Walter Devereux: Poison Plot or Tragic Misfortune

On 16 September 1539, Walter Devereux was born at Chartley in Staffordshire. Nobleman, soldier, coloniser—and father to Robert Devereux, Elizabeth I’s brilliant but doomed favourite—Walter’s life was full of ambition, controversy, and whispers that outlived him.

From his meteoric rise at Elizabeth’s court to his brutal and ill-fated campaign in Ireland, Walter seemed destined for greatness. But at just 37, he died suddenly in Dublin in 1576. Official cause? Dysentery. The rumours? Poison… perhaps even at the hands of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester—who later married Walter’s widow, Lettice Knollys.

In this episode, I trace Walter’s journey from Chartley heir to Irish commander, explore his marriage into the Boleyn-Knollys family, and ask:

• Why did his Irish venture turn so grim?

• Was his death really natural—or the result of a Tudor plot?

• How did his early end shape the fate of his son, the tragic Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex?

Poison or misfortune? You decide in the comments.

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