by Clare Rider, IT Archivist 1998-2009
In the second half of the sixteenth century the Inner Temple had good reason to be grateful to Lord Robert Dudley, knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and Master of the Queen's Majesty's Horse. As a result of his personal intervention with Queen Elizabeth I the Inner Temple retained its sovereignty over Lyon's Inn, one of its three associated inns of chancery.
Lyon's Inn has long been forgotten, demolished in 1863 and buried under the modern day Aldwych, but the favour afforded to the Inner Temple by its 'chief patron and defender', Lord Robert Dudley, should not. Indeed, the sixteenth century Benchers endeavoured to perpetuate the memory of his 'great good will towards this House':