PERROT, PIRATES AND PARISIAN GROCERS: SIR JOHN PERROT, COURT FACTION, JURISDICTIONAL CONFLICT AND THE AFFAIR OF THE PETER AND PAUL

The Marseilles ship, the Peter and Paul, became the object of a bitter dispute that internationalized an incident involving the royal courts of England, France, Portugal and Spain. At the time it was something of a cause célèbre that preoccupied the court, Privy Council and High Court of Admiralty. The significance of the ship's detention lies not so much in the incident itself but in the events surrounding it and the light it sheds on competing and conflicting jurisdictions involving the Westminster and Dublin governments. It reveals much about the bitter factionalism at the royal court which involved the Pembrokeshire magnate Sir John Perrot and Walter Devereux, earl of Essex.

Spenser’s View and the Production of Political Knowledge in Elizabethan England

This article analyzes the View as an example of knowledge production, rather than plumbing it for representation or ideology as scholars have traditionally done. Tracing the process of construction, sources, and generic conventions that Spenser wielded not only illuminates some of the more curious elements of the View, but also reveals his practices and motivations for it. As this article suggests, such an approach reinforces the idea that Spenser designed the View as an appeal for the patronage and support of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, by modeling specific forms of expertise and counsel characteristic of the Essex circle.

Henry Savile and the Elizabethan Court

This essay examines Henry Savile’s relationship with the Elizabethan and Jacobean court and the political culture of the period in which he lived. Particular attention is paid to the controversies surrounding Savile’s alleged connection to Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex and the court politics of the 1590s, and variant interpretations scholars have made of the political significance of his historical scholarship. Savile’s Elizabethan literary remains demonstrate his persistent interest in the association between militarism and the arts of civil government, and the frequently problematic relationship of virtuous soldiers and statesmen to princely rulers. These concerns were shared by leading Elizabethan soldiers and statesmen, from the earl of Leicester, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, to the earl of Essex, and may have influenced the latter’s growing alienation from queen and court in the late 1590s. A broader comparison of Savile’s career with those of contemporary Merton scholars, however, confirms that he rejected the public careers pursued by other friends and colleagues. Savile’s political connections seem to have served his scholarly ambitions rather than the other way around, and after the rebellion of the earl of Essex he seems to have retreated from life at court.