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| Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex |
No actor in Elizabethan politics exemplified the struggle against the Privy Council and governmental corruption better than Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex. His rebellion of 1601 was the result of a long standing dispute over the health and function of the English State. Essex watched as the glorious reign of Elizabeth was corrupted by personal aspirations of civilian courtiers like Sir Walter Raleigh and the Cecils by parsimoniously undermining English war and peace time policies. In the 1590s when Essex inherited the role of court favorite to the queen , he hoped to restructure the government in a idealized vision of a true commonwealth where monarch, council and subject functioned as a healthy political body. This was quickly dashed by the reality and vanity of a queen set on both hording her wealth and allowing unscrupulous activities to run rampant.
Essex virtuous goals are seen throughout his adventures in continental wars, domestic policies, writings and acts as recounted in his An Apologie of the Earle of Essex, against Those Which Iealovsly, and Maliciovsly, Tax Him to Be the Hinderer of the Peace and Qviet of His Covntry, his letter explaining his beliefs, behaviors and concerns while in service to the Queen and her council‘s push for a hasty treaty with Spain. While his protest of the treaty with Spain was a vocal turning point for Essex, his decision to rebel was wrought with controversy, because the factors that surrounded the rebellion call into question the role of several contributing issues that shaped Essex reactions. First, Essex’s ideological character, namely that of his sense of honor and justice, were major contributors to his behavior in defense of England at court and abroad. Secondly, Essex experience and witness of the corruption and abuses by the “base-born” upstarts in the name of the Queen in the Privy Council. Finally, his distrust of the Privy Council and their seemingly indecisive relationship with Spain that his frustration with the court blossoms, and he begins to truly believe it is his destiny to save the English throne from it cancer of corruption.
Essex virtuous goals are seen throughout his adventures in continental wars, domestic policies, writings and acts as recounted in his An Apologie of the Earle of Essex, against Those Which Iealovsly, and Maliciovsly, Tax Him to Be the Hinderer of the Peace and Qviet of His Covntry, his letter explaining his beliefs, behaviors and concerns while in service to the Queen and her council‘s push for a hasty treaty with Spain. While his protest of the treaty with Spain was a vocal turning point for Essex, his decision to rebel was wrought with controversy, because the factors that surrounded the rebellion call into question the role of several contributing issues that shaped Essex reactions. First, Essex’s ideological character, namely that of his sense of honor and justice, were major contributors to his behavior in defense of England at court and abroad. Secondly, Essex experience and witness of the corruption and abuses by the “base-born” upstarts in the name of the Queen in the Privy Council. Finally, his distrust of the Privy Council and their seemingly indecisive relationship with Spain that his frustration with the court blossoms, and he begins to truly believe it is his destiny to save the English throne from it cancer of corruption.
Essex's ideas of the state came from his aristocratic, chivalric and humanist upbringing at a time of political turmoil both in England and on the Continent. Essex believed that his "inherited" behavior and beliefs would serves as the figurehead of the way that proper nobles should behave. This belief was based on his father's idealized "cult of Walter Devereux" that was promoted by men like his father's secretary, Edward Waterhouse and shaped the younger Essex's view of his lineage and the virtuous behavior associated with those of high birth. At his father's funeral the Reverend Richard Davies sermon on Walter Devereux, the 1st earl of Essex, described his:
nobilitie, comparing it to a Mountayne from which foure famous ryvers must issue (the Mountaine true Religion, the rivers, Prudence, Justice, Fortititude, and Temperaunce) is a rule to you: first to follow your father in truth of Religion, then to be as he was, wise, just, valiaunt, and temperate.[1]
Essex's efforts to live up to his father's level of virtue and honor were successful and as a result Essex was a well sought after patron in all spheres of intellectual, political and military life because he was generally well-liked and idealized by others because of his active and noble lifestyle. His reputation encouraged aspirant nobles desire to enter the world under his auspices, and his military leadership was looked up to by all soldiers.
Essex was praised by clergymen like George Gyfford who that proclaimed that "God hath prepared your honour as a right worthy instrument for His plans."[2] Matthew Sutcliffe praised Essex: "God hath placed your lordship as it were on a high stage in this Estate: never man had greater favour of the beholders, nor was more likely to obtain a singular applause of the people."[3] It was this sort of praise that Essex relished and placed his faith in his reputation and honor upon it. The Puritan factions considered him as their protector, while the Roman Catholics saw him as the foundation of establishing religious tolerance in England. There is no question that his lofty temper broke out occasionally in arrogance to his equals and even to his sovereign, though, to his honor it was said his conduct to his inferiors was ever marked by the most singular delicacy and generosity.
His education in chivalric virtue and honor by way of the French writer Raymond Lull’s The Book of the Ordre of Chyvalry and the English Boke of St. Albans. The key lessons Essex incorporated in his life were that the role of the noble to steadfastly defend his lord and govern justly by the virtues of war and peace of a knight that were commissioned by God through the blood-born inheritance of a aristocratic bloodline. Essex's behavior exemplified this, he gauged his reputation and honor based on his service to England including the Queen herself, God and his family. Essex's service to the Queen was not unaware of his honor in the public sphere because he was the idol of the populace and the Queen herself despite their disputes, favored him at court. Their relationship at first supported the reciprocity needed, as Essex must be loyalty to the Queen, his independence and function of knightly honor relied on her maintenance and "good lordship". Essex further chivalric honor is seen in his dedications to the military causes, his apprenticeship under Leicester in the Netherlands, his forays in France and the conquest of Cadiz.
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