Great Throughts Treasury
This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Robert Devereux, Lord Essex, 2nd Earl of Essex
English General, Nobleman and a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, beheaded after being found guilty of treason
"Genius is entitled to respect only when it promotes the peace and improves the happiness of mankind."
"Reasons are not like garments, the worse for wearing."
"My sins are more in number than the hairs on my head. I have bestowed my youth in wantonness, lust and uncleanness; I have been puffed up with pride, vanity and love of this wicked world’s pleasures. For all which, I humbly beseech my Saviour Christ to be a mediator to the eternal Majesty for my pardon, especially for this my last sin, this great, this bloody, this crying, this infectious sin, whereby so many for love of me have been drawn to offend God, to offend their sovereign, to offend the world. I beseech God to forgive it us, and to forgive it me – most wretched of all."