Richard Shelley (Knight of St. John)
Encyclopedia
Richard Shelley was a diplomat and the last grand prior of the knights of St. John in England
. Like various other members of the family, he became a Knight of St John, and about 1535 was sent abroad to complete his education. In August of that year he carried letters from Thomas Starkey
to (Sir) Richard Morison, who was then at Rome, and in 1538 Shelley was at Venice. But, growing "wearier of this scholastical life than he can express," he set out early in May 1539 for Constantinople
in the company of the Venetian ambassador. The journey was overland, and occupied four months; the ambassador died on the way, and Shelley remained at Constantinople under the protection of the French ambassador.
Shelley claimed to be the first Englishman to visit Constantinople since its capture by the Turks (Gairdner, Letters and Papers, XIV. i. 910, ii. 273). During his absence the order of St. John was suppressed in 1540, and Shelley entered the king's service, being employed on various diplomatic missions. In 1547 he was in Parliament as Member for Gatton
.
Early in 1549 he was sent to the king of France, and in October 1550 Sir John Mason suggested his despatch as special commissioner to the same monarch, "being fully qualified by his knowledge of the language and previous experience." In October–November 1551 he escorted Mary of Guise
through England on her return from France to Scotland. In June 1552 he was again abroad, and on 11 July 1553 he was sent to Brussels with despatches to Charles V
, announcing the death of Edward VI and succession of Queen Jane
(Egerton MS. 2790, f. 141). He waited, however, to see how events would turn out in England, and on the accession of Mary I of England
returned without delivering his despatches. In January 1553–4 he was at Vienna as envoy to the king of the Romans
, and in May 1555 he received a passport and letters to the king of Portugal and to the regent of Spain written in anticipation of the birth of a child to Mary. In January 1556–7 he was sent by Mary to the Duchess of Parma, regent of the Netherlands, to invite her to England.
Meanwhile Mary had resolved to restore the order of St. John in England, and Shelley was actively employed in making the necessary arrangements. On the re-establishment of the order in April 1557 Shelley was made turcopolier, an office second in dignity to that of grand prior, which was conferred on Thomas Tresham I
(d. 1559). He was also given the commanderies of Halston and Slebech
. In the autumn of 1558 he was sent to Malta
, but fell ill at Brussels, where he heard of Mary's death. He was deterred from returning to England by the violence of the Protestant outbreaks in December. The following year he was sent on an embassy to the king of the Romans, and then made his way to Spain, where Philip gave him a pension. The efforts made by the English ambassador at Madrid to induce him to return to England were in vain, but Shelley protested his complete loyalty to the queen. As the relations between England and Spain grew strained, Shelley left for Malta, but at Genoa was recalled by Philip to go as his ambassador to Persia. He did not start on this mission, but in October 1562 was sent by Philip to congratulate the new king of the Romans on his election. In July 1565 he set out for Malta, which was then closely besieged by the Turks, but got no further than Naples, and did not reach Malta until the Turks had retired.
On Tresham's death in 1566 Shelley became grand prior of the knights of St. John, but did not assume the title out of deference to Elizabeth's wishes. The office of turcopolier, hitherto confined exclusively to Englishmen, was annexed to the grand-mastership.
About 1569 Shelley left Malta, being unable to agree with Peter de Monte, who in the previous year had succeeded John de la Valetta as grand master of the order. He established himself at Venice on the invitation of the seignory, and there sought to ingratiate himself with the English government by sending secret intelligence of jesuit and other intrigues against Elizabeth I of England
. He also made himself useful by looking after English commercial interests, and in 1583, in answer to his repeated requests, he was granted leave to return to England with liberty to practise his religion (cf. Hallam, Const. Hist. i. 141). But he was still under suspicion; he had held communications with William Parry (d. 1585) at Venice; most of his relatives in England were recusants, and his nephew Richard Shelley
was implicated in treasonable proceedings, for which he was examined by the council (Lansd. MSS. xlv. ff. 176–9). Shelley remained at Venice, where he was treated with distinction (Ruscelli, Le Imprese Illustri, Venice, 1580, pp. 478–482); he died there about 1589.
Very many of his letters are among the Harleian and Lansdowne manuscript collections at the British Museum
. A selection of these was published in 1774, 4to, to illustrate two medals of Shelley preserved in the king's collection (now in the British Museum); these were engraved by James Basire
, and published as frontispiece to the volume (cf. Gent. Mag. 1785, ii. 713). Two of his letters to Henry VIII, complaining of his treatment of the order, were stolen from the government library at Malta soon after 1848 (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 190). According to his own account, he also wrote a treatise in answer to a book by Nicholas Sanders
, which came into the pope's hands, and brought him into suspicion. It does not seem to have been printed.
Life
Richard Shelley born about 1513, was second son of Sir William ShelleySir William Shelley
-Life:Born about 1480, he was the eldest son of Sir John Shelley and his wife Elizabeth , daughter and heir of John de Michelgrove in the parish of Clapham, Sussex...
. Like various other members of the family, he became a Knight of St John, and about 1535 was sent abroad to complete his education. In August of that year he carried letters from 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...
to (Sir) Richard Morison, who was then at Rome, and in 1538 Shelley was at Venice. But, growing "wearier of this scholastical life than he can express," he set out early in May 1539 for Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
in the company of the Venetian ambassador. The journey was overland, and occupied four months; the ambassador died on the way, and Shelley remained at Constantinople under the protection of the French ambassador.
Shelley claimed to be the first Englishman to visit Constantinople since its capture by the Turks (Gairdner, Letters and Papers, XIV. i. 910, ii. 273). During his absence the order of St. John was suppressed in 1540, and Shelley entered the king's service, being employed on various diplomatic missions. In 1547 he was in Parliament as Member for Gatton
Gatton (UK Parliament constituency)
Gatton was a parliamentary borough in Surrey, one of the most notorious of all the rotten boroughs. It elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1450 until 1832, when the constituency was abolished by the Great Reform Act...
.
Early in 1549 he was sent to the king of France, and in October 1550 Sir John Mason suggested his despatch as special commissioner to the same monarch, "being fully qualified by his knowledge of the language and previous experience." In October–November 1551 he escorted Mary of Guise
Mary of Guise
Mary of Guise was a queen consort of Scotland as the second spouse of King James V. She was the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, and served as regent of Scotland in her daughter's name from 1554 to 1560...
through England on her return from France to Scotland. In June 1552 he was again abroad, and on 11 July 1553 he was sent to Brussels with despatches to 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...
, announcing the death of Edward VI and succession of Queen Jane
Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey , also known as The Nine Days' Queen, was an English noblewoman who was de facto monarch of England from 10 July until 19 July 1553 and was subsequently executed...
(Egerton MS. 2790, f. 141). He waited, however, to see how events would turn out in England, and on the accession of Mary I of England
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...
returned without delivering his despatches. In January 1553–4 he was at Vienna as envoy to the king of the Romans
King of the Romans
King of the Romans was the title used by the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire following his election to the office by the princes of the Kingdom of Germany...
, and in May 1555 he received a passport and letters to the king of Portugal and to the regent of Spain written in anticipation of the birth of a child to Mary. In January 1556–7 he was sent by Mary to the Duchess of Parma, regent of the Netherlands, to invite her to England.
Meanwhile Mary had resolved to restore the order of St. John in England, and Shelley was actively employed in making the necessary arrangements. On the re-establishment of the order in April 1557 Shelley was made turcopolier, an office second in dignity to that of grand prior, which was conferred on Thomas Tresham I
Thomas Tresham I
Sir Thomas Tresham was a leading Catholic politician during the middle of the Tudor dynasty in England.The eldest son of John Tresham of Rushton, Northamptonshire, and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Harrington, of Hornby, Lancashire, he married Mary Parr, youngest daughter and co-heir of William...
(d. 1559). He was also given the commanderies of Halston and Slebech
Slebech
Slebech is a parish in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. The community of Slebech is a sparsely populated on the northern shore of the Eastern River Cleddau. It shares common land boundaries with the Communities of Uzmaston and Boulston, Wiston and Llawhaden and mainly consists of farmland and woodland...
. In the autumn of 1558 he was sent to Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
, but fell ill at Brussels, where he heard of Mary's death. He was deterred from returning to England by the violence of the Protestant outbreaks in December. The following year he was sent on an embassy to the king of the Romans, and then made his way to Spain, where Philip gave him a pension. The efforts made by the English ambassador at Madrid to induce him to return to England were in vain, but Shelley protested his complete loyalty to the queen. As the relations between England and Spain grew strained, Shelley left for Malta, but at Genoa was recalled by Philip to go as his ambassador to Persia. He did not start on this mission, but in October 1562 was sent by Philip to congratulate the new king of the Romans on his election. In July 1565 he set out for Malta, which was then closely besieged by the Turks, but got no further than Naples, and did not reach Malta until the Turks had retired.
On Tresham's death in 1566 Shelley became grand prior of the knights of St. John, but did not assume the title out of deference to Elizabeth's wishes. The office of turcopolier, hitherto confined exclusively to Englishmen, was annexed to the grand-mastership.
About 1569 Shelley left Malta, being unable to agree with Peter de Monte, who in the previous year had succeeded John de la Valetta as grand master of the order. He established himself at Venice on the invitation of the seignory, and there sought to ingratiate himself with the English government by sending secret intelligence of jesuit and other intrigues against Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
. He also made himself useful by looking after English commercial interests, and in 1583, in answer to his repeated requests, he was granted leave to return to England with liberty to practise his religion (cf. Hallam, Const. Hist. i. 141). But he was still under suspicion; he had held communications with William Parry (d. 1585) at Venice; most of his relatives in England were recusants, and his nephew Richard Shelley
Richard Shelley
Richard Shelley was an English recusant who presented to Elizabeth I of England, or her Parliament, a petition drawn up to request greater religious tolerance for Roman Catholics...
was implicated in treasonable proceedings, for which he was examined by the council (Lansd. MSS. xlv. ff. 176–9). Shelley remained at Venice, where he was treated with distinction (Ruscelli, Le Imprese Illustri, Venice, 1580, pp. 478–482); he died there about 1589.
Very many of his letters are among the Harleian and Lansdowne manuscript collections at the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. A selection of these was published in 1774, 4to, to illustrate two medals of Shelley preserved in the king's collection (now in the British Museum); these were engraved by James Basire
James Basire
James Basire , also known as James Basire Sr., was an English engraver. He is the most significant of a family of engravers, and noted for his apprenticing of the young William Blake....
, and published as frontispiece to the volume (cf. Gent. Mag. 1785, ii. 713). Two of his letters to Henry VIII, complaining of his treatment of the order, were stolen from the government library at Malta soon after 1848 (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 190). According to his own account, he also wrote a treatise in answer to a book by Nicholas Sanders
Nicholas Sanders
Nicholas Sanders was an English Roman Catholic priest and polemicist.-Early life:Sanders was born at Chariwood , Surrey, the son of William Sanders, once sheriff of Surrey, who was descended from the Sanders of Sanderstead...
, which came into the pope's hands, and brought him into suspicion. It does not seem to have been printed.