Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/181

Herbert studied antiquities. He attended lectures at Padua University; saw Sir Robert Dudley, titular earl of Northumberland [q.v], at Florence, and in the company of Sir Dudley Carleton [q. v.], the English ambassador at Venice, made his way to the Duke of Savoy's court at Turin. At the duke's request he soon left Turin for Lyons to conduct ‘four thousand men of the reformed religion’ from Languedoc into Piedmont to assist the Savoyards in their struggle with Spain. The journey was a difficult one, and Herbert, while in a desolate part of the country, was so exhausted that he accepted a woman's offer to give him milk from her breast. He was carried in a chair over Mont Cenis, but on his arrival at Lyons was imprisoned by the governor, who regarded his mission as hostile to France (June 1615). With characteristic imprudence he sent the governor a challenge, but at the intercession of Sir Edward Sackville, who was visiting Lyons, and of the Duc de Montmorency, son of his old friend the constable, he was released in a few days, and set out for the Low Countries, visiting the elector palatine at Heidelberg once again on the way. The Prince of Orange received him hospitably, and Herbert was his constant companion for some days, playing chess with him, visiting his stables with him, and even assisting him in his amours. Herbert arrived in England in bad health, after a dangerous crossing in the winter of 1616-17. He had been absent more than two years.

The following year and a half Herbert spent in London, suffering from a quartan ague, but his love of duelling was not yet quelled, and he had many petty quarrels and angry encounters with those who offended his sensitive dignity. His friends were not, however, confined to courtiers. Donne, who had addressed a poem to him while he was at Juliers, held him in high esteem and encouraged him to pursue his studies (cf., Letter to Herbert, No. lvi. with a copy of ‘Biothanatos’). Ben Jonson was much in his society. To Jonson he dedicated a ‘satyra’ while on his first visit to Paris, and he eulogised Jonson in lines prefixed to Jonson's translation of Horace's ‘Ars Poetica.’ In return Jonson applauded Herbert's learning, wit, valour, and judgment in very complimentary verses. Selden was likewise on intimate terms with Herbert for the last thirty years of Herbert's life (cf. Addit. MS. 32092, f. 314), and Carew was a congenial acquaintance. But early in 1619 Herbert was drawn into public affairs more prominently than before. George Villiers, created Earl of Buckingham in 1618, was all powerful, and after a casual introduction to Herbert, offered him the post of English ambassador at Paris. Herbert eagerly accepted the office. He left London with Carew among his attendants on the day of Queen Anne's burial (13 May 1619).

His instructions impressed on him the duty of maintaining peaceful relations between England and France, and he was directed to renew the oath of alliance between Louis XIII, king of France, and James I. He furnished a house at great expense in the Faubourg St. Germain, and lived in extravagant splendour; but he worked hard, showed much skill in the arts of diplomacy, and made some useful suggestions to his government about continental politics. He argued for a permanent alliance between England and Holland ; urged his friend the elector palatine to accept the crown of Bohemia, and on the outbreak of the thirty years' war strove to enlist the active support of many French noblemen in the elector's behalf. He obtained precedence at court over the Spanish ambassador, and was popular with the royal family, and with his old friends the Montmorencies, at whose castle of Merlou he stayed while the plague raged at Paris (July 1619). On 1 Oct. 1619 he suggested to Buckingham a marriage between Prince Charles and Henrietta Maria, and asserted that it would be popular in France, and that the princess, who desired the match, was willing to conform to the prince's religion. He begged James I to confer on him the status of ambassador extraordinary to enable him to take part with fitting éclat in the formal ceremony of renewing the oath of alliance between England and France (February 1619-20). In the spring of 1621 Louis XIII, at the instigation of his favourite, De Luynes, resolved to send an army against his protestant subjects, who were in revolt in Bearn. Herbert in vain urged a peaceful solution of the difficulty, but followed the king's camp, repeated his counsels of peace, and openly quarrelled with De Luynes. Herbert sent him a challenge. Complaint of Herbert's conduct was made to James I, and in July 1621 he was recalled to London. He offered explanations to James, which proved fairly satisfactory, but it is doubtful if he would have resumed his office had not De Luynes died (21 Dec. 1621). In the following February Herbert returned to Paris and applied himself with increased zeal to collecting political information. He watched with the utmost attention the course of the disturbances in Germany, but found time for metaphysical speculation, which he embodied in his famous book ‘De Veritate,’ and he entertained Grotius and other learned men. Herbert's official difficulties with the French court began anew after it was known that