1 Rijksdaalder `Leicester Rijksdaalder`

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, arrived in the Dutch Republic in 1586 as Elizabeth I's appointed governor-general — a role the Dutch urgently wanted and Leicester almost immediately mismanaged. His interference in trade policy, his unauthorized acceptance of sovereign-style authority, and his general incompetence alienated the States-General so thoroughly that he was effectively forced out by 1587. The coins bearing his name were struck nearly a decade after his departure and death, the "Leicester" designation referring not to his presence but to the constitutional arrangement his governorship had briefly imposed on Utrecht's minting authority.