APPENDIX 3
The Spencers and Churchills are not, of course, the only descendants of Sir Robert Sidney and his wife Barbara Gamage. He gave active military service in the Netherlands, so naturally many of his descendants in the Sidney family followed in his footsteps as military men and Netherlandophiles. His son, Sir Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, commanded a regiment in the Netherlands for a time, but is better remembered as a politician than a soldier; he was a Member of Parliament for, successively, Wilton (where his aunt, the Countess of Pembroke, held sway), Kent and Monmouthshire (twice). The latter, of course, is in Wales on the border with England. As Lord of Coity, he was continuing the family’s involvement with Wales as well as England. Perhaps more memorable, though, was his building of Leicester House, a magnificent mansion in the very heart of what is now Soho. Except for the square’s name, nothing now remains of this building. The Sidney connection is hinted at, though, by the name of Lisle Street that runs to its north: Viscount De L’Isle being one of the Earl’s titles and now again held by the Sidneys of Penshurst today.*
The children of the 2nd Earl were even more involved in military action than either their father or grandfather. As we have seen, Lady Dorothy Sidney (Sacharissa) married Henry Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland, who was killed in 1643 at the First Battle of Newbury. A Cavalier, he was fighting on the side of King Charles I, so, at first, it is surprising that two of his bothers-in-law, Philip Sidney (who became the 3rd Earl of Leicester) and Algernon Sidney (Dorothy’s brothers), were on the opposing side. The latter was a Colonel in Cromwell’s New Model Army (‘Roundheads’) and served as MP for Cardiff in the Long Parliament which sat throughout the tumultuous period of the Civil War. However, he did fall out with Cromwell and soon came to regard the Lord Protector as a tyrant who had betrayed the Parliamentarians. After Cromwell died and Charles II was restored to the throne (1660), both brothers made their peace with the new King. However, Algernon later fell out with Charles II, who he again regarded as insufficiently respectful of the wishes of Parliament. He subsequently became implicated in the Rye House Plot (1683) to assassinate both the King and his brother, the Duke of York (later to be crowned James II); he was arrested, tried and executed for treason that same year. Because of his principled stand against what he perceived as Royalist tyranny, he is regarded by many as a Republican martyr.
A third son of the 2nd Earl, Henry Sidney, had better fortune. Born in 1641, he was 20 years younger than Algernon and therefore too young to be involved in the Civil War. He too, however, turned out to be no friend to James II. Entering Parliament in 1679, he wrote and was one of the signatories of the letter sent to William of Orange in 1688 inviting him to come to England to take the throne. In 1690, he was at the new King’s side at the Battle of the Boyne. William’s victory effectively ended James II’s rule and is still celebrated by Ireland’s Orangemen to this day.
The new King, William III, rewarded him successively with the titles Baron Milton, Viscount Sydney and, finally, Earl of Romney. He is best remembered, however, for his period from 1693 to 1702 when he was Master of the Ordnance. This was a highly important position that put him in charge of ordering and maintaining the Royal Ordnance of cannons and other weapons. During this time, he caused all the royal weaponry (and even items such as prison clothing) to be marked with the Sidney coat of arms, the Broad Arrow. This still applies to this day and is used more broadly by the Ordnance survey when marking sighting plinths on the tops of mountains and all of their maps. Curiously, this mark is very similar to the old symbol of Awen (/I\), which, as we have seen, was emblazoned on the arms of Sir Guy de Bryan (who lies buried in Twekesbury Abbey). It is Welsh in origin and is said to go back to Druidic times. Perhaps this is why the King allowed the use of the Broad Arrow – ostensibly the Sidney coat of arms – on royal property.
Following the death in 1698 of Philip Sidney, the 3rd Earl of Leicester, the title passed successively to three of his sons, Philip (d.1705), John (d.1737) and Jocelyn (d.1743). At this point there was a problem with the succession. Jocelyn didn’t have any sons, but he did have an illegitimate daughter, Anne. However, an elder brother of his, Thomas Sidney, who had died in 1728 without ever having a chance to hold the Leicester title, had left behind him two legitimate daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. This caused legal wrangles, which eventually led to the splitting up of the Sidney estates. Penshurst Place and the bulk of the Sidney wealth passed to Elizabeth and Mary, while the Welsh possessions (including Coity) went to Jocelyn’s daughter Anne. Because none of the heirs were male, the family titles became extinct.
This is a fate that all British aristocratic families fear, for not only does it mean a loss of status, but it can also mean destitution. Elizabeth Sidney married a Mr William Parry. The Sidney name as well as the titles were lost, and her daughter was plain Elizabeth Jane Parry. She married Sir Bysshe Shelley, the famous poet, who was his grandson by an earlier marriage, but he and Elizabeth Jane did have a son, John, who took the surname Shelley-Sidney in honour of his illustrious ancestors. He had a son, Philip Charles, who dropped the ‘Shelley’ part of the surname and went back to Sidney. He made what turned out to be a fortunate marriage to Sophia FitzClarence, an illegitimate daughter of King William IV.
This brought the Sidneys back into royal circles, and he was rewarded with a baronetcy as Baron De L’Isle and Dudley. Three generations later, William Philip Sidney, the 6th Baron De L’Isle and Dudley, won a VC for bravery in defending the Anzio Beachhead during the Battle for Italy in the Second World War. It was awarded to him by General Alexander in 1944, the ribbon for the medal being taken from the VC belonging to Sidney’s father-in-law, General Gort. In 1956 he was created 1st Viscount De L’Isle of Penshurst, and, in 1961, he took up the post of Governor General of Australia – the last non-Australian to hold this office. In 1966, he was made a Knight of the Garter, only the second person ever to hold the twin honours of VC and KG. Thus, by the end of his life (he died in 1991), he put the Sidney family back into the higher echelons of the peerage. He would no doubt have been created Earl of Leicester, too, were not this title now held by the Coke family. As it was during the time of the 1st Viscount De L’Isle, when the Penshurst church was refurbished and the Sidney chapel painted with ancestral shields on the ceiling, we must assume that he had an interest in these matters. Whether he was an active Rosicrucian or Freemason has not been disclosed. He was succeeded by his son, Philip John Algernon Sidney, who is the 2nd Viscount De L’Isle and 7th Baron De L’Isle and Dudley. Under his guidance, Penshurst has continued to prosper, finding a balance between being a family home and a tourist attraction. Famed for its gardens as well as its ancient buildings, it has so far managed to stay in private hands and out of the National Trust’s.
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* See Chart 22: Earls of Leicester and Viscounts De L’Isle, page 247