The son most likely studied briefly at Oxford, but later in life received honorary M.A.'s from both Oxford and Cambridge. Although there are problems about assigning an exact date for their composition, it is in this early period of his life--most likely between 1554 and 1557--that he wrote his
Induction and the
Complaint of Henry, Duke of Buckingham, which were eventually included in
A Mirror for Magistrates (1559), edited by William Baldwin. In this admonitory volume--a continuation of John Lydgate's
The Fall of Princes--figures of English history tell their stories so that present and future rulers ("magistrates") may see how vice has been punished and thus be moved to "the sooner amendment." Sackville's poems were praised by Jasper Heywood, but he is known to have written only one more, a commendatory sonnet for Sir Thomas Hoby's 1561 translation of Baldassare Castiglione's
The Courtier . After the composition of these pieces and
Gorboduc, he devoted himself to his duties in Parliament and at Court.
In preparation for those duties, not for the practice of law, he was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1555. The previous year he had married Cecily, daughter of Sir John Baker of Sissinghurst in Kent.
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