Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/161

  resident to use the forms of the English church in their own houses, and to make an offer of mediation between Philip and the Netherlands. Philip was immovable, but Alva, alarmed at the prospect of a rupture between the two countries, undertook on his own responsibility to secure some slight relaxation of the laws against heretics in favour of English residents. The proffered mediation was rejected. On his return to England Cobham was at once despatched to Brussels to threaten Requescens with war if he proceeded further with coercive measures. Requescens, however, died before Cobham could deliver the message. In 1579 Cobham succeeded Sir Amyas Paulet as ambassador resident at Paris (Birch MS. 2442, f. 883). He was instructed (1) to negotiate for a joint expedition to place Don Antonio on the throne of Portugal, (2) to require the establishment of a court for the relief of English subjects injured by the depredations of French privateers, (3) to temporise in the matter of the proposed marriage with Alençon. He was joined by Somers and Walsingham in 1581, when the three ambassadors urged the substitution of a 'league of amity' for the match. He remained at Paris until 1583, when he was recalled. He represented Kent in the parliaments of 1586 and 1589, and was a member of the 'privy council of the house' and several committees. He was living in 1604, but probably died soon after that date (Cotton MS. Vesp. F. xiii. f. 285 b). Cobham married Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Sutton of Nottinghamshire, relict of Walter Haddon, master of requests, by whom he had three sons. Of these the second, Sir John Cobham of Hekington, Lincolnshire, was raised to the peerage by Charles I at Oxford in 1645, by the title of Baron Cobham, but by his death without issue the title became extinct.

 COBHAM, JOHN, third (d. 1408), was the grandson of Henry de Cobham (1260-1335), and son of John de Cobham, constable of Rochester Castle, and, if we may trust Dugdale, 'admiral of the king's fleet from the Thames westward' in 1335 (, Baronage, ii. 65; Abbrev. Rot. Orig. Scacc. ii. 78; Collect. Topog. vii. 320). His mother's name seems to have been Joan, according to Hasted, a daughter of John, lord Beauchamp (Hist. of Kent, i. 490; Coll. Top. vii. 342). Dugdale has confused the two John de Cobhams, and has treated them as one individual who, in this case, must have held the barony of Cobham for about seventy years. As Henry de Cobham can be shown to have died in 1335 or 1339 (Coll. Top. 322), and as John de Cobham the elder was already married in 8 Edward III (1314-1315), and admiral of the fleet in 1335, on this supposition he can hardly have been less than 110 years old at the time of his death in 1408. The Cobham records (Top. Gen. vii. 320) also speak distinctly of two Johns, respectively the son and grandson of Henry de Cobham. Hasted makes John de Cobham the elder to have died in 36 Edward III (Hist. of Kent, i. 490), but in this statement he seems to be going beyond his authority, the 'Escheat Rolls ' for this year (cf. Esch. Rolls, ii. 258). From other evidence we find that John de Cobham the elder was alive in 25 Edward III (1351), but apparently dead by 33 Edward III (1359) (Coll. Top. vii. 345, 348); whence we may conclude that the younger John de Cobham succeeded to his father's estates between 1351 and 1359. An entry in the Cobham records dated 32 Edward III, and running in the name of 'John de Cobham, son of Lord John de Cobham' (ib. vii. 344), would seem to imply that the elder John survived the year 1357, in which case he must have died in 1358 or 1359. In 40 and 41 Edward III John de Cobham appears to have been serving in France, and in the latter year was despatched as ambassador to Rome (, vi. 542, 567;, Excheq. Kalendars, i. 212). In 1374 he was at Bruges negotiating the futile attempts at a treaty with the French (, Ypod. Neustr. 379), and is found associated with the Duke of Lancaster on a similar errand in the two ensuing years (, vii. 58, 88, &c.) On the accession of Richard II he was appointed one of the two barons in the young king's council (ib. 161). Two years later he was sent to treat with the French, and to help in the arrangements previous to Richard's marriage (September 1379). In the course of the next few years he is constantly found negotiating with France and Flanders (, vii. 229, 248, 412, &c.) Meanwhile, his name occurs with unbroken regularity as one of the triers of petitions for England, Scotland, and Wales, and later (from 1382) as trier for Gascony 