Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/98

 of the imperial, French, and Swedish plenipotentiaries for the settlement of the terms of a general peace, which sat successively at Hamburg, Ratisbon, and Vienna (Negotiations, p. 13; Letters and Memorials of Sidney Family, ii. pref., 564, 570; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1638–43, passim; Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 21993, f. 294). The plenipotentiaries did their utmost to exclude him, but Roe contrived to join the conferences and to make his influence felt towards the restoration of the palatinate. Roe's ability profoundly impressed the emperor, who is reported to have exclaimed, ‘I have met with many gallant persons of many nations, but I scarce ever met with an ambassador till now’ (, Athenæ, loc. cit.;, L'Ambassadeur, 1682, p. 105). These negotiations and a further treaty with Denmark occupied most of his energies till September 1642 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1639, pp. 143, 206; Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 28937, f. 25), but he was at intervals in London, where he busied himself with parliamentary work. He was sworn a member of the privy council in June 1640 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640, p. 447), and was returned on 17 Oct. 1640 as one of the burgesses for the university of Oxford. His wide experience, sober learning, and dignified eloquence had their weight in the House of Commons. Some of his speeches, chiefly on commercial and currency questions (e.g. on brass money, 1640, on Lord-keeper Finch, 1640, on the decay of coin and trade, 1641), were printed, and on 13 Nov. 1640 he presented to the house a report on the negotiations connected with the Scottish treaty at Ripon (, Collect. ii. 524). In the following summer he asked and obtained the leave of the house to retain his seat during his absence at the diet of Ratisbon (ib. p. 804). In July 1642, when ambassador-extraordinary at Vienna, he wrote a letter to Edmund Waller, which was read to the House of Commons, repudiating the rumour that he had offered an offensive and defensive alliance to the king of Hungary without his own sovereign's permission (Letter to Waller, Brit. Mus., 1642). On 2 July 1643 Roe obtained permission of the commons to retire to Bath in the hope of improving his health. He died on 6 Nov. 1644—in the words of Dr. Gerard Langbaine's proposed epitaph, ‘præreptus opportune, ne funestam regni catastrophen spectaret’—and was buried two days later in the chancel of Woodford church, Essex (, Athenæ); the manor of Woodford had been conveyed to him in 1640 (, Hist. of Leyton, p. 357).

Roe's solid judgment, penetration, and sagacity are sufficiently proved by his published journal and despatches; in knowledge of foreign affairs and in a practical acquaintance with the details of British commerce he probably had no living equal; he was not afraid of responsibility; while of the charm of his manner and conversation it is enough to quote the emperor's remark, that ‘if Roe had been one of the fair sex, and a beauty, he was sure the engaging conversation of the English ambassador would have proved too hard for his virtue’ (, Letters and Memorials of State of the Sydney Family, ii. 541 n.; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1641–3, p. 131). In his personal character he was devout and regular; he always gave a tenth of his income to the poor; he was an earnest supporter of the protestant principle, and devoted to his king, though lightly rewarded. ‘Those who knew him well have said that there was nothing wanting in him towards the accomplishment of a scholar, gentleman, or courtier; that also as he was learned, so was he a great encourager and promoter of learning and learned men. His spirit was generous and public, and his heart faithful to his prince’ (, Athenæ, iii. 113). He married, before 1614, Eleanor, daughter of Sir Thomas Cave of Stanford, Northamptonshire (Philpot pedigree, College of Arms), and niece of Lord Grandison (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1626, p. 475). She accompanied her husband in 1621 on his embassy to the Ottoman Porte, and showed great courage during the engagement with Maltese galleys on the way home.

Roe's diplomatic memoirs and voluminous and interesting correspondence have only been in part published or preserved. Part of the ‘Journal’ of his mission to the mogul, to February 1616–17, with interspersed letters, exists in two manuscripts in the British Museum, Addit. 6115 and 19277, and was first published during his lifetime in 1625 by Purchas in ‘His Pilgrimes,’ pt. i. pp. 535–78, together with some of his correspondence with George Abbot [q. v.], archbishop of Canterbury, and others. The journal was reprinted by Harris in 1705 in his ‘Navigantium Bibliotheca,’ i. 156–67, and more fully by Churchill in 1732 in his ‘Collection of Voyages,’ i. 688–728, where it is stated that the original manuscript has been used. It was also translated into French in the ‘Relations de divers Voyages Curieux,’ 1663, into German in Schwabe's ‘Allgemeine Historie der Reisen,’ 1747, and into Dutch in the ‘Journael van de Reysen,’ 1656.

Proposals were published in 1730 for editing Roe's European correspondence, and his ‘Negotiations in his embassy to the Ottoman Porte,’ 1621–8, were eventually printed in