Sidney, Sir Philip
Sidney, Sir Philip (1554–86). Soldier and poet. Born in the year of Mary's marriage to the king of Spain, Sidney was named Philip in his honour. Educated at Shrewsbury (his father being lord president of the Council in the Marches of Wales) and at Christ Church, Oxford, he was devoted to study. From 1572 to 1575 he was on the continent, and was in Paris on the night of the massacre of St Bartholomew. In 1583 he married the daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, served in Parliament, and continued to win golden opinions from all his acquaintance. But in 1585 when Leicester, his uncle, was given command of the forces against Spain in the Low Countries, Sidney was made governor of Flushing, a key port. He volunteered to join Leicester in the attack upon Zutphen, was wounded in the thigh, and died of gangrene nearly a month later. His death was received with great grief. But the story that he gave his own bottle of water on the battlefield to a dying soldier was first reported by his friend Fulke Greville many years after his death and is suspiciously like a story of Alexander the Great. He left much unpublished work, including the sonnets, Arcadia, and the Apologie for Poetrie, but his posthumous reputation depended as much upon his character and courage as on his poetry.
J. A. Cannon
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Sidney, Sir Philip