Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/63

 by the ‘State Papers’ of the period he had as yet had no opportunity of making acquaintance with the French court. However, on 18 May 1519 an annuity of 109l. 6s. 8d. was granted to him out of the revenues of Calais, and two days later he was appointed lieutenant of the tower of Ruysbanke, a fort which guarded the entrance of Calais harbour (ib. p. 98, and No. 247) This office had just been resigned by Sir John Peachey, who had been at the same time appointed deputy of Calais, and Peachey's letters tell us how Carew immediately after arrived at Calais and was sworn in as lieutenant of Ruysbanke the same day that he himself was sworn in as deputy (ib. Nos. 259, 285).

In 1520 he was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and was one of those who held the lists against all comers (ib. pp.241, 243, 312). He was also at the meeting of Henry VIII and Charles V, which occurred immediately afterwards (ib. p. 326). On 19 Oct. in that year he surrendered the lieutenancy of Calais Castle in favour of Maurice, lord Berkeley, but with reservation of a pension of 100l. to himself (ib. No. 1027, iv. No. 400); and on 12 Nov. he surrendered his annuity as one of the king‘s 'cypherers.’

At the very close of 1520 he was sent with important letters to Francis I (ib. iii. No. 1126), and on his return 100l. was paid him for his costs (ib. p. 1544). In 1521 he was one of the grand jury of Surrey who found the indictment in that county against the Duke of Buckingham (ib. p. 493). On 12 June in that year there were granted to him, in reversion after Sir Thomas Lovel, the offices of constable of Wallingford Castle and steward of the honour of Wallingford and St. Walric, and the four and a half hundreds of Chiltern (ib. No. 1345). At Christmas following he is named as one of the king's carvers (No. 1899). On 18 July 1522 he was appointed master of the horse, and also steward of the manor of Brasted in Kent, which had belonged to Buckingham. On the same day he likewise received a grant to himself and his wife, in tail male, of the manor of Bletchingley in Surrey (Nos. 2395-7), to which grant were added next year some other lands in the neighbourhood (ib. p. 1285). In October 1523, when the Earl of Surrey was in the north charged to repel a threatened invasion of the kingdom by the Duke of Albany, the Marquis of Dorset, Carew, and others were sent to him to give him counsel, and Surrey refers to their testimony as to the extreme discomforts of the campaign (Nos. 3421, 3434, 3508, 3515).

In 1526 he was assessed at 400l. for the third payment of the subsidy (ib. iv. p. 1382). Next year he was commissioned to go with Lord Lisle, Dr. Taylor, Sir Anthony Brown, and Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter king of arms, to carry the Garter to Francis I of France (ib. No. 3508), It was duly resented on 10 Nov. (No. 3585), and, to judge by the interest afterwards taken in him by Francis, his conversation and address must have produced a very favourable impression, college returned, however, with Lord Carlisle very shortly after the presentation, leaving Taylor at Paris, who remained as resident ambassador (No. 3591). On 29 Jan. 1528 he received the grant from the crown of an annuity of fifty marks (No. 3869). In the course of the following summer, while several of the court were taken ill of the sweating sickness, he appears to have felt a little uneasy, complaining of his head, but we do not hear that he had a more serious attack (No. 4429) One of those carried off by the epidemic was Sir William Compton [q. v.], who held the constableship of Warwick Castle and other important offices in that part of the country. Carew seems to have made interest to be a pointed his successor, as we meet with a draft patent to that effect, but the grant does not appear to have been passed (No. 4583). In 1528–9 he was again sheriff for the counties of Surrey and Sussex (No. 4914), and at the expiration of his years service in this office he was chosen knight of the shire for Surrey in the parliament of 1529 (ib. iv. p. 2691). But he could scarcely have taken his seat in parliament when he was sent, with Dr. Sampson and Dr. Benet, to Bologna on embassy to the emperor. Their instructions had already been prepared as early as 21 Sept., and they seem to have left on or about 7 Oct. (Nos. 5949, 5995); but additional instructions were sent after them on 30 Nov. (No. 6069). Carew continued at Bologna till 7 Feb. 1530, and in the opinion of good judges acquitted himself with great dexterity (ib. p. 2783)

In Februrary 1531 the king paid him a visit at Beddington, and went to hunt in his grounds (ib. v. p. 50). In September following he and Thomas Cromwell received joint authority to swear in commissioners for sewers in Surrey (ib. No. 429). Next year against his will, as he privately intimated to the imperial ambassador Chapuys) he was sent over to France in October to prepare a meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I, which took place at Calais in the end of the month. As the object of the interview no doubt was to promote the king's marriage to Anne Boleyn and to strengthen him against the emperor, it was exceedingly unpopular. Carew, for his part, would rather