Sidney’s Legal Patronage and the International Protestant Cause

Abstract

This study brings to light a legal treatise from the mid-1580s on diplomatic and royal immunities and the authority of magistrates. Comparison of extant manuscript copies elucidates the work’s authorship by John Hammond, its commission by Sir Philip Sidney, its legal argument, and its textual transmission to those who orchestrated the treason trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1586. Documentary evidence from 1584 to 1585 aligns Sidney with Elizabeth I’s Scottish policy, not directly with the campaign against Mary Stuart. When Sidney commissioned Hammond’s treatise, this study argues, he aimed primarily to prepare himself for anticipated service as a foreign magistrate.