View source for Ralph Winwood

{{Short description|English diplomat and statesman}}
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{{Use British English|date=March 2017}}
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{{One source|date=March 2012}}
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[[File:Sir Ralph Winwood, by Hendrik Hondius I, NPG.png|thumb|Early 17th-century engraving of Sir Ralph Winwood, by [[Hendrik Hondius I]].]]

'''Sir Ralph Winwood''' (c. 1563 – 27 October 1617) was an English diplomat and statesman to the Jacobean court.

==Early life==
Ralph Winwood was born the son of Richard Winwood at [[Aynho]]e in [[Northamptonshire]]. A 'hot puritan', according to a Jesuit reporter, he was educated at [[St John's College, Oxford]] (1577), [[Magdalen College, Oxford]] (1582). To conclude his education, he travelled to Italy, where he enrolled at the University of Padua (1594).<ref>{{Cite ODNB||title=Winwood, Sir Ralph (1562/3–1617)|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-1009578|author=Abraham van Blyenberch}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/winwood-sir-ralph-1563-1617 | title=WINWOOD, Sir Ralph (C.1563-1617), of Whitehall, Westminster and St. Bartholomew the Less, London; later of Ditton Park, Bucks. &#124; History of Parliament Online }}</ref>

==Career==
Pursuing a career as a diplomat, Winwood became secretary to [[Henry Neville (politician)|Sir Henry Neville]] (c. 1562-1615), the English ambassador in [[France]], in 1599 and he succeeded Neville in this position two years later, retaining it until 1603.  He was Clerk of Privy Council (extraordinary) from 1603 to 1608, and (ordinary) from 1608 to 1609.  In 1603 Winwood was sent to [[The Hague]] as [[List of Ambassadors from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands|agent]] to the States-General of the [[Dutch Republic|United Provinces]], and was appointed a member of the [[Council of State of the Netherlands|Dutch council of state]] on the basis of the [[Treaty of Nonsuch]]. Winwood's hearty dislike of [[Spain]] coloured all his actions in Holland; he was anxious to see a continuance of the war between Spain and the [[Dutch Republic|United Netherlands]], and expressed both his own views and those of the English government at the time when he wrote, "how convenient this war would be for the good of His Majesty's realms, if it might be maintained without his charge." He was knighted on 28 June 1607.

In June 1608, Winwood signed the league between England and the United Provinces. Shortly afterwards, he became the first accredited English ambassador to the Dutch Republic. He was in [[Holland]] when the trouble over the succession to the duchies of [[duchy of Jülich|Jülich]] and [[duchy of Cleves|Cleves]] threatened to cause a European war. In this matter, he negotiated with the [[Protestant]] Princes of Germany on behalf of King [[James I of England]]. As ambassador, Winwood publicly intervened in the Vorstius affair, and secretly sided with the Contra-Remonstrants in the religious conflicts that engulfed the United Provinces during and after his embassy.<ref>Helmer Helmers, "English public diplomacy in the Dutch Republic, 1609–1619", ''The Seventeenth Century'' 36:3 (2021), 413-437. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268117X.2021.1924988</ref> While in Holland he obtained greyhounds for [[Anne of Denmark]] from Jacob van den Eynde, Governor of [[Woerden]].<ref>[https://archive.org/details/buccleuchqueensb01greauoft/page/n155/mode/2up ''HMC (45) Buccleuch'', vol. 1 (London, 1899), p. 110]</ref> He was appointed [[Master of Requests (England)|Master of Requests]] from 1609 to 1614.
[[File:Sir Ralph Winwood, by Abraham van Blyenberch, 1613, Boughton House, Northamptonshire.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of Sir Ralph Winwood by Abraham van Blyenberch, 1613.]]

Having returned to England Sir Ralph became [[Secretary of State (England)|secretary of state]] and [[Privy Councillor]] from 1614 until his death and a [[Member of Parliament]] (MP) for [[Buckingham (UK Parliament constituency)|Buckingham]].<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/winwood-sir-ralph-1563-1617| title= WINWOOD, Sir Ralph (c. 1563-1617), of Whitehall, Westminster and St. Bartholomew the Less, London; later of Ditton Park, Bucks.|publisher= History of Parliament|access-date = 18 June 2013}}</ref> 

In the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] he defended the king's right to levy impositions.  Created principal Secretary of state on Somerset's demise, Winwood held the office from March 1614 to his death during the [[Addled Parliament]]. Winwood was responsible for the inquiry into the murder of [[Thomas Overbury|Sir Thomas Overbury]] and the release of [[Walter Raleigh|Raleigh]] from the Tower in 1616.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ralegh's Life|last=May|first=Steven W.|publisher=Twayne Publishers|year=1989|location=Boston|pages=1–24}}</ref> Raleigh was urged by Winwood to attack the Spanish fleet and the Spanish settlements in [[South America]].  

Spanish envoys at Court of St James's made several written complaints about the secretary's share in this undertaking to the king at Whitehall Palace. In the midst of this latest foreign policy crisis, Sir Ralph Winwood died in London on 28 October 1617.  It can hardly be doubted, wrote [[Samuel Rawson Gardiner|Gardiner]], that, if he had lived till the following summer, he would have shared in Raleigh's ruin.

==Marriage==
Ralph Winwood married Elizabeth Ball, daughter of Nicholas Ball of Totnes, Devon, by whom he had five sons (2 of whom predeceased him) and four daughters. One of Winwood's daughters, Anne Winwood (d. 1643), married [[Edward Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Boughton]], and their son was [[Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu]].

==Ditton House==
Winwood acquired the park and manor of [[Ditton, Slough|Ditton]] at [[Stoke Poges]]. [[John Chamberlain (letter writer)|John Chamberlain]] described improvements at [[Ditton Park]] in August 1617 made by Winwood and his wife, including a new [[dovecote]], a spring and conduit, fair ponds, damming and filling in the old moat, planting an orchard, and setting out a walled garden with arbours.<ref>Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, ''Court and Times of James the First'', 2 (London: Colburn, 1849), p. 23.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

;Bibliography
* Winwood's official correspondence and other papers passed to the Duke of Montagu. From 1899, they were in the possession of the [[Duke of Buccleuch]].  They are calendared in the ''Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission'' on the manuscripts of the Duke of Buccleuch.  See the Introduction to this Report (1899).

==Sources==
* {{cite book|first=Stephen.R.|last= Gardiner|title=History of England|volume=ii. and iii.|date= 1904–1907}}
* {{EB1911|wstitle = Winwood, Sir Ralph|volume=28}}
* {{cite DNB|wstitle = Winwood, Ralph |volume=28}}
* {{cite ODNB|first=M.|last= Greengrass|title =Winwood, Sir Ralph (1562/3–1617)|id=29783}}

{{S-start}}
{{s-dip}}
{{s-bef|before= [[George Gilpin]]|as=English Councillor <br/>on the Dutch Council of State }}
{{s-ttl|title= [[List of diplomats from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands|English agent then ambassador to the United Provinces]] |years= 1603–1613|with=Sir Richard Spencer <br/>as ''Joint Commissioner'' 1607–1609 }}
{{s-aft|after= [[Henry Wotton|Sir Henry Wotton]]}}
{{s-gov}}
{{s-bef|before= [[Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset|Robert Carr, Lord Rochester]] <br>[[John Herbert (Secretary of State)|John Herbert]]}}
{{s-ttl|title= [[Secretary of State (England)|Secretary of State]] |years= 1614–1617 |with= [[John Herbert (Secretary of State)|John Herbert]] 1614–1616|with2= [[Thomas Lake|Sir Thomas Lake]] 1616–1617}}
{{s-aft|after= [[Robert Naunton|Sir Robert Naunton]]<br>[[Thomas Lake|Sir Thomas Lake]] }}
{{S-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winwood, Ralph}}
[[Category:1560s births]]
[[Category:1617 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Aynho]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Members of Gray's Inn]]
[[Category:Secretaries of state of the Kingdom of England]]
[[Category:English MPs 1614]]
[[Category:Clerks of the Privy Council]]
[[Category:16th-century English diplomats]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of England to the Dutch Republic]]
[[Category:17th-century English diplomats]]