From the dust jacket of this biography, Edward Herbert, magnificently captured in miniature by Isaac Oliver, looks out challengingly at the reader. The pose of a man in his prime – negligently reclining yet artfully disposed, beside tranquil water, yet with his sword and shield readily to hand and his armour in the background – still attracts and intrigues. This is the starting point for ‘a revisionist account of a well-known but sometimes misunderstood and maligned nobleman’ (p. 15). What ensues is a multifaceted study of a complex man who was, or aspired to be, a courtier, soldier, diplomat, philosopher, theologian, historian, musician and poet, and who is here placed squarely in historical context.

The research underpinning the book is appropriately wide, avowedly benefiting from the work of other scholars, but also involving fresh appraisal of the primary sources. These include some additional items uncovered by the author through diligent work in the archives. The subject is seen in local, national and European spheres; both his private and his public life are explored. This required a daunting amount of work, especially against the backdrop of responsibilities attendant upon a twenty-first century academic position without Herbert's servants and secretaries, although the teaching which delayed completion of the project also patently informs the narrative.

The depiction of an international life, conducted through youthful travels and later ambassadorial and scholarly activity, illuminates Herbert's varied literary output. It also serves as a welcome underscoring of the wide horizons and far-flung contacts of a sizeable number of the social and academic elite through the early and mid-seventeenth century. Networks of kin and friends, of universal importance, are helpfully delineated. Despite the relative paucity of personal correspondence, there is thoughtful consideration of Herbert's strained relations with numerous family members and illustration of the corrosive influence of inequitable inheritance practices and of the pressure of debt on financial settlements. There is also exploration of Herbert's happier association with foreign acquaintances and with men as different as John Donne and Sir Robert Harley, and of the subtle divergencies in style and stance between them and Herbert, and between Herbert and his younger brother George. Unattractive aspects of Herbert's character are faced squarely – neglect of wife and children, irresponsibility, tactlessness, rashness, to name a few – as are the negative consequences of an excessive attachment to personal honour. Intellectual and literary flaws, such as those in the argument of his major philosophical work, which disappointed contemporaries, are identified and acknowledged.

Organisation of such a varied career and oeuvre into a coherent survey presents a formidable task. Overall, this is successfully achieved, with readers searching for particular perspectives able to navigate easily through clearly-articulated sections and chapters. For the general reader, most chapters give lengthy expositions of political and other background: from the rebellion of the earl of Essex in 1601, through the scandals of the Jacobean court and the rise of the duke of Buckingham, to the personal rule of Charles i and the civil war in England; through court politics and the Huguenots in France; through the Cleves-Jülich affair and the Thirty Years’ War in Europe. Sometimes Herbert's role is hard to pinpoint amid the detail. For the specialist reader, the expositions give some hostages to fortune. To an extent this may be unavoidable: with such a broad canvas, it would be impossible to embrace all the most recent relevant literature or encompass a balance of interpretations across the board. Thus, for instance, discussion of Westminster parliamentary politics citing Conrad Russell, or of aristocratic marriage practices citing Lawrence Stone, appears a little dated. The description of the Five Members plus Viscount Mandeville as ‘6 of [Charles i's] weaker opponents’ (pp. 318–19) and of the king's wartime dealings as at one time ‘nimble’ (p. 335) and another ‘inept and inflexible’ (p. 335) may surprise. The absence from the examination of civil war financial penalties of evidence from the committees for compounding and for the advance of money may puzzle.

It is probably inevitable that, on the complicated and nuanced topic of religion, the analysis may not be universally persuasive. The author patiently dissects the philosophical and theological works by which Herbert is perhaps best-known to many – De veritate, Religio laici and De religio – and notes his anti-clericalism, his emphasis on reason and on morality, his tolerance and ‘his unique personal belief system’ (p. 239) based on a minimalist set of doctrines. His dismissal of the incarnation perhaps receives less attention than it might, but his beliefs are duly defined in relation to other writers and thinkers including John Selden, Arminius, Socinus and Grotius. However, the characterisation of English Calvinism and of Herbert's relation to it are not always convincing. His ‘strict Calvinist’ upbringing is often invoked but never fully traced, while the associated disinclination for dancing or gambling which is inferred did not apply to all among the pious gentry. ‘Austere Calvinism imposed by the state’ (p. 20) is questionable as a generalisation about the Elizabethan Church, while to say that James i's ecclesiastical inheritance ‘retained its Catholic liturgy’ (p. 49) or that Laud planned to reverse ‘the stealthy Puritan reformation of the English church’ (p. 294) does not quite capture the situation either.

Notwithstanding such reservations, this study of Herbert represents a valuable addition to scholarship. The writer who stepped out of his aristocratic ‘comfort zone’ (p. 217) to publish his work, and who expressed views so much at variance with those appearing in the contemporary press, is worth a close look. Yet the man who embraced both traditional military values and multifarious Renaissance accomplishments, who moved in many different spheres, who advanced inconsistent arguments and whose behaviour could be unappealing and self-destructive, defies easy categorisation.