Episode Information

Amy Robsart was the wife of Robert Dudley, one of England’s leading noblemen. He was believed to be the lover of Queen Elizabeth I. Rumours had circulated that the Queen wanted Amy dead. So when Amy was found at the bottom of a staircase in her Oxfordshire home, few believed it to be an accident, and many openly talked of how the Queen and Dudley had conspired to murder Amy. The subsequent inquest returned a verdict of accidental death, apparently letting Elizabeth and Dudley off the hook. But recently, the original autopsy report, lost for 450 years, has been discovered. It suggests that Amy was murdered. Amy's death created such a scandal that Elizabeth was forced to distance herself from Dudley. She had told Parliament in a famous speech that she would die a virgin, and historians now believes that the death of Amy Robsart helped to create the image of Elizabeth which has stayed with us for centuries. Spanish dubbed version available for this title - please see video.