Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/398

 :: 'Observations on the Sixth and Seventh Books,' fol. London, 1600. Another edition, fol. London, 1604. With medallion portraits of Csesar and (?) Edmonds. This edition is not mentioned by bibliographers, but a copy is in Dr. Williams's Library in Grafton Street, Gower Street, and the title-page is in the Guildhall Library. Another edition of the first five books, dedicated to Prince Henry, with his portrait, fol. London, 1609. Other editions, with the eighth book of commentaries by A. Hirtius and his commentaries on the Alexandrian and African wars, appeared in 1655, 1677, and 1695, all published in London. An edition without place or date is in the library of Merton College, Oxford. The following have not been published: 'History of the United Provinces,' 1615 (Exeter Coll. Oxford, MS. 103); 'Description of the Polity of the United Provinces,' 1615 (Bodleian Library, Tanner MS. 216, and manuscripts of Lord Calthorpe, Grosvenor Square, Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 46); 'Report touching the Flooded Lands in the counties of Lincoln, Northampton, Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Norfolk,' 1618 (Bodleian Library MSS.); 'A Few Words to the Trained Bands and Souldiers of London Citie in these Perilous Times,' 19 June 1642, fol. 20 pp. (Guildhall Library MS. 3). This is a clever forgery, purporting to have been written at the above date, and consists of a slightly altered transcript of the treatise on modern tactics, No. 3 above.
 * 1) 'Observations on the Landing of Forces designed for the Invasion of a Country. &hellip; With some animadversions by Sir Walter Raleigh,' 8vo, London, 1759. This is a reprint from the author's previous work.
 * 2) 'The Manner of our Modern Training, or Tactick Practice,' appended to the various editions of the 'Observations on Caesar's Commentaries.'



EDMONDES, THOMAS (1563?–1639), diplomatist, fifth son of Thomas Edmondes of Fowey, Cornwall, was born at Plymouth about 1563. His father was head-customer of the port of Plymouth, was mayor in 1582, and was himself the son of Henry Edmondes of New Sarum, Wiltshire, by Juliana, daughter of William Brandon of the same place (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. 263 b, 277 b). His mother was Joan, daughter of Antony Delabare of Sherborne, Dorsetshire. Another Sir Thomas Edmondes is stated by Anthony à Wood to have been controller of Queen Elizabeth's household, and to have brought his namesake to court at a very early age (cf. Athenæ Oxon. ii. 322–3). But there is no proof of the presence of an elder Sir Thomas Edmondes about the court, and his existence is shadowy. Sir Francis Walsingham patronised young Edmondes, and in 1592 he was appointed English agent to Henry IV at Paris, at a salary of twenty shillings a day. The money was paid so irregularly that in 1593 Edmondes asserted that he had ‘not the means wherewith to put a good garment on my back to appear in honest company.’ For a short period Edmondes contemplated allying himself with the Earl of Essex, but his correspondence with the earl ceased on 31 Dec. 1595. Thenceforth he was faithful to the Cecils, and was denounced as ‘a Judas’ by Essex's following. To Don Antonio he was always opposed, and declined to aid his intrigues in France or England. On 17 May 1596 he was appointed secretary to the queen for the French tongue, and was recalled from Paris soon afterwards. He resumed his office as agent at the French court for a short time in October 1597, and for a third time between July 1598 and June 1599. Sir Henry Neville, who was then ambassador at Paris, wrote of his diplomatic abilities in the highest terms. In the following December he was sent to make arrangements for a conference between English envoys and Archduke Albert in the Netherlands: the archduke was unwilling that the conference should take place in England, as Edmondes was instructed to propose; the envoy therefore journeyed to Paris and arranged that the meetings of the commissioners for negotiating the peace should take place at Boulogne. He returned to England on 17 Feb. 1597–8; left for Brussels 11 March; saw the archduke again eleven days later; obtained his assent to take part in the negotiations; and was received with special favour by Elizabeth in April. Edmondes was one of the commissioners to treat in behalf of England at Boulogne. He stayed there from 16 May to 28 July 1598, but a dispute as to precedence between the representatives of the negotiating powers, Spain and England, brought the meeting to an abortive ending. Edmondes was rewarded for his exertions with a clerkship of the privy council. In June and August 1601 he was sent to France to protest against the bad treatment to which the French subjected English merchants, and to suggest an active alliance between Elizabeth and Henry IV for the purpose of attacking Spain in the Netherlands. On 29 Sept. 1601 he was elected M.P. for Liskeard. On 10 Feb. 1602–3 he was in London supping with his friends Winwood,