British Diplomat, Poet. A former secretary to the Earl of Essex, he was knighted by King James I in 1604 and appointed Ambassador to Venice. His experiences in Italy inspired his famous quip, "An Ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country". He was provost of Eton College from 1624 until his death, and is buried in the Chapel there. Wotton was born in Kent, England. Long a patron of the arts, he was a close friend of poet John Donne and fishing companion of Izaak Walton, who wrote his biography in 1651. Wotton's handful of surviving poems, among them "The Character of a Happy Life" and "The Queen of Bohemia", have considerable charm. In his novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1890), Oscar Wilde named the character Lord Henry after Wotton as an in-joke, denoting a worldly, cynical man with great influence on the young.
British Diplomat, Poet. A former secretary to the Earl of Essex, he was knighted by King James I in 1604 and appointed Ambassador to Venice. His experiences in Italy inspired his famous quip, "An Ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country". He was provost of Eton College from 1624 until his death, and is buried in the Chapel there. Wotton was born in Kent, England. Long a patron of the arts, he was a close friend of poet John Donne and fishing companion of Izaak Walton, who wrote his biography in 1651. Wotton's handful of surviving poems, among them "The Character of a Happy Life" and "The Queen of Bohemia", have considerable charm. In his novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1890), Oscar Wilde named the character Lord Henry after Wotton as an in-joke, denoting a worldly, cynical man with great influence on the young.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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