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Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, stood for everything Robert Cecil, the Queen’s Chief Minister from 1596, was trying to destroy.
A quiet handover of power to James of Scotland, the defeat of Spain, and in the meantime, a return to traditional, chivalric honesty and plain dealing.
As we’ve begun to discover, it’s this growing feud between Essex and the Cecils that makes sense of Shakespeare’s long run of history plays.
Shakespeare asked more questions than he gave answers. And what historian Peter Lake has been able to point out is that the questions Shakespeare asks are very much Essex’s questions.
Should a monarch not be decisive? Should courtiers not be honest? Should a peace treaty not be honourable? Can you hand the kingdom to a foreign princess?
This shows that Essex’s position must have been popular. The theatre depended on footfall from the London poor, and they obviously found Shakespeare’s history plays convincing.
If Shakespeare could see the logic of Essex’s position and was willing to take it up in his sophisticated way, then we had better take the earl seriously (unlike many historians).
Essex’s position, as Shakespeare explored it in play after play, was a thought-through approach to resolving the urgent political crisis in which everyone found themselves.
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The closest we get to an Irish soldier - even though this is a captain in Essex's army in fancy dress!
By 1598-99, when Shakespeare wrote his Life of Henry V, political events were moving fast. That year the Spanish Catholic princess, the Infanta Isabella, Cecil’s candidate for the English throne in spite of his hatred of Catholics, married a Habsburg relation, Albert Archduke of Austria.
It was now inconceivable that Isabella could be made queen of England. Worse still for Cecil, if James, the Scottish king, were to succeed Elizabeth, it was Essex who had a good relationship with him.
Cecil stood to lose everything if and when James came to the throne unless he removed Essex. His chance came when he persuaded the Privy Council to send Essex to Ireland to quell a rebellion before the Spanish cashed in and used it as a backdoor to defeat England.
Cecil ensured Essex was given far too little money to succeed, and Elizabeth (or was it Cecil?) wrote telling him not to set foot in England until he’d sorted Ireland. Essex had been caught in a trap.
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16,000 men set out with Essex with a fanfare from Tower Hill early in the afternoon of 27 March 1599, just as an audience was queuing for The Globe across the river. The sky was black. Another storm was brewing. By mid-July the rumour was that only 6000 of them were left.
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