Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst’s letters from the Low Countries 1587, the ‘quarrels of my lord of Leicester’ and the rhetoric of political survival

When Lord Buckhurst defied Elizabeth I and the earl of Leicester to champion Anglo‐Dutch relations he exposed complex tensions within the queen’s ‘inner circle’ that cut across presumptions about political alliances and ideologies often taken for granted. Analysis of Buckhurst’s letters shows how the rhetoric of counsel actually operated in circumstances of acute pressure, and how relationships among the Elizabethan political elite developed accordingly. Buckhurst’s description of letters as ‘weapons of defence’ in the dangerous quarrel that developed with Leicester summarized his strategy for political survival and reveals a rhetorical modus operandi that is too little regarded.