Philip Sidney, Letter to Queen Elizabeth

Devori Kimbro (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga)

Ed. by J A Roe, University of York
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Domains

Political Science

Dates

First circulation or publication 1580

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Essays/ Lectures (any)
Non-Fiction
- Letter(s)
Non-fictional prose

Resources

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Prominent English courtier Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) composed his letter to Queen Elizabeth in 1579 as the fervour surrounding her rumoured marriage to the French-Catholic Duke of Anjou and Alençon increased. The duke began courting Elizabeth personally in 1579, and the rumours of their close friendship stirred discontent among English Protestants, like Sidney, who thought that the marriage would precipitate England’s return to Catholicism after the Reformation. It is probable that the letter was commissioned by members of the Leicester circle, to which Sidney belonged (Stewart, p. 218). Initially, the letter circulated in manuscript until it was included in print collections of Sidney’s more well-known works in the mid-nineteenth century. Contemporary accounts of Sidney’s…

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958 words

Citation: Kimbro, Devori. "Letter to Queen Elizabeth". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 March 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10590, accessed 21 November 2024.]