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Historical person

Philip Sidney

1554–1586

Sir Philip Sidney was an English courtier, diplomat, soldier and writer whose short life became an enduring Elizabethan ideal of Protestant chivalry. Born at Penshurst in 1554 into a family closely connected with royal service, he travelled extensively in Europe and entered the political world of Elizabeth I’s court. His literary work included the prose romance Arcadia, the sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella and the critical Defence of Poesy.

Sidney supported militant Protestant intervention in the Netherlands and served there during England’s campaign against Spain. In September 1586 he was shot in the thigh during fighting near Zutphen and died at Arnhem on 17 October after weeks of illness. His elaborate funeral and the literary tributes that followed helped transform him into a model courtier-soldier. The famous story that he gave water to another wounded man is early but cannot be verified as a verbatim incident.

S. J. Parris makes Sidney a close associate of Giordano Bruno in Heresy, Prophecy and Treachery, placing the historical courtier within espionage plots connected to Elizabethan religion and diplomacy. Tony Riches’ Frances – Tudor Countess and Penelope – Tudor Baroness approach Sidney through his family circle, while Elizabeth Fremantle’s Watch the Lady uses the same aristocratic and political world.

Periods

Periods linked to Philip Sidney

Elizabethan Age1558–1603 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Philip Sidney (3 series)

Giordano Bruno Novels in Order

by S. J. Parris 10 books 4.3(46,581)

The Giordano Bruno novels follow the historical Italian philosopher through a fictional career as investigator and intelligence agent. Beginning with his youth in Dominican Naples and continuing through exile in Elizabethan England, France and Prague, the series combines murder mysteries with Reformation conflict, court politics, espionage and Renaissance…

All books in this series

The Elizabethan in Order

by Tony Riches 6 books 4.3(4,973)

The Elizabethan series tells the later Tudor story through six real people whose ambitions and relationships brought them close to Elizabeth I. Francis Drake, Robert Devereux, Walter Raleigh, Penelope Rich, Frances Walsingham and Bess Throckmorton each occupy a different part of the queen’s world: the sea, war, exploration,…

All books in this series

The Tudor Trilogy in Order

by Elizabeth Fremantle 3 books 4.0(10,435)

The Tudor Trilogy follows three generations of women whose proximity to the English crown makes marriage, faith and family matters of state. Firebrand, originally published as Queen’s Gambit, centres on Katherine Parr during the final years of Henry VIII. Sisters of Treason turns to Katherine and Mary Grey…

All books in this series