Book Description

George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, was one of the most renowned and colourful of Queen Elizabeth I's courtiers. A typical Renaissance man of learning and action, and the leading northern earl at Court, he commanded the Elizabeth Bonaventure against the Spanish Armada and carried news of the English victory to Elizabeth at Tilbury. An accomplished jouster, he became the Queen's Champion in 1590. He was a co-founder in 1600 of the East India Company, which opened up English commerce with the Far East, and was appointed to the Privy Council by James I. In this attractively illustrated and scholarly biography, the first for seventy-five years, Dr Spence illuminates Cumberland's varied activities as royal servant, courtier, privateer, landowner and spendthrift, assesses his achievements, and reveals how much the course of his life and fortunes was influenced by Queen Elizabeth herself.