Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wikipedia
Sir Richard Fanshawe (June, 1608 - June 16, 1666), diplomat, translator, and poet, born at Ware Park, Herts, and educated at Cambridge, travelled on the Continent, and when the English Civil War broke out sided with the King and was sent to Spain to obtain money for the cause. He acted as Latin Secretary to Charles II. when in Holland. After the Restoration he held various appointments, and was Ambassador to Portugal and Spain successively. He translated Guarini's Pastor Fido, Selected Parts of Horace, and The Lusiad of Camoens.
His wife, nee Anne Harrison, wrote memoirs of her own life.
His English translation of the Lusiads, circulated from 1655 or earlier, was the first.
He was a royalist in the English Civil War, and was captured at the Battle of Worcester. He died in Madrid.
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Annotations
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This gentleman, according to Tomalin, preceded Montagu as ambassador to Spain. His wife, Anne, was a memoirist.
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“Sir Richard Fanshawe was a successful Metaphysical poet and Latinist, who performed well as a soldier in the English Civil War and was also a diplomat. He was Ambassador to Portugal and to Spain from 1660 and died at Madrid in 1666. His body and papers were brought back to England by his wife, Ann, Lady Fanshawe, whose Memoirs provide a most loving biography.
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Amongst other duties Sir Richard Fanshawe had responsibility for finalizing the marriage of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza. He oversaw the supply and safety of Tangiers and brokered a peace treaty between Spain and Portugal, despite interference from the English Government. Sir Richard’s duties included ensuring the well-being of the troops sent to fight for the Portuguese against the Spanish invaders and to protect British trade and traders.Sir Richard was required to settle disputes within his own family and household, whilst at the same time maintaining contact with his fellow poets. All these responsibilities wore him down and he died of an ague in 1666, soon after presenting his successor [Mountagu] to the court of Spain.”
from a Googled Web site, http://www.maney.co.uk/bkfanshawe.html -
Husband of Anne: http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/1032.php
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Ambassador to
Spain. On June 26, 1666, he died at Madrid of fever at the age of
fifty-eight.The England to which his wife brought his body had not fulfilled the
high hopes and dreams of the Restoration. The vice, and laxity of
morals into which it was sinking, would certainly have been repugnant
to the clean-living, high-souled statesman, and we can hardly think
him unhappy in the time of his death.He was buried with much pomp in the Church of St. Mary at Ware, and
his monument stands in a side chapel near the chancel. There, thirteen
years later, his loyal lady and sprightly biographer was laid beside
him in the vault and beneath the monument which she says: “Cost me two
hundred pounds; and here if God pleases I intend to lie myself.”
from her diary from the gutternberg press. -
the ref material:from her notes at
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/mmrsf10.txt -
Portrait:
http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp01525&rNo=37&role=art -
Sir Richard Fanshawe was one of the very few Englishmen that had a great command of the Portuguese language. He was the intermediary and translator of the correspondence between Catarina and Charles.
He also translated the epic Portuguese poem “Os Lusiadas” into English, and it was published in London in 1655.