What is Thomas Sackville?
{{Infobox person | name = Thomas Sackville | image = Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset by John De Critz the Elder.jpg | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 1535/6 | birth_place = Buckhurst, [[Sussex]], [[England]] | death_date = 19 April 1608 | death_place = [[London]], England | death_cause = [[Stroke]] | resting_place = [[Westminster Abbey]] | nationality = English | other_names = | known_for = Plays and poetry | notable_works = ''Gorboduc'' (play)<br />''Induction'' (poem)<br/ >''Buckingham's Complaint'' (poem) }} '''Thomas Sackville''', 1st [[earl]] of [[Dorset]], (1535/6-1608) was an English [[playwright]], [[poet]], [[statesman]], and the [[Chancellor]] of [[Oxford University]]. He was the son of Sir Richard Sackville, a member of the [[court]] of King [[Henry VIII of England]]. He married Cicely Baker in 1555.<ref>[http://www.geneall.net/U/per_page.php?id=995343 Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset]</ref> Sackville was a [[London]] [[barrister]], and entered [[Parliament]] in 1558. He was a member of the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]] in 1585. In 1586, he delivered the death sentence to [[Mary, Queen of Scots]]. He served on diplomatic missions to [[The Hague]]. In 1591, Sackville became Chancellor of the University of Oxford. He served as lord high [[treasurer]], a life appointment, from 1599 to 1608. He died of a [[stroke]]. Sackville is famous for ''[[Gorboduc]]'' (1563), the first English [[tragedy]] written in [[blank verse]].<ref>Encyclopedia of British writers, p. 345</ref> He wrote this play with [[Thomas Norton]]. Sackville's two great poems, ''Induction'' and ''Buckingham's Complaint'', were published in ''[[The Mirror for Magistrates]]'' (1563). The play and the two poems make Sackville one of the major English poets and [[playwright]]s. ==Notes== {{reflist}} ==References== *[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/515322/Thomas-Sackville-1st-earl-of-Dorset ''Encyclopedia Britannica: Thomas Sackville] *''Encyclopedia of British wr