ABSTRACT
At the age of nine Henry Sidney (illustration 5) acquired a privilege available to few other children, that of companion to the young Prince edward. When edward became king in 1547, Sidney advanced to gentleman of the Privy Chamber, maintaining such a close relationship with the new king that edward would die in his arms (Sidney, Memoir 106). Sidney went on to fare remarkably well under the new monarchs, Mary and Philip, particularly for one of non-noble status, acquiring numerous accolades and posts. When elizabeth became queen, Sidney advanced yet higher, becoming Lord President of the Council in the Marches of Wales in 1560, and in 1565 he received the first of his two appointments to the highest office in ireland, Lord Deputy. This early and seemingly flourishing career, however, stalled before the decade was over, and Sidney thereafter found it increasingly difficult to maintain the support and confidence of elizabeth. He died at the age of fifty-seven bitterly frustrated that elizabeth refused to extend the recognition or compensation he believed were merited by his service to the Crown. Although he retained his post in Wales until his death in 1586, Sidney faced increasing criticism in that position from the early 1570s on. His two terms as Lord Deputy of ireland (1565-71 and 1575-78) would prove even more tumultuous, for Sidney and for ireland. Recalled from this post on both occasions, Sidney’s time in ireland marked a critically transitional phase in the intensification of english conquest in ireland (see Herron ARC 1:13).
