A head-and-shoulders portrait in a painted oval, slightly to the right, showing Sheffield in a red coat, steel gorget and plain white collar. He wears the Little George around his neck on a broad blue ribbon. The painting is inscribed around the border: ‘Capatin of the Beare 1588 The Ld. Sheefeyld aet 23.’
Edmund Sheffield was the only son of John, the second Baron Sheffield (c. 1538–68) and his wife, the unusually named Douglas Sheffield, née Howard (1542/3–1608), who was the eldest daughter of William Howard, the first Lord Effingham. Sheffield was educated at Christ Church, Oxford (1574–79) and, in 1582, he was commanded by Elizabeth I to accompany the Duke of Anjou on his return voyage to the continent. He served as a volunteer in the Netherlands in 1585. With the approach of the Spanish Armada he seized the opportunity for further action, serving as captain of three ships during the campaign: the ‘Victory’, the ‘Dreadnaught’, and the ‘White Bear’. He was knighted his great uncle, Charles Howard, the second Lord Effingham and the lord admiral of England, on 26 July 1588.
His staunchly Catholic wife, Ursula Tyrwhitt, caused Sheffield some difficulties in his standing with the queen. He was granted the manor of Mulgrave, Yorkshire in 1591 and demonstrated his allegiance by strenuously persecuting local Catholics, who denounced his for his harshness and claimed the early deaths of all six of his sons with Ursula as divine retribution. Elizabeth gave him the Garter in April 1593.
Under James I he was made lord lieutenant of Yorkshire on 1 August 1603 and president of the council of the north on 19 September that year. The office was expensive and Sheffield was perennially short of money. In 1616 he was made vice-admiral of Yorkshire. Colonial speculations in the Virginia Company and the New England Company added to his financial woes. He was promoted Earl of Mulgrave by Charles I on 5 February 1626. He sided with parliament in the Civil War.