Domestic Politics and Family Absence: The Correspondence (1588-1621) of Robert Sidney, First Earl of Leicester, and Barbara Gamage Sidney, Countess of (Kinnamon Noel J.)(Paperback)

Though all but three of Robert Sidney's 332 extant letters to his wife Barbara Gamage Sidney have been in the Sidney family archive, they have never previously been fully transcribed or edited. This edition of the surviving letters, which Sidney wrote to his wife when they were separated for long periods by his official duties at various continental locations, provides a wealth of information about the Sidneys' family life. They touch on matters such as family illnesses, the children's education, court gossip, finances, and the construction of additions to Penshurst Place, the seat of the Sidney family. The letters also offer an extraordinary record of an early-modern English household in which the wife was entrusted with the overall responsibility for the well-being of her family, and for managing a large estate in the absence of her husband. Sidney's letters show that, although his
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