ABSTRACT

Robert Sidney, second Earl of Leicester, is perhaps the least-known of the early modern Sidneys, but he made a significant contribution to people understanding of their world. Robert, second Earl of Leicester, was born at Baynard’s Castle in London on 1 December 1595, the second son of Sir Robert and Barbara Gamage Sidney. In 1616 his father became Viscount Lisle, and in 1618 was created Earl of Leicester, drawing the Sidneys into the higher reaches of the aristocracy. The meticulous accounts kept by Robert’s servant Phillip Maret from 1618 to 1626 document Robert’s regular purchase of volumes of history, theology, mathematics, and philosophy. Lisle attached himself to the group for a period and visited the Palatine Library in Heidelberg, the most important scholarly collection in Northern Europe. The building of Leicester House asserted their claim to elite status just as the palaces along the Strand had done for earlier magnates.