ABSTRACT
William Herbert, Third Earl of Pembroke, was the ‘uomo universale’ of the Early Stuart period. Also, in 1546, William Herbert was awarded the stewardship of several large royal properties in the west of England, and granted Cardiff castle and other large estates in both England and Wales. Fortunately for the future of the theatre in England, the Privy Council’s threat to pull down all the theatres was not carried out. Mary Sidney was one of England’s greatest poets, a knowledgeable patron of the arts, a courtier, a politician and a soldier. Sidney’s political ideas were similar to those of Protestant humanists on the Continent. In England, Sidney was something of an enigma. Only at the seat of power and influence, the Court, could one hope to obtain the offices, grants, monopolies, reversions and pensions which were the financial and political lifeblood of the Elizabethan aristocracy.
