Thomas Smith (diplomat)

For his contemporary spelled "Thomas Smythe" or "Thomas Smith" (1522-1591), see Customer Smythe.

Sir Thomas Smith.

Sir Thomas Smith (23 December 1513 – 12 August 1577) was an English scholar and diplomat.

He was born at Saffron Walden in Essex. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1530, and in 1533 was appointed a public reader or professor. He lectured in the schools on natural philosophy, and on Greek in his own rooms. In 1540 Smith went abroad, and, after studying in France and Italy and taking a degree of law at the University of Padua, returned to Cambridge in 1542.

He now took the lead in the reform of the pronunciation of Greek, his views after considerable controversy being universally adopted. He and his friend, Sir John Cheke, were the great classical scholars of the time in England. In January 1543/4 he was appointed first Regius Professor of Civil Law. He was vice-chancellor of the university the same year. In 1547 he became provost of Eton College and dean of Carlisle Cathedral.

He was an early convert to Protestant views, which brought him into prominence when Edward VI came to the throne. During Somerset's protectorate he entered public life and was made a secretary of state, being sent on an important diplomatic mission to Brussels. In 1548 he was knighted. On the accession of Queen Mary I he lost all his offices, but in the reign of her sister, Elizabeth, was prominently employed in public affairs. He became a member of parliament, and was sent in 1562 as ambassador to France, where he remained till 1566; and in 1572 he again went to France in the same capacity for a short time. He remained one of Elizabeth's most trusted Protestant counsellors, being appointed in 1572 chancellor of the Order of the Garter and a secretary of state.

Life's work

Sir Thomas Smith's book *De Republica Anglorum; the Manner of Government or Policie of the Realme of England, written between 1562 and 1565, was first published in 1583. He describes it as a mixed government, a commonwealth, and states that all commonwealths are of mixed character.

Other works

• A tract concerning the right prounciation and writing of English 1568

References

• Armitage, David. The Ideological Origins of the British Empire (2000) 238pp
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Works by or about Thomas Smith (diplomat) in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• The Life of the Learned Sir Thomas Smith, Kt.D.C.L. by John Strype (Clarendon Press, 1820)

Preceded by The Lord Howard of Effingham

Lord Privy Seal 1573–1576

Succeeded by Sir Francis Walsingham