ABSTRACT
Robert Sidney, first earl of Leicester (illustrations 13, 14 and 15), was a man who eventually achieved almost all of his dreams, but only after extensive delays and disappointments. From his own day down to the present he has stood in the shadow of his older brother, the dazzling Philip Sidney (illustration 7), who was nine years his senior and who took an affectionate interest in his younger brother’s education and development (Correspondence SPS 877-82, 1005-10). But Robert Sidney’s life has significance on its own terms. As a soldier and a poet, and as a courtier and royal governor, he followed in his elder brother’s footsteps in many ways, but he learned from his brother’s missteps, and as a result was able to navigate his way safely through the dangerous waters of the late Tudor and early Stuart courts. in addition, Robert Sidney’s life is exceptionally well documented, and therefore gives us a well-rounded portrait of the activities and interests of a well-connected courtier in the decades c. 1600.
