John Dudley, 2nd Earl of Warwick

John Dudley, 2nd Earl of Warwick KB was an English nobleman and the heir of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, leading minister and regent under King Edward VI from 1550–1553. As his father's career progressed, John Dudley respectively assumed his father's former titles, Viscount Lisle and Earl of Warwick. Interested in the arts and sciences, he was the dedicatee of several books by eminent scholars, both during his lifetime and posthumously. His marriage to the former Protector Somerset's eldest daughter, in the presence of the King and a magnificent setting, was a gesture of reconciliation between the young couple's fathers. However, their struggle for power flared up again and ended with the Duke of Somerset's execution. In July 1553, after King Edward's death, Dudley was one of the signatories of the letters patent that attempted to set Lady Jane Grey on the throne of England, and took arms against Mary Tudor alongside his father. The short campaign did not see any military engagements, and ended with the Duke of Northumberland and his son being taken prisoner at Cambridge. John Dudley the younger was condemned to death, but subsequently reprieved. He died of natural causes shortly after his release from the Tower of London.²