Robert Devereaux is one of several Donizetti operas based on stories from English history. It is also one of many settings of the story of Queen Elizabeth I and her love for Robert Dudley, Earl of Essex. Salvatore Cammarano's libretto is said to have been largely taken from Felice Romani's Il Comte d'Essex, which was set by the composer Sarverio Mercadante in 1833; however, he also used a number of French dramatic treatments of the same story, notably those of Pierre Corneille and Francois Ancelot as source material. The plot gave Donizetti an opportunity to create another magnificently tragic heroine—a woman conflicted over her love for a man, and the knowledge that he has betrayed her both politically and by loving another woman. The course of the opera witnesses the assault of these cruel truths upon her spirit, until she finally becomes emotionally unhinged at the end.

Donizetti's project faced numerous challenges: a cholera epidemic was raging in Naples at the time, and people were afraid to go out of doors, let alone go to the theater; and in the two-year period leading up to the work's composition Donizetti had lost two children, his mother, father, and his wife, Virginia. Still, the composer honored his contract with the Teatro San Carlo, delivering the completed opera as promised—only one month after Virginia's death. The 1837 premiere was only a moderate success, and the work lay largely dormant from about 1850 until renewed interest in music of the bel canto emerged in the later twentieth century.

Even though it was not one of Donizetti's more popular operas, the score to Robert Devereaux contains many beautiful passages. The vocal writing for Queen Elizabeth is dramatically effective; her tortured emotions and confused rage are aptly portrayed in her brilliant coloratura roulades. Her characterization is one of the strongest elements of the opera; it even overshadows the tender love interest in the plot of Robert Devereaux and Sarah, Duchess of Nottingham—although Robert's execution and Sarah's bereavement are cruel sufferings, the real tragedy is the torn psyche of the lovelorn queen. Her frustrated rage is finally vented on the two Nottinghams after Robert's execution in her final aria "Qual sangue versato" (That spilled blood), as she promises to be revenged on them for having been tricked into executing her own lover. The orchestral highlights to the opera include the opening overture, which contrasts a theme based on the melody to God Save the Queen with the lyrical theme from Robert's cabaletta, sung while he is alone in the tower, contemplating his death.

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