return became secretary to Sir Robert Cecil, ‘being then esteemed a forward and knowing person in matters relating to the state’ (Wood). On 10 July 1606 Calvert was granted the office of clerk of the crown in the province of Connaught and county of Clare (Cal. State Papers, Ireland, 1603–6, p. 565). In January 1608 he was appointed one of the clerks of the council (Lodge, Illustr. of English Hist. iii. 256), and entered parliament as M.P. for Bossiney in October 1609. In January 1612 he is mentioned as assisting the king in the composition of his discourse against Vorstius, and in June of the following year, during the vacancy of the secretary of state's place, the charge of answering the Spanish and Italian corespondence was entrusted to him (Court and Times of James I, i. 134–76). In 1613 Calvert was one of the committee sent to Ireland to examine into the grievance of the catholics and the complaints made against the lord deputy (Cal. State Papers, Ireland, 1611–14, Commission, p. 436, Report of Commissioners, pp. 426, 438). His different services were rewarded in 1617 by knighthood (29 Sept.), and in February 1619 he became secretary of state. ‘The night before he was sworn,’ writes Chamberlain to Carleton, ‘the lord of Buckingham told him the king's resolution; but he disabled himself various ways, but specially that he thought himself unworthy to sit in that place, so lately possessed by his noble lord and master’ (Court and Times of James I, i. 142). The trial of the Earl of Suffolk in the Star-chamber was the first business of importance on which Calvert was engaged, and his letters to Buckingham during that trial, particularly one in which he excuses himself for his ‘error in judgment’ in consenting to too light a sentence on the delinquent, show how much he depended on the favourite's influence (Fortescue Papers, p. 98; Howard, Collection of Letters, p. 57). On 2 May 1620 the king granted Calvert a yearly pension of 1,000l. on the customs (Camden, James I). In the parliament of 1621 he with Sir Thomas Wentworth represented Yorkshire; their election, which was obtained through an unscrupulous exertion of Wentworth's influence, though called in question, was voted good by the House of Commons. It was Calvert's duty as secretary to lay the king's necessities before the house and press for a supply for the defence of the Palatinate. He would not have our king, he said, ‘trust entirely to the king of Spain's affection. It is said our king's sword hath been too long sheathed; but they who shall speak to defer a supply seek to keep it longer in the scabbard’ (Proceedings and Debates, ii. 213; vide also i. 48). As intermediary between the king and the commons in the disputes which arose during the second session, the secretary had a very difficult part to play. To him James, on 16 Dec. 1621, addressed the remarkable letter in which he explained his answer to the remonstrance of the commons, but he could not succeed in preventing the drawing up of the protestation by which the commons replied (ib. ii. 339). The house did not trust him; he was suspected of communicating to the king intelligence of their proceedings, to the detriment of the leading members. Allusions to this were made in the debates, and the charge is directly brought against him by Wilson, with special reference to this remonstrance (Wilson, Life of James I, p. 71). A few days earlier, when he had attempted to explain the commitment of Sir E. Sandys, and asserted that he was not committed for anything said or done in parliament, a member moved that the statement should be entered in the journals, and the note-taker adds, ‘the house will scarce believe Mr. Secretary, but thinketh he equivocateth’ (Proceedings and Debates, ii. 200). At the same time Calvert possessed no great influence with the king. The French ambassador, Tillières, in a letter dated 25 Nov. 1621, describes the secretary as an honourable, sensible, well-intentioned man, courteous to strangers, full of respect towards ambassadors, zealously intent for the welfare of England, but by reason of these good qualities entirely without consideration or influence (Raumer, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ii. 263). As the most efficient of the two secretaries of state the conduct of foreign affairs was principally in Calvert's hands, and he shared at the time the unpopularity of his master's policy. He was accused of being sold to Spain, and of an undue devotion to the interests of catholicism, a charge to which his subsequent conversion gave some colour. Nevertheless, says Mr. Gardiner, ‘it is quite a mistake to suppose that because Calvert afterwards became a catholic he was ready to betray English interests into the hands of the Spaniards. Expressions in favour of a more decided policy in Germany than that adopted by the king are constantly occurring in his correspondence with Carleton’ (Spanish Marriage, iv. 411). But the failure of the Spanish marriage scheme was still a blow to him, both as a statesman and a catholic. A correspondent of Roe's describes him as never ‘looking merrily since the prince his coming out of Spain’ (Roe's Letters, p. 372). On 8 Jan. 1623–4 he became M.P. for Oxford University. In the council he was one of nine who opposed a breach with Spain (14 Jan. 1624) and in the following January he resigned his office
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