ABSTRACT
Between 1500 and 1700 the Sidneys cultivated contacts with numerous influential english families, including the Brandons, Dudleys, Cecils, Herberts, Walsinghams, and Percys. Frequently, it was these close familial links, confirmed through marital unions, which supported the Sidneys’ rise into important court and county positions. For example, the early court prominence of Sir William Sidney (c. 1482-1554), owed much to his family connections with the influential Brandons through his mother, Anne Brandon, the aunt of Charles Brandon (c. 1484-1545). Sidney and Brandon often jousted together in royal tournaments, and the latter’s friendship with the king led to his creation in 1514 as Duke of Suffolk. in the following year he became the king’s brother-in-law when he married Henry’s sister Mary, the widow of King Louis Xii of France (from whom the Sidneys derived their porcupine family crest). Sir William Sidney continued to prosper at the Henrician court, in 1538 becoming chamberlain to the household of the king’s infant son and heir, Prince edward, with his wife, Anne, serving as the prince’s governess and his sister-in-law, Sybil Penne, as dry-nurse (Brennan, Sidneys of Penshurst 13-20).
