Exclusive: Artwork offering fresh perspective on queen’s relationship with courtier to go on display at Kenilworth Castle

The intimate relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and her courtier Robert Dudley, the 1st Earl of Leicester, has fascinated people for centuries.

Though she never married (and famously declared herself the “Virgin Queen”), the last Tudor monarch maintained a close bond with the earl for decades – one that has inspired a score of literary and screen depictions including Elizabeth (starring Cate Blanchett and Joseph Fiennes) and Elizabeth I (starring Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons).