Author of one of the earliest Elizabethan sonnet sequences, Henry Constable embodied, though at different times in his life, two types of the Renaissance artist: the court poet and the religious poet. His court verse, written while he was engaged in his diplomatic career as a crusader for Anglican Protestantism, sounds the notes of the occasional and Petrarchan sonnets appreciated by his audience: the religious poetry, unread by his countrymen, is that of an exiled Catholic determined to use his diplomatic skills and contacts to convert the king and his court. In his poetry, passionately held religious and political convictions are represented in the most conventional of poetic forms.

Constable was born in 1562 into a family distinguished by its connections to nobility and by military and public service to a series of monarchs. His grandmother was Catherine Manners, sister of Thomas Manners, first Earl of Rutland, and great-granddaughter...