SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, A RENAISSANCE MAN...Pg 2

Philip was born into the prestigious family of the Sidney's and Dudley's during the reign of the Tudors, seven years after Henry VIII died and one year into the reign of Mary I. The day of his birth, November 30, 1554, at Penshurst Castle in Kent, was a time of rejoicing for his father, Sir Henry, and his mother Mary Dudley. His grandfather, Sir William Sidney, served Henry VIII with distinction and honor. The family roots of the Sidney's, as conjecture has it, appear to have consolidated their English connection during the reign of Henry II (1133-1189), after having left the shores of France. Henry, by inheritance, conquest and marriage, was paid allegiance by subjects in vast areas of France that were under his control, allowing easier emigration to England. History, however, remembers him best for his great love and anger directed at Thomas a Becket. Philip’s ancestor, William de Sidney, who is presumed to have emigrated from France, served Henry as Chamberlain of his household.

My friendship with Philip began when he was just a young boy. At the time our lives intertwined he needed the companionship of another lad, since at home he was bound to interaction with three younger sisters, of whom he expressed much affection. He would later enjoy the addition of three more siblings to the family; another sister and two brothers. I should interject at this point, that the influence of these sisters on Philip, and more particularly on his writings, established him in his own time as a man who expressed a unique grasp of the personal and emotional traits of women, treating them as equals. The writers of the times displayed an appalling lack of understanding of females and their issues. Not so with Philip. In "Pyrocles to Musidorus," he writes, "I am not yet come to that degree of wisdom to think light of the sex of whom I have my life: since if I be anything...I was come to it born of a woman and nursed of a woman...And truly, we men and praisers of men should remember, that if we have such excellencies, it is reason to think them excellent creatures of whom we are.... ." His equal treatment of women throughout his writings and his life was a splendid example to everyone who cherished equality for all humankind.

Philip and I were not without our moments of introspection; indeed, as we would both become writers in later years, these times provided invaluable experiences upon which to draw for written prose, and were the happiest of my life. I remember one occasion specifically as we sat on the river bank with the sun providing a summer warmth rarely seen in these shores. He recounted to me the tragedies of the Dudley's, his mother’s family, beginning with the execution of his great grandfather, Edward Dudley in 1510, followed by the execution of his grandfather John, Duke of Northumberland, his uncle Guildford and aunt, Lady Jane Grey, all executed in the year of Philip’s birth, 1554. Ben Jonson’s tribute to Philip’s birth springs forth in eloquent prose, "That taller tree, which of a nut was set, at his great birth where all the muses met..."

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