CHARACTER
By Any Other Nameby Jodi Picoult

Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton

Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton

Quick Facts

  • Role: Young nobleman, patron of the arts, and the great love of Emilia Bassano Lanier
  • First appearance: Hiding in a library during a court masque (p. 1581)
  • Key relationships: Emilia; his guardian Lord Burghley; rival-power figure Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon

Who He Is

Bold, beautiful, and burning with feeling, Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton embodies the intoxicating promise of love in a world ruled by duty. As a historical aristocrat and arts patron, he grounds Emilia’s private story in the public realities of the Elizabethan court; as her muse, he unlocks a creative fervor that culminates in the epic poem Venus and Adonis. Their secret, impossible bond dramatizes how class and gender scripts suffocate individual desire—a central pressure of Gender Inequality and the Silencing of Women’s Voices.

Personality & Traits

Southampton moves through the narrative with the glow of first love and the rashness of youth. His charm and idealism make him irresistible, but those same qualities also blind him to the danger Emilia faces. Over time, infatuation deepens into a steadier devotion marked by recognition, protection, and quiet fidelity.

  • Romantic and passionate: Pursues Emilia with letters and clandestine meetings; his confession—“I have never felt like this”—marks love as revelation (p. 1592-94).
  • Charming and flirtatious: Banters with playful boldness, teasing about “practicing the recorder... not such that I’d discuss with a lady,” announcing a worldly wit that still feels guileless (p. 1588-1592).
  • Impulsive and youthful: Kisses Emilia without warning and tosses pebbles at her window in a rainstorm—grand gestures that ignore consequence (p. 1592-94).
  • Idealistic: When told there is no future for them, he vows, “We shall make one,” revealing a belief that love can outwrite law (p. 1592-94).
  • Rebellious: Resists a managed marriage, joking that he is fleeing “girls still in leading strings,” positioning desire against dynastic planning (p. 1588-1592).
  • Striking beauty: From “a shock of auburn hair” and “bright blue eyes” at eight (p. 1581) to a broad-shouldered youth “with eyes so blue it seemed the sky passed through him” (p. 1588-1592), his Adonis-like allure makes him a natural lodestar for Emilia’s art.

Character Journey

He begins as a lonely child-earl hiding “behind the curtains,” already overwhelmed by the role that has claimed him (p. 1581). Reappearing as a sixteen-year-old, he channels that early vulnerability into ardor, courting Emilia with the reckless certainty of youth. Their love becomes both refuge and rebellion—until the orangery, where he is forced to watch the mechanics of power as Emilia performs the courtesan’s role to protect them both. That shock recalibrates his idealism into realism: he marries within his class and fathers children, yet his devotion doesn’t die. Years later, he quietly uses his status to aid Emilia in court and proves he has understood her work all along, recognizing the coded voice she forged under constraint. He cannot rewrite the world—but he can read her within it, and act.

Key Relationships

  • Emilia Bassano Lanier: Southampton is the only man with whom Emilia experiences unbartered desire and mutual regard; he becomes both her beloved and her muse. Their bond fuels her creativity and clarifies her struggle for authorship and selfhood, tying him to the theme of Authorship, Identity, and the Fight for Recognition. Even after separation, he remains the rare witness who truly sees—and still chooses—her voice.

  • Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon: Hunsdon is not a romantic rival so much as the embodiment of a system that commodifies women. The orangery scene forces Southampton to confront how power corrals Emilia’s body and choices; his horror marks the end of fantasy and the beginning of understanding.

  • Lord Burghley (guardian): As the architect of Southampton’s future, Burghley represents dynastic duty. Southampton’s defiance of arranged matches reads as gallantry, but also naiveté; opposing Burghley pits private feeling against public role—and shows that even an earl is not free.

Defining Moments

Small, electric encounters build into a love story that cannot survive the world that created it—but leaves art, memory, and recognition in its wake.

  • First meeting in the library (p. 1581): A frightened boy hides from a masque; Emilia teaches him the recorder. Why it matters: Establishes intimacy rooted in care and learning, foreshadowing their lifelong exchange of inspiration.
  • Reunion in the park (p. 1588-1592): Now a striking youth, he flirts, jokes, and steals a first kiss. Why it matters: Converts childhood solace into adult passion, igniting their clandestine affair.
  • The orangery incident (p. 1592-94): He slips into Somerset House to see Emilia; they make love but are interrupted. From the shadows he watches her distract Hunsdon to keep them safe. Why it matters: Shatters his fantasy of consequence-free love and exposes the brutal calculus governing Emilia’s survival.
  • Commissioning the miniatures (p. 1592-94): He orders a tiny portrait of Emilia to keep near his heart. Why it matters: A patron’s gesture transformed into private devotion—a portable shrine to a love that must remain unseen.
  • The final goodbye (p. 1596-1604): In a courtroom years later, he quotes lines from a play she secretly wrote, signaling that he has always read her true voice. Why it matters: Closure through comprehension; his recognition affirms Emilia’s authorship and their enduring bond, even as they accept separate fates.

Essential Quotes

“Perhaps one day I shall return the favor and teach you something.” (p. 1581)
As a child, Southampton promises reciprocity to the woman who first comforts and instructs him. The line foreshadows their later exchanges—of love, risk, and art—and culminates in his final act of “teaching” by public recognition of her hidden work.

“I have never felt like this. I have never imagined I could feel like this.” (p. 1592-94)
This breathless confession captures the shock of first love and his tendency to absolutize emotion. It is tender but also perilous: a feeling this total has no plan for the structures that will resist it.

“You cannot promise me a future and I will not ask for that which you cannot give. But we are both here, and I have missed you, Emilia, so bloody much.” (p. 1592-94)
Here, youthful insistence softens into adult clarity. Southampton acknowledges limits without withdrawing love, choosing presence over fantasy—a bittersweet ethic that governs the rest of their story.

“I hope it is.” (p. 1592-94)
Spoken on seeing Emilia’s pregnancy, the line lays bare desire, jealousy, and vulnerability in five words. It compresses the entire social tragedy: paternity as power, women’s bodies as battlegrounds, and a lover’s hope trapped inside a system that denies him certainty.