Casaubon, and left owing his host much money, which Casaubon recovered with difficulty after inconvenient delay (Pattison, Casaubon, pp. 44–6). Subsequently Wotton spent some time in France. He was ambitious of diplomatic employment, and while on the continent he seems to have forwarded foreign news to Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, who appreciated his services. During 1594 he wrote abroad his longest and most important prose work, ‘The State of Christendom,’ an outspoken survey of current politics, displaying both information and insight; it remained unpublished till 1657, eighteen years after its author's death. At the opening of the work he meditates the possibility of securing a safe return home by ‘murdering some notable traitor to his prince and country,’ but he thought better of the plan owing to ‘the great difficulty to remain unpunished’ and to ‘the continual terror that such an offence might breed into his conscience.’ Again in England in 1595, he was admitted a student to the Middle Temple, but he never was called to the bar. Towards the close of the year he became one of Essex's agents and secretaries.
By October 1595 he was fully in his master's confidence, and visited the margrave of Baden at the earl's instance to win his friendship for Queen Elizabeth (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. Hatfield MSS.) In December 1595 he was sent by Essex to Paris to warn Essex's Portuguese protégé, Antonio Perez, of the treachery of his English attendant Aleyn. Aleyn returned with Wotton and was arrested (Birch, Queen Elizabeth, i. 346). Essex, who made it his object to collect foreign intelligence from all parts of Europe, entrusted Wotton in 1596 with the department dealing with the affairs of Transylvania, Poland, Italy, and Germany (ib. ii. 243). Although Wotton was an active correspondent, his judgment and fidelity to his master were questioned by a fellow secretary, Anthony Bacon [q. v.], and continual bickerings between Wotton and Bacon disturbed the harmony of Essex's household. While in London in Essex's employment, Wotton made the acquaintance of many men of letters, to whom probably his friend Donne introduced him. As soon as Essex fell out of favour with his sovereign, Wotton hastily left England on a second visit to Italy. Unlike his fellow secretary, Henry Cuffe, he seems to have been in no way involved in Essex's futile conspiracy, but he was not free from a suspicion of complicity, and, so long as Queen Elizabeth lived, England was closed to him. He appears to have settled at Venice, where he occupied himself in literary work. From Venice he passed to Florence, where he obtained an introduction to the court of Ferdinand, the great duke of Tuscany. In 1602 the duke's ministers intercepted letters disclosing a design against the life of James, the Scottish king. At the suggestion of his secretary Vietta, the duke sent Wotton to warn James of the conspiracy, entrusting him not merely ‘with letters to the king’ but with ‘such Italian antidotes against poison as the Scots till then had been strangers to.’ Travelling as an Italian under the assumed name of Octavio Baldi, Wotton reached Sweden, whence he crossed to Scotland and was received by King James at Stirling. After three months' stay in Scotland he returned to Florence, and was there at the time of Queen Elizabeth's death.
Wotton at once returned to England and was accorded a kindly reception by the new sovereign, James I. He received the honour of knighthood and a choice of posts as ambassador at the courts of Spain, France, or Venice. Wotton's means were small, and he accepted the post at Venice as pecuniarily the least onerous of the three. He left London in July 1604. His half-nephew (son of a half-brother), Sir Albertus Morton [q. v.], went with him as secretary, and William Bedell [q. v.] joined him as chaplain in 1607 (cf. Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vii. 281). His friend Donne sent him a letter in verse on his departure (Donne, Poems, ed. Chambers, ii. 7–9, 41–2; cf. Walton, Life, ed. Bullen, p. 119).
Wotton was engaged in diplomatic duties at Venice for nearly twenty years, but he did not hold office continuously. His first term covered eight years, 1604 to 1612; his second four years, 1616 to 1619, and his third four years, 1621 to 1624.
During Wotton's first period he was chiefly occupied in supporting the republic in its long resistance to the authority of the pope. By his exertions, too, many English soldiers who had been brought over to serve the Venetian republic against the Turks were relieved from extreme poverty and sent back to England. He made the acquaintance of Paolo Sarpi, and caused a portrait to be painted of him, which he sent to Dr. Collins, provost of King's College, Cambridge (Burnet, Life of Bedell, p. 194; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vii. 350–1), and he showed attention to James Howell, Thomas Coryate, and other English travellers (cf. Coryate, Crudities, 1776, ii. 7). Donne, writing in 1607, complained that Wotton, ‘under the oppression of business or the necessity of see-
