George Carew (diplomat)

Sir George Carew (born around 1556; † November 13, 1612 in Westminster ) was an English politician and diplomat.

Origin and education

George Carew came from the Carew family of Antony , a gentry family from Cornwall . He was the second son of Thomas Carew and his wife Elizabeth Edgcumbe. His father died in 1564, after which his older brother Richard Carew inherited the family estates. George Carew probably studied at Oxford and from 1577 law at the Middle Temple . He then went on an extensive grand tour to Germany, Bohemia, Austria and Italy with Henry Neville († 1593) and Henry Savile .

Activity as a politician

In 1584 Carew was elected MP for the small borough of St Germans in Cornwall. In the general election of 1586, 1588 and 1593, he was elected as a representative of his brother Richard's interests as a member of Parliament for Saltash , not far from Antony . He was then re-elected as MP for St Germans in the elections of 1597, 1601 and 1604, whose influential portreeve was his brother-in-law George Kekewick . With one exception in 1593, it cannot be proven whether Carew even took part in the meetings of the House of Commons. It was not until 1601 that he was able to be a member of various parliamentary committees, whereby he already spoke out in favor of the unification of England and Scotland as Great Britain. However, since his cousin of the same name, George Carew, was also an MP and several MPs were recorded in the minutes only as Mr Carew or Carey , it is not certain whether George Carew or another name bearer actively participated in the meetings.

Service as civil servant and diplomat

In the spring of 1587 Carew had become secretary to Lord Chancellor Sir Christopher Hatton . He also held this office for his two successors, Sir John Puckering and Sir Thomas Egerton, until at least 1598. To this end, he served as protonotary of the royal chancellery since October 10, 1593 , with which he was also responsible for the correspondence of English diplomacy. In addition, he was responsible for the enforcement and pardon of ostracism . This job earned him income through fees, while he received no salary for his service as a protonotary. When the Baltic Sea trade was increasingly disrupted by wars and unrest in the summer of 1598 , State Secretary Robert sent Cecil Carew as envoy to the Baltic Sea region, especially to deal with relations with the Polish-Swedish King Sigismund III. Wasa to improve. Carew should try to find allies for England in the conflicts with Spain, the Empire and the Hanseatic League. Carew traveled to Braunschweig, Danzig and Elbing and on to Sweden. There, however, King Sigismund was defeated in the Battle of Stångebro on September 25 , whereby he lost control of Sweden. Carew witnessed the battle, which led to further conflict between the countries bordering the Baltic Sea. As a result, Carew's mission was unsuccessful. Although Carew also had several critics and envious people as a protonotary, he retained the trust of his superiors and was promoted to Master in Chancery on December 21, 1599 . On behalf of Chancellor Egerton, he reorganized the work of the royal chancellery with the support of his nephew Matthew Carew and William Lambarde . In 1602 he was approved as a barrister by the Middle Temple . Carew amassed a fortune through his activities and acquired extensive land holdings. He owned a house in Kingston upon Thames , Surrey, but lived mostly on the beach near the Whitehall royal court.

A few days after the death of Queen Elizabeth I , he was sent to Scotland in 1603 to inform King James of Scotland of his succession to the throne. Jacob knighted him on July 23, 1603 at the Palace of Whitehall . In the summer of 1605 Carew was supposed to travel to France as ambassador, but lack of money and the Gunpowder plot delayed his departure. He did not reach Paris until December 13, 1605. The French King Henry IV received him with extraordinary friendliness, but Carew faced numerous problems. He was hardly involved in the negotiations between England and France about the independence of the Netherlands , but the English ambassador to the Spanish Netherlands , Sir Thomas Edmondes, complained about Carew. Carew himself tried to implement a trade treaty with France, but in vain warned about the debts Henry IV had owed to Queen Elizabeth I of England. The French king refused to arrest the rebellious Irish Earl of Tyrone , who had fled to France, and accused England of bringing it closer to Spain politically. In the autumn of 1607, Carew asked for a replacement in frustration, but it was not until July 1609 that he was recalled as ambassador.

Last years and death

After his return from France Carew resumed his service in the royal chancellery. During his absence in France a by-election in St Germans had been waived, so that he was still a member of the House of Commons and attended the meetings from February 1610. As one of the longest serving MPs, he made several comments on procedural issues. On June 5, 1610 he was one of the first MPs to take the oath of supremacy , which also indicates his high status in the House of Commons. Carew's wife became the queen's lady-in-waiting, and Carew himself, as an internationally experienced diplomat, probably hoped for new tasks. However, he was only given insignificant offices, and in April 1610 he was only admitted to an Anglo-French conference on the debts of France. In the spring of 1611 he was granted an annual pension of £ 200, and after the death of the leading minister Robert Cecil, he was given the coveted and lucrative office of Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries in June 1612 . Before he could apparently implement planned reforms at the Court of Wards and Liveries, however, he died of typhus in his new home in Westminster . He was buried in St Margaret's Church in Westminster.

Family and offspring

In 1588 Carew had married Thomasine Godolphin († around 1635), a daughter of Sir Francis Godolphin . With her he had two sons and four daughters, including:

• Francis Carew (around 1598-1628)
• Sophia (around 1610–1702) ∞ Walter Stewart

At his death, his fortune is said to have been £ 10,000, most of which his son Francis inherited. Through his daughter Sophia, he was the grandfather of Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox .

Evaluation and activity as a writer

George Carew was considered a versatile civil servant and diplomat, who had a long career as a politician due to his diverse contacts. In contrast to his brother Richard Carew, who remained a modest country gentleman, he became the epitome of a flattering courtier. As a clerk in charge of pardons and ostracism, he was corrupt to many other officials of his time. About his legation trip to the Baltic Sea area in 1598, he published the book A Relation of the State of Polonia . In it he describes the Polish nobility as "greedy and addicted to drinking, irascible and quarrelsome, but nice and friendly to deal with". The Polish King Sigismund III. He liked Wasa, but said he was “lacking charisma”. He described the neighboring states of Poland as "barbaric" and was surprised that there is no program for colonizing the Ukraine (on the Dnieper) and that no fortresses are being built there to protect against the Tatar nomads. Carew also wrote passages about Poland for the work Historia mei temporis by Jacques-Auguste de Thou . After his return from France he published in 1610, probably also to improve his position, the text Relation of the State of France , which contains a lot of information about the court of Henry IV of France. Thomas Birch used the font as a basis for his book An historical view of the negotiations between the courts of England, France, and Brussels, from the year 1592 to 1617 , published in 1749 . In contrast, Carew himself probably contributed little to the work Reports or Causes in Chancery on the cases of the royal chancellery, which is also attributed to him and which received much attention in the 17th century.

Works

• An English legation report on the Polish state at the end of the 16th century ( A relation of the state of Polonia and the united provinces of that crowne anno 1598 ). Translated by Siegfried Mews, Hirzel, Leipzig 1936
• A relation of the state of France, with the characters of Henry IV and the principal persons of that court . London, around 1610
• Reports or Causes in Chancery. Collected by Sir George Cary, one of the Masters of the Chancery ... 1601, out of the labors of Master W. Lambert, etc . W. Lee, London 1665

Web links

• WJ Jones: Carew, Sir George (c. 1556-1612). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
• WJ Jones: CAREW, George (d.1612), of Antony, Cornw. and Tothill Street, Westminster. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1558–1603)
• Paul Hunneyball: CAREW, Sir George II (c. 1560-1612), of The Strand and Tothill Street, Westminster. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1604–1629)