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This article focuses on La Calprenède’s play, The Comte d’Essex (1639), whose originality resides in its use of a recent historical event, at a time when the dominant subject matters in French tragedies were usually drawn from antiquity, either mythological or historical. History is often represented with pathos in the tragedies of that period and yet, La Calprenède’s play is not based simply on a tension between love and duty, especially when it concerns queen Elizabeth. The character of the earl of Essex can be interpreted in various ways by the spectators of the play, since La Calprenède used the dramatic genre in order to create an ambiguous character, thus in keeping with the historical figure of the earl.