THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII. TO THE PRESENT TIME.

N New Edition,

RE-ARRANGED, AND ENRICHED WITH SEVERAL

ADDITIONAL LIVES,

BY THE

REV. FRANCIS WRANGHAM, M.A. F.R.S.

OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

IN SIX VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

Triumph, my Britain ! Thou hast those to show,
To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. (Jonson.)
-Τις ξυσησεται; ;

(Æsch. ‘Eml. ET @nb. 431.)

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR J. MAWMAN, LUDGATE STREET ; AND FOR

BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1

ODLEIAN

10
FEB
1925
OXFORD

LIBRARY

C. Baldwin, Printer, New Bridge-street, London,

CONTENTS

OF THE

SECOND VOLUME.

Born

Died Page

XX. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) 1

XXI. Robert Dudley, Earl

of Leicester (1532—1588) 72

XXII. Sir Francis Walsing-

ham

(1536–1590) 104

XXIII. Sir Francis Drake .(1545-1596) 122

XXIV. Sir John Hawkins. . (1520–1598) 138

XXV. Edmund Spenser... (1553—1598) 155

XXVI. William Cecil, Lord

Burghley .... (1520–1598) 177

XXVII. Robert

Devereux,

Earl of Essex .. (1567—1601) 215

XXVIII. Charles Howard, Earl

of Nottingham .. (1536_1603) 247

XXIX. Thomas Sackville, Earl

of Dorset (1536–1608) 259

XXX. Sir Robert Cecil, Earl

of Salisbury (1550—1612) 277

XXXI. William Shakspeare. (1564—1616) 296

XXXII. Sir Walter Ralegh. (1552–1618) 32%

Born

Died Page

XXXIII. William Camden (1551—1623) 403

XXXIV. Francis Bacon, Vis-

count St. Alban's. (1561-1626) 430

XXXV. George Villiers I.,

Duke of Bucking-

ham

(1592-1628) 492

XXXVI. George Abbot... ... (1562-1633) 519

XXXVII. Sir Edward Coke . . (1550—1634) 543

XXXVIII. Ben Jonson .. (1574—1637) 575

THE

BRITISH PLUTARCH.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.*

[1554—1586.]

THIS gallant gentleman, of whom it has been justly said, that'he approached more nearly to the idea of a perfect knight than any character of any age or nation,' was born Nov. 29, 1554, at Penshurstf

* AUTHORITIES. Dr. Zouch's Memoirs of Sir Philip Sidney.

† From Ben Johnson's description of this place we learn that, though not embellished with works of touch or marble, with polished pillars or a roof of gold, it had better proofs of it's excellency in the fertility of it's soil, the salubrity of it's air, and it's charming scenery of wood and water;

• Thou hast thy walks for health as well as sport,
The mount to which the Dryads do resort,
Where Pan and Bacchus their high feasts have made
Beneath the broad beech and the chesnut shade:
That taller tree, which of a nut was set

At His great birth, where all the Muses met.' (Forest, ii.) This oak, to which Waller also alludes, as

The sacred mark
Of noble Sidney's birth-
VOL. II.

B