on Charles in the winter and undertake the offices of master of requests and secretary of the Latin tongue. Fanshawe sent for his wife, and with great difficulty she managed to leave England under the name of Anne Harrison. In November they met Charles II in Paris, followed him to Flanders, and were with him at the Hague in May 1660, when he was preparing to return to England.
Fanshawe sailed in the king's ship, and took part in all the festivities of the Restoration. He lived in a house in Portugal Row, Lincoln's Inn, known as the ‘Pine Apples’ (Fanshawe, p. 5), and prepared to fill the office of master of requests; but Clarendon, according to the ill-supported statement of his wife and biographer, contrived that little work or influence should fall to him. On 11 March 1660–1 he was elected M.P. for Cambridge University. At the coronation (23 April 1661), attired in ‘fantastic habits of the time’ (Evelyn, ii. 128), he represented the Duke of Normandy, and on 8 May he accompanied the king at the opening of parliament. He was afterwards ordered to carry Charles's portrait to Catherine of Braganza at Lisbon, and on his return (January 1662) was nominated privy councillor of Ireland. When Princess Catherine landed in April following, Fanshawe was among those who received her. On 30 May—nine days after the marriage—the king introduced Lady Fanshawe to his wife, who promised her future favours. On 10 Aug. 1662 Fanshawe was appointed ambassador to Portugal. Evelyn took leave of him on the 5th. He travelled slowly with his wife and children to Plymouth, paying many visits on the way, and on the last day of the month set sail for Lisbon, where they landed on 14 Sept. On 10 Oct. Fanshawe was received by the king of Portugal with every mark of respect. He remained at Lisbon till 23 Aug. 1663, when he and his family left, loaded with presents, receiving to the last very marked attention from the king and his court. On 4 Sept. they landed at Deal, and six days later Sir Richard was graciously received by Charles II at Bath, and was sworn a privy councillor (1 Oct.) Lady Fanshawe was also kindly entertained at court in London by both the queen and the queen-mother.
On 20 Jan. 1663–4 Fanshawe was appointed ambassador to Spain, and on 31 Jan. he and his family sailed from Portsmouth. They anchored off Cadiz on 23 Feb.; stayed there till 19 March; visited Malaga, Seville, Cordova, Toledo, and other places, and were royally entertained at all. On 18 June Fanshawe presented his credentials in great state to Philip IV, king of Spain, at Madrid. Much of their time was spent in visiting objects of interest about Madrid, and they were especially charmed by the Escurial. In December Fanshawe came into collision with the president of Castile as to the right of asylum belonging to the English embassy. One Don Francisco de Ayala had been arrested within the disputed boundaries, and Fanshawe demanded his release. After much dispute Fanshawe appealed to the king, who decided the matter in his favour. Fanshawe and his wife continued to enjoy the lavish hospitality of the court and nobility till 17 Sept. 1665, when Philip IV died. On 8 Oct. they were present at the proclamation of the new infant king, Charles II.
Meanwhile Fanshawe had been engaged in negotiating a treaty between Spain and England, but the negotiations dragged owing to the ill-health of the king of Spain, to differences among his councillors, and to the commercial jealousies of the two nations. At length a draft treaty was prepared by the Spanish council granting favourable terms to English merchants, but it was presented to Fanshawe with the proviso that it should either be confirmed by his sovereign within a fixed period or withdrawn. Fanshawe felt himself justified in accepting the condition, without communicating with his government, and on 17 Dec. he signed the protocol. On 16 Jan. 1665–6 he went to Lisbon at the request of the Spanish ministers to induce Portugal to join in the treaty, but he returned on 8 March with Sir Robert Southwell without effecting his object. On 26 March news arrived at Madrid that Sandwich had been sent as extraordinary ambassador to supersede Fanshawe. Lady Fanshawe bitterly resented her husband's recall, and attributed it to the hostility of Clarendon, whom she cordially disliked. But the flattering terms in which Clarendon always referred to Sir Richard's abilities and services prove her dislike to have been unreasonable. That minister's chief object, she now asserts, was to find a place for Sandwich out of England. Clarendon gives another version of the episode. ‘No man,’ he admits, ‘knew that court [i.e. Madrid] better, or was so well versed in the language,’ as Fanshawe, ‘who was a gentleman very well known and very well beloved.’ But Clarendon points out that Fanshawe's failure to communicate the terms of the proposed treaty to the home government, while pledging it to confirm the articles within a stipulated time, constituted a breach of duty which left the council no course other than the one they adopted. Clarendon's well-known policy of hostility to Spain doubtless made him unwilling to judge leniently the
