On this day in 1586 the courtier-poet Sir Philip Sidney died from wounds suffered in a battle with the Spaniards at Zutphen, in the Netherlands. It is impossible to tell how much of the monument which Sidney's contemporaries constructed to him is based in reality, but the Queen is said to have described him as "the most accomplished gentleman in Europe," and the commoners at his funeral are said to have shouted, "Farewell, the worthiest knight that lived," and as C. S. Lewis put it, "Even at this distance, Sidney is dazzling." ... FULL STORY »
