Philip Sidney: A Double Life - Hardcover

Stewart, Alan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312282877 ISBN 13: 9780312282875

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2001

Synopsis

Among the gilded youth of Elizabethan England, none was more golden than Philip Sidney. Courtier, poet, soldier, diplomat-he was one of the most promising young men of his time. Son of Elizabeth I's deputy in Ireland, nephew and heir to her favorite, Leicester, he received an exemplary education. On leaving Oxford University he was tipped for high office-and was even a candidate to inherit the throne. But Philip 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 the Protestants and the Catholics for predominance in Europe, Alan Stewart tells the riveting story of Philip Sidney's struggle to succeed. Seeing that his continental allies had a greater sense of his importance than his English contemporaries, 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, in 1586, he cemented his fame by dying on the battlefront in the Low Countries at the tragically young age of thirty-one.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Philip Sydney was one of the most promising young men of his age, tipped for high office ? and even to inherit the throne. But he found himself caught in the intricate politics of a Machiavellian court. Against a backdrop of Elizabethan intrigue, Alan Stewart tells the riveting story of Sidney?s struggle to succeed.

About the Author:

Dr. Alan Stewart coauthored Hostage to Fortune: The Troubled Life of Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626 with Lisa Jardine. He teaches Renaissance studies at Birkbeck College. He is thirty-three and lives in London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0312282877
• ISBN 13: 9780312282875
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400