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passim; Hayne's Burghley Papers; Cal. Cecil MSS. i–ii.; Derrick's Image of Ireland (illustrated) in Somers Tracts; White's Funeral Sermon; Borlase's Reduction of Ireland; Shirley's Original Letters; Camden's Annals; Wright's Queen Elizabeth and her Times; Gregory's Highlands and Isles of Scotland; Hill's MacDonnells of Antrim; Annals of the Four Masters, ed. O'Donovan; Gilbert's Cal. of Ancient Records of Dublin, ii.; Cal. of Fiants Ireland (Eliz.); Lloyd's Worthies; Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors; Froude's Hist. of England; Fox-Bourne's Sir Philip Sidney (Heroes of the Nations); Ewald's Life and Times of Algernon Sidney; Arch. Cantiana, xxi. 227; Wright's Ludlow Sketches; Archæol. Soc. Journal, vol. xxiv.; Cotton. MSS. Vitell. c. i. f. 65 (Instructions to Sir W. Sidney), ib. Vesp. F. xii. f. 153 (to Sussex, 19 Sept. 1576), ib. Titus B. x. ff. 1–170 (Letter Book, 1575–8), xi. f. 483 (to Sussex, 13 March 1557), xii. f. 32, xiii. f. 152 (Instructions, 5 Oct. 1565), f. 174 (to Sussex, 21 Dec. 1570), f. 201 (plot for the government of Ireland, 1575), f. 224 (to Sussex, 4 Feb. 1576), f. 250 (to Leicester, 1 Aug. 1578); Harl. MSS. 353 f. 127, 168 f. 23; Lansdowne MSS. x. ff. 63 (valuation of lands, 1568), xlv. 4 (Instructions, September 1585), l. 88 (expenses of funeral), lxxi. 63, cxi. 9 (buildings and repairs as L. P. of the Welsh Marches), clv. 80, 82 (Instructions, 1574, 1575); Egerton MSS. 1049, ff. 3, 9; 2642 f. 224, 2790 ff. 6, 12; Addit. MSS. 12093 (commission, 1560), 15914 (Letters, 1573–7), 26676 f. 89 (Sir W. Sidney), 28103 ff. 5, 7, 30808 (installation as K.G. 14 May 1564), 32091 f. 244 (to Leicester, 1571), 32092 f. 5 (to T. Knell, 1576), 33746, 34079 f. 13 (to Burghley, 1574); Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. (MSS. of Lord de L'Isle and Dudley at Penshurst, with some not printed by Collins).]

R. D.

SIDNEY or SYDNEY, HENRY, Earl of Romney (1641–1704), fourth and youngest son of Robert, second earl of Leicester [q. v.], and younger brother of Philip, third earl of Leicester [q. v.], of Dorothea Spencer, countess of Sunderland [q. v.], the well-known ‘Sacharissa,’ and of Algernon Sidney [q. v.], the republican, to whom he was junior by nineteen years, was born at Paris in the spring of 1641. Shortly after his birth his father was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, and he was brought over to England in October. He was the favourite of his mother Dorothy, daughter of the ninth earl of Northumberland, who at her death in 1659 left him a small estate. He was then travelling abroad under the Calvinist divine, Dr. Thomas Pierce [q. v.], in company with his nephew, a boy a few months older than himself, afterwards second earl of Sunderland. Two years later the same pair were travelling in Languedoc and Spain along with ‘Harry Savile,’ the younger brother of Halifax. By 1664 he was back in England, and making favour at court, where in the summer of 1665 he was appointed groom of the bedchamber to James, duke of York, and a few months later master of the horse to the Duchess of York. The promise given when he was a mere boy (and Lely had painted him for his mother) of being extraordinarily handsome had been amply redeemed. Reresby's verdict that he was the handsomest man of his time was affirmed by such a critic as Anthony Hamilton, who made the proviso, full of significance, that he had too little vivacity ‘pour soutenir le fracas dont menaçoit sa figure.’ He was already ‘known as a terror to husbands,’ and now he and his roguish ally, Henry Savile [q. v.], seem to have vied with each other for the favour of the duchess, who is said on her side to have taken a strong fancy to both of them. There is no doubt that in January 1666 Sidney was the cause of a serious estrangement between the duke and duchess, which was followed by his own abrupt dismissal (cf. Spence, Anecdotes, p. 249). The king, however, seems to have borne him no ill-will, as early in 1667 he was given a captaincy in the ‘Holland’ regiment. In 1672 he was sent as envoy to France, on a congratulatory mission to Louis XIV, and on 7 July 1677 he was appointed master of the robes, with a regular stipend of 500l. per annum; moreover, in February 1678 he was promoted colonel of a regiment of foot, which for some time afterwards bore his name. In 1677 his father, at his death, had left him the estate of Long Itchington in Warwickshire and 25,000l. in money. In 1679 he put up for parliament, contesting the seat of Bramber with his brother Algernon, who seems to have withdrawn in favour of his young and popular rival. He entered the house when the struggle about the Exclusion Bill was approaching its height, and, as sharing the full confidence of Sunderland, he soon obtained a measure of importance. Sunderland's plan was to bring the Prince of Orange over to England, and make him prominent in the English mind. For the express purpose of effecting this, Sidney (with the concurrence of Essex, Halifax, Shaftesbury, and Temple, who were in the scheme) was sent as envoy to the Hague. His instructions were drawn up with consummate cleverness by Sunderland, but the negotiations came to little at the time, owing to the dislocation of parties at home, consequent upon the king's illness in August 1679. Sidney nevertheless succeeded during the summer in gaining the complete confidence of the Prince of Orange. Obtuse in some respects, he was perhaps the first Englishman fully to realise the probability there was of the