grandson, the third Earl of Essex, to his father's title and estate, but quickly cancelled the rest of her debts to the Crown, almost £4,000. Even more than his debts, the Earl of Leicester's will triggered litigation. He had intended his illegitimate son from his early 1570s relationship with Douglas Sheffield, the adolescent Robert Dudley, to inherit Kenilworth after the death of his brother, Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick. Some of the countess' jointure manors lay in the castle's vicinity, while at the same time they had been assigned to the younger Dudley's inheritance by the overseers of Leicester's will. After Warwick's death in February 1590, lengthy legal proceedings ensued over whether particular parts of Lady Leicester's jointure belonged to the Kenilworth estate or not. In 1603, Dudley initiated moves to prove that he was the legitimate son of his parents and thus the heir to the earldoms of Warwick and Leicester. If successful, this claim would not only have implied that Lettice Knollys' union with Leicester had been bigamous, but would also have nullified her jointure rights. Consequently, in February 1604, she filed a complaint against Dudley in the Star Chamber, accusing him of defamation. She was backed by Sir Robert Sidney, who considered himself the only legitimate heir of his uncles Leicester and Warwick. During the Star Chamber proceedings 56 former servants and friends of the Earl of Leicester testified that he had always regarded Dudley as his illegitimate son. The other side was unable to cite clear evidence and the King's chief minister, Robert Cecil, thought it unwise to rake up the existing property settlement, so the outcome was in favour of Lady Leicester. All the evidence was impounded to preclude a resumption of the case. Throughout her life, Lettice Knollys cared for her siblings, children, and grandchildren. Until their respective deaths in 1607 and 1619, her daughters Penelope and Dorothy were her closest companions. The young third Earl of Essex, also called Robert, shared much of his life with the old Countess at Chartley and Drayton Bassett. Still walking a mile a day at nearly 90, she died in her chair in the morning of 25 December 1634, aged 91. Widely mourned as a symbol of a by-gone age, she wished to be buried "at Warwick by my dear lord and husband the Earl of Leicester with whom I desire to be entombed". Her request