Leicester's Commonwealth

The work was read as Roman Catholic propaganda against the political and religious policy of Elizabeth I's regime, particularly the Puritan sympathies fostered by Leicester.

His first is that of his wife, Amy Robsart, who according to the tract was found at the bottom of a short flight of stairs with a broken neck, her headdress still standing undisturbed "upon her head".

[5] The death of their little son, which occurred shortly before the book's publication, is commented on with a biblical allusion in a stop press marginal note: "The children of adulterers shall be consumed, and the seed of a wicked bed shall be rooted out".

[6] A born traitor in the third generation who has "nothing of his own, either of his ancestors, or of himself",[6] Leicester is also accused of systematically despoiling the lands the queen has granted him and of ruthlessly extorting money from those in his power.

The mathematician Thomas Allen is said to be employing the art of "figuring" to further Leicester's unlawful designs and of having endeavoured to bring about a match between his patron and Queen Elizabeth by black magic.

Leicester, a "perpetuall dictator"[7] who hates and terrorises the helpless Queen, is to blame that England has no heir of Elizabeth's body since he has prevented her marriage to a foreign prince by falsely claiming to be engaged to her and showing her suitors' ambassadors "a most disloyal proof" thereof.

[8] Having failed to attain the supreme power through marriage, he has no religion himself but is building up a party of misled Puritans to assist him in dethroning Elizabeth in favour of his brother-in-law, the Earl of Huntingdon.

Francis Walsingham, in charge of Elizabeth's secret service, thought that Thomas Morgan, the exiled agent of Mary Stuart, to be its author when it first surfaced in August 1584.

[19] Sir Philip Sidney wrote a defence of his uncle against the attacks in Leicester's Commonwealth and dismissed most of the charges as alehouse talk but instead concentrated on defending the noble lineage and character of his grandfather John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland and even rhetorically challenged the author to a duel.

Modern edition with critical apparatus: Leicester's Commonwealth: The Copy of a Letter Written by a Master of Art of Cambridge (1584) and Related Documents (ed.