Sir Thomas Wilkes (c.1545 – 2 March 1598 (
N.S in
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...
)) was an English
civil servant
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
and
diplomat
A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...
during the reign of
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...
. He served as
Clerk of the Privy Council,
Member of Parliament for
Downton and
Southampton
Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...
, and English member of the
Council of State of the Netherlands
The Council of State () is a constitutionally established advisory body in the Netherlands to the government and States General that officially consists of members of the royal family and Crown-appointed members generally having political, comm ...
, and on many diplomatic missions for the English government.
Personal life
Little is known of Wilkes' early years. He may have been a native of Sussex. Apparently, he spent eight years in Continental Europe on the
Grand Tour after 1564, before he became a probationer-fellow at
All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...
in 1572, where he graduated
B.A. in February 1573 (N.S.). Wilkes married Margaret Smith, daughter of
Ambrose Smith (a London
Mercer) and Joan Coe, about 1578, with whom he had a daughter. After her death in 1596 he remarried Frances Savage, daughter of Sir John Savage.
Career
Shortly after graduation, and still a probationer of All Souls, he joined the embassy of Dr.
Valentine Dale to France as Dale's secretary. (This caused some difficulty with the College that had to be resolved by Sir
Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Walsingham ( – 6 April 1590) was principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I of England from 20 December 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her " spymaster".
Born to a well-connected family of gentry, Wa ...
).
In 1574, Queen Elizabeth instructed him to secretly contact the
Prince de Condé
A prince is a Monarch, male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary title, hereditary, in some ...
and the
Duke d'Alençon, who had been arrested by the French Queen-mother,
Catherine de Medici, to reassure them of her support. Catherine found out and tried to apprehend Wilkes. When he managed to escape to England Queen Elizabeth ordered him to resolve the diplomatic incident or never come back. He returned to France and managed to convince Catherine of his innocence which allowed him to remain in France as an English diplomat.
In February 1575, he was tasked with a mission to the
Elector Palatine
This article lists counts palatine of Lotharingia, counts palatine of the Rhine, and electors of the Palatinate (), the titles of three counts palatine who ruled some part of the Rhine region in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire b ...
to convince him to send an army into France to aid the
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
s under the Prince de Condé. Wilkes followed this army on its campaign in France until the
Peace of Monsieur in 1576. He returned to England highly recommended by both Condé and Alençon. He became a Clerk of the
Privy Council in July 1576, which office he would hold intermittently till his death.
Soon afterward he was awarded the office of Queen's printer, which he quickly sold to
Christopher Barker to augment his income of 40 pounds a year. Later he would receive similar privileges as a reward, which he often quickly sold on. Examples are the salt monopoly for the English east coast he received in 1585
and the lease of Downton
rectory
A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...
, that he eventually sold on to the
Raleigh
Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...
family.
In 1577, Wilkes was sent to Spain and The Netherlands in connection with an attempt to intervene in the
Dutch Revolt
The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (; 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, exc ...
. He was to assure king
Philip II of Spain
Philip II (21 May 152713 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and List of Sicilian monarchs, Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He ...
of Elizabeth's good intentions and to convince him that the new governor-general in the
Habsburg Netherlands
Habsburg Netherlands were the parts of the Low Countries that were ruled by sovereigns of the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. This rule began in 1482 and ended for the Northern Netherlands in 1581 and for the Southern Netherlands in 1797. ...
,
Don Juan
Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni ( Italian), is a legendary fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women.
The original version of the story of Don Juan appears in the 1630 play (''The Trickster of Seville and t ...
would best be recalled. Though he was received cordially at the Spanish court, his advice was not taken. On the return voyage he visited both Don Juan and the
Prince of Orange
Prince of Orange (or Princess of Orange if the holder is female) is a title associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France and subsequently held by the stadtholders of, and then the heirs apparent of ...
in the Netherlands to receive their respective views and report back to Elizabeth.
In 1579, an arrangement was made for a six-monthly rotation of the clerks of the Privy Council, Wilkes' turns being May–August and November–December, but he was available for special commissions during the remainder of the year.
In his capacity as clerk of the Privy Council Wilkes undertook many tasks, big and small. In 1581 for instance, he engaged in the interrogation under torture of the
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
priest
Edmund Campion
Edmund Campion, SJ (25 January 15401 December 1581) was an English Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was ...
in this context, and in 1583 he investigated the conspiracy of
Arden, Somerville, and Hall.
In the mid-1580s, Wilkes embarked on a career as a Member of Parliament. In 1584 he was returned by Downton and in 1586 Southampton offered him a seat, though he had himself reelected by Downton that year (possibly because he was about to be sent abroad again). Southampton elected him in 1589 and 1593, however. Apparently, he did not attend the first three Parliaments he was elected to (or no activity is known), but in 1593 he was put on several committees, among which the subsidy committee.
In 1586, Wilkes was sent to the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...
to accompany the
Earl of Leicester
Earl of Leicester is a title that has been created seven times. The first title was granted during the 12th century in the Peerage of England. The current title is in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and was created in 1837.
History
Earl ...
and keep an eye on him. Wilkes maintained a secret correspondence with the Queen's
Secretary of State and spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, in which Leicester was known as ''Themistocles'', that grew increasingly critical of the policies of the Earl.
In 1587, Wilkes was appointed to the Dutch Council of State
[On the basis of the ]Treaty of Nonsuch
A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, conventio ...
the English government could appoint two members of the Council. as the successor to
Henry Killigrew. In his capacity as a member of the Council, he addressed the
States of Holland The States of Holland and West Frisia () were the representation of the two Estates (''standen'') to the court of the Count of Holland. After the United Provinces were formed — and there no longer was a count, but only his "lieutenant" (the stad ...
with a "Remonstrance" in which he defended the policy of the Earl to oppose the
Regenten
The ''regenten'' ( Dutch plural for ''regent'') were the rulers of the Dutch Republic from the 16th through the 18th century, the leaders of the Dutch cities or the heads of organisations (e.g. "regent of an orphanage"). Though not formally a her ...
and promote the democratic (and extreme
Calvinist
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
) factions with an appeal to popular sovereignty "by default of a legal Prince." This prompted the States to a response, written by
François Vranck, that would become an important ideological statement of the principles of the (largely unwritten) "constitution" of the Dutch Republic. Though Wilkes' approach was rejected, his intervention thus occasioned an important development in the founding of the Dutch Republic.
Meanwhile, relations with Leicester (who had become aware of the criticism behind his back from Wilkes and his colleague
Lord Buckhurst) grew increasingly tense and in June 1587, Wilkes returned to England without permission from the Queen, who had him imprisoned for a while in the
Fleet Prison
Fleet Prison was a notorious London prison by the side of the River Fleet. The prison was built in 1197, was rebuilt several times, and was in use until 1844. It was demolished in 1846.
History
The prison was built in 1197 off what is now ...
. Though he was soon released his disgrace lasted for two years.
Only in August 1589 was Wilkes able to take up his work as clerk of the Privy Council again (apparently he was even briefly considered as Secretary of State after the death of Walsingham in 1590.
In the last years of his life, he was often sent on important diplomatic missions. So was he employed in a mission to France in March–July 1592 during which the new king Henri IV (formerly the Prince de Condé) knighted him for his services (his was therefore a foreign knighthood). At the end of this mission he managed to conclude an alliance with France despite the conversion of the king to Catholicism.
In September 1594, he was entrusted with a mission to
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
to obtain from the government of the
Spanish Netherlands
The Spanish Netherlands (; ; ; ) (historically in Spanish: , the name "Flanders" was used as a '' pars pro toto'') was the Habsburg Netherlands ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556 to 1714. They were a collection of States of t ...
the extradition of a number of people implicated in the conspiracy of the Queen's physician,
dr. López, but this mission was aborted for diplomatic reasons.
Death
In February 1598, Wilkes was sent on another diplomatic mission to France with
Sir Robert Cecil
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, (1 June 156324 May 1612) was an English statesman noted for his direction of the government during the Union of the Crowns, as Tudor England gave way to Stuart period, Stuart rule (1603). Lord Salisbury ser ...
. Before he left for France he made his will, which shows that despite (or maybe because of) his sale of the offices he had been awarded, he had not been able to amass a great fortune. He left only small bequests to his infant daughter and servant, the residue of the estate going to his new wife.
Wilkes was already ill (possibly of an accident) when Cecil and he landed at
Dieppe
Dieppe (; ; or Old Norse ) is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department, Normandy, northern France.
Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newhaven in England ...
. Wilkes died from his illness a few weeks later, on 2 March 1598 (N.S.) in Rouen.
Besides the ''Remonstrance'' referred to above, Wilkes left ''A Briefe and Summary Tractate shewing what appertaineth to the Place, Dignity, and Office of a councilor of estate in a Monarchy or other Commonwealth,'' dedicated to Sir Robert Cecil, as a work of political philosophy.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkes, Thomas
1540s births
1598 deaths
16th-century English diplomats
Ambassadors to the Dutch Republic
Ambassadors of England to France
Clerks of the Privy Council
English MPs 1584–1585
English MPs 1586–1587
English MPs 1589
English MPs 1593