Richard Morrison (ambassador)
Encyclopedia
Sir Richard Morrison (ca. 1513-1556) was an English humanist scholar and diplomat. He was a protégé of Thomas Cromwell, propagandist for Henry VIII
, and then ambassador to the German court of Charles V
for Edward VI.
, by a daughter of Thomas Merry of Hatfield
. He attended Cardinal College, Oxford (now Christ Church) ca. 1526 and met Nicholas Udall
, who became the master of Eton College
and was known as the father of English comedy. He graduated B.A. at Oxford on 19 January 1527–8, and directly entered the service of Thomas Wolsey; but he soon left the cardinal, visited Hugh Latimer
at Cambridge, and went to Italy to study Greek. He attended the University of Padua
in 1532, making the acquantaince there of Michael Throckmorton. In Italy both these young humanists had links with a group of reformers later called ‘spirituali’, whom Morison met through contacts with Edmund Harvel and Bishop Cosimo Gheri. He became a proficient if impoverished scholar at Venice and Padua, and retained an interest in literature, along with his adopted Calvinistic religious views.
Writing in February 1536 to Thomas Cromwell, he said that he wished to do something else than be wretched in Italy. Cromwell summoned him home, and gave him an official appointment. Morison and Throckmorton subsequently took up diametrically opposed religious positions: while Throckmorton would embark on a career as agent for Reginald Pole, Morison returned to England to become Henry VIII's propagandist, producing A Remedy for Sedition in response to the Pilgrimage of Grace
. Cromwell used a whole coterie of "divers fresh and quick wits" that also included Nicholas Udall, John Bale
, John Heywood
(C. 1497-1580), Thomas Gibson, William Marshall, John Rastell
, Thomas Starkey
, Richard Taverner
and John Uvedale.
On 17 July 1537 he became prebendary of Yatminster in Salisbury Cathedral
, and derived benefit from the Dissolution of the Monasteries
. He received the mastership of the hospitals of St. James's, Northallerton, Yorkshire, and St. Wulstan, Worcester, with other monastic grants. The King in 1541 is said to have given him the library of the Carmelites
in London.
In 1546 Morison went as ambassador to the Hanseatic League
. On Henry VIII's death he was furnished with credentials to the king of Denmark, and ordered by the council to announce Edward VI's accession. On 8 May 1549 he was made a commissioner to visit the university of Oxford, and before June 1550 was knighted. In 1550 Morison replaced Sir Philip Hoby
as Ambassador to the Emperor. Setting off in July, he went with Roger Ascham
as his secretary, the two reading Greek every day together. His despatches to the council were long, but Morison found time to travel in Germany with Ascham, who published in 1553 an account of their experiences in A Report of the Affaires of Germany. The emperor frequently remonstrated through Morison about the treatment of the Princess Mary
; and he did not altogether like Morison, who was in the habit reading Bernard Ochino's Sermons or Machiavelli to his household ‘for the sake of the language.’
After Edward's death, Morison was revoked as ambassador. On 5 August 1553 he and Sir Philip Hoby received a recall for a political gaffe: they had alluded to Guilford Dudley as king in a letter to the council. The next year Morison withdrew to Strasburg
with Sir John Cheke and Anthony Cooke
, and spent his time in study under Peter Martyr, whose patron he had been at Oxford. He was at Brussels early in 1555, and is said also to have passed into Italy, but he died at Strasburg on 17 March 1556.
Morison died a rich man, and had begun to build the mansion of Cashiobury in Hertfordshire.
He is also said to have written ‘Comfortable Consolation for the Birth of Prince Edward, rather than Sorrow for the Death of Queen Jane,’ after the death of Jane Seymour on 24 October 1537. ‘A Defence of Priests' Marriages’ is sometimes assigned to him (probably appeared between 1549 and 1553).
In manuscript are ‘Maxims and Sayings,’ Sloane MS. 1523; ‘A Treatise of Faith and Justification,’ Harl. MS. 423 (4); ‘Account of Mary's Persecution under Edward VI,’ Harl. MS. 353. Morison suggested to king Henry VIII that the popular Robin Hood
plays should be suppressed in favour of anti-papist
propaganda. His attitude is clear in a Cottonian manuscript entitled A Discourse Touching the Reformation of the Lawes of England (1535):
; after his death she remarried twice, in 1561 to Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland
and then in 1566 to Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford
. By her he had a son Charles, afterwards Sir Charles, kt., and three daughters: Jane married to Edward, Lord Russell, son of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford
; Elizabeth to William Norreys; and Mary to Bartholomew Hales. His son completed Cashiobury, which passed into the Capel family by the marriage of Sir Charles's daughter Elizabeth with Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham. According to Anthony Wood
, Morison left illegitimate children.
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, and then ambassador to the German court of Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
for Edward VI.
Life
He was son of Thomas Morison of HertfordshireHertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, by a daughter of Thomas Merry of Hatfield
Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It has a population of 29,616, and is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, the home of the Marquess of Salisbury, is the nucleus of the old town...
. He attended Cardinal College, Oxford (now Christ Church) ca. 1526 and met Nicholas Udall
Nicholas Udall
Nicholas Udall was an English playwright, cleric, pederast and schoolmaster, the author of Ralph Roister Doister, generally regarded as the first comedy written in the English language.-Biography:...
, who became the master of Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and was known as the father of English comedy. He graduated B.A. at Oxford on 19 January 1527–8, and directly entered the service of Thomas Wolsey; but he soon left the cardinal, visited Hugh Latimer
Hugh Latimer
Hugh Latimer was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, Bishop of Worcester before the Reformation, and later Church of England chaplain to King Edward VI. In 1555, under Queen Mary, he was burnt at the stake, becoming one of the three Oxford Martyrs of Anglicanism.-Life:Latimer was born into a...
at Cambridge, and went to Italy to study Greek. He attended the University of Padua
University of Padua
The University of Padua is a premier Italian university located in the city of Padua, Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe. It is among the earliest universities of the world and the second...
in 1532, making the acquantaince there of Michael Throckmorton. In Italy both these young humanists had links with a group of reformers later called ‘spirituali’, whom Morison met through contacts with Edmund Harvel and Bishop Cosimo Gheri. He became a proficient if impoverished scholar at Venice and Padua, and retained an interest in literature, along with his adopted Calvinistic religious views.
Writing in February 1536 to Thomas Cromwell, he said that he wished to do something else than be wretched in Italy. Cromwell summoned him home, and gave him an official appointment. Morison and Throckmorton subsequently took up diametrically opposed religious positions: while Throckmorton would embark on a career as agent for Reginald Pole, Morison returned to England to become Henry VIII's propagandist, producing A Remedy for Sedition in response to the Pilgrimage of Grace
Pilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular rising in York, Yorkshire during 1536, in protest against Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, as well as other specific political, social and economic grievances. It was done in action against Thomas Cromwell...
. Cromwell used a whole coterie of "divers fresh and quick wits" that also included Nicholas Udall, John Bale
John Bale
John Bale was an English churchman, historian and controversialist, and Bishop of Ossory. He wrote the oldest known historical verse drama in English , and developed and published a very extensive list of the works of British authors down to his own time, just as the monastic libraries were being...
, John Heywood
John Heywood
John Heywood was an English writer known for his plays, poems, and collection of proverbs. Although he is best known as a playwright, he was also active as a musician and composer, though no works survive.-Life:...
(C. 1497-1580), Thomas Gibson, William Marshall, John Rastell
John Rastell
John Rastell was an English printer and author.-Life:Born in London, he is vaguely reported by Anthony à Wood to have been "educated for a time in grammaticals and philosophicals" at Oxford. He became a member of Lincoln's Inn, and practised successfully as a barrister. He was also M.P...
, Thomas Starkey
Thomas Starkey
Thomas Starkey was an English political theorist and humanist.Starkey attended the University of Oxford and gained an MA at Magdalen College in 1521. After this, Starkey stayed in Padua until around 1526...
, Richard Taverner
Richard Taverner
Richard Taverner is best known for his Bible translation, The Most Sacred Bible whiche is the holy scripture, conteyning the old and new testament, translated into English, and newly recognized with great diligence after most faythful exemplars by Rychard Taverner, commonly known as Taverner's...
and John Uvedale.
On 17 July 1537 he became prebendary of Yatminster in Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture....
, and derived benefit from the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
. He received the mastership of the hospitals of St. James's, Northallerton, Yorkshire, and St. Wulstan, Worcester, with other monastic grants. The King in 1541 is said to have given him the library of the Carmelites
Carmelites
The Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Carmelites is a Catholic religious order perhaps founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel, hence its name. However, historical records about its origin remain uncertain...
in London.
In 1546 Morison went as ambassador to the Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
. On Henry VIII's death he was furnished with credentials to the king of Denmark, and ordered by the council to announce Edward VI's accession. On 8 May 1549 he was made a commissioner to visit the university of Oxford, and before June 1550 was knighted. In 1550 Morison replaced Sir Philip Hoby
Philip Hoby
Sir Philip Hoby was a 16th century English Ambassador to the Holy Roman Empire and Flanders....
as Ambassador to the Emperor. Setting off in July, he went with Roger Ascham
Roger Ascham
Roger Ascham was an English scholar and didactic writer, famous for his prose style, his promotion of the vernacular, and his theories of education...
as his secretary, the two reading Greek every day together. His despatches to the council were long, but Morison found time to travel in Germany with Ascham, who published in 1553 an account of their experiences in A Report of the Affaires of Germany. The emperor frequently remonstrated through Morison about the treatment of the Princess Mary
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
; and he did not altogether like Morison, who was in the habit reading Bernard Ochino's Sermons or Machiavelli to his household ‘for the sake of the language.’
After Edward's death, Morison was revoked as ambassador. On 5 August 1553 he and Sir Philip Hoby received a recall for a political gaffe: they had alluded to Guilford Dudley as king in a letter to the council. The next year Morison withdrew to Strasburg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
with Sir John Cheke and Anthony Cooke
Anthony Cooke
Sir Anthony Cooke was an eminent English humanist, scholar and tutor to Edward VI, England's first ruler to be raised as a Protestant.-Background:...
, and spent his time in study under Peter Martyr, whose patron he had been at Oxford. He was at Brussels early in 1555, and is said also to have passed into Italy, but he died at Strasburg on 17 March 1556.
Morison died a rich man, and had begun to build the mansion of Cashiobury in Hertfordshire.
Works
Morison said:- ‘Apomaxis Calumniarum,’ London, 2990, an attack on Cochlæus, who had written against Henry VIII, and who retorted in ‘Scopa in Araneas Ricardi Morison Angli,’ Leipzig, 1538.
- A translation of the ‘Epistle’ of Sturmius, London, 1538.
- ‘An Invective ayenste the great detestable vice, Treason,’ London, 1539.
- ‘The Strategemes, Sleyghtes, and Policies of Warre, gathered together by S. Julius Frontinus,’ London, 1539; translation of a work on tactics by Sextus Julius FrontinusSextus Julius FrontinusSextus Julius Frontinus was one of the most distinguished Roman aristocrats of the late 1st century AD, but is best known to the post-Classical world as an author of technical treatises, especially one dealing with the aqueducts of Rome....
. - A translation of the ‘Introduction to Wisdom’ by Juan Luis VivesJuan Luís VivesJuan Luis Vives , also Joan Lluís Vives i March , was a Valencian Spanish scholar and humanist.-Biography:Vives was born in Valencia...
, London, 1540 and 1544, dedicated to Gregory Cromwell.
He is also said to have written ‘Comfortable Consolation for the Birth of Prince Edward, rather than Sorrow for the Death of Queen Jane,’ after the death of Jane Seymour on 24 October 1537. ‘A Defence of Priests' Marriages’ is sometimes assigned to him (probably appeared between 1549 and 1553).
In manuscript are ‘Maxims and Sayings,’ Sloane MS. 1523; ‘A Treatise of Faith and Justification,’ Harl. MS. 423 (4); ‘Account of Mary's Persecution under Edward VI,’ Harl. MS. 353. Morison suggested to king Henry VIII that the popular Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
plays should be suppressed in favour of anti-papist
Anti-Catholicism
Anti-Catholicism is a generic term for discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed against Catholicism, and especially against the Catholic Church, its clergy or its adherents...
propaganda. His attitude is clear in a Cottonian manuscript entitled A Discourse Touching the Reformation of the Lawes of England (1535):
Family
He married Bridget, daughter of John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of SleafordJohn Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford
John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford was Chief Butler of England from 1521 until his death...
; after his death she remarried twice, in 1561 to Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland
Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland
Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, 14th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG was the son of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland. He also held the title of 14th Baron de Ros of Hamlake, a title to which he acceded in 1543....
and then in 1566 to Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford
Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford
Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, KG was an English nobleman, soldier and politician and godfather to Sir. Francis Drake.-Early life:...
. By her he had a son Charles, afterwards Sir Charles, kt., and three daughters: Jane married to Edward, Lord Russell, son of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford
Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford
Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, KG was an English nobleman, soldier and politician and godfather to Sir. Francis Drake.-Early life:...
; Elizabeth to William Norreys; and Mary to Bartholomew Hales. His son completed Cashiobury, which passed into the Capel family by the marriage of Sir Charles's daughter Elizabeth with Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham. According to Anthony Wood
Anthony Wood
Anthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born...
, Morison left illegitimate children.