My name is Paul McGoldrick and I am a Sophomore at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH. I am currently taking a British
Literature course and as a result, have learned much about who many Englishmen consider the "Pinnacle of chivalry,"
Sir Philip Sydney. This site is devoted to the life and the works of this sixteenth century hero.
Sir Philip Sydney was born on November 30, 1554 in Penshurst, Kent in England. He was the son of Sir Henry Sydney, Lord Deputy
of Ireland and Lady Mary Dudley.
In 1564 Sydney attended Shrewsbury School in Shrewsbury, England with his lifelong friend Fulke Greville and in 1568,
at only thirteen years old, left and entered the Christ Church in Oxford. He stayed here for three years where he met contemporaries
such as Richard Hakluyt and William Camden. Sydney left the Christ church without recieving a degree to pursue an education
by traveling the European continent.
While on the continent Sydney traveled to places like Frankfurt, Venice, Vienna, and Paris, where he spent most of his
time while traveling.
Sydney returned to England in 1575 and became a popular courtier under Queen Elizabeth. In 1577, Sydney was sent to the
German Empire as an ambassador to give the Queen's condolences to the German princes on their father's recent death. This
description of the mission was actually a cover for his real mission: to find a Protestant alliance in the empire to fight
the Spanish. The Queen eventually relieved him of his duties finding his Protestantism too enthusiastic for her tastes, preferring
a more subtle approach.
Soon after his return Sydney attracted the disfavor of the Queen by opposing her projected marriage to the Duke of Anjou,
heir to the French throne and a Roman Catholic, and was dismissed from court for a short while. Durring this time he visited
his sister Mary, Countess of Pembroke, and he began to write one of his best works, Arcadia, a pastoral romance.
Sydney returned to the court and continued to have a good reputation under Queen Elizabeth but he longed for more. Sydney
was obsessed with going to the "New World" and seeking adventure. In 1585 Sydney secretly tried to join Sir Francis
Drake's voyage to Cadiz without the Queen's permission. Instead of punishing him, the Queen appinted Sydney the Govenor of
Flushing in the Netherlands.
In 1586 Sydney took place in a battle against the Spanish at Zutphen in the Netherlands. Sir Philip Sydney was shot in
the thigh and off his horse during the second charge of the dawn attack. He was brought by boat to Arnhem where he seemed
to be recuperating, but the wound developed gangrene and he died on October 17.
When Sydney's body returned to England in 1587 he received one of the most magnificent funerals an Englishman has ever
received and also helped to distract the public from Mary Stuart’s execution and organize for war against Spain.
Even though Sydney is often considered an author, he was an author in his spare time and a courtier and a statesman as
an occupation. Sydney did, in fact, write one of the best sonnet-sets in Astrophil and Stella and one of the most studied
and fascinatingly mysterious romances in Arcadia but he himself did not consider himself a poet or an author. Sydney wanted
to be remembered as an Englishman and a statesman before he was remembered for his writing.
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