Long lost son of Elizabeth I?

There was a programme on British TV last night claiming that Elizabeth
I and Robert Dudley had a love child. Apparently the Spanish court
were maintaining a man who called himself Arthur Dudley.

The theory has been created by Paul C Doherty who IIRC wrote about
Edward II and fictional historical whodunits.

Unfortunately I missed most of the programme! Can anyone tell me any
more?

Thanks.
Joanne

I did see it, thought it was quite interesting but questionable.

Apparently, in 1587-88 Sir Francis Englefield, a Catholic in exile in Spain, interviewed a young man calling himself Arthur Dudley, who had been shipwrecked off the Spanish coast and claimed to be the offspring of Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. His tale was that immediately after his birth he had been entrusted to a servant in the royal household named Robert Southern, who folowed instructions to bring him up as a gentleman and admitted the truth on his deathbed.

Doherty did turn up Southern's will, which confirmed some of the minor details in Englefield's account - that Southern had lived in Evesham and kept a tavern after retiring from the royal household, and had a schoolmaster friend named John Smith (Smith witnessed the will). However, if Arthur Dudley had indeed been brought up by Southern I would have expected him to be a beneficiary under the will, yet there is no mention.

Doherty considers that Arthur Dudley would have been born in 1561, a period when Elizabeth was apparently ill with dropsy, which causes swelling of the abdomen. He also relies on a prayer Elizabeth wrote in Latin in 1562, in which she begs forgiveness for her sins.

The programme also brought in an 'expert' on Elizabeth from Christ Church, Oxford, Susan (or was it Sarah?) Doran, who was highly sceptical, about all this. According to her, there were no rumours in 1560-61 that Elizabeth was pregnant, as might have been expected if that was the case, and she thinks that Elizabeth was far too canny an operator to risk a pregnancy, particularly at a time when Leicester was under suspicion of murdering his wife.

I am sceptical myself. Foreign ambassadors thrived on gossip, and if there was any suspicion that the unmarried and 'heretical' Elizabeth was pregnant in 1560-61, the Spanish ambassador would have gleefully reported it to his masters. Also, Elizabeth, knowing that her mother had doomed herself as a result first of sexual dalliance with the King, and then alleged adultery with others, would have been more careful than most to avoid any risk of sexual scandal. Finally, Arthur Dudley appears in 1587-88 and then simply disappears. My feeling is that he was an impostor and that the details about Robert Southern came about because he knew him.

Ann

jotwo2003 <jsummerill@...> wrote:
There was a programme on British TV last night claiming that Elizabeth
I and Robert Dudley had a love child. Apparently the Spanish court
were maintaining a man who called himself Arthur Dudley.

The theory has been created by Paul C Doherty who IIRC wrote about
Edward II and fictional historical whodunits.

Unfortunately I missed most of the programme! Can anyone tell me any
more?

Thanks.
Joanne