An English statesman, poet, and dramatist; co-author of the first English drama written in blank verse; described in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as "representative of his period and its culture as a renaissance man: poet, scholar, traveler, courtier, statesman, a lover and patron of music and fine art. He was a religious man with the experience and pragmatism to tolerate his neighbors' (and his family's) freedom of conscience in private, and not only a loyal servant of the crown but also a discreet man of personal charm and moral integrity."