Robert Dudley, graaf van Leicester, was de minnaar van koningin Elizabeth I. Na beschuldigd te zijn van hoogverraad, werd hij op bevel van de koningin terechtgesteld. Daarmee werd een burgeroorlog voorkomen.

On his arrival at the palace gateshe knew:
“His sun will set when daylight brakes.”
He would receive a traitor’s fate
and she could ill afford mistakes.

For to her England should her heart belong,

on this her passion did her barons frown.

Her female weakness made him much too strong,

he but a courtier, on her head a crown.

Though on the scaffold as a prince stood he.

Her eyes were vailed as in the bed

where once they’d been, they on the whole

equal in splendour and in majesty.

She raised her hand, then fell his head.

She saved her kingdom as she lost her soul.