Sir William Boswell (died 1650) was an English diplomat and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

in 1624 and 1625. He was a resident ambassador to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

from 1632 to 1649.

Life

William Boswell was a native of

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. He was educated at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

, of which he was elected fellow in 1606. He was incorporated at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

on 12 July 1608 and became proctor in 1624. He was one of the keepers of the state paper office. In 1624 he was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

in a by-election to the

Happy Parliament The 4th Parliament of King James I was the fourth and last Parliament of England of the reign of James I of England, summoned on 30 December 1623, sitting from 19 February 1624 to 29 May 1624, and thereafter kept out of session with repeated pror ...

. He was re-elected MP for Boston in 1625.'Alumni Oxonienses, 1500-1714: Bludworth-Brakell', Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714 (1891), pp. 142-170. Date accessed: 8 May 2012
/ref> Boswell subsequently entered the diplomatic service, and was appointed secretary to Sir Dudley Carleton, then ambassador at

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

. Boswell eventually succeeded Carleton in 1632. He was knighted at Bockstal near Baldock on 25 July 1633. A large share of Sir William's attention while ambassador was taken up with the controversy between the Gomarists and the

Remonstrants The Remonstrants (or the Remonstrant Brotherhood) is a Protestant movement that had split from the Dutch Reformed Church in the early 17th century. The early Remonstrants supported Jacobus Arminius, and after his death, continued to maintain his ...

(

Arminians Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the ''Rem ...

). He continued the policy of Sir Dudley Carleton, and supported the rigidly Calvinist Gomarists against the Remonstrants. This was for political reasons, and otherwise Boswell was an ally of

William Laud William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms, he was arrested by Parliament in 1640 ...

. He took a close interest in the émigré English churches in the Netherlands, and in 1633-4 helped John Paget intrigue against John Davenport.

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

ordered Boswell to back

Edward Misselden Edward Misselden ( fl. 1608–1654) was an English merchant, and leading member of the writers in the Mercantilist group of economic thought. He argued that international movements of money and fluctuations in the exchange rate depended upon the i ...

, influential in the Merchant Adventurers, against John Forbes. In 1638 Boswell had a prosecution brought against

John Canne John Canne (d. 1667?) was an English Independent minister and printer. Life The London separatist congregation of John Hubbard, who had moved with them to Ireland around 1621, on Hubbard’s death came back to London and chose Canne as minister. ...

. He was now poised against the Gomarists, and worked together with Remonstrants to combat Scottish Covenanter propaganda. When the

First English Civil War The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...

broke out, Boswell's efforts were directed towards preserving the neutrality of the Dutch. Despite the efforts of

Walter Strickland Walter Strickland (1598? – 1 November 1671) was an English politician and diplomat who held high office during the Protectorate. Biography Strickland was the younger son of Walter Strickland of Boynton. His elder brother, William, was kn ...

, who was sent over by

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

to counteract his influence, he was quite successful in his political mission. He could not prevent Parliament appealing to Dutch public opinion, however. Despite Boswell's appeals to the Dutch authorities to ban Parliamentary propaganda, it circulated widely in the Republic, and Boswell found himself compelled to respond by publishing royalist pamphlets. Sir William was also a man of letters and a scholar, as is shown in his correspondence with

John de Laet Joannes or Johannes De Laet (Latinized as ''Ioannes Latius'') (1581 in Antwerp – buried 15 December 1649, in Leiden) was a Dutch geographer and director of the Dutch West India Company. Philip Burden called his ''History of the New World'', ...

, which touches upon subjects ranging from Oriental literature and the compilation of an Arab dictionary to

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...

's treatise 'De Primatu Papae,' and

Sir Simon d'Ewes Sir Simonds d'Ewes, 1st Baronet (18 December 1602 – 18 April 1650) was an English antiquary and politician. He was bred for the bar, was a member of the Long Parliament and left notes on its transactions. D'Ewes took the Puritan side in the Civ ...

's Saxon vocabulary. Another correspondent was the Laudian

Stephen Goffe Stephen Goffe, C.O. (Gough) (b. 1605; d. at Paris, Christmas Day, 1681), was a Royalist agent of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and later an Oratorian priest. Life Goffe was educated at Merton College, Oxford, becoming M.A. in 1627. He took ...

Notes and references

Citations

Sources

*Keith L. Sprunger (1982), ''Dutch Puritanism: a history of English and Scottish churches of the Netherlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries''

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boswell, William 1650 deaths 17th-century English diplomats Ambassadors of England to the Netherlands English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 Year of birth missing Knights Bachelor