The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics: The Political Career of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, 1585-1597

by Paul E. J. Hammer

Overview

The Earl of Essex was the last great favorite of Elizabeth I and the leading cultural patron of the final years of her reign. Dazzled by the "romantic" relationship with the queen, modern writers have branded Essex a dandy, a military incompetent, and a political dabbler, and have blamed him for the bitter factionalism that plagued English politics in the 1590s. Using an unparalleled range of manuscript and printed sources, this book presents a very different image of Essex and of the outbreak of factionalism in Elizabethan politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521434850
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/24/1999
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History
Pages:	468
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction: 'A playboy of the western world'?; Part I. Into the Fateful Circle: 1585–92: 1. 'My lord of Essex'; 2. 'Yowr sonne most ready to doe yowr service'; 3. 'To whom muche is geven …'; Part II. The Quest for Greatness: 1593–7: 4. 'One of her Majestie's privy councillors'; 5. 'Matters of intelligence'; 6. 'The shepheard of Albion's Arcadia'; 7. 'My lord of Essex and his men'; 8. 'Your Majestie's creture and vassall'; 9. 'Yf we lyved not in a cunning world …'; Conclusion: 'A greater worke then ever any gentleman'; Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

"...Hammer's book is compulsive reading - a real page-turner - and will ist well on the shelf of scholar and general reader alike...highly recommended reading." Sixteenth Century Journal

"...richly detailed...This book will be invaluable for specialists studying court politics of the later Elizabethan period..." American Historical Review

"Written with the clarity and good judgment that comes from thorough familiarity with these co,plex material, it at once establishes its author as the leading scholar of late Elizabethan studies. Let us hope that the second volume will emerge as soon as possible, to complete an outstanding feat of historical research and writing." Jrnl of Early Modern history

"All those wanting to know about the earl's career, the character of English court society and politics, or the state of international relations at the end of the sixteenth century will find important new information and insight in it. Readers of this present volume will eagerly await a sequel." Journal of Modern History

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