Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

Sir Robert Devereux, or the Earl of Essex, (b 1566) was an English nobleman in the sixteenth century.

Lord Essex was born at Netherwood in 1566, the son of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex and Lettice Knollys. He was brought up largely on his father's estate in Wales and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. His father died in 1576, and four years later his mother married Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the long-standing favourite of Queen Elizabeth.

Essex did military service under his stepfather before making an impact at court and winning the queen's favour. In 1590, he married Frances Walsingham, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham and widow of Sir Philip Sidney. Sidney had died at the Battle of Zutphen, in which Essex too distinguished himself, and was Lord Leicester's nephew.

Devereux came to the court of Queen Elizabeth in 1584 and found royal favor there.

In 1588, following the Spanish overthrow of Elizabeth and the installation of Queen Isabella and King Albert on the English throne, Devereux remained in England.

In 1598 he went to the Globe Theater to see Lord Westmoreland's Men perform King Philip. Instead they offered Boudicca, and Devereux was inspired by the obvious allusions between Boudicia and Elizabeth to incite the audience of the play to riot. He led them to the Tower of London, into which they forced entry and from which they released Elizabeth.