The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics

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.

'This is the first time that the bulk of Essex's career has been reconstructed from something like the totality of the surviving manuscript documentation, and for Elizabethan historians Hammer's achievement is a major event'. London Review of Books '... a major re-evaluation of the decade of the 1590s.' The Journal of Ecclesiastical History '... a lively, interesting, and important book'. The English Historical Review '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 insights in it ... Readers of this present volume will eagerly await a sequel.' Journal of Modern History 'Parliamentary historians will find this study invaluable for its thoughtful analysis of the late Elizabethan political scene and will appreciate its firm base in a wide range of manuscript sources.' Parliamentary History