Biography & True Stories

Lying abroad

Henry Wotton and the invention of diplomacy

by Carol Chillington Rutter

Description

Student, traveller, secretary, scoundrel, spy: introducing the maverick whose diplomacy saved Europe from war. Henry Wotton had already exhausted several lives when he arrived in Venice as England's ambassador in 1604. Yet the most remarkable phase of his career was yet to come. In Lying abroad, Carol Chillington Rutter tells Wotton's extraordinary story. She reveals how this one-time exile, who fled England after his employer was convicted of treason, gained the favour of King James, securing a knighthood and a diplomatic posting. Charged with restoring relations with Venice after a fifty-year hiatus, he drew criticism for his breaches of protocol. But when a dispute brought Europe to the brink of war, Wotton took a risk - one that changed European history. This engrossing biography recounts a life that was tumultuous, tarnished and endlessly theatrical. The man King James called his 'honest dissembler' was a maverick who fashioned diplomacy in ways that still inform international relations today.

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Rights Information

Australia, Belize, Botswana, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom, Zambia, Cyprus, Bangladesh, Jamaica

Author Biography

Carol Chillington Rutter is Professor of English at the University of Warwick

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Manchester University Press

Manchester University Press

Manchester University Press is a leading UK publisher known for excellent research in the humanities and social sciences.

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Bibliographic Information

  • Publisher Manchester University Press
  • Publication Date February 2026
  • Orginal LanguageEnglish
  • ISBN/Identifier 9781526172068 / 1526172062
  • Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
  • FormatPrint PDF
  • Pages328
  • ReadershipGeneral/trade
  • Publish StatusPublished
  • Dimensions234 X 156 mm
  • Biblio NotesDerived from Proprietary 5851
  • Reference Code15423

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