George Carew (diplomat)

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

George Carew
Died	13 November 1612
Nationality	English
Other names	Earl of Totnes
Occupation	diplomat

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]

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 Whitehall 23 July 1603.[3]

Family

He married Thomazine, the daughter of Sir Francis Godolphin and his first wife Margaret Killigrew.[3] They had two sons and three daughters, including:[1]

• Francis Carew, son and heir.

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] 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.[4] 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.

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

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. Courtney 1887.
4. 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 (ed.). 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.