MAKE A MEME
View Large Image
| View Original: | Sir_Thomas_Roe,_diplomat.jpg (410x500) | |||
| Download: | Original | Medium | Small | Thumb |
| Courtesy of: | www.flickr.com | More Like This | ||
| Keywords: london, st martin's place, wc2 0he londonstmartinsplacewc20he united kingdom unitedkingdom people portrait after Michiel Jansz. van Miereveldt,painting,(circa 1640) Sir Thomas Roe (or Row) (c. 1581 – November 6, 1644) was an English diplomat of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Roe was an accomplished scholar, a patron of learning, and of upright character. The son of Robert Rowe, and of Elinor, daughter of Robert Jermy of Worstead in Norfolk, he was born at Low Leyton near Wanstead in Essex, and at the age of twelve (1593), matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford. Shortly afterwards, he joined one of the Inns of Court, and became esquire of the body to Queen Elizabeth I of England. He was knighted by James I in 1605, and became intimate with Henry, Prince of Wales, and also with his sister Elizabeth, afterwards briefly Queen of Bohemia, with whom he maintained a correspondence and whose cause he championed. In 1610 he was sent by Prince Henry on a mission to the West Indies, during which he visited Guiana and the Amazon River. However, he failed then, and in two subsequent expeditions, to discover the gold he was seeking. In 1614, he was elected Member of Parliament for Tamworth.He was the first Englishmen to Travel to India and his reputation resulted mainly from the success of his embassy in 1615-18 to the court at Agra of the Great Mogul, Jahangir, the principal object of the mission being to obtain protection for an English factory at Surat. At the Mughul court, Roe became a favourite of Jahangir, indeed he was his drinking partner. This greatly enhanced Roe's status with the Mughuls. Appointed ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1621, he distinguished himself further. He obtained an extension of the privileges of the English merchants, concluded a treaty with Algiers in 1624, by which he secured the liberation of several hundred English captives, and gained the support, by an English subsidy, of the Transylvanian Prince Bethlen Gabor for the European Protestant alliance and the cause of the Palatinate. Through his friendship with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Cyril Lucaris, the famous Codex Alexandrinus was presented to James I,[1] and Roe himself collected several valuable manuscripts which he subsequently presented to the Bodleian Library. 29 Greek and other manuscripts, including an original copy of the synodal epistles of the council of Basle, he presented in 1628 to the Bodleian Library.[2] A collection of 242 coins was given by his widow, at his desire, to the Bodleina Library after his death. He also searched for Greek marbles in behalf of the Duke of Buckingham and the second Earl of Arundel.[3] In 1629, he was successful in another mission undertaken. to arrange a peace between Sweden and Poland. In so doing, he was able to help free Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden to intervene decisively in the Thirty Years War on the side of the Protestant German princes. Roe also negotiated treaties with Danzig and Denmark, returning home in 1630, when a gold medal was struck in his honour. In 1631, he sponsored the Arctic exploration of Luke Fox; Roes Welcome Sound was named in his honor.[4] In January 1637, he was appointed chancellor of the Order of the Garter, with a pension of £1200 a year. Subsequently, he took part in the peace conferences at Hamburg, Regensburg and Vienna, and used his influence to obtain the restoration of the Palatinate, the emperor declaring that he had "scarce ever met with an ambassador till now." In June 1640, he was made a privy councillor, and in October was returned to parliament as member for the University of Oxford, where his unrivalled knowledge of foreign affairs, commerce and finance, together with his learning and eloquence, gained for him in another sphere considerable reputation. He married Eleanor, daughter of Sir Thomas Carr of Stamford. after Michiel Jansz. van Miereveldt,painting,(circa 1640) Sir Thomas Roe (or Row) (c. 1581 – November 6, 1644) was an English diplomat of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Roe was an accomplished scholar, a patron of learning, and of upright character. The son of Robert Rowe, and of Elinor, daughter of Robert Jermy of Worstead in Norfolk, he was born at Low Leyton near Wanstead in Essex, and at the age of twelve (1593), matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford. Shortly afterwards, he joined one of the Inns of Court, and became esquire of the body to Queen Elizabeth I of England. He was knighted by James I in 1605, and became intimate with Henry, Prince of Wales, and also with his sister Elizabeth, afterwards briefly Queen of Bohemia, with whom he maintained a correspondence and whose cause he championed. In 1610 he was sent by Prince Henry on a mission to the West Indies, during which he visited Guiana and the Amazon River. However, he failed then, and in two subsequent expeditions, to discover the gold he was seeking. In 1614, he was elected Member of Parliament for Tamworth.He was the first Englishmen to Travel to India and his reputation resulted mainly from the success of his embassy in 1615-18 to the court at Agra of the Great Mogul, Jahangir, the principal object of the mission being to obtain protection for an English factory at Surat. At the Mughul court, Roe became a favourite of Jahangir, indeed he was his drinking partner. This greatly enhanced Roe's status with the Mughuls. Appointed ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1621, he distinguished himself further. He obtained an extension of the privileges of the English merchants, concluded a treaty with Algiers in 1624, by which he secured the liberation of several hundred English captives, and gained the support, by an English subsidy, of the Transylvanian Prince Bethlen Gabor for the European Protestant alliance and the cause of the Palatinate. Through his friendship with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Cyril Lucaris, the famous Codex Alexandrinus was presented to James I,[1] and Roe himself collected several valuable manuscripts which he subsequently presented to the Bodleian Library. 29 Greek and other manuscripts, including an original copy of the synodal epistles of the council of Basle, he presented in 1628 to the Bodleian Library.[2] A collection of 242 coins was given by his widow, at his desire, to the Bodleina Library after his death. He also searched for Greek marbles in behalf of the Duke of Buckingham and the second Earl of Arundel.[3] In 1629, he was successful in another mission undertaken. to arrange a peace between Sweden and Poland. In so doing, he was able to help free Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden to intervene decisively in the Thirty Years War on the side of the Protestant German princes. Roe also negotiated treaties with Danzig and Denmark, returning home in 1630, when a gold medal was struck in his honour. In 1631, he sponsored the Arctic exploration of Luke Fox; Roes Welcome Sound was named in his honor.[4] In January 1637, he was appointed chancellor of the Order of the Garter, with a pension of £1200 a year. Subsequently, he took part in the peace conferences at Hamburg, Regensburg and Vienna, and used his influence to obtain the restoration of the Palatinate, the emperor declaring that he had "scarce ever met with an ambassador till now." In June 1640, he was made a privy councillor, and in October was returned to parliament as member for the University of Oxford, where his unrivalled knowledge of foreign affairs, commerce and finance, together with his learning and eloquence, gained for him in another sphere considerable reputation. He married Eleanor, daughter of Sir Thomas Carr of Stamford. | ||||
