Sir Philip Sidney

Queen Elizabeth’s court, 1580: Europe was at war or under Inquisition rule, sea voyages were opening an exciting New World, but England alone kept to a rare and tenuous peace. Philip Sidney was highly-educated, well-travelled and fitted for a career in diplomacy or soldiery, a friend to Europe’s most prominent Protestant intellectuals, many of whom lived in exile. But at home he was idle and fell under a cloud when he opposed the Queen’s marriage to the French Duke of Anjou. Should Philip, the c