukes in
England, Norfolk and Suffolk: and had he been proclaimed King, his power
could scarcely have been any greater than it was. "Yet all this availed
Haman nothing, so long as he saw Mordecai the Jew sitting at the King's
gate;" and so long as Edward Seymour drew the breath of life, there was
bitterness in all the honours of John Dudley. He stooped to the lowest
and vilest means of destroying his rival, and he effected his purpose;
himself to be destroyed in his turn by the accession of Mary, not two
years later. His attempt to make his daughter-in-law Queen was his last
and most aspiring effort at his own aggrandisement. When that failed,
all failed; and he sank "down as low as high he soared." Through life
he was the acknowledged head of the Lutheran party; but in respect of
personal religion he was a By-ends, adopting the creed which he thought
would best advance his interests; his own proclivity being towards
Popery, as he showed in the last days of his life,--unless it be thought
that this, his latest act, worthy of the life which had preceded it, was
a mere attempt to curry favour with Queen Mary. Bad as the man was, I
do not like to think that his dying act was a lie. He suffered on Tower
Hill, August 22, 1553. Northumberland was but once married, though he
left a large family. His wife was Jane, daughter of Sir Edmund
Guilford; a fitting wife for such a husband, being as ambitious and
unscrupulous as himself. His children were thirteen in number, of whom
only two left issue--the famous Earl of Leicester, and Lady Mary Sidney.
The entire Dudley race is now extinct, except in the female line.