Sir Henry Wotton

Wotton, Sir Henry, M.A., born in Kent in 1568, and educated at New and at Queen's Colleges, Oxford. After spending nine years on the Continent, on his return he became secretary to Robert, Earl of Essex, with whom he continued until Essex was committed for high treason, when he retired to Florence. There he became known to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and was sent by him, in the name of "Octavio Baldi," with letters to James VI., King of Scotland, in which the king was informed of a design against his life. On succeeding to the English throne James knighted Wotton and sent him as ambassador to the Republic of Venice. In 1623 he was made Provost of Eton (having previously taken Deacon's Orders). He died in 1639. His works include The Elements of Architecture, Parallel between the Earl of Essex and the Duke of Buckingham, Essay on Education, &c. His poems and other matters found in his manuscripts were published posthumously by Izaak Walton in 1651, as Reliquiae Wottonianae. This has been several times reprinted

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)