Sidney of Penshurst - Robert, 2nd Earl of Leicester

SIDNEY OF PENSHURST - ROBERT, 2ND EARL OF LEICESTER 1 FELIX HULL For many years Allen Grove and the writer of this paper were jointly responsible for a WEA class at Maidstone. The final course arranged by them dealt with persons and families from Kent who played a part in national history, the talks being based on local sources. This paper was one of the series. 'A name to conjour with' - Sidney! This remarkable family resided at Penshurst for two hundred years before the male line failed and the estate passed through the female line twice over. For almost half of this period of residence, Robert, 2nd Earl of Leicester, was alive. Born in 1595 and dying in 1677 at the age of 82, he straddles the stage, linking the fame of Sir Henry and Sir Philip with the autumnal glow of Henry, Earl of Romney and John, 6th Earl of Leicester. Yet, curiously, it is not a colossus, but an enigma which faces us: this nobleman, friend of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, special ambassador to Denmark and France, lieutenant of Ireland, speaker of the House of Lords, remains a shadowy, unreal figure who seldom reaches the pages of history and then usually in criticism. Father of three able sons - Parliamentary general, republican diplomat and theorist and handsome Machiavellian statesman - the father is the less real for his obscurity in an age of harsh black and white. In order to assess the man it is necessary first to consider his background. The Sidneys were no medieval noble family. Of course, they accepted an honourable, but wholly fictitious pedigree prepared by the notorious Robert Cooke, Chester Herald, and allegedly stemming from one, Sir William de Sidne, chamberlain to Henry, Comte d' Anjou, later King Henry II of England, but of whom history shows no trace. 1 This article is based on the De L'Isle and Sidney MSS. deposited in the Centre for Kentish Studies and is published with the kind permission of the Viscount De L'Isle. The Calendar of the De L'lsle and Dudley MSS. (6 vols.), published by the Hist. MSS. Commission between 1925 and 1966 has also been used extensively. 43 F. HULL Such, however, was the way with gentle families of Tudor England: sound farming and astute mercantile acumen might be their origin, but this would hardly suffice the College of Heralds where suitability rather than accuracy was the password in matters genealogical.2 The real Sir William was indeed chamberlain to Edward VI; his wealth stemmed from royal office and loyal service and, too, from fortunate marriage alliances in an earlier generation. During the reign of Edward VI part of the estate of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk and brother-in-law of Henry VIII, passed to the Sidneys. Earlier in 1539 the abbey of Robertsbridge, with its valuable iron works, had been granted to Sir William and then in 1551 Penshurst followed.3 These estates provided a vast inheritance in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Lincoln, Nottingham and Rutland and made the Sidneys one of the great landed families of the day. Wealth in land coupled with royal associations led to further aspirations and marriage of a distinctly dynastic character for the young Henry Sidney, who espoused Mary, daughter of John Dudley, Earl and later Duke of Northumberland. At the end of the reign of Edward, therefore, Henry Sidney was married to the daughter of the most powerful noble in the land, was brother-in-law by marriage to Lady Jane Grey and also to the young Robert Dudley, to become the famous Earl of Leice ster. Such associations were dangerous, and it says much for Henry's diplomacy and possibly his skill in covering his tracks, that he survived the Dudley debacle and was indeed used as a trusted servant equally by Mary Tudor and in due course by Elizabeth I. Small wonder, also, that the sons of the Dudley alliance, Philip and Robert, should swiftly come under the tutelage of their brilliant uncle, the Queen's favourite, or that each should continue the tradition of courtier and government servant. Yet, the hazards were many, the widow of Philip Sidney married Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and having escaped the collapse of Dudley, the disaster of the young Earl of Essex in 1601 might easily have engulfed Sir Robert Sidney also. Sir Philip Sidney - a name indeed: poet, courtier, soldier; a man of whom all spoke with favour as of the rising star of Gloriana's court. Even after his death in 1586 the eulogies continued, the tale of Zutphen and the words, 'Thy necessity is yet greater than mine', epitomizing the 'verray parfit gentil knight' of whom Chaucer had sung two centuries before. This sudden and calamitous loss, in the same year as Sir Henry, 2 CKS. U1475 T3/144 and F5. The deeds are a set of forged charters, including one purporting to bear the seal of Henry Plantagenet as Count of Anjou before 1154. The other document is the pedigree prepared by Robert Cooke, Chester Herald, on the basis of a fictitious ancestry. 3 CKS. U1475 T9/4, 5. 44 SIDNEY OF PENHURST - ROBERT, 2ND EARL OF LEICESTER removed the star but left a legend and the young Robert born in 1595, who never knew his uncle in life, must have been dominated by the ghostly presence of this remarkable paragon. Curiously the Penshurst records are almost silent and the glimpses of Philip Sidney which survive suggest an impossible prig and hot-tempered young gallant, hardly the man of tradition.4 It was inevitable that Sir Henry's younger son, Robert, should follow his brother in matters of a career, yet one senses a man of less dynamic character. Adequate, competent and diplomatic are the words which come to mind in considering Sir Robert Sidney, Leicester's lieutenant in the Netherlands after Philip's death, governor of Flushing from 1586 to 1616 and surveyor of the estates of Anne of Denmark after she became Queen. His complete love match with Barbara Gamage of Coity in Glamorgan brought yet more estates, more iron works and coal mines to the Sidney family and, as the years passed, honour upon honour came his way. Lord Sydney, Viscount Lisle and finally Earl of Leicester - in part his own merit, in part the Dudley inheritance at work, for Elizabeth's Leicester had left no child whose legitimacy could be established beyond doubt. So, Sidney of Penshurst and Dudley of Kenilworth were forever linked in honour and in destructive and expensive litigation.s This, then, is the background of Robert Sidney, born to Barbara Gamage in 1595. He was actually the third son of the marriage, the eldest, Vere, died in infancy, Sir William served under his father in the Netherlands and died in 1612 when his troop was transferred to his younger brother then barely eighteen years of age. Thus, suddenly and unexpectedly, he became the inheritor of a vast estate, an amazing tradition of public service in Ireland and the Netherlands and a tale of artistic genius and courtly behaviour. One wonders at this boy who roamed Penshurst, who learned from his Welsh mother, whose father was at Flushing or more probably at Court - a soldier and a courtier, and who suddenly became aware of his burden of nobility. By the age of twenty, he was Lord Lisle in his own right as eldest son of an Earl - indeed, Earl of Leicester, a name still in 1618 carrying overtones of the Armada and royal favour: a great heritage and the whole world before him. One has only one question - was he really of this calibre, or was it a case of inherited greatness thrust upon less able shoulders? The marriage of Robert to Dorothy Percy in 1616 was of the kind to be 4 CKS. U1475 F26; C7/14. 5 CKS. U1475 L2, 3. There is a considerable quantity of documentation for these law suits, principally affecting Robert, 1st Earl of Leicester. 45 F. HULL expected and allied him with Al gernon P ercy, 1 0th Earl o f Northumberland and later Lord Admiral, his brother Henry Percy and his sister Lady Carlisle, Henrietta Maria's confidante. From the time of his father's death in 1626, it was inevitable that the 2nd Earl of Leicester should make his career at Court within the service of the young King and his favourite Buckingham, and in this the untimely death of the Duke had no adverse effect on the future of Robert Sidney. He had, after all, served an apprenticeship as a soldier and had sat as member for Wilton and as knight of the shire for Kent in 1621 and, subsequently, for Monmouthshire, progress was inevitable but the field uncertain. His opportunity came in 1632 when he found himself chosen as special plenipotentiary to the King of Denmark and responsible for a diplomatic mission of the greatest delicacy. The background is complex but must be briefly examined.6 Attention has been so riveted to the constitutional crisis of the seventeenth century that the bankruptcy of English foreign policy during the first half of the century tends to be overlooked. Europe lay under the persistent cloud of sectarian dispute, not eased by the erastian policies of the heads of states. The marriage of James I to Anne of Denmark had allied two of the stronger Protestant houses, but James dreamed of greater things and saw himself as a possible arbiter of Europe's troubles. Hence, he sought peace with Spain and urged upon the unwilling Dutch the truce which in 1609 ended forty years of struggle for independence. If his daughter, Elizabeth, should marry a Protestant leader in Frederick, Elector Palatine, his son should espouse a Catholic Spanish princess and thus preserve a delicate balance. The failure of the Spanish match, rejoiced at in Britain, only led to entanglements with the unstable royal politics of France. In the meantime, however, the dogs of war had been unleashed by the choice of the Elector Palatine as King of Bohemia, a customary Austrian perquisite, and Frederick, brave but foolhardy suffered a swift reversal of fortune. James, much against his will, found himself obliged to assist his son-in-law to the best of his ability. The first period of the Thirty Years War only resulted in the ignominious defeat of the Protestant princes of Germany and with them the hopes of James, and the defeated nobles sought a new protector in Christian IV of Denmark. The Anglo-Danish ma rriage alliance here l e d to further complications for James in 1620 borrowed some 300,000 rix-dollars from his brother-in-law at 6 per cent interest. In theory this was a short- 6 CKS. Ul475 F25/1. The Earl's personal journal of his visit to Denmark. 46 SIDNEY OF PENHURST - ROBERT, 2ND EARL OF LEICESTER term loan, but, although the interest was paid, no principal made its way back to Denmark during the term. When Christian found himself urged to support the Protestant cause against the Emperor he, in turn, turned to Britain for help - negotiation with James and later with Charles I led to an agreement to assist with English troops and to contribute £30,000 a month to the Danish effort. This proved too much for the English treasury to bear; Christian held back from ratifying all the secret clauses of the Treaty; and Charles, attempting to raise funds and honour his part of the agreement, ran into dramatic conflict with his first parliaments. On 17 August, 1626, the Imperial general, Tilly, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Danish forces and after a series of reverses and no really tangible help from England or the Netherlands, Christian sought peace in 1629. In Danish eyes British perfidy had been the principal cause of disaster. It was at this critical moment that the Queen Dowager of Denmark died. Reputedly of great wealth, she bestowed substantial legacies on members of the family including her nephew Charles I of England. It is hardly remarkable that this monarch chose to claim his share, for his finances were seldom solve nt; nor is it strange that Christian appropriated all such funds, asserting with a measure of justification that what he had seized only served to pay off part of the English debt. This, then, was the delicate family squabble with its international implications which resulted in Leicester's dispatch in September 1632 and to him fell the unenviable task of pacifying the Danish King, proving his master's point and satisfying Christian as to British solvency and good faith. A task almost doomed to failure, requiring the offices of a most skilled diplomat, was thrust on a relatively young man whose diplomatic experience was nil. The mission failed, completely, utterly. Leicester met the King three times at least, but suffered studied insult upon insult, Christian openly hinting that his presence was no longer required and his final audience appears to have been in the form of a bacchanalian orgy possibly deliberately designed to complete the earl's discomfiture. During this visit attempts to impress appear to have resulted in dislike from the Danes and charges of extravagance at home and he returned empty-handed except for two minor concessions regarding merchants paying tolls in the Sound and on the Elbe. These, Christian conveniently forgot as soon as opportunity served . Such was the embassy t o Denmark, yet within five years Robert Sidney was entrusted with an even more delicate and difficult mission! The European conflict did not end with the defeat of Denmark and the Protestant princes found a new champion in Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. A great general, he brought unqualified success until his death at Lutzen in 1633. From this time, however, what had begun as a religious struggle became essentially political, for under the guidance 47 F. HULL of Richelieu, France entered the lists as the champion of anti-imperial forces. Protestant and Catholic now fought not in the interests of ecclesiastical probity, nor on behalf of the Palatinate, but purely and simply in the interests of France and Louis XIII, who feared a greater Austrian hegemony. Charles I, with his family associations with the French king, still hoped to play a key role in holding the balance and still hoped to support the claims of his sister and her family to their Rhineland electorate. Despite his state of bankruptcy in terms of cash and of consistent policy, he decided to propose a firm alliance to Louis with the express aim of freeing the Palatinate from Bavarian control. A special embassy, with the Queen's blessing, should be sent to Paris to open urgent negotiations and who better able to head such a mission than Robert, Earl of Leicester.7 Whatever assessment we may now make, the King was genuine in his appointment and the earl was told that he was chosen 'both for your qualitie and worth, and for the experience wee have had of your wisdom and dexteritie in your former negotiations'. The editor of the Hist. MSS. Calendar of De Lisle & Dudley MSS., vol. 6, writes: 'The compliment was kind and savoured of Charles' benignity and trust in the men whom he appointed to do him service. It was also encouraging and Leicester needed encouragement in this assignment. He was not setting forth to negotiate with a King, who, despite his animadversion was an uncle of the English monarch and a Protestant. His new employment would take him to the Court of a Catholic autocrat, guided and advised by one of the shrewdest statesmen in Europe ....' . As in Denmark, so in France: the French were neither flattered nor really interested in the proposal, for to them the Elector was both a nuisance and an unnecessary encumbrance in their main struggle with Austria. Indeed, before the end Leicester challenged the French minister Bouillon that by his philosophy the French would always remain the right party and that thereby they would become as great a menace to the peace of Europe as Spain had been! Second, there was already an English ambassador at Paris, Lord Scudamore, who was not informed of Leicester's appointment and who was persona non grata at the F rench court, but who, for two years, strove to undermine Leicester's negotiations. Third, as always, there was inadequate financial backing for the enterprise. Leicester, himself, wrote of Paris as 'the most chargeable place of Christendome' and there were endless wrangles over the payment of adequate subsidies, not improved by a 7 CKS. U1475 089/1-4 and also C132. A very large part of the personal MSS. concern this mission, and the earl carried on extensive correspondence with the countess and, especially, with Sir William Hawkins, his London agent. 48 SIDNEY OF PENHURST - ROBERT, 2ND EARL OF LEICESTER certain antipathy between the earl and Secretary Coke. 8 Pleas for funds fell on deaf ears for ready money was conspicuous by its absence at the Caroline Court and even the regular payment of agreed sums quickly stood in arrears. There was indeed much appearance of goodwill and support - Henrietta Maria and Lady Carlisle saw to that, but little substance in any of the negotiations which dragged on interminably for the five years, 1636-41. In part, the fault must rest with Charles for at the same time as professing his desire for a treaty of alliance with Louis, he repeatedly acted in a manner most calculated to give offence to the French monarch, who reasonably concluded that France could 'go it alone' and that the embassy was only useful as a delaying tactic. Well before the end of the period Leicester was utterly disillusioned and this, coupled with the increasingly disturbing news from home, led him to seek a change of employment. This subject he broached to the king during a visit home in 1639 when he actually went north to York with the royal forces and according to his own account urged the need for an accommodation with the Scots, a plea which fell on deaf ears.9 There was one field in which t h e Sidneys had distinguished themselves - Ireland - and it seems that Leicester had a dimly formed ambition to follow up the work of his grandfather, Sir Henry, in that country. Perhaps, there, the ill-luck and frustration of his diplomatic missions might be overcome in action. This desire was well known to the Northumberland faction; the return of Sir Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, in 1639 was the opportunity; and, in May 1641, Leicester was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in place of Strafford who was executed on 11th of that month. 10 It is at this point, however, that the enigma of Robert Sidney's career becomes most evident for, apparently, he remained an absentee governor never assuming in Ireland itself the office to which he had been raised. His sons Philip and Algernon were there and later, between 1646 and 1647, Philip, Lord Lisle, also did a term as Lord Lieutenant under parliamentary aegis, but for the earl himself the Irish Sea formed an impenetrable barrier. Apparently, too, he remained on good terms with the king and was appointed Lieutenant of Kent as an additional duty; he was sufficiently respected to act repeatedly as Speaker of the Upper House in 1642; and despite his equivocal position his estates 8 CKS. U1475 C132 passim. The letters to Sir William Hawkins are full of references to the earl's financial plight in Paris. See also Calendar vol. 6, pp. 57-65. 9 There is a reference to this matter in the Introduction to Vol. 6 of the Calendar, p. xxix. JO See CKS. U1475 F25/2 for a reference to this event, but the actual Letters Patent is missing. 49 F. HULL suffered little hurt from the parliament men in comparison with Knole or Hothfield, or indeed Surrenden. 11 In 1641, therefore, the stock of the Earl of Leicester stood high and in May his commission of appointment was sealed. Lady Leicester wrote 'that this nue honor maie bring to you an increase of all that is called hapines. You are now in a faire way of dooing much good, both in publicke affaires and in your private fortune. ...', and there was every reason for a swift transfer to Dublin, yet it never came.12 In fact, the appointment was the result of long intrigue. In 1639, when the matter was first broached two possibilities had been apparent, the Irish office, if Wentworth retired, or that of secretary of state for England in place of Coke. Northumberland supported the Irish office, his brother, Henry Percy, the English, but the king, without committing himself to any change of occupation for the petitioners rejected the secretaryship because Leicester was 'too high' for such office.13 So the intrigues continued: Lady Dorothy used all her skill with those of her family and others, and in particular approached Lord Holland only to receive equivocal answers, for he had his own eyes on Ireland. Sir John Temple, Irish Master of the Rolls from 1640, worked faithfully and endlessly for Leicester but the king blew hot and cold, while Ireland itself with the removal of Strafford's 'thorough' rapidly fell apart. From 1639, the Lord Lieutenant was absent and from the autumn of 1640 technically the office stood vacant and, while Charles played fast and loose with the life of his greatest champion, Ireland drifted swiftly toward chaos. The need in 1641 was for a clear and direct policy backed by adequate strength and the transfer of Leicester from Paris on his appointment might have saved the day. Instead, the king ordered him to stay at his embassy and instructed that he return to England in September when they might talk over the Irish question! On October 23rd the uprising in Ulster and the massacre of Protestants began !14 At Leicester's return to England, therefore, the urgency of his Irish command was at its height, yet he delayed taking action. He became Lieutenant of Kent, yet again, his dilatory approach to his duties has been regarded as a contributory cause of the county's troubles in 1642. Everitt refers to his refusal to grant commissions of deputy lieutenancy under the Militia Ordinance and writes that 'Leicester was by nature indecisive' and then adds the significant comment: 'as Lieutenant of Ireland he had declared himself "environed by such contradiction as I 11 See Calendar, vol. 6, 436 and note, and also CKS. U1475 C133/32. 12 CKS. U1475 C82/41 and also Calendar, vol. 6, 403-4. 13 CKS. U1475 Cl 29/9 and Calendar, vol. 6, 339-40. 14 CKS. U1475 C25/2 and Calendar, vol. 6, 555. 50 SIDNEY OF PENHURST - ROBERT, 2ND EARL OF LEICEST ER can neither get from them nor reconcile them. The parliament bids me go presently, the King commands me to stay till he dispatch me . The supplies of the one and the authority of t h e other are equally necessary ... " .' 15 Leicester was in fact caught between two fires and the epithet of 'indecisive' has yet to be proven - it had not been a characteristic of his family. As England slid towards civil war, he was indeed only partially in the confidence of either side and like many other gentlemen found himself unable to reconcile opposing claims of loyalty. Moreover, one result of the 1641 massacre had been to create still more constitutional difficulties at home, for Pym, while accepting the need for prompt and effective action, refused to allow a situation in which the Irish army would be under the authority of the crown. The fears r aised b y Strafford's Captain-generalcy and his assumed intentions o f using the Irish forces to enforce the royal will in England, effectively destroyed the hope of taking much needed action in Dublin when the emergency arose. Leicester's experience as a diplomat had taught one lesson, that without adequate supplies and financial resources, action only courted disaster. Added to this Lord Lisle was a member of the Lower House, having just returned from the Scottish campaign; while his brother-in-law, Northumberland, the Lord Admiral, was one of the leading peers critical of, if not hostile to, royal policy. The apparent indecision of 1641-43 may have stemmed more from a bewildered mind faced with conflicting loyalties than from any basic weakness of character and perhaps, who knows, Leicester was trading on the traditional Sidney skill in diplomacy and in this he failed. In a note compiled in 1645 to explain a quarrel with his wife over money he wrote: 'but it pleased God that that which should have been for my good [i .e . Ireland] became for me an occasion of falling, though not by any fault as I can make it appear' .16 So passed the rest of 1641 and 1642. Speaker of the House of Lords, he was well aware of the problems of the day and perhaps again chose to delay issuing the Kentish deputy lieutenancy warrants because he sought to have full legal authority from Crown as well as legislature - this would certainly correlate with his attitude over Ireland, but if so, it was a false hope and the year e n d e d at Edgehill not in an accommodation, while Kent was seized, forcibly, by a militant group of gentry and soldiers. 15 The Community of Kent and the Great Rebellion, 1640-1660 (1966), 107. T.P.S. Woods in Prelude to Civil War (1980), 56, also refers to Leicester as 'a worried, weak man'. 16 CKS. U1475 F25/2. Notes by Leicester on his affairs between 1636 and 1650. A full transcript is in Calendar, vol. 6. 51 F. HULL Yet, the needs of Ireland persisted. The earl had already despatched his sons and Lisle was in command of inadequate forces; many of his goods were in Dublin and he sat at Chester waiting to sail. Even the weather conspired against him! On 30th December, 1642, Sir John Temple wrote 'I see it pleaseth God as yett to detaine your Lordship from us by these constant westerly winds' and a week later Lord Lisle wrote 'we are all impatient of this west wind and chiefly your Lordship' .17 But the whim of royalty must be obeyed and by the middle of January he was back at Oxford at the king's behest and the opportunity passed, for ever. In Ireland itself trouble continued and all seemed lost. On 14 January, 1643, Lord Lisle wrote 'your Lordship knows how those that are ernest in the busenness strive against the streame' and in May of the same year to his mother writing of the Irish government he added: 'I thinke we must shortly all leave them and the rebells to agree amongst themselves.I confesse I wonder how they ever fell out. ... the government being now wholly guided by the Irish party' _18 By the summer the commission had been removed and in 1644 James, Marquess of Ormonde, took the seals of office. It was with more relief than sorrow that Lord Lisle and his brother Algernon returned to England in August 1643. So, again, we return to Sir Robert Sidney's 'indecision'. Was his account of the affair accurate? With the example of Strafford before him was discretion the better part of valour? And if so can one blame him? The Dictionary of National Biography reiterates the same point and speaks of distrust 'on account of moderation or irresolution' and this is the character which has been assigned to the 2nd Earl of Leicester, yet he carried out his task at Paris, if not successfully, at least to the general satisfaction. He is accused at times of extravagance and overspending, never of irresolution - is this again the judgement of the Whig historian unable to appreciate the dilemma of the moderate in a revolutionary world? It is strange, nonetheless, that this courtier and 'civil servant' suffered little from his personal friendship with the king. In 1643, he returned at last to Penshurst to meet a new challenge. His prolonged sojourn at Oxford had created more than suspicion amongst his enemies and the County Committee at last placed Penshurst under sequestration and accused Leicester of delinquency.19 With this attack upon his home and trustworthiness irresolution vanished and he challenged, successfully, the fabrication of his enemies. He had never, he asserted, taken up arms against Parliament and never would do so. 11 CKS. U147S Cl 14/25. 1s CKS. U147S C83/3 and C126/1. 19 See Calendar, vol. 6., 436 and note and also CKS. U1475 E36; 084/1, 2. 52 SIDNEY OF PENHURST - ROBERT, 2ND EARL OF LEICESTER He had gone to Oxford on the king's orders as Lieutenant of Ireland and had done nothing in opposition to Parliamentary claims and orders. This said and accepted, Ireland was abandoned and Penshurst once more received its lord, who for the remaining thirty-four years of his life never again took a really active part in politics and national affairs. Yet, for some years the enigma continues. His plea that he had not taken up arms might be accepted, but his right to attend the House of Lords was suspended and thus he continued, as he had started, neutral. Perhaps the active support given by his older sons to the cause of Parliament helped to preserve his patrimony and after the surrender of Charles, he and Lady Leicester were assigned the custody of the younger royal children and some of the royal jewels also reached Penshurst.20 In 1648, however, the army demanded the removal of the prince and princess and a dispute regarding the ownership of the jewels followed the death of the princess Elizabeth. That seems to be the end and the comment 'passive' as a characteristic of the earl certainly seems to apply after the execution of the king. Disillusioned with politics, with Court and Parliament; soured with the disappointment inherent, though not automatically so, in posts of high office, the man of fifty-five became increasingly embittered. Lady Dorothy, his wife, had been his great and constant love and helpmeet over the years and, in 1636, on his departure for France he had made over all his estate rents and income to her personally, relying himself on fruits of office.21 During the long years of the Parisian embassy this arrangement had proved its worth for his main private income had been kept separate from the costs of official duties. Lady Leicester had worked tirelessly for her lord and money problems had never caused friction between them. The earl's retirement from public life in 1643 carried with it the loss of income and in 1645, exceedingly hard up, he asked his wife for money or for some jewellery which he could pawn. To his surprise and bitter resentment she refused!22 Just why Lady Dorothy chose to humiliate her husband in this way no one knows, nor is it clear how the dilemma was overcome or whether relations ever after were strained. Certainly by 1649 Lady Leicester was a sick woman, ·she had complained of persistent headache as early as 1640 and one surmises that the last ten years of her life were clouded by ill health and possibly by an increasingly bitter tongue, for a year or so before her death in 1659, Sir Robert was having to excuse rumours of his ill-treatment of her to his brother-in-law.23 Nevertheless, 2° CKS. U1475 083/26 and Calendar, vol. 6, 484-91 passim. 21 CKS. U1475 F25/2 for details. 22 CKS. U1475 F25/2. 23 CKS. U1475 C85/24 in particular. 53 F.HULL her death when it came was a bitter blow and left the earl without the close friendship and advice of one who was ever outspoken in her assessment of men and situations. Then, in 1653, there came a breach with Philip, Lord Lisle. The cause again is uncertain, it may have been over finances or the handling of the Welsh estate, but the quarrel cut deep and led to the younger man striking his father across the face.42 This was unforgiveable and despite an attempt at reconciliation about ten years later there is no evidence that relations were ever normal again, nor that the insult was, or could be, forgiven. In the same year, too, the earl quarrelled with his young nephew and son-in-law Viscount Strangford, who had been residing at Penshurst as the earl's ward. Strangford suddenly accused Leicester of misappropriating the income from his estates and demanded both estates and rights. Whatever the justice of the claim, there seems evidence that the earl's enemies had been at work and had temporarily obtained the ear of the viscount, but it was one more element in the cup of bitterness which was Leicester's lot.2s His second son Algernon, was an outstanding scholar and also a parliamentary soldier of ability and one-time governor of Dover Castle.26 In 1658, he was chosen as one of the Protectorate embassy sent to Denmark, the successful issue of which was over-shadowed by the Restoration. The change of government left Sidney and his colleagues in an ambiguous position, but ultimately their embassy was ended and they returned to England: except Algernon Sidney.21 It is said that he was unable to subscribe to the oaths required by Charles II from former opponents and this may be the case, but it is hardly the picture which emerges from the letters to his father which have survived. At one stage Lord Lisle accused his father of being too much under Algernon's influence, and it may be that Leicester was anxious that his son should not run into danger. If so why was Algernon apparently neglected and why did Sir John Temple write in terms that suggest anything but a fatherly attitude by the earl? In January 1661, he wrote: 'I have heere returned your sonnes letter . ... He writes very discontentedly & expresseth much trouble & a very deepe sence of your Lordship's displeasure which he thinkes falls very unhappily upon him .... but I shall forbeare to say more' .s2 Certainly, Algernon Sidney stayed in exile until his father's death wandering through Europe as a penniless soldier of fortune who none the less was prevented by family 24 CKS. U1475 F24, see also Calendar, vol. 6, 614. 2s CKS. U1475 C125. 26 CKS. U1475 0101/4. 21 CKS. U1475 C84/4-8. 2s CKS. U1475 C114/33 and Calendar, vol. 6, S12-4. 54 SIDNEY OF PENHURST- ROBERT, 2ND EARL OF LEICESTER pressures from taking up duties as a mercenary. His letters of the 1660s suggest a sense of deliberate neglect and an unwillingness on the earl's part to correspond with or to assist his second son.29 This impression of an embittered old man residing at Penshurst alone with his books is heightened by his curt refusal to become involved in the politics of the Restoration. He welcomed his reinstatement to the House of P e ers, but declined to attend on account of age and infirmity.3o He claimed the residue of his fees due from the embassy to Paris and the lieutenancy of Ireland and in this he received some satisfaction, but over a period of seventeen long years he drifts further and further into obscurity, outliving most of his generation and out of sympathy with his own family. There is no evidence regarding his youngest son, Henry, handsomest man of the Restoration Court. Certainly the late seventeenth century saw the name of Sidney pass through the full gambit of fortune's vicissitudes: 2nd and 3rd Earls estranged and apparently retired from active life and affairs; Algernon exiled, pardoned and then executed for a plot in which he played little part; Henry, star of the Court, sent to the Hague as emissary and returning not as Charles II's liege subject, but as a leading figure in William III's entourage opposing the Jacobite government in 1689. For him great honour, Earl of Romney, the last to hold high office, for from the death of Philip, 3rd earl, in 1698 till the pathetic end of the eccentric Jocelin, 7th earl, in 1743 is a bare 45 years - 'Ichabod', the glory had indeed departed! Such is the story of Robert, 2nd Earl of Leicester, a man for whom written history has only the verdict of 'irresolute' and 'passive'. It seems impossible to re-establish him completely for at the moment of crisis he failed to rise to the heights demanded, preferring, it seems, to hide behind a curtain of conflicting loyalties. Yet, this is not the whole picture. He was a man of great promise and one who held the friendship and esteem of courtiers and servants alike. King and queen trusted him and approved him and even the leaders of Parliament looked on Leicester as more of an ally than an enemy. He was scholar, bibliophile and a keen observer of affairs, keeping diaries, detailed, if not brilliant, and requesting copies of Lords and Commons journals while at Paris that he might keep fully informed.31 He recorded the execution of Charles I and the dismissal of the Rump Parliament by Cromwell: what went wrong?32 Even after a detailed study of the earl's papers this question still 29 CKS. U1475 C84/I-22. 3° CKS. U1475 C95/3 see also ZlOI, 104. 31 CKS. U1475 C132/110. 32 CKS. U1475 F24. 55 F. HULL remains. Why did he fail to live up to the promise? Was he really irresolute? What went wrong? Without some additional information the answer remains elusive and the man enigmatic. There is little doubt that disillusionment and disappointment played a large part and that these coincided with national catastrophe. In the circumstances he failed to rise to the occasion - far from being a coward, he dared not move without adequate security from both parties. Where another might have ignored kingly or parliamentary wishes and made a bold, if futile, gesture, Robert Sidney played a waiting game hoping against hope for a reconciliation of interests which never came. This paralysis at the moment of greatest need has damned him in the eyes of those who found the claims of either side to be supreme. Nevertheless, when all has been said in extenuation, was this quite the whole story? The hesitation of 1641-43 would appear to link up with his personal relations - was the real cause of Lady Leicester's denial of help in 1645 the reaction of a strong-willed and imperious woman to a husband who has apparently failed to live up to the standards she set? These are the unknowns of history: questions to be asked and probed but often never answered adequately for the answers lie for ever lost in the thoughts of the participants. Thus, Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, passes slowly from sight and almost from historical memory. At Penshurst he prepared his will - a lengthy complex document to which between 1665 and 1675 he added at least nine lengthy codicils, and under which his heir Philip, Lord Lisle, was rejected, Algernon partly restored to favour and Henry clearly the overall gainer and favourite.33 Small wonder that after his death the third earl challenged the will, which left him nothing, except the entailed estate, and removed even the books and library which he cherished, to his younger brother. A man of many parts, perhaps Robert Sidney was not of the stuff of martyrs and heroes; perhaps, too, in the confines of his beloved Penshurst among his books, he at last found himself and discarded the ghostly tyranny of uncle and great uncle and the tradition of a century - who knows? 33 CKS. U1475 T325/2-7. 56