Robert Wingfield (diplomat)
| Sir Robert Wingfield | |
|---|---|
| Spouse(s) | Eleanor Raynsford Jane Poynings |
| Father | Sir John Wingfield |
| Mother | Elizabeth Fitzlewis |
| Born | c.1464 |
| Died | 18 March 1539 |
Sir Robert Wingfield (c.1464 – 18 March 1539) was an English diplomat.
Born about 1464, he was the seventh son of Sir John Wingfield (1428–1481) of Letheringham, Suffolk, a member of the Privy Council of Edward IV, and Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, and Elizabeth Fitzlewis (d.1500), daughter of Sir John Fitzlewis of West Horndon, Essex, by Anne Montacute.Humphrey Wingfield and Richard Wingfield were his brothers. He was brought up by Anne, Lady Scrope, his stepmother. He first rose to favour under Henry VII when he fought with his brother Richard against the Cornish rebels in 1497.
He was employed by Henry VII on a mission to the Emperor Maximilian, returning in January 1508. On 2 July 1509 he is mentioned as a knight, the occasion being a grant to him by Henry VIII, part of the forfeitures of Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk. Further grants followed, and on 10 February 1511 he is styled ‘councillor and knight of the body.’
In the same month Wingfield was despatched again on a mission to Maximilian, and in August following he and Silvester de Giglis, bishop of Worcester, were nominated ambassadors to a council convoked by Pope Julius II at the Lateran. The intention of the pope was to form a league against France, which Henry joined on 17 November The council was not actually opened till May 1512. Wingfield remained with the Emperor at Brussels and elsewhere, and does not appear to have attended its sittings. On 30 Sept. Maximilian, hearing that Julius II was ill, appointed Wingfield and the bishop of Gurk his envoys to support the candidature of his nominee at Rome; but, exasperated at being left without money, Wingfield unceremoniously disappeared from the court of Brussels, ostensibly on a pilgrimage, but in reality to join his brother Sir Richard at Calais. Meanwhile he had been ordered to go back to the Emperor, then in Germany, and on 9 March 1513 he was at the imperial court at Worms. On 18 April 1513 he was again at Brussels, on that day despatched back to the Emperor at Augsburg to secure his support for Henry VIII's scheme of a general confederation against France.
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