Sidney, Spenser and the royal reader

Elizabeth I of England, as a female monarch who did not heed counsel, particularly in the events surrounding the marriage proposal from the much younger Roman Catholic Duke of Alençon and Anjou, aroused anxiety and frustration in her Protestant male courtiers.

Two of these, Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser, expressed their dissatisfaction about the 'courteous cruell' queen in their literary works and letters.

The relationship between the two men was also complex, united as they were in politics, arguing for a strong interventionist role for England in Europe, but divided in poetics.

Sidney advocated a classical model for English vernacular poetry while Spenser favoured a homegrown English strain harking back to Chaucer and Skelton.