ABSTRACT
Philip Sidney (illustration 7) was born at his family’s Kent estate of Penshurst on 30 november 1554, the first of seven children of Sir Henry Sidney (1529-86) and his wife, Mary Dudley Sidney (1530-86) (illustrations 5 and 6). He was named for Queen Mary’s husband, Philip of Spain, who stood godfather at his baptism, alongside his maternal grandmother, Jane Dudley, Duchess of northumberland, and John Russell, first earl of Bedford. Through his mother, Sidney was a member of the powerful Dudley family, with whom he would be strongly identified: his uncles Ambrose Dudley, later earl of Warwick, and Robert Dudley, later earl of Leicester, were childless, and Sidney was their heir presumptive.
