As if Charred By Fire: Elizabethan England's Portal to Hell and the Folklore Behind Eldon Hole
Robert Dudley, known as Lord Dudley, or the 1st Earl of Leicester is a prominent courtier and English statesman, renowned across continental Europe for his tact and diplomacy. He is said to be one of Queen Elizabeth’s favorites and for years now he is rumored to have sought not only the Queen’s affections, but also her hand in marriage. Residing in the County of Derbyshire, Lord Dudley is considered one of the wealthiest men in the English midlands, and between the cities of Leicester and Manchester, his word is law and second to only that of the Virgin Queen Elizabeth I. Sometime in the late 1580’s Dudley has his mind set on a decidedly different mission than wooing the Queen or negotiating a settlement over a trade dispute with a competing royal court. He is determined to send a man down to the bottom of Eldon Hole and put to rest, once and for all, the persistent rumors that a portal to Hell itself is located right in his own backyard. Eldon Hole is situated in the Peak Di