Sir Charles Cornwallis (died 1629) was an English courtier and diplomat.
Contents
Sir Charles Cornwallis (died 1629) was an English courtier and diplomat.
He was the second son of Sir Thomas Cornwallis, controller of Queen Mary's household, who had been imprisoned by Elizabeth in 1570. He was probably born at his father's house of Brome Hall, Suffolk. [1]
Nothing is known of Cornwallis till 11 July 1603, when he was knighted. In 1604 he was Member of Parliament for Norfolk. [2] Early in 1605 he was sent as resident ambassador to Spain. He was active in attempting to protect English merchants from the Spanish Inquisition, and lobbied the home government for English commercial interests. He was recalled in September 1609, and his secretary, Francis Cottington, took his place at Madrid. [1]
In 1610 he became treasurer of the household of Henry, Prince of Wales, resisted the proposal to marry the prince to a daughter of the Duke of Savoy, and attended his master through his fatal illness of 1612. He was a candidate for the post of master of the wards in the same year; was one of four commissioners sent to Ireland on 11 September 1613 to investigate Irish grievances, and reported that Ireland had no very substantial ground for complaint. [1]
In 1614 Cornwallis was suspected of fanning the parliamentary opposition to the king. John Hoskins, who had made himself conspicuous in the House of Commons of England by his denunciation of Scots and Scottish institutions, declared when arrested that he was Cornwallis's agent. Cornwallis disclaimed all knowledge of Hoskins, but admitted that he had procured the election of another member of parliament, and had supplied him with notes for a speech against recusants and Scotchmen. The privy council placed Cornwallis under arrest in June 1614, and he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for a year, with Hoskins and Leonel Sharp. [1] [3]
Cornwallis, who at one time lived at Beeston St Andrew, Norfolk, as well as in Suffolk, retired late in life to Harborne, Staffordshire, where he died on 21 December 1629. He was buried in London at St. Giles in the Fields. [1]
Cornwallis wrote: [1]
In John Gutch's Collectanea Curiosa are two papers by Cornwallis detailing the negotiations for Prince Henry's marriage with the Spanish Infanta and the Savoyard princess. Ralph Winwood's Memorials (ii. and iii.) and Edmund Sawyer, Memorials of Affairs of State (1725) include many of Cornwallis's official letters from Spain. [1]
Cornwallis married three times: [1]
Sir William Cornwallis was Sir Charles's son by his first wife.
Sir Thomas Roe was an English diplomat of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Roe's voyages ranged from Central America to India; as ambassador, he represented England in the Mughal Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire. He sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1644. Roe was an accomplished scholar and a patron of learning.
Sir Julius Caesar was an English lawyer, judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1589 and 1622. He was also known as Julius Adelmare.
Sir Ralph Winwood was an English diplomat and statesman to the Jacobean court.
Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland, KG, was Chancellor of the Exchequer and later Lord Treasurer of England under James I and Charles I, being one of the most influential figures in the early years of Charles I's Personal Rule and the architect of many of the policies that enabled him to rule without raising taxes through Parliament.
Sir Richard Wynn, 2nd Baronet was a Welsh courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1649.
Sir Richard Bulkeley of Beaumaris, Anglesey and Lewisham was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons of England in 1563 and from 1604 to 1614.
Sir William Cornwallis was an early English essayist and served as a courtier and member of Parliament. His essays, influenced by the style of Montaigne, rather than that of Francis Bacon, became a model for later English essayists. He has sometimes been confused with his uncle of the same name.
Thomas Cornwallis was an English politician and colonial administrator. Cornwallis served as one of the first Commissioners of the Province of Maryland, and Captain of the colony's military during the early years of settlement. In a 1638 naval engagement with Virginian colonists, he captured Kent Island in Maryland.
Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet, of Blickling Hall, was an English politician who succeeded Sir Edward Coke to become Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas.
William Harborne of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk (c.1542–1617) was a diplomat, businessman, and English Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, appointed by Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Sir Francis Crane was the founder of Mortlake Tapestry Works at Mortlake on the south bank of the river Thames in South West London.
Leonel Sharp was an English churchman and courtier, a royal chaplain and archdeacon of Berkshire, imprisoned for sedition in 1614. As a writer he took a strong anti-papal and anti-Spanish line.
Sir Thomas Kitson was a wealthy English merchant, Sheriff of London, and builder of Hengrave Hall in Suffolk.
Sir Christopher Wray was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1646. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War.
Sir Charles Le Grosse (c.1596-1650) of Crostwight Hall near North Walsham in Norfolk, England, was a politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1628 and 1653.
SirBassingbourne Gawdy, of West Harling, Norfolk, was an English lawyer and judge, knight, and Member of Parliament.
Sir Thomas Cornwallis was an English politician.
Sir Robert Drury of Hedgerley and Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, was the second son of Sir Robert Drury, Speaker of the House of Commons, and was the father of Sir Robert Drury (1525–1593), Sir William Drury, and Sir Drue Drury.
Sir Thomas Wilson (1560?–1629) was an English official. He is known as a government agent, Member of Parliament, Keeper of the Records, translator and author.
Sir William Cornwallis of Brome was an English courtier and politician.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Lee, Sidney (1887). "Cornwallis, Charles (d.1629)". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 234.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
