The funeral of Philip Sidney, according to the surviving accounts and pictures of it, had a réclame fitting a cultural icon: his body having been borne back to England from Holland in a black-sailed pinnace to lie in the Tower of London, it was escorted, in February 1586/7, through the streets of London by a cortège of 700 mourners, including 32 poor men to represent his age, Sir Francis Drake, the Earls of Leicester, Huntingdon, Pembroke, Essex, and a substantial contingent of municipal and military personnel. Sidney's death had, for England and her allies, the sort of symbolic and emotional significance which the twentieth century attached to those of President Kennedy and the Princess of Wales. As Sidney's friends acknowledged,

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First published 25 October 2002

Citation: Preston, Claire. "Sir Philip Sidney". The Literary Encyclopedia. 25 October 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4067, accessed 9 February 2010.]