Francis, Lord Cottington

Francis Cottington, 1st Baron Cottington (c. 1579 – 1652) was the English lord treasurer and ambassador and leader of the pro-Spanish, pro-Roman Catholic faction in the court of Charles I.

He was the fourth son of Philip Cottington of Godmanston in Somersetshire. According to Hoare, his mother was Jane, daughter of Thomas Biflete, but according to Clarendon, "a Stafford nearly allied to Sir Edward Stafford", through whom he was recommended to Sir Charles Cornwallis, ambassador to the court of Philip III of Spain, becoming a member of his suite and acting as English agent on the latter's recall, from 1609 to 1611.

In 1612 he was appointed English consul at Seville. Returning to England, he was made a clerk of the council in September 1613. His Spanish experience rendered him useful to King James, and his bias in favour of Spain was always marked. He seemed to have promoted the Spanish policy from the first, and pressed on Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, the proposal for the Spanish in opposition to the French marriage for Prince Charles (later King Charles I).

In 1616 he went as ambassador to Spain, transferring in 1618 the proposal of mediation by James I in the dispute with Frederick V, Elector Palatine.

After his return he was appointed secretary to Prince Charles in October 1622, and was knighted and made a baronet in 1623. He strongly disapproved of the prince's expedition to Spain, as an adventure likely to upset the whole policy of marriage and alliance, but was overruled and chosen to accompany him. His opposition greatly incensed George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and still more his perseverance in the Spanish policy after the failure of the expedition, and on Charles I's accession Cottington was through his means dismissed from all his employments and forbidden to appear at court. The duke's assassination, however, enabled him to return.

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