William Cecil Lord Burleigh

Standard accounts of his death used to say that it was a brawl, largely caused by himself. But accident seems unlikely. He had recently been brought in for questioning by the Privy Council , but...

One of the frequently fictionalised episodes in Sidney's life is his love for Penelope Devereux , who in 1581 became Lady Rich. His sequence of love-sonnets, Astrophel and Stella, is undoubtedly founded on this...

With the help of William Cecil , QEI acted swiftly and decisively to establish her regime by appointing a new, slimmer, less ecclesiastical Privy Council . England and its monarch were both in weak positions...

Editor Janel Mueller observes that this book would not have been publishable during the king's lifetime. Appearing after his death, it became a classic of Tudor devotional literature. William Cecil wrote an introduction. KP

EM entertained the idea of writing about Elizabeth I : perhaps a comparison between her and Catherine de Medici . She had long taken an interest in Elizabeth as a masculine woman exercising power: had...