A memoir of Sir Philip Sidney

Preface

Amois^g the common praises of Sir Philip Sidney were interspersed stray records of fact by many of the friends who survived him. One, probably Edmund Mohneux, writing his contribution to Holhnshed's Chronicles, when intelligence of the hero's death arrived, turned aside to recal a few prominent events in his life. Another, Thomas Lant, proud to call himself " a servant to the said honourable knight/' desiring to transform into a lasting honour the pageant of a day, spent a year in preparing an elaborate pictorial account of The Procession at the Obsequies of Sir Philip Sidney, Knight, Of his work a copy — I beheve, unique — is lodged in the Library of the British Museum, Contemporary with it, but lost to us, was Sidney, or Baripenthes ; briefly shadowing out the rare and never-ending Lauds of that most Honourable and Praiseworthy Sir Philip Sidney, Knight (London, 1586, 4to), by Sir William Herbert. That is not the only missing biography. About the year 1600, Sir James Perrot, son of the more famous Sir John Perrot, penned The History of the Noble Birth, Education, and Singular Good Parts of Sir Philip Sidney, of which the manuscript, never printed, though much admired by those who saw it,

IV I'RF.FArF,.

cannot now be found. A tliird memoir has been more fortunate. The Life of the Renowned Sir Philip Sidney, by his kinsman and constant friend Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, was published in 1652 (12mo, pp. 247), and again at the private press of Sir Egerton Brjdges, and with some notes by that able antiquary, in 181G {Lee Priory, two vols. 8vo, pp. 75 and 106). Greville's work, read in connection with many fragments of biography scattered through the histories of the period, was, for many years, the chief authority respecting Sidney's life. Writing with a friend's knowledge of details, and in honest admiration of a career which he bravely set himself to imitate, he gave admirable account of many episodes in Sidney's history shared by himself, and exquisite sketches of many features in Sidney's character, as he was able to read it. But, writing with an old man's indistinctness of memory, and regardless of chronological order or technical precision, he fell into much inaccuracy, misleading to later biographers. "It is to be wished," remarked Anthony a "Wood, at the close of the seventeenth century, "that Sir Philip Sidney's life might be written by some judicious hand, and that the imperfect essay of Lord Brooke might be supplied."

Wood himself essayed a little in his sketch of Sidney, included in the Athencs Oa^onienses, which appeared in 1691. Much more was done by Arthur ColHns, who, in 1745, issued the Letters and Memorials of State written and collected by Sir Henry Sidney, the famous Sir Philip Sidney, and his brother Sir Robert Sidney. . . . . Also Memoirs- of the Lives and Actions of the Sidneys (two volumes, folio, pp. 1313). Searching

PREFACE.

zealously among the family archives at Penshurst, the manuscripts in the British Museum and other literary storehouses, Collins provided valuable material for an undertaking of Sidney's life. Moreover, his prefatory account of the chief members of the Sidney family and its branches, contained a useful epitome of Phihp's personal story, although the antiquary, brief by design, and not caring to view with microscopic eye this part of his subject, repeated many old blunders, and added some new ones, where his own collection might have set him right. He was far more moderate and precise, however, than Doctor Thomas Zouch, Dean of York, whose Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Sir Philip Sidney appeared in 1808 (4 to, pp. 369).

Approaching his subject with honest purpose, and handling it as skilfully as he could, Zouch failed to produce a trustworthy book. He was too ready to adopt as facts the vague traditions with which he met, and the random conclusions arrived at by himself While dihgently hunting for new matter, also, and finding some which was very important, he was often careless in putting it to use. One curious illustration of his inaccuracy, both of fact and of surmise, is in his quotation, from Ben Jonson s poems, of an epigram " To Mrs. Philip Sidney,'' with a statement that it was presented by the poet to Sir Francis Walsingham's daughter soon after her marriage with Sir Philip Sidnej^ Honest Ben would never have addressed the w4fe of a Knight as "Mrs."; and certainly he could not have done so at the time in question, he being but ten or eleven years old, and not yet even a bricklayer's assistant, much less a

VI PREFACE.

courtly poet. I imagine that tlie real heroine of the epigram was Mistress Philippa Sidney, Sir PhiHp's niece, and daughter of Ben Jonson's patron Robert, second Earl of Leicester ; but assuredly it was not addressed to Lady Frances Sidney.

One of Zouch's errors, most common of all among reckless readers of old papers, was especially unfortunate. He failed to notice that, in all the official documents, and in most of the private records of England, prior to 1752, the commencement of the year was reckoned, not from the 1st of January, but from the 25th of March, and that on the Continent the same rule applied before 1582. Hence, for nearly three months in each year, Zouch's chronology is hopelessly confused. Sidney's mission of condolence to the Emperor Rodolph, on the death of his father, for instance, is stated to have been in February, 1576, whereas Rodolph was not an orphan until the October of that year. Throughout the volume occur numerous errors of the same sort, all the more likely to deceive because in many of them there is not the same transparent absurdity. Except in one or two cases, I have not thought it worth while in my notes to point out Zouch's errors : but the aid which I have received from his researches has been carefully acknowledged.

Of Hubert Languet's ninety-six letters to Sidney, published in Edinburgh -by Lord Hailes, in 1776 (8vo, pp. 289), Zouch made some good use. Since his time, however, they have acquired much new interest, consequent on the discover}', by the Reverend Steuart A. Pears, of sixteen of Sidney's replies. Reading the two sets ot

PREFACE. Vll letters conjointly, we can obtain far clearer insight into the movements and the characters of both writers than was possible to any one in Zouch's day. The Correspondence of Sir Fliilip Sidnei/ with Hubert Languet : now first collected, and translated from the Latin, with Notes and a Memoir of Sidjieij, was compiled by Mr. Pears in 1845 (8vo, Memoir, pp. 74 ; Latin letters, pp. 28) ; and next year three of the epistles were included in Doctor Robinson's collection of Zurich Letters issued by the Parker Society. To both gentlemen I am indebted, not only for the Latin letters, but also for the scholarly translations which, wherever they could help me, I have freely used in preparing my own more colloquial rendering.

Mr. Gray's Memoir (pp. b6), prefatory to his edition of Sidney's Miscellaneous Works, which appeared in 1829, is mainly an epitome of Zouch's book. His volume, however, has been helpful to me, altliough, in respect of the few letters first published by him, I have generally, for greater accuracy, and in correction of some errors into which he has slipped, chosen to consult the original documents.

To Mr. Motley, the latest traveller, albeit but incidentally, over the ground of Sidney biography, my thanks are also due. In his careful and minute exposition of the war in the Low Countries, containing the most exciting episode in Sir Philip Sidney's life, he has anticipated much of the material that I had collected before reading his interesting volumes on The United Netherlands^ and has also supplied me with some information which, without his help, I might not have

Vlll PREFACE.

possessed. His work has led me, — not, I confess, without some regret, — to treat less fully than I had intended of the great events preceding and surrounding the battle of Zutphen. I cannot, in all cases, accept his estimate of those events ; but it would have been against my purpose, in writing this volume, either to have paused to controvert the judgments, irrelevant to my immediate theme, from which I dissent, or to have related — save in the briefest summar^^, where it was needful to the completeness of my own story — what has substantially been so well told elsewhere.

To other books, by authors dead and living, — especially to Nichols's entertaining collection of papers illustrating the Elizabethan Progresses and Pageants ; to Wood's several works upon Oxford Antiquities and Biography ; to the AthencB Cantahrigienses, now being prepared by the Messrs. Cooper, worthy followers, for their own University, in the track marked out by Wood ; and to Mr. Bruce's gathering qI Leicester Correspondence, printed for the Camden Society ; — my debts, as they have been incurred, have been specified in footnotes.

I have also been particular in detailing the sources from which I have drawn fresh material for this Memoir of Sir Philip Sidney. Chief of these sources is the invaluable collection of documents, public and private, treasured in the State Paper Office. From that storehouse — hitherto unexplored, I believe, by any searcher for information about Sidney's life — I have been fortunate in obtaining many letters and papers of considerable interest, as giving additional knowledge of his career and character ; while many others have

PREFACE. IX afforded corroboration of matters already partially known, or explanation of subjects till now mysterious. The manuscript collections in the British Museum, though often visited by others, have also supplied me with a few important details not before detected ; and out of local histories and books on other themes, I have been able to extract some frao;ments of intelHo-ence new as regards their connection with Sidney's history.

By a collation of printed and unprinted records I have succeeded in fixing, within a month or two, the time of Sidney^s entrance at Oxford, placing it a year earher than the date commonly given ; and into the history of his college years some fresh insight has been obtained from the State Paper Office. Correspondence between Sir Henry Sidney and Sir William Cecil shows us how highly Philip w^as esteemed even in his boyhood ; and a letter, in schoolboy Latin, written by Philip himself, has an interest of its owm. Respecting the history of his projected marriage with Anne Cecil, I have succeeded in adding many links to the final one alone presented by Zouch, Having told anew the story of his foreign travel and experience, as recounted in his ebrrespondence with Languet, I have been able to show from that correspondence, that, soon after his return to England, he was a sharer in the famous festivities at Kenilworth, and that thence he proceeded to Chartley, the home of the lady soon to be immortalized as Stella. That in 1576 he went to Ireland, is shown by documents in the State Paper Office ; and from that and other sources we are able to draw some new and very memorable details of his visit. Fresh

PREFACE.

light is thrown upon his work as an ambassador in 1577, by the finding among the Harleian MSS. of the code of instructions given him by the Queen ; and by discovering, in the Cottonian collection, part of a lost treatise on his father's Irish policy, I have been able for the first time fully to set forth a very noteworthy episode in his history. In sketching his life at Court, I have attempted to represent its true temper — one far more serious than that commonly attributed to him. In proving that the cause of his retirement from Court in 1580 was not a trivial quarrel with the Earl of Oxford, but a patriotic dispute with Queen Ehzabeth, I have been able to adduce a characteristic instance of his nobleness of mind. In my account of his connection with Stella, the one unwelcome passage in his life, I believe I have cleared away much previous mystery. No important information about the middle period of Sidney's history is to be met with at the State Paper Ofl&ce ; but thence I have drawn much in illustration of his later career. Some faint light is thrown upon the preliminaries of his marriage with Sir Francis Walsiugham's daughter. Far more important, however, is the evidence that in 1583 he held a charter for going out as almost the first English colonist of America, and that, that project being on good grounds abandoned, in 1585 he received office from the Queen as Master of the Ordnance. Letters written at this period by him to Burghley and Walsingham, and about him by many men more or less famous, afford clear indication of his yet further growth, both in native worth and in influence upon the affairs of his country,

PEEFACE. XI

while several other letters belonging to the last few months of his life enable us to observe him as a soldier, and yet more as a soldier's friend, in the Netherlands.

From the State Paper Office documents I have also extracted several letters, entire or in part, as illustrative of the lives and characters of Sidney's parents, and of Queen Elizabeth's conduct towards them. One very long autobiographical letter, written by his father to his father-in-law, has supplied me with material incorporated in several chapters of this work. Since doing that, I have learnt that the whole has been printed, with notes by Mr. Herbert F. Hore, in successive numbers of The Ulster Journal of A rchcBology.

For a transcript of a considerable portion of the same document I am indebted to Mr. Ilobert Lemon, Assistant Keeper of Her Majesty's Records, to whom further, to Mr. H. C. Hamilton, also an Assistant Keeper of the Kecords, and to other gentlemen in the same Office, my thanks are due for ready help affi)rded to me in my consultation of the papers under their charge. Here, also, I beg to render thanks to my friend Mr. Thomas Brodribb, for his assistance in the collection and arrangement of part of the manuscript material which I have had occasion to employ.

To one friend, to Mr. Henry Morley — the friend of thousands by reason of his genial biographies of Bernard PaHssy, of Jerome Cardan, and of CorneHus Agrippa, but my friend in a much closer and dearer sense — I owe far more than to any other. The help, in ways both of

XU PREFACE.

counsel and of criticism, afforded by him in the preparation of this volume, is part only of a private debt, never to be paid in such poor coin as printed words.

LuNDON, March Sth, 1862.

CHAPTER I. Page

BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 1554—1563.

-AT SHEEWSBUEY SCHOOL

CHAPTER IT.

UNDERGRADUATE TEARS. 1568—1572.

OXFOEB LIFE A^'D STUDIES — THE CECIL HOUSEHOLD — JIAEEIAGE PEOJECTS — COLLEGE FEIEXDS ; GEEYILLE, DTEE, CAEEW, CAMDEN, HAKLtJYT — LADY SIDXEY's TEOUBLES — AT HOilE . 24

Chapter VI. Home Joys And Home Troubles. 1577

Page

FAMILY TIES — THE NEW COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE — lEISII DIFFICTTL-

TIE3 — DEFENCE OF SIR HENRY SIDNEY — FRODISHEH's GOLD . 168

CHAPTER Vli.

UNDER THE ROYAL SMILE. 1578—1579.

COtTETLY BUSINESS — ACQUAINTANCES AT COURT; HATTON, SACK*- YILLE, WALSINGHAM, KNOLLYS — IN QUEST OF WORK — FOllEIGN AND FAMILY CLAIMS — DISPRAISE OF A COURTLY LIFE . .182

Chapter XIV. The World Of Politics. 1584—1585

THE STATE OF EUROPE — PHILIP AGAINST PHILIP — IN PARLIAMENT

AGAIN — Raleigh's colony — in office — Scottish diplomacy

— TALK of War — the west INDIAN PROJECT — DRAKE' S DIS- HONESTY— THE PROMISE OF FLUSHING — A FATHER . . . 421

Chapter XV. War And Its Accessories. 1585—1586

IN THE NETHERLANDS — IN OPPOSITION TO LEICESTER AND THE QUEEN — THE LOSS OF BOTH PARENTS — THE CAPTURE OF AXEL — GOVERNORSHIP OF FLUSHING — THE BATTLE OF ZUT- PHEN * 472

CHAPTER XVL

SICKNESS- AND DEATH. 1586.

THE BED OF PAIN— THE LAST VICTORY- BURIAL— MOtlRNlNG . 509 i

A MEMOIR

SIE PHILIP SIDNEY.

Chapter I. Birth And Boyhood

1554—1568.

Sir Philip Sidney — beloved by the noblest, in days great with manly achievement, as a type of their earnest thought and heroic energy of action — was born on the 29th of November, 1554, at Penshurst, in Kent. Pleasantly situated in the valley of the Medway, the old mansion, modified by re-buildings and enlargements, is yet standing. Of all the pictures of the place as Sidney knew it, there is none so complete as Ben Jonson's. Not, he says, for its polished pillars or a roof of gold, for lantern, stair, or courts, that ancient pile had reverence. Dear was it to him for its homely charms and its pleasant memories. He looked not more lovingly upon the house in which his patron dwelt than upon the oak — now hollow and broad — ^which grew

2 A MEMOIR OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. [Chap i

from an acorn, planted at Sidney's birth. " Thou joy'st/' he sings of Penshurst, —

" Thou joy'st in better marks, of soil and air, Of wood, of water, therein thou art fair. Thou hast thy walks for health as well as sport ; Thy mount, to which the Dryads do resort, Where Pan and Bacchus their high feasts have made. Beneath the broad beech and the chestnut shade ; That taller tree — which, as a nut, was set At his great birth, where all the Muses met. •sf- -^f -^ -^ #

The lower land, that to the river bends, Thy sheep, thy bullocks, kine and calves do feed ; The middle ground thy mares and horses breed. Each bank doth yield thee conies ; and the tops Fertile of wood, ashore, and Sidney's copse, To crown thy open table, doth provide The purpled pheasant, with the speckled side. The painted partridge lies in every field. And, for thy mess, is willing to be kill'd. And if the high-swoU'n Medway fail thy dish, Thou hast thy ponds that pay thee tribute fish. * * -jf * -jf

Thou hast thy orchard fruit, thy garden flowers,

Fresh as the air, and new as are the hours.

The early cherry, with the later plum,

Fig, grape, and quince, each in his time doth come.

Hang on thy walls, that every child may reach.

And, though thy walls be of the county stone.

They're reared with no man's ruin — no man's groan ;

There's none that dwell about them wish them down.

But all come in, the farmer and the clown,

And no one empty-handed, to salute

Thy lord and lady, though they have no suit."

The lord who, with his lady, merited Ben Jonson's praise, was Robert, second Earl of Leicester, Sir Philip Sidney's brother. But by his parents, eulogy like this was yet more fully earned.

I

Chap. I.J HIS PARENTAGE. 3

From them he inherited a rich store of family renown. His name is traced back to the year 1154, when King Henry the Second, coming from Anjou, brought with him one Wilham Sidney, a knight, to whom he granted the manor of Sutton, in consideration of his service in battle, and, at a later date, further reward in land for holding office as chamberlain to the King.'" In lineal descent from him was another William Sidney, chamberlain to King Henry the Eighth, and, throughout his reign, a zealous servant of the State. Of the English force sent in 1510 to aid the King of Spain against the Moors, he was one of the commanders. Two years later, he was off Brest in the squadron of five-and-twenty sliips that made havoc of the great fleet of France. In the next year, though the French war was not prosperous, William Sidney fought well in it. He was knighted before August, when he commanded the right wing of the army victorious at Flodden Field. For such services as these he had, among his rewards, the grant of Penshurst, and as lord of Penshurst he was to Edward the Sixth, from his birth to the time of his coronation, tutor, chamberlain, and steward. He died in 1554. f Ten months after his death, Henry, the only surviving son, aged twenty-five, became the father of our hero.

Henry was born on the 21st day of March, 1529. " This right famous, renowned, worthy, virtuous,

* Collins, Introduction to the Sidney Papers, p. 76. Collins is my chief authority concerning Sir Philip Sidney's pedigree, t Collins, pp. 77, 78, 82.

A MEMOIR OF SIR nil UP SIDNEY.

[Chap. I.

and heroical knight/' says one of his friends, " by father and mother very nobly descended, was from his infanc}^ bred and brought up in the prince's court and in nearness to his person, used famiharly, even as a companion/''^" And he himself tells us that, before he was eight years old, he held the child's office of henchman to Henry the Eighth. After which, he goes on to sa}^ pleasantly showing how entirely the King's baby was a family possession of the f Sidneys, "I was, by that most famous King, put to his sweet son Prince Edward, my most dear master, prince, and sovereign ; my near

* Hollingslied, vol. iii. p. 1548.

t The following table shows Sir Philip's liueage by the father's side : —

Sir William Sidney, Knt,, Chamberlain to King Henry II. I Died IISS, buried in Lewes Abbey.

Sir Simon Sidney, died 1213.

Roger Sidney, Esquire, died 1239.

Sir Henry Sidney, died 126S.

Sir Henry Sidney, died 1309.

Sir William Sidney.

John Sidney, Esquij-e.

Sir William Sidney.

John Sidney, Esquire.

William Sidney, Esquire.

William Sidney, Esquire.

Sir William Sidney, of Stoke Dabernou, Knight. L -^

Nicholas Sidney, Esquire.

Sir William Sidney, of Pensburst, born 1482, died 1554.

Mary, m. Sir W. Dormer.

Lucy, m. Sir John Harrington.

Aune, m. Sir

William Fitz-

"William of

Milton.

Frances, to

Thomas Rat-

cliflfe, Earl of

Sussex.

Sir Henry Sidney,

born'l529,

died 15S6,

m. Lady Mary

Dudley.

Sir Philip Mary, m. Margaret, An infant, xVmbrozia, Robert Colone

Sidney, Henry Her- died quite died quite died 15T5. Sidney, Thomas

Knight, bert. Earl of young. young. Second Earl Sidney,

born 1554, Pembroke. of Leicester,

Chap. I.J HIS FATHEE. 5

kinswoman being his only nurse ; mj father being his chamberlain ; my mother his goyerness ; my aunt in such place as, among meaner personages, is called a dry nurse, — for, from the time he left sucking, she continually lay in bed with him, so long as he remained in women^s government. As the prince grew in years and discretion, so grew I in favour and liking of him."* Soon after Edward became King, Henry Sidney was made one of the four principal Gentlemen of the Royal Bedchamber, partly, we learn, because of the singular love and entire affection which his sovereign bare him, partly because 'he was then reputed for " comeliness of person, gallantness and liveliness of spirit, virtue, quality, beauty, and good composition of bod}^, the only odd man and paragon of the Court. "f In 1550 he was knighted, in company with William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley. In the same year, though not yet one-and-twenty, he was employed as ambassador to France on important matters, performing his charge, it is recorded, " with singular commendation, wisdom, spirit, and dexterity."^ Upon his return he was appointed chief cup-bearer to the king, and, soon afterwards, royal cypherer, with a stipend of fifty marks a year. Other honours were conferred upon him : chie of all, on the 18th of May, 1553, he was licensed to

* State Paper Office MSS. Domestic Correspondence^ Elizabeth^ vol. clix. 1^0. 1, folio 38. This is a most valuable letter, written in 1583, by Sir Henry Sidney to Sir Francis Walsiugliani. It occupies eighty folio pages, equal to about twice as many pages of this volume, and is full of welcome autobiographical information.

.t Hollingshed, vol. iii. p. 1548.

X Ibid.

6 A MEMOIR OF SIR PHILIR SIDNEY. [Chap. i.

put into livery, as retainers in his service, fifty gentlemen and yeomen. By the same document he was forgiven all his trespasses, forfeitures, penalties, outstanding debts, and whatever else amiss was by him done or perpetrated since Edward's coronation day.*

On the 7th of July following, King Edward died at Greenwich. After uttering that noble prayer, which closed with the entreaty, " Oh, my Lord God, defend this realm from Papistry, and maintain Thy true religion, that I and Thy people may praise Thy holy name ! " he said, " I am faint ; Lord, have mercy upon me, and take my spirit ! ^^ Then, looking towards Sir Henry Sidney, he fell into his arms, and so expired. f

Sir Henry, after the death of his royal friend, retired to Penshurst, where his father, with but a few months more to live, yet resided; where, also, about a year before, he had formed for himself a new home. At some time in 1552 he had married Lady Mary Dudley, daughter of the Duke of Northumberland, a connection of which Philip was proud. " I am a Dudley in blood,^' he declared ; '' that duke's daughter's son ; and do acknowledge, — though, in all truth, I may justly affirm that I am, by my father's side, of ancient and always well- esteemed and well-matched gentry, — yet I do acknowledge, I say, that my chiefest honour is to be a Dudley.^J

On his mother's side, through twelve generations, Sir Philip Sidney claimed descent from one Eobert de

Collins, Introduction, pp. 83, 84. t HoUingshed, vol. iii. pp. 1084, 1548. X Defence of the Earl o/ ieicea^er, written probably in 1585.

J

Chap. I.] HIS MOTHER'S FAMILY.

Lisle, who, having joined arms with the discontented barons against King John, was deprived of his lands until the accession of Henry the Third. His son and namesake, sharing the love of liberty which brought his father into trouble, fought under Simon de Montfort in the second barons' war. Warren, his son, was renowned for his share in the Scottish expeditions of the First and Second Edwards. But when the De Spencers became masters of Edward the Second, Warren was a companion in arms with the other nobles. Taken prisoner at Boroughbridge, he was sentenced, in 1322, to be drawn and hanged. Edward the Third's accession, however, restored honour to the family, and Gerard de Lisle, who took foremost rank in the contests with Robert Bruce, shared in the victory of Cressy. With singular frequency, the succession then passed through a line of women. In this way the family became connected with the Berkeleys, Warwicks, Talbots, Greys, and at length Dudleys. In 1495, Elizabeth de Lisle was given in marriage to the Edmund Dudley of whom Lord Bacon said, that " he was an eminent man, and one that could put hateful business into good language." His contemporaries thought no better of the business for the language. He it was who, together with Sir Richard Empson, aided Henry the Seventh in his unlawful appropriations of the wealth of the land. On that account Dudley was beheaded in 1509, the family estates and dignities being thus forfeited. Soon, however, restitution was made to his son John, who earned for himself the titles of Baron de L'lsle, Earl of Warwick, and Duke of Northumberland. The story is well

8 A MEMOIR OF SIR THILIP SIDNEY. (CnAr. i.

known of his ambition, and of the ruin it brought upon himself and some of his kin. On the 22nd of August, 1553, he was executed for the crowning of Lady Jane Grey. On the 12th of February, in the next year, that unfortunate lady and her husband, Guildford Dudley, suffered at the scaffold. Of Northumberland's other sons, John, Ambrose, and Eobert were imprisoned for supposed implication in the plot. Ambrose and Robert survived to become prominent in Ehzabeth's reign, the one as Earl of Leicester, the other as Earl of Warwick. John went from the Tower direct to Penshurst, and there, on the 21st of October, three days after his release, he died.*

* The following table shows Sir PHlip's lineage by the mother's side : —

Ralph de L'Isle, Ralpli de L'Isle.

Robert de L'Isle (circa 1216), m. Isabella, daughter of Warren Fitz- Warren, I Lord of Heyford-Warine.

Warren de L'Isle, hanged 1322.

Gerard de L'Isle, 1299-1360.

Warren de L'Isle, d. 1382.

Margaret, 1861-1892, m. Thomas, Lord Berkeley, d. 1415.

Elizabeth, b. 1385, m. Richard, Earl of Warwick, d. 1439.

Margaret, m. John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbuiy.

John I'olbot, Viscount L'Isle.

Thomas Talbot, 1442-1471. EUzaheth, va. Edward Grey, Margaret.

Baron and Viscount L'Isle, d. 1492.

I X -^ r -I

John, Viscount L'Isle, d. 1504, Margaret. Anne. Elizabeth, m.

m. Muriel, daughter of the Edmund Dudley,

Duke of Norfolk. 1643-1509.

John, Vicount L'Isle, Earl of Warwick, Andrew, d. 1559. Jerome. EUzaheth.

Duke of Northumberland, 1501-1553, m. Lady Jane Guildford, d. 1555. ^

Eenry, John, Ambrose, Robert, Lord Hemy, Maiy, Catherine,

1526-1544. Earl of Earl of Earl of Guildford d. 1557. d. 1586, m. ra. the

Warwick, Warwick, Leicester, Dudley, Sir Henry Earl of

d. 1554. Baron 1532-1588. m. Lady Sidney. Hunting-

L'lsle, Jane Grey, I don.

Sm Philip Sidney.

1554.] BABYHOOD. 9

Thus there was gloom at Penshurst when PhiHp was born. Within fifteen months, one grandfather had brought an honoured hfe to a timely close ; the other had been beheaded — cowardly recantation on his hps. One uncle had been sent to the block for foolish compliance with the crime of others ; a second had exchanged a prison for a death-bed. Lady Mary Sidney could not have sympathised with the treason which had brought disgrace upon her family, and, if so, some shame was joined with her sorrow. But she had also ground of comfort. Her husband was both just and politic in holding to the better and the stronger cause. Sir Henry Sidney did nothing which could either hurt his credit with posterity or offend his lawful sovereign. Although, as he tells us, " neither liking nor hked as he had been,'' ''^ he continued to be an honest servant of the State, and to be thought well of at Court. By a charter of Queen Mary's, dated the 8th of November, 1554, all his former honours and offices were confirmed to him ; and the child, born three weeks afterwards, was christened Philip, in honour of Queen Mary's husband.