William Boswell

Sir William Boswell (* before 1591; † 1649 ) was an English diplomat and politician .

Life

Boswell came from Suffolk and studied at Jesus College at Cambridge University , where he became a fellow in 1606. He then went to the diplomatic service of the Kingdom of England and became secretary to the English ambassador to the Netherlands , Sir Dudley Carleton. In 1632 he was his successor as envoy in The Hague , which he remained until 1649. In 1633 he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor . In the English Civil War he tried to keep the Netherlands neutral, which he succeeded despite efforts to the contrary by Walter Strickland († 1671) sent by Oliver Cromwell .

As ambassador to the Netherlands, he was officially on the side of the contraremonstrants (strict Calvinists ) in a conflict with the remonstrants that dominated public life in the Netherlands at that time . However, he was personally close to William Laud , who was said to have sympathy for the Remonstrants (the Arminians, supporters of Jacobus Arminius ).

In 1624 and 1625 he was a Member of Parliament ( House of Commons ). In 1608 he was incorporated at Oxford University , where he was Proctor in 1624/25. He was also one of the keepers of the State Paper Office.

He was also a scholar who corresponded with Joannes de Laet , among others .

literature

• Thomas Newcomen Archibald Grove:  Boswell, William . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 5:  Bicheno - Bottisham. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1886, p. 440 .
• Boswell, William . In: John Venn , John Archibald Venn (eds.): Alumni Cantabrigienses . A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Part 1: From the earliest times to 1751 , volume 1 : Abbas-Cutts . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1922, pp. 185 ( venn.lib.cam.ac.uk Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).