
Edmund Lodge: Portrait of Sir Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke (1554-1628). English poet and courtier.
:''This article is about the Elizabethan author. For other people with similar names, see
Fulke Greville (disambiguation).''
'Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke, '''de jure''' 13th Baron Latimer 'and' 5th Baron Willoughby de Broke' (
3 October 1554 –
30 September 1628), known before
1621 as 'Sir Fulke Greville', was a minor
Elizabethan poet,
dramatist, and
statesman.
Life
Born at
Beauchamp Court,
Warwickshire, and educated at
Shrewsbury School and
Jesus College, Cambridge, he was a friend and contemporary of
Sir Philip Sidney at Shrewsbury, enrolling on the same day. He was knighted in 1597. After a distinguished administrative career under
Elizabeth I and
James I, in the course of which he served successively as Secretary to the Principality of Wales, Treasurer of the Navy, and
Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was created
Baron Brooke on
29 January 1621 with special remainder to the heirs of his cousin,
Robert Greville, whom he had adopted. He was also ''de jure''
13th Baron Latimer and
5th Baron Willoughby de Broke (though was never recognised as such).
He was murdered by an old servant in 1628 and is buried in the church at
Warwick. The inscription on his tomb, written by himself, is a compendious biography. It runs: "Fulke Greville, servant to Queen Elizabeth, counsellor to King James, friend to Sir Philip Sidney".
Works
His works consist of
tragedies and
sonnets, and poems on political and moral subjects. His style is grave and sententious.
Towards the end of his life, his varied literary output was gathered together and published:
★ in
1633: two tragedies (''Alaham'' and ''Mustapha''); a sonnet cycle (''Caelica''); and a philosophical treatise in verse (''A Treatie of Humane Learning'')
★ in
1652: ''The Life of the Renowned Sir
Philip Sidney'', a biography of his schoolfellow
Later, his works were collected and reprinted by
Dr Grosart, in
1870, in four volumes; a selection from this was later published in
1895 as ''The Friend of Sir Philip Sidney''.
References
★
★ The above article refers to Fulke Greville III (1554-1628), son of Fulke Greville II (d. 1606), and grandson of Fulke Greville I (d. 1554), whose tomb is in St Nicholas Church,
Alcester. ''This information was taken from the Alcester & District Local History Society website''
[1]
See also
★
Canons of Elizabethan poetry
Links
★
Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke at the “Luminarium”