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SHIRLEY or SHERLEY, ROBERT, commonly called Sir Robert Shirley or Count Shirley (1581?–1628), envoy in the service of the shah of Persia, born about 1581, was youngest son of Sir Thomas Shirley ‘the elder’ of Wiston, and was brother of Sir Thomas Shirley [q. v.] and of Sir Anthony Shirley [q. v.] He accompanied his brother Anthony on the abortive expedition to Ferrara in 1598, and thence to Persia. When, at the end of 1599, Anthony left Persia on his mission to the courts of Europe, Robert remained behind with five English attendants, as the guest of the shah Abbas. The reports that were circulated in England as to the favours showered on Robert and his fellow Christians by the shah were greatly exaggerated (cf. Nixon, Three Brothers, 1607). Robert seems to have employed himself usefully in improving the discipline of the Persian army, and in instructing it in the use of artillery. But the shah was niggardly in his allowances, and on 22 May 1605 Robert wrote from Tabreez to his brother Anthony that he was resolved to quit the country if he could. On 10 Sept. 1606 he complained in another letter to Anthony (dated from Kazveen) that the failure of Anthony's despatches to reach the Persian court greatly imperilled his own position there. He was esteemed, he wrote, ‘a common liar.’ Before 1607 he married Teresia, daughter of Ismael Khan, a Circassian of noble birth and of Christian faith, who was related to one of the Circassian wives of shah Abbas.
Owing to Sir Anthony's long silence, the shah in 1607 determined to send a second embassy to James I and to the Christian princes of Europe, to invite their aid in a crusade against the Turks and to promote commercial relations. Robert was selected as his envoy. He left Persia with his wife on 12 Feb. 1607–8, ‘well accompanied and furnished.’ At Cracow Sigismund III, king of Poland, entertained him handsomely (cf. Thomas Middleton, Sir R. Sherley sent ambassadour … to Sigismond the third, 1609, dedicated to Robert's brother Thomas; reprinted in Harleian Miscellany, v.). In June 1609 the Emperor Rudolf II received him at Prague, and not only knighted him (2 June), but created him a count palatine of the empire. King James, to whom he at once announced his arrival in Europe, recommended him to complete his mission on the continent before repairing to England. Accordingly, leaving his wife at Prague, Robert proceeded to Florence, where the grand duke gave him a gold chain valued at eight hundred crowns, and on 27 Sept. 1609 he made his entry into Rome, wearing in his turban a crucifix of gold (he always dressed in Persian costume). The pope (Paul V) received him in audience on the 29th (Italian tract, Bologna, 1609), and, according to Purchas (iii. 1806), created him count of the sacred palace of the Lateran and his chamberlain. At the same time he was granted the power of legitimatising bastards (Abbot to Sir Thomas Roe, 20 Jan. 1616). At Milan he had a brief meeting with his brother Anthony, but soon left to pursue his diplomatic adventures in Spain. He reached Barcelona ‘with his great turban’ early in December 1609, and was at Alcala next month. The Spanish court did not show him much courtesy, but a tedious commercial negotiation, which came to little, detained him at Madrid for more than a year. The English ambassador, Sir Francis Cottington, whom he frequently visited, reported that he was a man of ‘wise and discreet carriage’ and ‘both modest and moreover brave in his speech, diet, and expenses.’ In February 1611 he welcomed his brother Anthony, who was suffering extreme poverty, to his house at Madrid, and next month his wife arrived. In the summer he left for England, and in August he was staying with his father at the family seat of Wiston. On 1 Oct. James I received him graciously at Hampton Court. Four merchants of the Levant Company were appointed to attend him, 4l. a day was allowed him for his diet, and 60l. a quarter for house rent; but the Levant merchants were unwilling to countenance any mercantile treaty with Persia, on the ground that it would hamper their valuable trade with Turkey. On 4 Nov 1611 Robert announced to Henry, prince of Wales, the birth of a son—his only child—and requested him to stand godfather. The boy was accordingly baptised in the name of Henry.
On 13 Jan. 1612–13 Robert left London on his return journey to Persia. He went by sea. Guadal was reached in September 1613, and he narrowly escaped a plot of the Portuguese settlers there to blow up his lodgings
