Elbertus Leoninus (1519-1598) was the Latinized name of Elbert de Leeuw, Dutch jurist and statesman, who helped negotiate the Pacification of Ghent. Leoninus was a scholar and served as President, and later Chancellor, of the Council of State.

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, (1532?–1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the Queen's hand for many years. In 1564, Dudley became Earl of Leicester and, from 1563, one of the greatest landowners in North Wales and the English West Midlands by royal grants. Leicester was one of Elizabeth's leading statesmen, involved in domestic as well as foreign politics alongside William Cecil and Francis Walsingham. As patron of the Puritan movement, he supported non-conforming preachers but tried to mediate between them and the bishops of the Church of England. A champion also of the international Protestant cause, he led the English campaign in support of the Dutch Revolt (1585–87).

United Provinces of the Netherlands or Dutch Republic, was a federal republic which existed during the Dutch Revolt until 1795.