Philip Sidney's appointment to Flushing was secured through family connections and diplomatic work, but Elizabeth nearly revoked it before ultimately reinstating him.

42:29charge of one of these Flushing >> Mhm. >> is the star of today's episode. He's finally got his chance. He's finally got his opportunity to have a crack at the Spanish and write his name into the history books. And that is our friend Sir Phillip Sydney. >> Yeah. So hooray for Sir Phillip Sydney. And I think he owes this appointment to various factors. Favoritism obviously he's the nephew of Leicester who is um

42:50who's been appointed to the command of this expedition. He's put in a lot of hard work preparing the the treaty of non-such. Um basically he'd spent all summer at the palace kind of oiling the wheels and the Dutch envoys had absolutely loved him. So they had saluted his wisdom, kindness and his other gifts. So it's all looking good for Sydney. But then in classic Elizabeth the First style, she starts to

43:15wobble. First of all, she hesitates over whether she actually wants Leicester as governor general. Does she really want him going to to the Low Countries? And then to Sydney's absolute fury, she tells him, "I don't want you going to Flushing after all." She's changed her mind. And so he has the most massive strop. He storms off. He gets on his horse and he gallops off to Plymouth.

43:40And the reason he goes to Plymouth is because Sydney knows that the low countries aren't the only place where there might be a chance for him to win glory for himself. There are other opportunities for wouldbe dashing young adventurers. Because all summer when he wasn't negotiating with Dutch diplomats, Sydney had been helping Sir Francis Drake prepare for a massive expedition to the Indies. And when I say massive, I