Just friends? Exhibition to explore Elizabeth I's relationship with Dudley

Exhibition to explore Elizabeth I's relationship with Dudley

- Nadia Khomami

The intimate relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and her courtier Robert Dudley, the 1st Earl of Leicester, has fascinated people for centuries. Though she never married (and is known as the Virgin Queen), the last Tudor monarch maintained a close bond with the earl for decades – one that has inspired literary and screen depictions including Elizabeth (starring Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes) and Elizabeth I (starring Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons).

Now, an immersive artwork offering a fresh perspective on the relationship is to be installed at Kenilworth Castle, the former home of Dudley that Elizabeth visited 450 years ago in what became her longest visit to a courtier's residence. English Heritage has commissioned the artist Lindsey Mendick to create the work at the site in Warwickshire, where the Tudor queen spent nearly three weeks in the summer of 1575 – 10 years after she evaded Dudley's marriage proposal on Christmas Day 1565. It is believed that Dudley spent years developing Kenilworth into a "wonder house" for Elizabeth's entertainment, at immense cost.