BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See the Lives in the _Dict. of Nat. Biography_ and in _Biographia Britannica_ (Kippis), with authorities there collected; Essex's Irish correspondence is in the _Stow Collection_ in the British Museum, Nos. 200-217, and selections have been published in _Letters written by Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex_ (1770) and in the _Essex Papers_ (Camden Society, 1890), to which can now be added the _Calendars of State Papers, Domestic_, which contain a large number of his letters and which strongly support the opinion of his contemporaries concerning his unselfish patriotism and industry; see also _Somers Tracts_ (1813), x., and for other pamphlets relating to his death the catalogue of the British Museum. FOOTNOTES: [1] i.e. in the Capel line. [2] _Hist. MSS. Comm. ser._; _Duke of Beaufort's MSS._ 45. [3] _Life of Ormonde_, by T. Carte, viii. 468 (1851), vol. iv. p. 529. [4] _Hist. MSS. Comm._ 7th Rep. app. 477b. [5] _Ib._ 6th Rep. app. 741b. [6] _Diary and Corresp._ (1850), ii. 141, 178. ESSEX, ROBERT DEVEREUX, 2ND[1] EARL OF (1566-1601), son of the 1st Devereux earl, was born at Netherwood, Herefordshire, on the 19th of November 1566. He entered the university of Cambridge and graduated in 1581. In 1585 he accompanied his stepfather, the earl of Leicester, on an expedition to Holland, and greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Zutphen. He now took his place at court, where so handsome a youth soon found favour with Queen Elizabeth, and in consequence was on bad terms with Raleigh. In 1587 he was appointed master of the horse, and in the following year was made general of the horse and installed knight of the Garter. On the death of Leicester he succeeded him as chief favourite of the queen, a position which injuriously affected his whole subsequent life, and ultimately resulted in his ruin. While Elizabeth was approaching the mature age of sixty, Essex was scarcely twenty-one. Though well aware of the advantages of his position, and somewhat vain of the queen's favour, his constant attendance on her at court was irksome to him beyond all endurance; and when he could not make his escape to the scenes of foreign adventure after which he longed, he varied the monotony of his life at court by intrigues with the maids of honour. He fought a duel with Sir Charles Blount, a rival favourite of the queen, in which the earl was disarmed and slightly wounded in the thigh.