Isaac Wake

Sir Isaac Wake (1580/81 – 1632) was an English diplomat and political commentator. He served as ambassador to Savoy for sixteen years, and later as ambassador to France.

Isaac Wake was the second son of Arthur, son of John Wake of Hartwell, Northamptonshire, a descendant of the lords of Blisworth. His father, a canon of Christ Church and master of St. John's Hospital in Northampton, was rector of Great Billing in Northamptonshire until 1573, when he was deprived for nonconformity; he afterwards lived for many years in Jersey. Born in 1580 or 1581, Isaac Wake entered Christ Church, Oxford in 1593, and graduated B.A. in 1597; he was elected fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1598, and graduated M.A. in 1603. In 1604 he became a student at the Middle Temple, and on 14 December 1604 was elected public orator of Oxford University. He took part in the reception of King James in 1605, delivering an oration "at the Hall-stair's foot in Christ Church." The king seems to have thought his oratory polished, if soporific. In 1607, he delivered a funeral oration on John Rainolds.

In 1609, Wake travelled in France and Italy, and soon afterwards became secretary to Sir Dudley Carleton at Venice. In March 1612, his leave of absence from Merton College was extended for three years; but in the following November he came to England for a few months, during which he pronounced a funeral oration on Sir Thomas Bodley. He returned to Venice in March 1613, and stayed there, and afterwards at Turin, as Carleton's secretary until the latter left for England in July 1615. Wake then became British representative at the court of Savoy, and retained that office for nearly sixteen years. In 1617 he went to Bern, at the request of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, to mediate an alliance between Savoy and the Swiss states. At the end of 1618 he came to London, being "much courted" by the French ministers on his way through Paris, and was knighted on 9 April 1619 at Royston, Hertfordshire, where the king lay ill in bed. Immediately afterwards he was sent back to Turin with an offer of support to the duke in his candidature for the imperial crown, and at the same time with an informal mission to Frederick V, Elector Palatine, whom he saw at Heidelberg on his way out. On the death of Sir Henry Savile, in February 1622, Prince Charles tried to secure Wake's election as warden of Merton; but he was beaten by (Sir) Nathaniel Brent, the influence of the Abbots, combined perhaps with Wake's constant absence from England, proving too strong.

...
Wikipedia