William Wade
Encyclopedia
Sir William Wade (1546 – 21 October 1623), was an English
statesman and diplomat, and Lieutenant of the Tower of London
.
, the traveller, who sailed with a party of adventurers for North America
in 1536, later, one of the clerks of the privy council in London and a member of parliament, and his second wife, Alice Patten.
Both his parents died in 1568, and Wade succeeded to the family property, his father’s sons by his first wife having predeceased him. In 1571 he was admitted a student of Gray’s Inn, and a few years later, doubtless with a view to entering the service of the government, he began travelling on the continent.
and frequently supplied political information to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
, whose "servant" he is described as being. He claimed "familiar acquaintance" with the celebrated French publicist Jean Bodin
, from whom he seems to have derived some of the news he forwarded to Burghley. In the autumn of 1576 Amias Paulet
took Wade to Blois
. During the winter of 1578–79 he was in Italy, from where he forwarded to Burghley reports on its political condition. From Venice
in April 1579 he sent Burghley fifty of the rarest kinds of seeds in Italy. In May he was in Florence
, and in February 1579/80 he was living in Strasbourg
. In the following April he was employed on a delicate mission in Paris by Sir Henry Cobham.
Among appointments in London, Wade undertook a number of ambassadorial missions, in 1580 to Portugal; then in 1581 he became secretary to Sir Francis Walsingham
and in 1583 he was appointed as one of the clerk
s of the Privy Council
. In April of that year he was sent to Vienna
to discuss the differences between the Hanseatic League
and English merchants abroad, and in July he accompanied Lord Willoughby
on his embassy to Denmark
to invest the king
with the insignia of the Garter
, and to negotiate an agreement on mercantile affairs.
In January 1583–4 he was sent to Madrid to explain the expulsion from England of the Spanish ambassador, Mendoza
. He arrived in March, but Phillip II
refused all his requests for an interview and ordered him out of Spain, with an intimation that he was fortunate to escape to liberty. He was back in England on 12 April, and with his return diplomatic relations between England and Spain ceased. In the same month Wade was sent to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, to induce her to come to terms with Elizabeth, and his account of the interview is printed by Froude. In February 1584-5 he was appointed to accompany Nau to the court of King James VI of Scotland
, but his appointment was cancelled at the last minute.
In March 1585 Wade was despatched to Paris to demand the surrender of the conspirator Thomas Morgan
. Henry III
was willing to consider the request, but the Catholic League
and the Guises
were violently opposed to it and even instructed the Duc d’Aumale
to waylay Wade and rescue Morgan on their way to the coast. Wade, however, convinced that he could not secure Morgan, contented himself with obtaining a promise that Morgan should be detained in prison in France, but Aumale nevertheless attacked the envoy near Amiens and inflicted on him a severe beating as an answer to his demand for the extradition of a Roman Catholic from France. In August, Wade accompanied William Davison to the Low Countries to negotiate an alliance with the States-General of the Netherlands
.
A year later he took a prominent part in arranging the seizure of Mary Stuart’s papers, which implicated her in the Babington Plot
. He himself went down to Chartley in August 1586, and, while Mary was decoyed away on a hunting expedition, arrested her secretaries Nau and Curle, and having ransacked her cabinet, carried back a valuable collection of papers to London. For this important service he was paid thirty pounds.
In 1587 was again in France. During the remainder of the reign of Elizabeth I of England
, Wade was much occupied in searching for Jesuits and in discovering plots against the life of the queen.
James I
, who knighted him in 1603. employed him in similar ways, and he was occupied that year in unravelling the Bye Plot
and Main Plot
. Wade was Lieutenant of the Tower at the time of the Gunpowder Plot
and questioned Guy Fawkes
. For some time Wade was a member of the Parliament of England
, elected as MP for Aldborough
(1584), Thetford
(1589), Preston
(1601) and West Looe
(1604).
. She wanted Wade replaced with a less honest Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Gervase Helwys
, as part of her scheme to murder the prisoner Thomas Overbury
, who was opposed to her affair with Robert Carr.
Wade had allowed Lady Arbella Stuart a key to her quarters in the Tower, and this was made the pretext for his replacement by Helwys. Wade was later praised by Lloyd, who claimed that "to his directions we owe Rider
's Dictionary, to his encouragement Hooker
's Polity, and to his charge Gruter
's Inscriptions.
Wade died on 21 October 1623. He had been a shareholder in the Virginia Company
, and the Wades of Virginia
claim descent from his father.
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
statesman and diplomat, and Lieutenant of the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
.
Early life and education
Wade was the eldest son of Armagil WadeArmagil Waad
Armagil Waad was a chief clerk of the Privy Council, servant of government and an English parliamentarian.-Early life:...
, the traveller, who sailed with a party of adventurers for North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
in 1536, later, one of the clerks of the privy council in London and a member of parliament, and his second wife, Alice Patten.
Both his parents died in 1568, and Wade succeeded to the family property, his father’s sons by his first wife having predeceased him. In 1571 he was admitted a student of Gray’s Inn, and a few years later, doubtless with a view to entering the service of the government, he began travelling on the continent.
Career
In July 1576 Wade was living in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and frequently supplied political information to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...
, whose "servant" he is described as being. He claimed "familiar acquaintance" with the celebrated French publicist Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin was a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. He is best known for his theory of sovereignty; he was also an influential writer on demonology....
, from whom he seems to have derived some of the news he forwarded to Burghley. In the autumn of 1576 Amias Paulet
Amias Paulet
Sir Amias Paulet was an English diplomat, Governor of Jersey, and the gaoler for a period of Mary, Queen of Scots.-Life:...
took Wade to Blois
Blois
Blois is the capital of Loir-et-Cher department in central France, situated on the banks of the lower river Loire between Orléans and Tours.-History:...
. During the winter of 1578–79 he was in Italy, from where he forwarded to Burghley reports on its political condition. From Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
in April 1579 he sent Burghley fifty of the rarest kinds of seeds in Italy. In May he was in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, and in February 1579/80 he was living in Strasbourg
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,...
. In the following April he was employed on a delicate mission in Paris by Sir Henry Cobham.
Among appointments in London, Wade undertook a number of ambassadorial missions, in 1580 to Portugal; then in 1581 he became secretary to Sir Francis Walsingham
Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham was Principal Secretary to Elizabeth I of England from 1573 until 1590, and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster". Walsingham is frequently cited as one of the earliest practitioners of modern intelligence methods both for espionage and for domestic security...
and in 1583 he was appointed as one of the clerk
Clerk of the Privy Council (United Kingdom)
The Clerk of the Privy Council is a civil servant in the government of the United Kingdom. He or she is the most senior civil servant in the Privy Council Office....
s of the Privy Council
Privy Council of England
The Privy Council of England, also known as His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, was a body of advisers to the sovereign of the Kingdom of England...
. In April of that year he was sent to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
to discuss the differences between 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...
and English merchants abroad, and in July he accompanied Lord Willoughby
Charles Willoughby, 2nd Baron Willoughby of Parham
Charles Willoughby, 2nd Baron Willoughby of Parham was the only son of William Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby of Parham and Elizabeth Heneage.Charles Willoughby was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford being under 14 years old in 1551...
on his embassy to Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
to invest the king
Frederick II of Denmark
Frederick II was King of Denmark and Norway and duke of Schleswig from 1559 until his death.-King of Denmark:Frederick II was the son of King Christian III of Denmark and Norway and Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg. Frederick II stands as the typical renaissance ruler of Denmark. Unlike his father, he...
with the insignia of the Garter
Order of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St...
, and to negotiate an agreement on mercantile affairs.
In January 1583–4 he was sent to Madrid to explain the expulsion from England of the Spanish ambassador, Mendoza
Bernardino de Mendoza
Bernardino de Mendoza was a Spanish military commander, a diplomat and a writer on military history and politics.- Life and works :Bernardino de Mendoza was born in Guadalajara, Spain around 1540...
. He arrived in March, but Phillip II
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
refused all his requests for an interview and ordered him out of Spain, with an intimation that he was fortunate to escape to liberty. He was back in England on 12 April, and with his return diplomatic relations between England and Spain ceased. In the same month Wade was sent to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, to induce her to come to terms with Elizabeth, and his account of the interview is printed by Froude. In February 1584-5 he was appointed to accompany Nau to the court of King James VI of Scotland
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
, but his appointment was cancelled at the last minute.
In March 1585 Wade was despatched to Paris to demand the surrender of the conspirator Thomas Morgan
Thomas Morgan (of Llantarnam)
Thomas Morgan of Llantarnam , of the Welsh Morgan of Monmouthshire, was a confidant and spy for Mary, Queen of Scots, and was involved in the Babington plot to kill Queen Elizabeth I of England....
. Henry III
Henry III of France
Henry III was King of France from 1574 to 1589. As Henry of Valois, he was the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.-Childhood:Henry was born at the Royal Château de Fontainebleau,...
was willing to consider the request, but the Catholic League
Catholic League (French)
The Catholic League of France, sometimes referred to by contemporary Roman Catholics as the Holy League, a major player in the French Wars of Religion, was formed by Duke Henry of Guise in 1576...
and the Guises
House of Guise
The House of Guise was a French ducal family, partly responsible for the French Wars of Religion.The Guises were Catholic, and Henry Guise wanted to end growing Calvinist influence...
were violently opposed to it and even instructed the Duc d’Aumale
Charles, Duke of Aumale
Charles of Guise, duc d'Aumale was the son of Claude, Duke of Aumale and Louise de Brézé.-Biography:...
to waylay Wade and rescue Morgan on their way to the coast. Wade, however, convinced that he could not secure Morgan, contented himself with obtaining a promise that Morgan should be detained in prison in France, but Aumale nevertheless attacked the envoy near Amiens and inflicted on him a severe beating as an answer to his demand for the extradition of a Roman Catholic from France. In August, Wade accompanied William Davison to the Low Countries to negotiate an alliance with the States-General of the Netherlands
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...
.
A year later he took a prominent part in arranging the seizure of Mary Stuart’s papers, which implicated her in the Babington Plot
Babington Plot
The Babington Plot was a Catholic plot in 1586 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, a Protestant, and put Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic, on the English throne. It led to the execution of Mary. The long-term goal was an invasion by the Spanish forces of King Philip II and the Catholic league in...
. He himself went down to Chartley in August 1586, and, while Mary was decoyed away on a hunting expedition, arrested her secretaries Nau and Curle, and having ransacked her cabinet, carried back a valuable collection of papers to London. For this important service he was paid thirty pounds.
In 1587 was again in France. During the remainder of the reign of 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...
, Wade was much occupied in searching for Jesuits and in discovering plots against the life of the queen.
James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
, who knighted him in 1603. employed him in similar ways, and he was occupied that year in unravelling the Bye Plot
Bye Plot
The Bye Plot was a conspiracy by a Roman Catholic priest, William Watson, to kidnap James I of England and to force him to repeal anti-Catholic legislation.-Background:...
and Main Plot
Main Plot
The Main Plot was an alleged conspiracy of July 1603 by English courtiers, to remove King James I from the English throne, replacing him with his cousin Arabella Stuart. The plot was supposedly led by Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, and funded by Spain...
. Wade was Lieutenant of the Tower at the time of the Gunpowder Plot
Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.The plan was to blow up the House of...
and questioned Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes , also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.Fawkes was born and educated in York...
. For some time Wade was a member of the Parliament of England
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
, elected as MP for Aldborough
Aldborough (UK Parliament constituency)
Aldborough was a parliamentary borough located in the West Riding of Yorkshire, abolished in the Great Reform Act of 1832. Aldborough returned two Members of Parliament from 1558 until 1832....
(1584), Thetford
Thetford (UK Parliament constituency)
Thetford was a constituency of the British House of Commons. It elected two Members of Parliament by the bloc vote system of election until it was disenfranchised in 1868...
(1589), Preston
Preston (UK Parliament constituency)
Preston is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
(1601) and West Looe
West Looe (UK Parliament constituency)
West Looe was a rotten borough represented in the House of Commons of England from 1535 to 1707, in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1797 to 1800, and in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It elected two Members of Parliament by the bloc vote system of election...
(1604).
Later life
He retired from public life in 1613, at the instigation of Frances Howard, Countess of EssexFrances Carr, Countess of Somerset
Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset was an English noblewoman who was the central figure in a famous scandal and murder during the reign of King James I...
. She wanted Wade replaced with a less honest Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Gervase Helwys
Gervase Helwys
Sir Gervase Helwys , also known as Jervis Yelwys, was a Lieutenant of the Tower of London found guilty of complicity in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury and hanged in 1615. The scandal provoked much public and literary conjecture and irreparably tarnished King James I's court with an image of...
, as part of her scheme to murder the prisoner Thomas Overbury
Thomas Overbury
Sir Thomas Overbury was an English poet and essayist, and the victim of one of the most sensational crimes in English history...
, who was opposed to her affair with Robert Carr.
Wade had allowed Lady Arbella Stuart a key to her quarters in the Tower, and this was made the pretext for his replacement by Helwys. Wade was later praised by Lloyd, who claimed that "to his directions we owe Rider
John Rider (bishop)
John Ryder was a Latin lexicographer who published the first English-Latin Dictionary, in which the English language took precedent. A favourite of Elizabeth I, he was Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and the Anglican Bishop of Killaloe....
's Dictionary, to his encouragement Hooker
Richard Hooker
Richard Hooker was an Anglican priest and an influential theologian. Hooker's emphases on reason, tolerance and the value of tradition came to exert a lasting influence on the development of the Church of England...
's Polity, and to his charge Gruter
Jan Gruter
Jan Gruter was a Dutch critic and scholar.-Life:Jan Gruter was Dutch on his father's side and English on his mother's, and was born at Antwerp...
's Inscriptions.
Wade died on 21 October 1623. He had been a shareholder in the Virginia Company
Virginia Company
The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on 10 April1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America...
, and the Wades of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
claim descent from his father.