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Church of England believers and loyalists, Ferdinando was taken by Elizabeth as a toddler to be educated at court.7 From boyhood, Ferdinando was one of the Queen’s favorites, and he distinguished himself at the annual tilts given in her honor, as described in a well-known poem by George Peele, “Polyhymnia” (1590). In fact, the portrait on this book’s cover depicts him decked out for tilting day, as he was considered the finest tiltsman among Elizabeth’s earls. The painter of this portrait finished his work and dated it March 1594. It is thus possible to deduce through simple calculation that the portrait was completed only five to eleven days before the young earl was given the poison that killed him. (See note 3 on p. 317 for the arithmetic.) The poet George Peele painted a memorable verse picture of Ferdinando, in which he is described as wearing white armor and carrying a golden eagle (“Stanleys olde Crest and honourable badge”), entering Elizabeth’s annual tilt of 1589 or 1590. He is accompanied by twenty men on horseback, “Suted in Satten to their Masters collours.” Coming before the Queen, he bows, while also bowing his eagle’s head to her, as if to say “Stoope Eagle to this Sun” (Peele A3).
Although the fact has been long forgotten, Ferdinando repeated his mother’s spendthrift ways as a student at St. John’s, Oxford and then persisted with this reckless behavior all the way through to his death, continuing to endanger the family’s financial stability. According to Sir Henry Lee (Elizabeth’s official “champion” at the tilts until he was of great age), Ferdinando was the most profligate young nobleman of the age, even miraculously outdoing the best known of the time, his friend Gilbert Talbot, the heir to the Shrewsbury earldom.8
In 1591, during one of Elizabeth’s progresses, Ferdinando regaled her by dressing as a pastoral “hermytt” and running the length of the field at full speed.9 He had married Alice Spencer (whose name was pastoralized by her kinsman Edmund Spenser as “Amaryllis”), the youngest of the nine daughters of John Spencer, who was reportedly the wealthiest commoner in the realm. Edmund Spenser dubbed Alice’s young husband “Amintas,” knowing that Ferdinando had written some good pastoral verse (four of his poems survive)10and that he had also been given that pastoral name by Thomas Nashe, among others.11 Most importantly