William Cecil, Lord Burleigh

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...

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

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...

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...

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...