Sir Thomas Herbert, 1st Baronet
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Sir Thomas Herbert (1606 – 1682), traveller and historian, was born to a Yorkshire family, and studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and Jesus College, Oxford.[1]
He was gentleman of the bedchamber to King Charles I from 1647 up to the king's execution. In his earlier years he went in connection with an embassy to Persia, and he later published an account of his travels. During the first civil war he was a keen supporter of Parliament, and when he was in the king's service the New Model Army found no reason to suspect him of disloyalty. There is varied opinion on the matter of Herbert's devotion to King Charles. In 1678 he published Threnodia Carolina, an account of the last two years of the king's life. In this account Herbert seems devoted in the extreme, being too distraught to be with the king on the scaffold and bursting into tears when the king seemed upset by some news he had brought. It is true that many of the stauch Roundheads Parliament appointed to the king's service were converted into royalists on getting to know him. However Threnodia Carolina may have been an attempt to give Herbert a good name in Charles II's government (the king made him a baronet) and to clear the name of his son-in-law Robert Phayre, who was a regicide.
[edit] References
- ^ Fritze, Ronald H. (2004). Herbert, Sir Thomas, first baronet (1606–1682). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online edition, subscription access). Oxford University Press. Retrieved on 2008-04-09.
- This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
| Baronetage of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by (new creation) |
Baronet (of Tintern, Monmouth) 1660–1682 |
Succeeded by Henry Herbert |
