Sir Edward Wotton

Sir Edward Wotton (1489–1551) was the Treasurer of Calais and a privy councillor to Edward VI of England. Life Edward first appears in the commission of the peace for Kent on 2 June 1524; subsequently his name was generally included in the commissions of the peace, of gaol delivery, and oyer and terminer for the county. He was knighted before 22 April 1528, and on 9 November 1529 was appointed sheriff of Kent. He accompanied Henry VIII to Calais in 1532, landing on 11 Oct., officiated at the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1534, and at the christening of Edward VI in 1537. He was again sheriff of Kent in 1535–6, and in December 1539 was one of the knights sent to Calais to receive Anne of Cleves. He seems to have eagerly adopted the principles of the Reformation, and in September 1538 a correspondent told Heinrich Bullinger that Wotton had received one of the reformer's books "with the greatest satisfaction, and is diligently engaged upon it." In July 1540 Henry VIII intimated his intention of reviving the office of treasurer of Calais, and appointing to it his trusty "councillor" Sir Edward Wotton, whose patent was dated 24 Nov. following. The phrase does not necessarily imply that Wotton was a member of the English privy council, and he is not recorded as attending any of its meetings during Henry's reign. After the conclusion of the war with France he served on the various commissions appointed in 1548 for delimiting Henry's conquest, the Boulonnais. According to Raphael Holinshed, Henry VIII made Wotton lord chancellor; the offer, improbable in any case, is more likely to have been made to Sir Edward's brother Nicholas. Henry VIII nominated Wotton one of his executors and a privy councillor to his son Edward, though Wotton's official superior at Calais, Lord Cobham, was neither. Wotton remained a privy councillor when Somerset reconstructed the council in March 1546-7, but his duties at Calais prevented his frequent attendance at the council board. In April he was again made a commissioner to settle the disputes as to the frontier of the Boulonnais, and the growing hostility of France kept him busy with preparations for defence. On 13 March 1547-8, however, he signed the council's letter ordering the administration of the sacrament in one kind only, and on 17 January 1548-9 joined in proceedings against Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley. In September following he again came over to take part in Warwick's scheme for overthrowing Somerset.