Sweet Robin: A Biography of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester 1533-1588

Wilson shares his appreciation for the Earl of Leicester. His role as a leading spirit of the Reformation and as an early patron of what becomes known as Elizabethan Drama has been overshadowed by his unique relationship with the Queen. The book explains his roots, his passions, his successes and limitations and the personal and financial cost of his association with the queen. The reader gets insight into his character and his relationship with Elizabeth. This compares well with the new publication Elizabeth & Leicester: Power, Passion, Politics. Of the two, this one, humanizes Dudley such that the reader understands more of what Elizabeth saw in him. Wilson deals more powerfully with the attachment of these two star crossed would be lovers and you feel the loss and disappointment the two shared. Gristwood sticks with the record. I would give this 5 stars but the beginning is so slow and genealogy laiden that I almost put it down and throughout there are long quotes from original sources. I presume the long quotes are there to give the reader a feel for the sentiments as they are directly expressed, but many are so formal and tortured that they only demonstrate why general readers need historians like Wilson and Gristwood to interpret them for us.

Mr. Wilson's Sweet Robin is a well-written book that is supported by many facts, but not stuffy and hard-to-read, unlike many other books written about England's history. Most people think of Robert Dudley as a blue-blooded scapegoat that history would be better off without. Most scholars nuture this image, painting him as a black-hearted villan. But Mr. Wilson offers us a refreshing change in perception: that of a nobleman trying to survive the tumultuous times of the era in which he lived. That in fact, far from being an evil knave, he, like his forefarthers before him, was guilty only of an extreme loyalty to the particular monarch which he devoted his whole life to. Sweet Robin opens in the time of Robert Dudley's grandfather and continues through his life, chronicaling all the events that shaped him and the people around him. It finally ends a little while after his death, to show how little real influence he had on the changing times, other than through his special bond with Queen Elizabeth. While Robert Dudley is not the most important man this world has ever seen, he is certainly one of the more colorful personages of his time. I commend Mr. Wildon for writing an excellent book!