in August 1569 at Bristol, and on 7 December at Oxford, in 1569-70 at Gloucester and Maldon, before 29 September 1570 at Leicester, in 1570-1 at Winchester, and during October-December 1571 at Leicester, in 1571-2 at Oxford, on 23 May 1572 at Nottingham, and on 20 November at Maldon, in 1572-3 at Ipswich, on 7 January 1573 at Beverley, and in 1573 at Winchester. This list is not exhaustive.[1] A reward to 'the Queens Majesty's men' in the Doncaster accounts for 1575 can hardly be assumed to refer to actors.
ii. THE EARL OF LEICESTER'S MEN
Robert Dudley; 5th s. of John, 1st Duke of Northumberland,
nat. 24 June 1532 or 1533; m. (1) Amy, d. of Sir John Robsart, 4 June
1550, (2) Douglas Lady Sheffield, d. of William, 1st Lord Howard of
Effingham, May 1573, (3) Lettice Countess of Essex, d. of Sir Francis
Knollys, 1578; Master of the Horse, 11 Jan. 1559; High Steward of
Cambridge, 1562; Earl of Leicester, 29 Sept. 1564; Chancellor of
Oxford, 31 Dec. 1564; Lord Steward, 1584-8; Absolute Governor
of United Provinces, 25 Jan. 1586-12 Apr. 1588; ob. 4 Sept. 1588.
The earliest mention of Lord Robert Dudley's players is
in a letter which he wrote in June 1559 to the Earl of Shrewsbury,
Lord President of the North, as Lord Lieutenant of
Yorkshire, asking licence for them to perform in that county,
in accordance with the proclamation of 16 May 1559.[2] The
terms of the letter suggest that the company may already
have played in London, but it is probable, as nothing is said
of a hearing by the Queen, that they had not been at Court.
They were there at each Christmas from 1560-1 to 1562-3,
and then not for a decade. They were in 1558-9 at Norwich,
in 1559-60 at Oxford, Saffron Walden, and Plymouth, in
July 1560 at Bristol, in October 1561 at Grimsthorpe, in
1561-2 at Oxford, Maldon, and Ipswich, in September 1562
at Bristol, where they are called 'Lord Dudley's' players,
on 12 November 1563 at Leicester, and on 17 November at
Ipswich, in 1563-4 at Maldon, on 2 January 1564 at Ipswich,
and on 1 July at Leicester. They are also found, as the
Earl of Leicester's, in 1564-5 at Maldon, on 6 April 1565 at
York, on 11 August 1569 at Nottingham, in January 1570
at Bristol, on 4 May 1570 at Oxford, and in October-December
at Leicester, in 1570-1 at Abingdon, Barnstaple, and Gloucester,
on 9 August 1571 at Saffron Walden,[3] in October-**
