Elizabeth Goldring

The machinations of the Dudleys make Game of Thrones look tame

Joanne Paul describes how, in a power struggle with the Tudors, this fiercely ambitious family came close to ruling England in the 16th century

The man who would be king: portrait of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, attributed to Steven van der Meulen. Credit: Getty Images 
issue 26 February 2022

This is the gripping story of the ever-fluctuating fortunes of three generations of the Dudley dynasty, servants to — and at times rivals for — the Crown in the 16th century. As Joanne Paul observes in her engrossing biography of an extraordinary family, ‘had fate, Fortuna, Nemesis or God made only the slightest adjustment to their orchestration of events’, the Dudleys, not the Tudors, might have ruled England for generations.

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