Henry Unton
Sir Henry Unton(orUmpton) (c. 1557 – 23 March 1596) was anElizabethanEnglishdiplomat.
Life
[edit]Unton was born atWychwoodand was the second son of SirEdward Unton(d. 1583) ofWadley House,nearFaringdon,Berkshire(nowOxfordshire). His motherLady Anne Seymour(d. 1588) was a daughter of theDuke of Somerset,theLord ProtectorunderEdward VI.[1]His elder brother wasEdward Unton,who died in 1589.[2]
Educated atOriel College, Oxford,Unton became themember of parliamentforNew Woodstockin 1584. He served with the English forces in theNetherlandsin 1585 and 1586, being present at theskirmish of Zutphen.[3]In 1586 he was knighted byRobert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.[4]
In 1591, through the good offices of theearl of Essex,Unton was sent as ambassador toHenry IV of France;he became very friendly with this king and accompanied him on a campaign inNormandybefore he was recalled to England in June 1592.[3]
Again securing a seat in 1593 inparliamentas aknight of the shireforBerkshire,he lost for a short time the favour ofQueen Elizabeth,but was sent that same year as ambassador to France. He died in the French camp atLa Fèreon 23 March 1596, a collection ofLatinverses being published in his memory at Oxford later in the year. This was edited by his chaplain,Robert Wright(1560–1643), afterwardsbishop of Lichfield and Coventry.[3]
After his death, his body was returned to England and buried at All Saints' Church in Faringdon.[5]In his honor John Dowland composed "Sir Henry Umptons Funerall", one of the pieces in the "Lachrimae or Seven Teares" suite.
His widow, Dorothy (néeWroughton), later married to Sir George Shirley, 1st Baronet, and was known as Dame Dorothy Shirley.[6]
Unton Memorial Portrait
[edit]
Shortly afterwards his widow, Dorothy Unton, commissioned an unknown artist to paint a very unusual portrait of Unton. In addition to showing the sitter as he appeared shortly before his death, the painting also uses a narrative style to show ten other important events in his life. The series begins with his birth, includes his study at Oxford, travels in Italy, campaigning in the Low Countries, his embassies in France, and ends with his impressive funeral procession.[7]
The painting now resides at theNational Portrait GalleryinLondon.[8]The painting was sold by the family at an early date and its location in 1841 was unknown to the historianJohn Gough Nichols.[9]
References
[edit]- ^Description of the painting 'Sir Henry Unton' at the Tate
- ^Greengrass, M. "Unton, Sir Henry".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28001.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^abcOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Unton, Sir Henry".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 781.
- ^Alan Haynes,The White Bear: The Elizabethan Earl of Leicester(Peter Owen, 1987), p. 77.ISBN0-7206-0672-1
- ^"All Saints' Church Faringdon • History".Retrieved16 April2012.
- ^Nichols, John Gough (1841).The Unton inventories: relating to Wadley and Faringdon, co. Berks.Berkshire Ashmolean Society. p.31.
- ^Christina J. Faraday,Tudor Liveliness: Vivid Art in Post-Reformation England(Yale, 2023), pp. 49–59.
- ^"Sir Henry Unton".Retrieved16 April2012.
- ^Nichols, John Gough (1841).The Unton inventories: relating to Wadley and Faringdon, co. Berks.Berkshire Ashmolean Society. p. lxiv.
External links
[edit]- Royal Berkshire History: Sir Henry Unton
- Tudor Place: Sir Henry Unton (Ambassador in France)
- Sir Henry Unton: A resource to supplement the MAPE Focus on History pack
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