Sir Thomas Edmonds (1563 – 20 September 1639) was an English diplomat and politician who served under three successive monarchs, Queen Elizabeth I, Kings James I and Charles I, and occupied the office of Treasurer of the Royal Household from 1618 to 1639.

Origins

He was the fifth son of Thomas Edmonds (d.1604) of

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

in Devon and of

Fowey Fowey ( ; kw, Fowydh, meaning 'Beech Trees') is a port town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town has been in existence since well before the Norman invasion, with the local ch ...

in Cornwall (eldest son of Henry Edmunds of Salisbury in Wiltshire), Customer of Plymouth in 1564, by his first wife Joane de la Bere, a daughter of Anthony De la Bere of Sherborne in Dorset.

Career

He is said to have been introduced at court by another namesake, Sir Thomas Edmonds,

Comptroller of the household The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the British royal household, nominally the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department after the Treasurer of the Household. The Comptroller was an ''ex officio'' member of t ...

to Queen Elizabeth I, where he received the rudiments of a political education from Sir Francis Walsingham. He was a man of small stature but formidable character: people spoke of "the little man" with respect. In 1592 the queen appointed Edmonds as her agent in France concerning the affairs of the king of Navarre and the

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

, in which office he continued until 1596, when the queen appointed him her "secretary of the French tongue". He then returned to Paris in 1597. In 1597 he was elected as a Member of Parliament for

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village ...

in Wiltshire, but as he was abroad the seat was occupied by a proxy. In 1600 he was the queen's ambassador at Brussels and one of the commissioners for the peace conference at Boulogne-sur-Mer. In 1601 he was appointed a clerk of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

, but returned to Paris as minister soon after. He was elected an MP for Liskeard, Cornwall, in 1601. He was knighted by King James I at Greenwich Palace on 22 May 1603. In 1604 he was sent as ambassador to Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor. Soon after, while still abroad, he was elected a Member of Parliament for Wilton in Wiltshire and was granted the reversion to the office of

Clerk of the Crown A Clerk of the Crown is a clerk who usually works for a monarch or such royal head of state. The term is mostly used in the United Kingdom to refer to the office of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, though the office has undergone different title ...

. He returned to Brussels as

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

in 1609, and from 1610 served as ambassador to France for seven years. In 1616 he was appointed

Comptroller of the Royal Household The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the British royal household, nominally the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department after the Treasurer of the Household. The Comptroller was an ''ex officio'' member of t ...

and in 1618 Treasurer of the Royal Household, a post he held until his death. He was elected as an MP for Bewdley in 1621, for Chichester in February 1624, for Oxford University, all in the first Parliament of King Charles I in 1625 and in 1628 for

Penrhyn Penryn is a Cornish word meaning 'headland' that may refer to: *Penryn, Cornwall, United Kingdom, a town of about 7,000 on the Penryn River **Penryn railway station, a station on the Maritime Line between Truro and Falmouth Docks, and serves the to ...

. His final diplomatic service was to return as a special ambassador to France in 1629 to ratify a treaty.

Retirement

On his return to England he retired to Albyns in Essex, a

manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

he had inherited from his wife, it was said he employed the architect

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

to rebuild the house. He died on 20 September 1639.

Marriage and progeny

He married

Magdalen Wood Magdalen Wood ( fl. 1600–1614) was an English courtier and diplomatic messenger. Life Magdalen Wood was a daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Wood, Clerk of the Signet. She married Sir Thomas Edmondes (1563-1639), a diplomat and politician, in ...

(died 1614), a daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Wood, Clerk of the Signet. Their children included: *Sir

Henry Edmonds Sir Henry Edmonds (1605–1635) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1625 to 1626. Edmonds was the son of Sir Thomas Edmonds of the Privy Council and his first wife Magdalen Wood, daughter of Sir John Wood. He matricul ...

, Knight of the Bath, his heir (a "hopeless drunkard"). *Isabella Edmonds, wife of

Henry West, 4th Baron De La Warr Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

*Frances Edmonds, wife of Robert Mildmay, and an ancestor of Baron FitzWalter. His second wife was Sara or

Sarah Harington Sarah Harington (1565–1629) was an English courtier. Sarah or Sara Harington was a daughter of Sir James Harington of Exton and Lucy Sidney, the daughter of Sir William Sidney of Penshurst, Kent. Sarah and her sisters were literary patrons and ...

(1565-1628), a daughter of Sir James Harington of Exton and Lucy Sidney, and widow of Francis, Lord Hastings, Sir George Kingsmith, and Edward 11th Baron Zouche. Her portrait was painted by Isaac Oliver and by Cornelius Johnson. The portraits by Johnson show her aged 63 wearing a large miniature case referring to

Frederick V of the Palatinate Frederick V (german: link=no, Friedrich; 26 August 1596 – 29 November 1632) was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire from 1610 to 1623, and reigned as King of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620. He was forced to abdicate both r ...

with the Greek letter "phi". A similar miniature case was described in an inventory of a Scottish soldier.Athol Murray, 'Jewels Associated with the Queen of Bohemia', ''Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland'', 131 (2001), pp. 328, 343.

References

*J. Palmer, ''A Biographical History of England'' (1824), 86–7. *M. Greengrass, 'Edmonds, Sir Thomas (d. 1639)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 200

Retrieved 12 Jan 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Edmonds, Thomas 1563 births 1639 deaths Treasurers of the Household Clerks of the Privy Council English knights Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall English MPs 1597–1598 English MPs 1601 English MPs 1604–1611 English MPs 1621–1622 English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1626 English MPs 1628–1629 Ambassadors of England to France Ambassadors of England to the Habsburg Netherlands 17th-century English diplomats Members of the pre-1707 Parliament of England for the University of Oxford