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35-556: Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier , scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age . His works include a sonnet sequence , Astrophel and Stella , a treatise , The Defence of Poesy (also known as The Defence of Poesie or An Apology for Poetrie ) and a pastoral romance , The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia . Born at Penshurst Place , Kent , of an aristocratic family, he

70-602: A courtier were likely the ša rēsi and mazzāz pāni of the Neo-Assyrian Empire . In Ancient Egypt a title has been found that translates to high steward or great overseer of the house. The courts influenced by the court of the Neo-Assyrian Empire such as those of the Median Empire and the Achaemenid Empire had numerous courtiers After invading the Achaemenid Empire , Alexander

105-756: A language delicately archaic. In form Sidney usually adopts the Petrarchan octave (ABBAABBA), with variations in the sestet that include the English final couplet. His artistic contacts were more peaceful and significant for his lasting fame. During his absence from court, he wrote Astrophel and Stella (1591) and the first draft of The Arcadia and The Defence of Poesy . Somewhat earlier, he had met Edmund Spenser , who dedicated The Shepheardes Calender to him. Other literary contacts included membership, along with his friends and fellow poets Fulke Greville , Edward Dyer , Edmund Spenser and Gabriel Harvey , of

140-687: A large court operated at many levels: many successful careers at court involved no direct contact with the monarch. The largest and most famous European court was that of the Palace of Versailles at its peak, although the Forbidden City of Beijing was even larger and more isolated from national life. Very similar features marked the courts of all very large monarchies, including in India , Topkapı Palace in Istanbul , Ancient Rome , Byzantium or

175-551: A marginal figure in the politics of his time, he was memorialised as the flower of English manhood in Edmund Spenser 's Astrophel , one of the greatest English Renaissance elegies. An early biography of Sidney was written by his devoted friend and schoolfellow, Fulke Greville . While Sidney was traditionally depicted as a staunch and unwavering Protestant , recent biographers such as Katherine Duncan-Jones have suggested that his religious loyalties were more ambiguous. He

210-547: A match arranged by her father over the objections of the Queen, possibly because she did not like the prospect of two close councillors forming a power block (Sidney was nephew to Robert, Earl of Leicester ). Sidney was appointed Governor of Flushing and left to attend his duties in the Netherlands, but pregnant with her first child, Frances waited until she had given birth. Her daughter was born in 1585 and named Elizabeth after

245-585: A united Protestant effort against the Catholic Church and Spain. In the winter of 1575-76 he fought in Ireland while his father was Lord Deputy there. In the early 1580s, he argued fruitlessly for an assault on Spain itself. Promoted General of Horse in 1583, his enthusiasm for the Protestant struggle was given free rein when he was appointed governor of Flushing in the Netherlands in 1585. Whilst in

280-483: Is a term that was coined for this spread of the Byzantine system in the 19th century. In modern English, the term is often used metaphorically for contemporary political favourites or hangers-on. In modern literature, courtiers are often depicted as insincere, skilled at flattery and intrigue, ambitious and lacking regard for the national interest. More positive representations include the role played by members of

315-564: The Arcadia , to her. After her brother's death, Mary reworked the Arcadia , which became known as The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia . His brother, Robert Sidney was a statesman and patron of the arts, and was created Earl of Leicester in 1618. In 1572, at the age of 18, he travelled to France as part of the embassy to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth I and the Duc D'Alençon . He spent

350-720: The Monty Python's Flying Circus sketches "Tudor Jobs Agency", "Pornographic Bookshop" and "Elizabethan Pornography Smugglers" (Season 3, episode 10), Superintendent Gaskell, a vice squad policeman, is transported back to the Elizabethan age and assumes Sir Philip Sidney's identity. An epitaph of Sir Philip Sidney: "England has his body, for she it fed; Netherlands his blood, in her defence shed; The Heavens have his soul, The Arts have his fame, The soldier his grief, The world his good name." Works Books Articles Other Courtier Monarchs very often expected

385-541: The Caliphs of Baghdad or Cairo . Early medieval European courts frequently travelled from place to place following the monarch as they travelled. This was particularly the case in the early French court. But, the European nobility generally had independent power and was less controlled by the monarch until around the 18th century, which gave European court life greater complexity. The earliest courtiers coincide with

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420-553: The camarilla , were also considered courtiers. As social divisions became more rigid, a divide, barely present in Antiquity or the Middle Ages , opened between menial servants and other classes at court, although Alexandre Bontemps , the head valet de chambre of Louis XIV , was a late example of a "menial" who managed to establish his family in the nobility. The key commodities for a courtier were access and information, and

455-638: The (possibly fictitious) " Areopagus ", a humanist endeavour to classicise English verse. Sidney played a brilliant part in the military/literary/courtly life common to the young nobles of the time. Both his family heritage and his personal experience (he was in Walsingham's house in Paris during the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre ), confirmed him as a keenly militant Protestant. In the 1570s, he persuaded John Casimir to consider proposals for

490-444: The 1580s, Astrophel and Stella . Her father, Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex , was said to have planned to marry his daughter to Sidney, but Walter died in 1576 and this did not occur. In England, Sidney occupied himself with politics and art. He defended his father's administration of Ireland in a lengthy document. More seriously, he quarrelled with Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford , probably because of Sidney's opposition to

525-452: The 16-year-old daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham . In the same year, he made a visit to Oxford University with Giordano Bruno , the polymath known for his cosmological theories, who subsequently dedicated two books to Sidney. In 1585 the couple had one daughter, Elizabeth, who later married Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland , in March 1599 and died without issue in 1612. Like the best of

560-557: The Elizabethans, Sidney was successful in more than one branch of literature, but none of his work was published during his lifetime. However, it circulated in manuscript. His finest achievement was a sequence of 108 love sonnets. These owe much to Petrarch and Pierre de Ronsard in tone and style, and place Sidney as the greatest Elizabethan sonneteer after Shakespeare . Written to his mistress, Lady Penelope Rich, though dedicated to his wife, they reveal true lyric emotion couched in

595-500: The French marriage of Elizabeth to the much younger Alençon, which de Vere championed. In the aftermath of this episode, Sidney challenged de Vere to a duel, which Elizabeth forbade. He then wrote a lengthy letter to the Queen detailing the foolishness of the French marriage. Characteristically, Elizabeth bristled at his presumption, and Sidney prudently retired from court. During a 1577 diplomatic visit to Prague , Sidney secretly visited

630-700: The Great returned with the concept of the complex court featuring a variety of courtiers to the Kingdom of Macedonia and Hellenistic Greece . The imperial court of the Byzantine Empire at Constantinople would eventually contain at least a thousand courtiers. The court's systems became prevalent in other courts such as those in the Balkan states, the Ottoman Empire and Russia . Byzantinism

665-642: The Netherlands, he consistently urged boldness on his superior, his uncle the Earl of Leicester . He carried out a successful raid on Spanish forces near Axel in July 1586. Later that year, he joined Sir John Norris in the Battle of Zutphen , fighting for the Protestant cause against the Spanish. During the battle, he was shot in the thigh and died of gangrene 26 days later, at the age of 31. One account says this death

700-413: The Queen, (although she forgave them relatively quickly) partly because the couple had not asked for permission beforehand. Frances had three children who survived infancy with her second husband, these were named Frances , Robert and Dorothy. Her husband Robert was executed in 1601 after participating in an attempted coup against the Queen. Frances attempted to see the queen to plead on his behalf, but

735-709: The Queen, who had forgiven the couple and was one of the godparents. In June 1586 Frances left England for the Netherlands to meet her husband. On 22 September, Sidney was injured at the battle of Zutphen , and the wound became infected. Frances, again pregnant, nursed him, but he died on 17 October. She brought his body back to England, where he was given a hero's funeral, but miscarried their child. In 1590 Frances' father died, leaving her with an annuity of £300; she married again, to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex , to whom her previous husband had left his "best sword." The match may have been arranged by her father and took place before he died, however it caused great displeasure to

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770-733: The centrepiece of the Old Salopians Memorial at Shrewsbury School to alumni who died serving in World War I (unveiled 1924). Philip Sidney appears as a young man in Elizabeth Goudge's third novel, Towers in the Mist (Duckworth, 1937), visiting Oxford around the time Queen Elizabeth also visited Oxford. (Goudge admitted to slightly advancing the time of Sidney's arrival in Oxford, for the sake of her larger story.) In

805-402: The court in the development of politeness and the arts. Examples of courtiers in fiction: Frances Walsingham Frances Burke, Countess of Clanricarde, Dowager Countess of Essex ( née Walsingham , formerly Devereux and Sidney ; 1567 – 17 February 1633) was an English noblewoman. The daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham , Elizabeth I 's Secretary of State , she became

840-474: The development of definable courts beyond the rudimentary entourages or retinues of rulers. There were probably courtiers in the courts of the Akkadian Empire where there is evidence of court appointments such as that of cup-bearer which was one of the earliest court appointments and remained a position at courts for thousands of years. Two of the earliest titles referring to the general concept of

875-626: The exiled Jesuit priest Edmund Campion . Sidney had returned to court by the middle of 1581. In the latter year he was elected to fill vacant seats in the Parliament of England for both Ludlow and Shrewsbury , choosing to sit for the latter, and in 1584 was MP for Kent . That same year Penelope Devereux was married, apparently against her will, to Lord Rich. Sidney was knighted in 1583. An early arrangement to marry Anne Cecil , daughter of Sir William Cecil and eventual wife of de Vere, had fallen through in 1571. In 1583, he married Frances ,

910-418: The more important nobles to spend much of the year in attendance on them at court. Not all courtiers were noble , as they included clergy , soldiers , clerks , secretaries , agents and middlemen with business at court. All those who held a court appointment could be called courtiers but not all courtiers held positions at court. Those personal favourites without business around the monarch, sometimes called

945-569: The most famous story about Sir Philip, intended to illustrate his noble and gallant character. Sidney's body was returned to London and interred in Old St Paul's Cathedral on 16 February 1587. The grave and monument were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. A modern monument in the crypt lists his among the important graves lost. Already during his own lifetime, but even more after his death, he had become for many English people

980-399: The next several years in mainland Europe, moving through Germany, Italy, Poland , the Kingdom of Hungary and Austria . On these travels, he met a number of prominent European intellectuals and politicians. Returning to England in 1575, Sidney met Penelope Devereux (who would later marry Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick ). Although much younger, she inspired his famous sonnet sequence of

1015-467: The very epitome of a Castiglione courtier: learned and politic, but at the same time generous, brave, and impulsive. The funeral procession was one of the most elaborate ever staged, so much so that his father-in-law, Francis Walsingham , almost went bankrupt. As Sidney was a brother of the Worshipful Company of Grocers , the procession included 120 of his company brethren. Never more than

1050-553: The wife of Sir Philip Sidney at age 16. Her second husband was Queen Elizabeth's favourite , Robert Devereaux Earl of Essex , with whom she had five children. Two years after his execution in 1601, she married Richard Burke, Earl of Clanricarde , and went to live with him in Ireland . She was the only surviving child of Sir Francis Walsingham , Secretary of State for Queen Elizabeth I , and Ursula St. Barbe . A lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, she married Philip Sidney in 1583,

1085-415: Was avoidable and heroic. Sidney noticed that one of his men was not fully armoured. He took off his thigh armour on the grounds that it would be wrong to be better armored than his men. As he lay dying, Sidney composed a song to be sung by his deathbed. According to the story, while lying wounded he gave his water to another wounded soldier, saying, "Thy necessity is yet greater than mine". This became possibly

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1120-423: Was educated at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church, Oxford . He was the eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney and Lady Mary Dudley . His mother was the eldest daughter of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland , and the sister of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester . His sister, Mary , was a writer, translator and literary patron, and married Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke . Sidney dedicated his longest work,

1155-777: Was known to be friendly and sympathetic towards individual Catholics. A memorial, erected in 1986 at the location in Zutphen where he was mortally wounded by the Spanish, can be found at the entrance of a footpath (" 't Gallee") located in front of the petrol station at the Warnsveldseweg 170. In Arnhem , in front of the house in the Bakkerstraat 68, an inscription on the ground reads: "IN THIS HOUSE DIED ON THE 17 OCTOBER 1586 * SIR PHILIP SIDNEY * ENGLISH POET, DIPLOMAT AND SOLDIER, FROM HIS WOUNDS SUFFERED AT THE BATTLE OF ZUTPHEN. HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR OUR FREEDOM". The inscription

1190-498: Was not permitted to see her. Her son became the third Earl of Essex . In 1603, she married her third husband Richard De Burgh (or Burke) , Earl of St Albans and Clanricarde. They had one son, Ulick , and two daughters; the first, Honora, and the second known as Margaret or Mary. Together they lived in both Ireland and England, building great houses in each country. In 1609 they built a mansion at Somerhill in Kent, and around 1618

1225-743: Was unveiled on 17 October 2011, exactly 425 years after his death, in the presence of Philip Sidney, 2nd Viscount De L'Isle , a descendant of the brother of Philip Sidney. The city of Sidney, Ohio , in the United States and a street in Zutphen , Netherlands, have been named after Sir Philip. A statue of him can be found in the park at the Coehoornsingel where, in the harsh winter of 1795, English and Hanoverian soldiers were buried who had died while retreating from advancing French troops. Another statue of Sidney, by Arthur George Walker , forms

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