George Carew (diplomat)

For other people with the same name, see George Carew (disambiguation).

George Carew
Died	13 November 1612
Nationality	English
Occupation	Diplomat

Sir George Carew (died 13 November 1612) was an English diplomat, historian and Member of Parliament. ^[1]

Life

He was the second son of Thomas Carew of Antony and brother of Richard Carew. He was educated at Oxford and entered the Middle Temple before travelling abroad. At the recommendation of Queen Elizabeth I, who conferred on him the honour of a knighthood, he was appointed secretary to Sir Christopher Hatton. Later, having been promoted to a Mastership in Chancery, he was sent as ambassador to the King of Poland ^[2] to address trade issues raised during Polish ambassador Paweł Działinski's visit to England in 1597. On his return, he spoke with Elizabeth directly ^[3] and then wrote a report, De rebus Sueciae et Poloniae, now part of MS 250 at Lambeth Library, a transcription of which is available. ^[4]

He sat in Parliament for St. Germans in 1584, for Saltash in 1586, 1588, 1593, and for St. Germans in 1597 and 1601.

The honour of knighthood was conferred upon him at the Palace of Whitehall on 23 July 1603. ^[5] According to John Chamberlain, "Mr Carew, a master in chancery" rode north to Edinburgh to meet James VI and I in March 1603 at the Union of the Crowns, in an unsuccessful attempt to gain an office. He rode to Scotland again in June 1603 to meet Anne of Denmark, but did not get his desired "special place about her". ^[6]

Family

He married Thomazine Carew, the daughter of Sir Francis Godolphin and his first wife Margaret Killigrew. ^[5] They had two sons and three daughters, including: ^[1]

• Francis Carew, son and heir. ^[7]
• Louisa Carew, who married John Houston. ^[8]
• Sophia Carew, a maid of honour at court who performed in the masque The Shepherd's Paradise . She married (1) Richard Neville, son of Christopher Neville of Newton St Loe, (2) Walter Stewart, a son of Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre. She was the mother of Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond. ^[9]

Lady Carew at court

Thomazine, or Thomasine, Lady Carew, was a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Denmark. ^[10] The queen gave her gifts of clothes she had worn, including in February 1610 at Whitehall Palace, a black satin gown in a plain bias cut, and another black gown with blue "galloons" or lace strips. ^[11]

George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes, a distant relation of her husband, was the queen's receiver-general and vice-chamberlain, which can be a source of confusion. ^[12]

Lady Carew was influential by her proximity to Anne of Denmark, and was able to forward her husband's plans. Thomas Edmondes wrote that she had intervened in his diplomatic appointments against his wishes, but the Lord Treasurer Robert Cecil's decision had prevailed. ^[13] She walked in the procession at Anne of Denmark's funeral in 1619 as a lady of the Privy Chamber. ^[14]

Writings

During the reign of James I he was employed in negotiations with Scotland and for several years was ambassador to the court of France. On his return, he wrote a Relation of the State of France, written in the classical style of the Elizabethan age and featuring sketches of the leading persons at the court of Henry IV. It appears as an appendix to Thomas Birch's Historical View of the Negotiations between the Courts of England, France and Brussels, from 1592 to 1617, ^[2] 1749. ^{[note 1]} The work A Relation of the State of Polonia , produced between 1598 and 1603, used to be attributed to Carew, but in 2014 Sobecki definitively identified John Peyton as the author and the coronation of James VI and I in 1603 as the date of completion. ^[15] Sobecki's identification is based on Peyton's letters about this work and the finding of a second copy of A Relation of the State of Polonia written in Peyton's hand and dated and signed by Peyton himself.

See also

• Cornwallportal

Explanatory footnotes

1. Full title: An historical view of the negotiations between the courts of England, France, and Brussels, from the year 1592 to 1617: Extracted chiefly from the MS. State-Papers of Sir Thomas Edmondes, Knt. Ambassador in France, and at Brussels, and Treasurer of the Household to the Kings James I. and Charles I. and of Anthony Bacon, Esq; brother to the Lord Chancellor Bacon. To which is added, a relation of the state of France, with the characters of Henry IV. and the principal persons of the court, drawn up by Sir George Carew, upon his return from his Embassy there in 1609, and addressed to King James I. Never before printed. London: for A. Millar.

References

1. "CAREW, George (d.1612), of Antony, Cornw. and Tothill Street, Westminster". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
2. Chisholm 1911.
3. Elementa ad Fontium Editiones volume 4, p 238 "...when I was speaking in the presence of your sacred majesty."
4. Elementa ad Fontium Editiones volume 4, p. 238-251
5. Courtney 1887.
6. Henry Ellis, Original Letters, 1st Series vol. 3 (London, 1824), 82: Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, Court and Times of James the First, 1 (London, 1848), 3.
7. "Carew, Francis I (c. 1598–1628), of Westminster", History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010.
8. Calendar State Papers Domestic, 1654 (London, 1880), 311.
9. Sarah Poynting, 'Henrietta Maria's Notorious Whores', Clare McManus, Women and Culture at the Courts of the Stuart Queens (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), p. 163.
10. James Morrin, Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland, Charles I (London, 1863), pp. 654–655.
11. Jemma Field, "The Wardrobe Goods of Anna of Denmark", Costume, 51:1 (March 2017), online supplement, p. 42 no. 347, 53 no. 452.
12. Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1791), p. 208.
13. E. K. Purnell & A. B. Hinds, HMC Downshire, vol. 2 (London, 1936), p. 308
14. John Nichols, Progresses of Anne of Denmark, vol. 3 (London, 1828), p. 541.
15. Sobecki, Sebastian (23 August 2014). "John Peyton's A Relation of the State of Polonia and the Accession of King James I, 1598–1603". The English Historical Review. CXXIX (540). Oxford University Press: 1079–1097. doi:10.1093/ehr/ceu214.

Attribution

• Courtney, William Prideaux (1887). "Carew, George (d.1612)"  . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 9. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Carew, George". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 328.