Edward Clarke (MP for Hythe)

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Edward Clarke (referred to as Ned Clarke) (died 1628) was an English courtier, politician and diplomat employed by Charles I of England and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. [1]

Charles I of England 17th-century monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland

Charles I was the monarch over the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649.

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham politician from England

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, KG, was an English courtier, statesman, and patron of the arts. He was a favourite and possibly also a lover of King James I of England. Despite a patchy political and military record, Buckingham remained at the height of royal favour for the first three years of the reign of King Charles I, until a disgruntled army officer assassinated him.

Life

Clarke was made clerk extraordinary of the Privy Council in 1620, successor to William Beecher, and was introduced at court by Buckingham. He was not a success with the king, however, because of a deformed hand. He became a courier. [1]

In September 1623 he was entrusted by Charles with secret orders to Lord Bristol, then British ambassador at Madrid, for the postponement of the Spanish Match. He sat for Hythe in the short-lived parliament of 1625. For an attempted defence of Buckingham he was on 6 August 1625 imprisoned by the House of Commons at Oxford. [2]

John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol English diplomat

John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol, was an English diplomat and a moderate royalist during the English Civil War.

Madrid Capital of Spain

Madrid is the capital of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole. The city has almost 3.3 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union (EU), smaller than only London and Berlin, and its monocentric metropolitan area is the third-largest in the EU, smaller only than those of London and Paris. The municipality covers 604.3 km2 (233.3 sq mi).

Hythe was a constituency centred on the town of Hythe in Kent. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons until 1832, when its representation was reduced to one member. The constituency was abolished for the 1950 general election, and replaced with the new Folkestone and Hythe constituency.

The next year Buckingham tried to persuade the small electorate of Bridport, Dorset to return Clarke to Parliament, as they had already done for Sir Richard Strode, another of Buckingham's nominees, but they refused on the grounds that they had promised the second seat for the constituency to Sir Lewis Dyve.

Bridport was a parliamentary borough in Dorset, England, which elected two Members of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1868, and then one member from 1868 until 1885, when the borough was abolished.

Richard Strode (died 1669) Kingdom of England politician

Sir Richard Strode of Newnham, Plympton St Mary, Devon and of Chalmington in Dorset, was a member of the Devonshire gentry who served as MP for Bere Alston in 1604, Bridport in 1626 and for Plympton Erle in 1640. He was by religion a puritan and towards the end of his life a baptist. During the Civil War he was a parliamentarian and raised a force of 3,000 dragoons.

Shortly Clarke was spreading upbeat rumours that a French alliance was at hand. In 1627 he was sent on a mission to Christian IV of Denmark, then beset in the Thirty Years' War by Imperial forces. [2]

Christian IV of Denmark King of Denmark and Norway

Christian IV, sometimes colloquially referred to as Christian Firtal in Denmark and Christian Kvart or Quart in Norway, was king of Denmark–Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 to 1648. His 59-year reign is the longest of Danish monarchs, and of Scandinavian monarchies.

Thirty Years War War between 1618 and 1648; with over 8 million fatalities

The Thirty Years' War was a war fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. One of the most destructive conflicts in human history, it resulted in eight million fatalities not only from military engagements but also from violence, famine, and plague. Casualties were overwhelmingly and disproportionately inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire, most of the rest being battle deaths from various foreign armies. In terms of proportional German casualties and destruction, it was surpassed only by the period January to May 1945; one of its enduring results was 19th-century Pan-Germanism, when it served as an example of the dangers of a divided Germany and became a key justification for the 1871 creation of the German Empire.

In March 1628 he was acting as the king's agent at the Siege of La Rochelle and two months later accompanied the fleet to La Rochelle, though his private advice to Buckingham was that this expedition would fail. Whilst there he managed to offend Buckingham, and on his return was shunned at court. He did not long survive his assassinated patron. [2]

Siege of La Rochelle

The Siege of La Rochelle was a result of a war between the French royal forces of Louis XIII of France and the Huguenots of La Rochelle in 1627–28. The siege marked the height of the struggle between the Catholics and the Protestants in France, and ended with a complete victory for King Louis XIII and the Catholics.

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Clarke, Edward (d.1628), of Westminster, History of Parliament Online" . Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Clarke, Edward (d.1630)"  . Dictionary of National Biography . 10. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Attribution

Wikisource-logo.svg  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Clarke, Edward (d.1630)". Dictionary of National Biography . 10. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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