Book description
Courtier, poet, soldier, diplomat - Philip Sidney was one of the most
promising young men of his age. Son of Elizabeth I's deputy in Ireland,
nephew and heir to her favourite, Leicester, he was tipped for high
office - and even to inherit the throne. But Sidney soon found himself
caught up in the intricate politics of Elizabeth's court and forced to
become as Machiavellian as everyone around him if he was to achieve his
ambitions. Against a backdrop of Elizabethan intrigue and the battle
between Protestant and Catholic for predominance in Europe, Alan Stewart
tells the riveting story of Philip Sidney's struggle to suceed. Seeing
that his continental allies had a greater sense of his importance that
his English contamporaries, Philip turned his attention to Europe. He
was made a French baron at seventeen, corresponded with leading foreign
scholars, considered marriage proposals from two princesses and, at the
time of his tragically early death, was being openly spoken of as the
next ruler of the Netherlands.
