Sir Jerome Bowes | |
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| 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]
1682 (MDCLXXXII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1682nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 682nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 82nd year of the 17th century, and the 3rd year of the 1680s decade. As of the start of 1682, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
Feodor I Ioannovich or Fyodor I Ivanovich, nicknamed the Blessed (Блаженный), was Tsar of all Russia from 1584 until his death in 1598.
Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk,, of Audley End House in the parish of Saffron Walden in Essex, and of Suffolk House near Westminster, a member of the House of Howard, was the second son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, by his second wife Margaret Audley, the daughter and eventual sole heiress of Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden, of Audley End.
Simeon Bekbulatovich was a Russian statesman of Tatar origin who briefly served as the figurehead ruler of Russia from 1575 to 1576. He was a descendant of Genghis Khan.
Anastasia Romanovna Zakharyina-Yurieva was the tsaritsa of all Russia as the first wife of Ivan IV, the tsar of all Russia. She was also the mother of Feodor I, the last lineal Rurikid tsar of Russia, and the great-aunt of Michael of Russia, the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty.
Maria Feodorovna Nagaya, named Marfa as a nun was a Russian tsarina as the last wife of Ivan the Terrible. She was mother of Tsarevich Dmitry of Uglich and played a role in the reign and deposition of False Dmitry I.
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 Russia until 1698 and it survived as a trading company until the Russian Revolution. 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.
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Anthony Jenkinson was born at Market Harborough, Leicestershire. He was one of the first Englishmen to explore Muscovy and present-day Russia. Jenkinson was a traveller and explorer on behalf of the Muscovy Company and the English crown. He also met Ivan the Terrible several times during his trips to Moscow and Russia. He detailed the accounts of his travel through several written works over his life.
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Sir John Meyrick was an English merchant in Russia; he became the English ambassador to Russia during the reign of Tsar Boris Godunov.
Robert Jacob was an English physician. He was a court physician to Elizabeth I and later Ivan IV of Russia.
Lady Mary Hastings was a courtier in the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England. It was suggested that she would be married to the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible and she was known by a courtesy title of "Empress of Muscovia" despite never marrying him. She died before 1589.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Browne, Richard Charles (1886). "Bowes, Jerome". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 6. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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