Sir Jerome Bowes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| English Ambassador to Russia | |
| In office 1583–1584 | |
| Member of Parliament for Lancaster | |
| In office 1601–1601 | |
| Member of Parliament for Reading | |
| In office 1604–1604 |
Sir Jerome Bowes (died 1616) was an English ambassador to Russia and Member of Parliament in England.
He was born into a Durham family, the son of John Bowes, and his wife Ann, née Gunville, whose family were from Gorleston, then in Suffolk. His name is included in the list of the gentlemen who followed Edward Clinton, to France, on his expedition to avenge the fall of Calais. It has been inferred from a casual mention of him by John Stowe that he was a client of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester in 1571, but he was banished from court six years later for slanderous speech against him. [1]
Bowes was restored to favour, and in 1583 was appointed ambassador to Russia. Fedor Pisemsky had travelled to England in 1581, and the diplomatic background included trade matters, and a proposed marriage of Ivan IV of Russia to Lady Mary Hastings, daughter of Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon. In June 1583 Bowes set sail with Pisemsky for Russia, on what turned out to be a fruitless mission. [2] John Milton, in his Brief History of Moscovia, gives an account of this embassy, taken from Richard Hakluyt. There are some additional anecdotes recorded in Samuel Pepys's Diary, told to him by a group of customs officers in 1662, eighty years after the event, and in Samuel Collins's Present State of Russia (1671). [1]
In Collins' account Ivan IV of Russia is said to have nailed the French ambassador's hat to his head. Bowes at his next audience put on his hat, and the tsar threatened him with the like punishment. Bowes replied that he did not represent the cowardly king of France, but the invincible queen of England, "who does not vail her bonnet nor bare her head to any prince living". The tsar commended his bravery and took him into favour. Bowes is also said to have tamed a wild horse so effectually that the animal fell dead under him. Milton describes the pomp of the reception and how the ambassador refused to submit to etiquette and put the letters into the hands of the chancellor, insisting upon his right to give them to the emperor himself. The tsar, irritated by the assertion of Elizabeth's equality with the French and Spanish kings, lost patience when Bowes, to his question "what of the emperor?" replied that her father, Henry VIII, had the Holy Roman Emperor in his pay. Ivan hinted that Bowes might be thrown out of the window, to which Bowes replied that the queen would know how to revenge any injury done to her ambassador. Ivan's anger gave place to admiration, and he again raised the possibility of a marriage to one of the queen's relatives. But he died soon after, and with his successor, Feodor I, the anti-English Dutch faction came into power. [1]
Alfred Nicolas Rambaud, in his History of Russia, blamed Bowes for clumsiness and lack of tact. The ambassador was imprisoned, threatened, and at last dismissed by Feodor. When ready to embark he sent back the new tsar's letters and "paltry present". [1]
There is only fragmentary evidence for Bowes' subsequent activities. In a report by the lord chief baron of the exchequer he appears in a discreditable light, as having fraudulently dealt with a will under which he claimed (the record is undated, but assigned to 1587 in the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic). On 5 February 1592 a special licence was granted him to make drinking-glasses in England and Ireland for twelve years; [1] his will indicates that he later renewed the licence. [3] In 1597 the parishioners of St Ann Blackfriars built, at their own cost a warehouse for his use, beneath an extension to their church, on land which they had purchased but on which he held the lease. They also paid him £133. [4] He was elected to parliament in 1601 for Lancaster and 1604 for Reading. [5]
By 1599 he was living at Charing Cross, where, in 1607 his house was robbed in a well-documented case, in which a female servant was murdered. [3] [6] Bowes was buried on 28 March 1616 in Hackney Church. A portrait of him, painted in the year of his embassy, is in the Suffolk Collection. [1]
In his retirement from court he translated from the French an Apology for the Christians of France ... of the reformed religion (1579). [1]
1605 (MDCV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1605th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 605th year of the 2nd millennium, the 5th year of the 17th century, and the 6th year of the 1600s decade. As of the start of 1605, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
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Ivan V Alekseyevich was a joint Tsar of Russia who co-reigned between 1682 and 1696. Ivan was the youngest son of Alexis I of Russia by his first wife, Maria Miloslavskaya, while Peter was the only son of Alexis by his second wife, Natalya Naryshkina. Ivan's reign was solely titular because he had serious physical and mental issues.
Fyodor I Ivanovich or Feodor I Ioannovich ; 31 May 1557 – 16 January (NS) 1598), also known as Feodor the Bellringer, was the last Rurikid Tsar of Russia (1584–1598).
Simeon Bekbulatovich was a Russian statesman of Tatar origin who briefly served as a figurehead ruler of Russia.
The Muscovy Company was an English trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint stock company, the precursor of the type of business that would soon flourish in England and finance its exploration of the world. The Muscovy Company had a monopoly on trade between England and Muscovy until 1698 and it survived as a trading company until the Russian Revolution of 1917. Since 1917 the company has operated as a charity, now working within Russia.
Feodor Nikitich Romanov was a Russian boyar who after temporary disgrace rose to become patriarch of Moscow as Filaret, and became de facto ruler of Russia during the reign of his son, Mikhail Feodorovich.
Ivan Isayevich Bolotnikov (1565-1608) was the leader of a popular uprising in Russia in 1606–1607 known as the Bolotnikov Rebellion. The uprising was part of the Time of Troubles in Russia.
Vasily Yakovlevich Shchelkalov and Andrey Yakovlevich Shchelkalov were two influential diplomats and heads of the Posolsky Prikaz during the reigns of Ivan the Terrible, Feodor I, and Boris Godunov in Russia.
Bogdan Yakovlevich Belsky was a Russian statesman and a close associate of Ivan the Terrible.
Sir Jerome Horsey, of Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire, was an English explorer, diplomat and politician in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon, KG was the eldest son of George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon and Anne Stafford, Countess of Huntingdon, the ex-mistress of Henry VIII.
The Tsardom of Russia, also called the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great in 1721.
Ivan Nikitich Romanov, Russian Иван Никитич Романов was the uncle of Tsar Michael I, first Romanov Tsar of Russia.
Eliseus Bomelius was a German physician and astrologer.
Sir John Meyrick was an English merchant in Russia; he became the English ambassador to Russia during the reign of Tsar Boris Godunov.
| Parliament of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Thomas Hesketh Edward Hubberd | Member of Parliament for Lancaster 1601 With: Sir Carew Reynell | Succeeded by Sir Thomas Hesketh Thomas Fanshawe |
| Preceded by Francis Moore Anthony Blagrave | Member of Parliament for Reading 1604 With: Francis Moore | Succeeded by Francis Moore Robert Knollys |
