hints for Dogberry's character, to a study of Wilson's book (Drake, Shakespeare and his Time, i. 440–1, 472–4).
The ‘Arte of Rhetorique’ was dedicated to Northumberland's eldest son, John Dudley, earl of Warwick, and from this time Wilson became a staunch adherent of the Dudley family, his especial patron in later years being the Earl of Leicester. On Northumberland's fall he sought safety on the continent; in 1555 he was with Cheke at Padua, where on 21 Sept. 1556 he delivered, in St. Anthony's Church, an oration on the death of Edward Courtenay, earl of Devon, which is printed in Strype's ‘Memorials’ (vol. iii. App. p. lvii). Thence he seems to have proceeded to Rome before December 1557, when he was implicated in some intrigue at the papal court against Cardinal Pole (Cal. State Papers, For. 1553–8, pp. 345, 374, 380). On 17 March 1557–8 Philip and Mary wrote commanding him to return home and appear before the privy council before 15 June following (ib. Dom. 1547–80, p. 100). The English ambassador, Sir Edward Carne, delivered him this letter in April, but Wilson paid no attention; and it was possibly at Mary's instigation that he was arrested and charged before the inquisition with having written the books on logic and rhetoric, and with being a heretic. He is said to have been put to torture, and he owed his escape to a riot which broke out on the news of Paul IV's death on 18 Aug. 1559, when the mob, enraged at the severities of the inquisition, broke open the prisons and released suspected heretics (ib. For. 1558–9, No. 1287; Wilson, The Arte of Rhetorique, ed. 1562, pref.) He now took refuge at Ferrara, where he received his diploma as LL.D. on 29 Nov. 1559 (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. p. 305); he was incorporated in this degree at Oxford on 6 Sept. 1566, and at Cambridge on 30 Aug. 1571 (Lansd. MS. 982, f. 2; Reg. Univ. Oxon. i. 264; Addit. MS. 5815, f. 41).
In 1560 Wilson returned to London, whence on 7 Dec. he dated the preface to the second edition of his ‘Arte of Rhetorique;’ he was admitted advocate in the court of arches by a commission from Archbishop Parker dated 28 Feb. 1560–1 (Lansd. MS. 982, f. 3); and Parker also seems to have appointed him dean of the college he founded at Stoke Clare, Suffolk (Addit. MS. 5815, f. 42). In January 1560–1 he spoke of being ‘summoned to serve abroad’ (Cal. State Papers, For. 1560–1, No. 930), but no trace of the nature of this mission has been found. In the same year he became master of St. Catherine's Hospital in the Tower, and also master of requests (Leadam, Court of Requests, 1897, pp. xlv, cvii, cix, cxx). In the former capacity he incurred some odium by taking down the choir of St. Catherine's, said by Stow to have been as large as that of St. Paul's, and apparently it was only Cecil's intervention that prevented his selling the franchises of the hospital. He was returned for Michael Borough in Cornwall to the parliament summoned to meet on 11 Jan. 1562–3 and dissolved on 2 Jan. 1566–7. In April 1564 he was commissioned with Dr. Valentine Dale [q. v.] to examine John Hales (d. 1571) [q. v.] about his book advocating the claims of Lady Catherine Grey to the succession (Hatfield MSS. vol. i. passim). On new year's day 1566–7 he presented to the queen an ‘Oratio de Clementia,’ now extant in the British Museum (Royal MS. 12 A. 1).
In 1563 Sir Thomas Chaloner had urged Wilson's appointment as ambassador to the court of Spain, but Wilson's first diplomatic employment of any note was his mission to Portugal in 1567; it dealt mainly with commercial matters, and Wilson's energies were largely devoted to furthering in Portugal the mercantile interests of his brother-in-law, Sir William Winter [q. v.] His commission was apparently dated 6 May 1567 (Cal. Clarendon Papers, i. 494), but it was October before he had his first interview at Lisbon (Cotton. MS. Nero B. i. 142). While there he entered into relations with Osorio da Fonseca, the well-known bishop of Silves, and on his return in 1568 Wilson brought with him the bishop's reply to Haddon (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. p. 363, and art. Haddon, Walter). In July he addressed some Latin verses to Cecil on his recovery from illness. On 13 May 1569 he vainly requested to be again sent as agent to Portugal (Lansd. MS. xii., art. 3), and he generally acted as intermediary between Portuguese envoys in London and the English government. As a thoroughgoing adherent of Leicester he also participated in the earl's secret negotiations with the Spanish ambassador (Cal. Simancas Papers, 1569–78, pp. 61 sqq.)
In the intervals of these occupations and his duties as master of requests Wilson busied himself with his translation of ‘The Three Orations of Demosthenes, chiefe orator among the Grecians in favour of the Olynthians … with those his four Orations … against King Philip of Macedonie; most nedeful to be redde in these daungerous dayes of all them that loue their countries libertie and desire to take warning for their better
