This tomb in the Beauchamp (pron: BEACH-um) Chapel in the Church of St Mary in Warwick is usually referred to as the tomb of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and favorite of Elizabeth I.

It is really more the tomb of Lettice Knollys, his wife. The tomb was created for the two of them at her request, and she outlived Dudley by 46 years.

It was a second marriage for both of them. Lettice was first married at the age of seventeen to Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford and later Earl of Essex. Devereux died in Ireland when Lettice was in her early thirties, and two years later she married Dudley in secret. He was in mid forties then.

Dudley also married for the first time at the age of seventeen to Amy Robsart. He and Elizabeth I were childhood friends, and the bond was probably strengthened when they were imprisoned in the Tower of London at the same time during the reign of Elizabeth’s half-sister Mary. In 1558 Mary died and Elizabeth became queen. Dudley took to spending all his time at court and very little with his wife who stayed in the country. In 1560, after ten years of marriage, Robsart was found dead with a broken neck at the bottom of a flight of stairs.

It was rumored that Dudley had had his wife murdered so that he would be free to marry the queen. Certainly he courted her assiduously for eighteen years, and while she was very close to him and did not want to see him with anyone else, she refused to marry him. In 1578 he gave up on the queen and married Lettice Knollys. Lettice was the granddaughter of Mary Boleyn, the sister of Elizabeth’s mother, so Lettice and Elizabeth were first cousins once removed.

When Elizabeth found out about the marriage Lettice was banished from court. Dudley was eventually allowed back into Elizabeth’s favor so long as Lettice stayed away. Dudley died at the age of 56. Lettice, then in her mid-forties married for a third time the following year, to Sir Christopher Blount, who was ten years younger than she was.

Perhaps it was to her advantage that she stayed away from court. In 1600 Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, her son from her first marriage, aided by Christopher Blount, her third husband, led an abortive coup against Elizabeth,. They were both executed, but she remained aloof, and lived to the age of 91.

History does not seem to record why she wanted half naked women on her tomb, but there they are.

Sure, the first one could just be a wardrobe malfunction, but the second one is clearly wearing a corset designed to show off boobies.

Here are some more pictures from St Mary’s.

The cross is only a bit over a hundred years old which in America makes it an antique treasure and in Europe makes it a modern reproduction.