Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, English politician (died 1588)

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the queen's hand for many years. He is commonly simply called Leicester in the historiography of the Eighty Years' War, which generally assesses his brief stint as governor-general (landvoogd) of the United Provinces of the Netherlands from December 1585 to April 1587 to have been a failure.