The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700

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Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532/3 - 1588)

Courtier and magnate, and sometime favorite of Queen Elizabeth. He was created Earl of Leicester and Baron of Denbigh on 29 September 1564.
A scurrilous libel attacking Dudley, The Copie of a Leter wryten by a Master of Arts of Cambrige (commonly known as Leicester's Commonwealth), was published in 1584 but also circulated in manuscript. Dictionary of National Biography entry: https://doi-org.cyber.usask.ca/10.1093/ref:odnb/8160 References in Documents:
Thomas Platter's travel diary (1599)

Thence through another chamber hung with ancient tapestries, into a small apartment ornamented with silk hangings worked in Turkish knot, said to be a gift to the queen from the Earl of Leicester (Lest).

Thoresby, Musaeum Thoresbyanum (1713) 121. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester's Common-wealth, since printed (1641), but perhaps not without Mistakes, if strictly collated; the very first Page of the printed Book, faith the Book of Justice, was evil penned; this MS. (which was writ in Qu. Elizabeth's Time) that ytt was not yll penned.