Fanshawe, The Right Hon. Sir Richard, Knt. And Bart.
, a statesman, negociator, and poet of the last century, was the youngest son, and tenth child, of sir Henry Fanshawe, knt. remembrancer of the exchequer, and brother of lord viscount Fanshawe, of Dromore, in the | kingdom of Ireland, and was born at Ware-park in Hertfordshire, in the month of June 1608. Being only seven years of age when his father died, the care of his education devolved upon his mother, who placed him under the famous schoolmaster Thomas Farnaby. November 12, 1623, he was admitted a fellow-commoner of Jesus college, Cambridge, under the tuition of Dr. Beale, where he prosecuted his studies with success, and discovered a genius for classical learning. Thence he was removed to the Inner Temple, Jan. 22, 1626; but at his mother’s death he resolved to pursue a line of life better adapted to his genius and inclination, and accordingly he travelled to France and Spain, for the purpose of acquiring the languages, and studying the manners of those countries. On his return home he was appointed secretary to the embassy at Madrid, under lord Aston, and was left resident there from the time of lord Aston’s resignation to the appointment of sir Arthur Hopton in 1638.
Being in England at the breaking-out of the civil war, he declared early for the crown, and was employed in several important matters of state. In 1644, attending the court at Oxford, he had the degree of D. C. L. conferred upon him, and was appointed secretary at war to the prince of Wales, whom he attended into the western parts of England, and thence into the islands of Scilly and Jersey. In 1648 he was appointed treasurer to the navy under prince Rupert, which office he held till 1650, when he was created a baronet, and sent to Madrid to represent the necessitous situation of his master, and to beg a temporary assistance from Philip IV. He was then sent for to Scotland, and served there in the capacity of secretary of state to the great satisfaction of all parties, although he took neither covenant nor engagement .*
When sir Richard Fanshawe’s ill health obliged him to apply for his enlargement after the battle of Worcester, where he was taken prisoner, sir Henry Vane proposed, as one of the conditions, that he should take the engage mcnt; upon which Cromwell, who was present, replied, that he nevr knew the engagement given as a medicine: his liberty was then granted on 4000l. bail.
Upon his majesty’s restoration he expected to be appointed secretary of state, from a promise wfoich had formerly been made him of that office; but to his great disappointment, it was, at the instance of the duke of Albemarle, given to sir William Morrice, which circumstance lady Fanshawe states thus: “The king promised sir Richard that he should be one of the secretaries of state (at the Restotion), and both the duke of Ormond and lord chancellor Clarendon were witnesses of it; yet that false man made the king break his word for his own accommodation, and placed Mr. Morrice, a poor country gentleman of about 200l. a year, a fierce presbyterian, and one who never saw the king’s face; but still promises were made of the reversion to sir Richard.”
He was elected one of the representatives of the university of Cambridge* in the parliament which met the 8th of May 1661, and was soon after sworn a privy counsellor of Ireland. Having by his residence in foreign courts qualified himself for public employments abroad, he was sent envoy extraordinary to Portugal, with a dormant commission to the ambassador, which he was to make use of as occasion should require. Shortly after, he was appointed ambassador to that court, where he negotiated the marriage between his master king Charles II. and the infanta donna Catharina, daughter of king John VI. and returned to England towards the end of the same year. It appears that he was again sent ambassador to that crown in 1661, and was, upon his return to England the following
Sir Richard had the good fortune to be the first chosen, and the first returned member in the commonshouse after the king came home, and this cost him no more than a letter of thanks, two brace of bucks, and twenty broad pieces for wine.
Sir Richard was preparing for his return to England; when, June 4, 1666, he was seized at Madrid with a violent fever, which put an end to his life the 16th of the same month, the very day he had designed to set out on his return home. Hfts body, being embalmed, was conveyed by his lady, with all his children then living, by land to Calais, and afterwards to All Saints church in Hertford, where it was deposited in the vault of his father-in-law, sir John Harrison, till May 18, 1671, and then was removed into a new vault, made on purpose for him and his family in thl parish-church of Ware. Near the vault there is a handsome monument erected to his memory. He was remarkable for his meekness, sincerity, humanity, and piety; and also was an able statesman and a great scholar, being in particular a complete master of several modern languages, especially Spanish, which was perfectly familiar to him.
Although much of his life was spent in active business, he found leisure to produce the following works: 1. An English translation in rhyme of Guarini’s “II Pastor Fido, or the Faithful Shepherd,” 1646, 4to. 2. A translation from, English into Latin verse of Fletcher’s “Faithful Shepherdess,” 1658. 3. In the octavo edition of “The Faithful Shepherd,” are inserted the following poems of our author; An Ode on his majesty’s Proclamation in 1630, commanding the gentry to reside upon their estates in the country; an English translation of the fourth book of Virgil’s Aneid Odes of Horace, translated into English; and a summary Discourse of the Civil Wars of Rome. 4. He translated from Portuguese into English, Canpens’ “Lusiad, or Portugal’s Historical Poem,” 1655, folio. 5. After his decease were published two pieces in 4to, 1671 r “luerer per solo querer,” “To love only for love’s sake,” a dramatical romance, represented before the king and queen of Spain and “Fiestas de Aranjeuz,” Festival at | Aranjeuz. Both written in Spanish by Antonio de Mendoza, upon celebrating the birth-day of Philip VI. in 1623, at Aranjuez; and translated by our author in 1654, during his confinement. 6. His correspondence was published in 1701, in one volume, 8vo, under this title: “‘Original Letters of his excellency sir Richard Fanshawe during his embassy in Spain and Portugal; which, together with divers letters and answers from the chief ministers of state in England, Spain, and Portugal, contain the whole negotiations of the treaty of peace between those three crowns.” The publisher received these letters from the hands of a daughter of sir Richard, who had them in her possession. He also composed other things, remaining in manuscript, which he wrote in his younger years, but had not tha leisure to complete. Even some of the preceding printed pieces have not all the perfection which our ingenious author could have given them: for, as his biographer observes, “being, for his loyalty and zeal to his master’s service, tossed from place to place, and from country to country, during the unsettled times of our anarchy, some of his manuscripts falling by misfortune into unskilful hands, were printed and published without his consent or knowledge, and before he could give them his last finishing strokes.” But that was not the case with his translation of “II Pastor Fido,” which was published by himself, and procured him much reputation.
His lady, by whom he had six sons and eight daughters, of whom one son and four daughters survived him, was the daughter of sir John Harrison by Margaret his wife, daughter of Robert Fanshawe, of Fanshawe-gate, esq. great uncle to si* Richard, to whom she was married in Wolvercot church, near Oxford, May 18, 1644. She compiled, for the use of her only son, “Memoirs of the Fanshawe Family,” containing a particular account of their sufferings in the royal cause, in which she and her sister Margaret Harrison (who in 1654 married sir Edmund Tumor, of StokeRochford, co. Lincoln, knt.) bore a considerable share, being the constant companions of sir Richard in those perilous times. The description of her and her husband’s taking leave of Charles 1. when he was a prisoner at Hampton-court, is a very affecting specimen of these Memoirs, and is told with great simplicity. During the king’s stay at Hampton-court, I went three times to pay my duty to him, both as I was the daughter of his servant, and the wife | of his servant; the last time I ever saw him I could not refrain from weeping. When I took my leave of the king, he saluted me, and I prayed God to preserve his majesty with long life and happy years. The king stroked me on the cbeek, and said, “Child, if God pleaseth it shall be so, but both you and I must submit to God’s will; and you know in what hands I am in.‘ Then turning to my husband, he said, ’ Be sure, Dick, to tell my son all that I have said, and deliver these letters to my wife. Pray God bless her; and I hope 1 shall do well.” Then taking my husband in his arms, he said, “Thou hast ever been an honest man; I hope God will bless thee, and make thee a happy servant to my son, whom I have charged in my letter to continue his love and trust to you;‘ adding, ’ And I do promise you, if I am ever restored to my dignity, I will bountifully reward you both for your services and sufferings.’ Thus did we part from that glorious sun, that within a few months afterwards was extinguished, to the grief of all Christians, who are not forsaken of their God.”
These memoirs, from the variety of interesting matter they contain, might, if they were published, prove an acceptable present to the public. The excellent writer of them was no less distinguished for her strength of mind and courage than for her piety and virtue. When the vessel that carried her from Ireland to Spain was attacked, she put on men’s clothes, and fought with the sailors. In the second volume of Mr. Seward’s “Anecdotes” are many other curious extracts from lady Fanshawe’s Memoirs. 1
Biog. Brit, new edit, an aiticlc contributed by Edmund Tumor, eq. The account of sir Richard in the preceding edition of the Biog. Brit, and in this Dictionary, being taken from the Life prefixed to his Letters, was erroneous, as to facts. An advertisement appeared in the London Gazette, No. 3TJS, announcing that the account of sir Richard prefixed to his Letters, was added by the booksellers, durng the absence and without the consent of the person by whose direction the letters were printed, and that it is very erroneous: but as to the Letters themselves, " the reader may depend on the truth of them, setting aside the errors of the press.