Anthony Shirley

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the English politician, see Sir Anthony Shirley, 1st Baronet.
Persian ruler to send a Persian embassy to Europe in 1599
.

Sir Anthony Shirley (or Sherley) (1565–1635) was an

King James I caused the English House of Commons to assert one of its privileges—freedom of its members from arrest—in a document known as The Form of Apology and Satisfaction
.

Family

Anthony Shirley was the second son of

Wiston, Sussex, and Anne Kempe, the daughter of Sir Thomas Kempe (d. 7 March 1591) of Olantigh in Wye, Kent. He had an elder brother, Sir Thomas Shirley, and a younger brother, Sir Robert Shirley, and six sisters who survived infancy.[1][2][3][4]

Career

Educated at the University of Oxford, Shirley gained military experience with the English troops in the Netherlands and during an expedition to Northern France in 1591 where he distinguished himself at the Battle of Château-Laudran. Later in the year he fought under The 2nd Earl of Essex, who was related to his wife, Frances Vernon; about this time he was knighted by Henry of Navarre (Henry IV of France), and fought alongside English and Swiss troops in support of Henry, who at the time was Protestant (fighting the Catholic League) at the Siege of Rouen. As a result of his fighting prowess, Shirley and fellow knight combatant Sir Nicolas Clifford (also related to the Earl of Essex), were awarded French honorifics, an event which brought upon both men the displeasure of their own sovereign, and as a result, a short imprisonment.

In 1596, Shirley conducted a predatory expedition along the western coast of

Spanish Jamaica a year later.[5] According to Anthony Standen he had sailed from Plymouth on 21 May 1596 with five ships, with the financial support of the Earl of Essex but had hoped to command a larger fleet.[6] Owing to a mutiny
he returned to London with a single ship in 1597.

In 1598, he led a few English volunteers to

Mirza, or prince, and granted certain trading and other rights to all Christian merchants.[citation needed
]

Then, as the Shah's representative, he returned to Europe and visited

Sophy"— the Shah— in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (1601–02).[7]

For some time he was in prison in Venice, and in 1605, he went to Prague and was sent by

Mitylene. After this he was deprived of his command. Shirley, who was a count of the Holy Roman Empire
, died at Madrid some time after 1635.

Shirley wrote an account of his adventures,

Sir Anthony Sherley: his Relation of his Travels into Persia (1613), the original manuscript of which is in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. There are in existence five or more accounts of Shirley's adventures in Persia, and the account of his expedition in 1596 is published in Richard Hakluyt
's Voyages and Discoveries (1809-1812). See also The Three Brothers; Travels and Adventures of Sir Anthony, Sir Robert and Sir Thomas Sherley in Persia, Russia, Turkey and Spain (London, 1825); EP Shirley, The Sherley Brothers (1848), and the same writer's Stemmata Shirleiana (1841, again 1873).

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Pennington 2004.
  2. ^ Raiswell I 2004.
  3. ^ Raiswell II 2004.
  4. ^ Raiswell III 2004.
  5. ^ C.V. Black, A History of Jamaica (London: Collins, 1975), p. 43.
  6. ^ Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 2 (London, 1754), p. 10.
  7. Molly Maureen Mahood
    , "Introduction" Twelfth Night (Penguin Classics), p. 21.

References

  • O'Sullivan, Dan (2021). An Elizabethan Adventurer: The Remarkable Life of Sir Anthony Sherley. Pen and Sword History.
    ISBN 9781399007450
    .
  • Pennington, Janet (2004). "Sherley, Sir Thomas (c.1542–1612)".
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25435. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  • Raiswell, Richard (2004). "Sherley, Sir Thomas (1564–1633/4)".
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25436. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  • Raiswell, Richard (2004). "Sherley, Anthony, Count Sherley in the nobility of the Holy Roman empire (1565–1636?)".
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25423. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  • Raiswell, Richard (2004). "Shirley, Sir Robert, Count Shirley in the papal nobility (c.1581–1628)".
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25433. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
Attribution

Further reading

External links
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