WOTTON, Sir Henry (1568-1639), an accomplished literary amateur, was one of the favourite diplomatists of James I. of England, although, following the quietistic habit of his family, he never would undertake employments of the greatest weight and difficulty. The seat of the family, which was founded in the 14th century by a lord mayor of London, was Bocton or Boughton Malherbe in Kent. It was, as described by Izaak Walton in his Life of Sir Henry, a typical English family of wealthy landed gentry, keeping up a connexion with the court, but avoiding the risks of factious ambition, often holding offices of high trust, but always prudently declining the highest. Henry, the youngest of four sons, was sent to school at Winchester, and thence to Oxford (New College and afterwards Queen’s). At the age of twenty-two, with a high academic reputation for wit and scholarship, he was sent abroad to complete his education, and spent eight years in France, Spain, and Germany, making acquaintance with men of learning as well as courtiers, a general favourite. Returning to England at the age of thirty, he sought political employment, and became one of the secretaries of Essex. On the fall of Essex he made his escape from England and took refuge at Florence, where he employed his leisure in writing a sketch of “the state of Christendom.” While he was at Florence the grand-duke discovered a plot against King James, and Wotton was sent to Scotland with the information and a casket of antidotes. King James was so charmed with the emissary that on his accession to the English throne he at once offered Wotton ambassadorial employment. He might have had the embassy to Spain, but this he prudently declined, and chose instead the easier duty of managing relations with Venice and the ...