Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/30

 his connection with Sweden more effectually in his ‘Account of Sueden: together with an extract of the History of that Kingdom. By a person of note who resided many years there’ (London, 1695, a shilling book in small octavo; French translation, Amsterdam, 1712; 3rd ed. London, 1717, subsequently bound up with Molesworth's ‘Denmark,’ 1738). The little work was stored with useful information set forth in a style not unlike that of a modern consular report. Marlborough wrote of Robinson's excellent influence at the Swedish court in 1704, and in 1707 thought of employing him to appease the Swedish king, who cherished grievances against the allies. Ultimately (April–May 1707) Marlborough decided to conduct the negotiations himself, but Robinson acted throughout as interpreter, and was utilised to administer the usual bribes to the Swedish ministers. ‘I am persuaded,’ wrote Marlborough to Sunderland, ‘that these gentlemen would be very uneasy should it pass through any other hands.’ In the autumn of 1707 he was sent to Hamburg to aid the Imperial Commission appointed to settle the dispute between Hamburg and the Circle of Lower Saxony; his correspondence (Jan. 1708–Sept. 1709) with Lord Raby is in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 22198).

In July 1709 Robinson refused an offer of the bishopric of Chichester. A few months later he returned to England, and was, on 21 Nov. 1709, granted the deanery of Windsor, together with the deanery of Wolverhampton and the registry of the knights of the Garter (Harl. MS. 2264, f. 37). He was not superseded in his post as Swedish minister until the following summer, when his secretary, Robert Jackson, was appointed. On 19 Nov. 1710 Robinson was consecrated bishop of Bristol. The queen, as a special favour, granted him lodgings in Somerset House where, on Easter day, 1711, he reconsecrated with Anglican rites, the Roman catholic chapel, which had long been an offence to the London populace. This circumstance rendered him popular; at the same time his pleasing address and wide fund of general information rendered him so great a favourite with Harley that, if the latter's influence had remained supreme, there is little doubt that Robinson would have succeeded Tenison as primate. In the meantime he was appointed governor of the Charterhouse, dean of the Chapel Royal, a commissioner for the building of fifty new churches in London, and later for finishing St. Paul's Cathedral; he was also allowed to hold the deanery of Windsor in commendam with his bishopric. On 29 Aug. 1711 Swift went to a reception at York Buildings, where Harley, with great emphasis, proposed the health of the lord privy seal. Prior thereupon remarked that the seal was so privy that no one knew who he was. On the following day the appointment of Robinson was announced.

The choice was popularly regarded as a concession to the moderate party in the church (, Queen Anne, 1735, p. 515; preamble to patent, Brit. Mus. 811 K 54). But it was really intended to preface the bishop's nomination as the first English plenipotentiary at the peace conference to be held in the following year at Utrecht. The chief difficulties to the peace had already been removed by the secret operations conducted by Harley and Mesnager through Prior and the Abbé Gaultier. The ministers now wanted a dignified exponent of English views to represent them at the congress, and in the absence of any tory peer of adequate talent and energy, after the unexpected deaths of Newcastle and Jersey, Harley fell back on the bishop, who possessed genuine qualifications. The worst that was said of the selection was that the appointment of an ecclesiastic to high diplomatic office smacked of mediæval practice. Tickell warmly commended in verse the queen's choice of ‘mitred Bristol.’ Strafford accepted the office of second plenipotentiary. The bishop was the first to arrive at Utrecht on 15 Jan. 1712 (fifteen days after the date appointed for the commencement of the negotiations), and he opened the conference on 29 Jan., appearing in a black velvet gown, with gold loops and a train borne by two sumptuously dressed pages. Despite rumours which were spread in London to the contrary, the two English diplomatists worked well together. After the fiasco of the allies before Denain in May, there devolved upon the bishop the awkward task of explaining why Ormonde had been directed to co-operate no longer with the allied forces. From this time the English envoys detached themselves with considerable adroitness from the impracticable demands of the emperor. A suspension of arms was proposed by Robinson on 27 June. During the absences of Strafford at The Hague and in Paris, the Anglo-French understanding was furthered by meetings at Robinson's house in Utrecht, and on 11 April 1713 he was the first to sign the definitive treaty, by the chief terms of which England secured Newfoundland, Acadia, Hudson's Bay, Gibraltar, and Minorca, together with a guarantee against the union of the French and Spanish crowns, the recognition of the protestant succession, and the Assiento contract (cf., Hist.