George Carew (diplomat)

George Carew
Died c. 1613
Occupation diplomat

Sir George Carew (died ca. 1613) was an English diplomat and historian.

Life

He was the second son of Thomas Carew of Antony and brother of Richard Carew. He was educated at Oxford and entered the Inns of Court 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.[1]

He sat 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 Whitehall 23 July 1603.[2]

Family

He married Thomazine, the daughter of Sir Francis Godolphin and his first wife Margaret Killigrew.[2]

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, 1749.[note 1]

A Relation of the State of Polonia

A Relation of the State of Polonia is a work produced c.1600 that has been attributed to Carew: in the edition Res Polonicae ex archivo Musei Britannici; (Georgio Carew communiter adscribitur); eddit Carolus H. Talbot. 2 vols. Romae: Institutum Historicum Polonicum, 1965–1967[note 2] Another attribution is to William Bruce, an adviser of Jan Zamoyski, and further candidates have been suggested. In 2014 Sobecki claimed a definitive attribution instead to John Peyton, and a date of 1603, the work being written for the coronation of James VI and I.[3]

Much of the information regarding Poland contained in De Thou's History of His Own Times[note 3] came from the Relation.[2]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 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. Embassador 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
  2. ↑ Also: Ein englischer Gesandtschaftsbericht über den polnischen Staat zu Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts. Sir George Carew: A Relation of the State of Polonia and the United Provinces of that Crowne anno 1598; [extracts tr.] von Siegfried Mews. Leipzig: Hirzel, 1936
  3. ↑ Historiarum sui temporis, ab A.D. 1543 usque ad 1607, libri cxxxviii. Accedunt commentariorum de vita sua libri sex. 5 vols. Genevae, apud Petrum de la Roviere.

References

  1. ↑ Chisholm 1911.
  2. 1 2 3 Courtney 1887.
  3. ↑ 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. Oxford University Press. CXXIX (540). doi:10.1093/ehr/ceu214.
Attribution
  •  Courtney, William Prideaux (1887). "Carew, George (d.1612)". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography. 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. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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