Episode 313: The Dudley's

Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the Tudors

Heather Teysko

History

4.6 • 624 Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

They served every Tudor monarch, and often paid dearly for it. From their medieval stronghold at Dudley Castle to the heart of the Tudor court, the Dudley family shaped English history for five hundred years. They raised money for Henry VII, ruled the realm under Edward VI, tried to make Lady Jane Grey queen, and stood beside Elizabeth I as she faced the Spanish Armada. This episode traces their meteoric rise and tragic fall from Edmund Dudley’s execution, to John Dudley’s failed gamble for the crown, to Robert Dudley’s service to Elizabeth, and finally to exile in Florence, where the last of the line became a scientist and mapmaker. Sources mentioned: House of Dudley by Joanna Paul: https://www.amazon.com/House-Dudley-History-Tudor-England/dp/1639363289 Dudley Family History on Internet Archive https://ia601608.us.archive.org/29/items/historyofdudleyf115dudl/historyofdudleyf115dudl.pdf Support the show and unlock exclusive Tudor deep dives at patreon.com/englandcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Picture two Dudley scenes.
0:02.4	In 1510, Edmund Dudley climbs the scaffold on Tower Hill,
0:07.0	the sacrificial price of Henry the 8th's early popularity.
0:10.7	In 1588, Robert Dudley stands beside Elizabeth Attilbury,
0:14.8	the Queen's words ringing over the camp and into history.
0:18.2	Same surname, two very different outcomes.
0:22.0	Rival courtiers called them a tribe of traitors. It stuck because it was useful.
0:28.3	Yet, Tudor monarchs kept reaching for Dudleys when things got hard.
0:32.7	Need cash for a shaky new dynasty? Call Edmund. Need a steady admiral, a field commander, or a council bruiser who can move a policy
0:40.7	through? John Dudley's your man.
0:43.2	Need someone who can stage a queen's triumph so that the realm believes it?
0:47.6	Robert plans Tilbury like a theater director.
0:50.7	So if you haven't guessed it yet, this episode is going to follow the Dudleys from their medieval base at Dudley Castle through the highwire politics of Henry the 7th to Elizabeth I, and into the afterlife of the name Once the Tudors End.
1:05.3	Get comfortable and settle in, my friend, because we are going to talk about the Dudleys today.
1:16.6	Thank you. in, my friend, because we are going to talk about the Dudleys today. Hello, friend. Welcome back to the Renaissance English History podcast, a part of the
1:21.2	Agora podcast network. I am your host, Heather, and I am just so very glad that you are with me
1:27.1	today to talk about the Dudleys.
1:30.4	Just a note that there are two main sources for this episode. There's Joanne Paul's House of Dudley,
1:37.6	and there's also an older Staffordshire history, about 150 years old or so. It's available on the
1:43.7	Internet archive that preserves
1:45.7	the domesday details for the family seat. So I will put links to both of those in the notes
1:51.6	below wherever you are listening to this. All right. Let's get into it. Start with the land in the
	...

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