ABSTRACT
The Crofts were supported by the Cecils and Queen Elizabeth. The Earl of Pembroke’s position as husband of Mary Sidney Herbert, with her father, Sir Henry Sidney, serving as Lord President of the Marches of Wales, and the quiet support of Walsingham, whose daughter Frances had recently married Sir Philip Sidney, made their family member Robert Sidney an important suitor. Mary Sidney was born on 18 October 1587, approximately nine months after Robert Sidney returned home for his brother Philip’s funeral. Barbara Gamage Sidney also remained friends with her sister-in-law Frances, and their little girls Bess and Mall were probably together quite frequently. Mary Sidney Wroth’s childhood is more vividly known than almost any other early modern English writer, because of two lively sets of extant letters, specifically written while her father, Robert Sidney, was Governor of Flushing. Robert Sidney and the older Robert Wroth were then on several of the same committees.
