him with whatever arms he should choose, on horseback or on foot. ‘Nor would I have you to think,’ he wrote, ‘any inequality of person between us, I being issued of as great a race and noble house every way as yourself. … If you consent not to meet me, I will hold you, and cause you to be generally held, for the errantest coward and most slanderous slave that lives in all France.’ Nothing came of the challenge, although Unton is said to have thrice repeated it (cf. Milles, Catalogue of Honour, 1610; Fuller, Worthies). In May 1592, after Henry had abandoned the siege of Rouen on the approach of the Duke of Parma and the French king's future looked desperate, Unton urged him to take the field in person in Brittany. There Henry IV's followers, despite the co-operation of an English army, had lately been worsted, but the situation appeared to Unton to be retrievable. Next month Unton was recalled at his own request, owing to failing health. He parted with Henry on the best of terms.
Unton continued to cultivate the favour of Essex, but his efforts to obtain official employment proved for many years vain. He re-entered the House of Commons in 1592–3 as M.P. for Berkshire, and there showed an independence which offended the queen. On 5 March 1592–3 he, with Francis Bacon, opposed the grant of a subsidy in the form in which the proposal was presented to the house (D'Ewes, Journal, pp. 487–90). Consequently when Unton next appeared at court the queen received him with ‘bitter speeches,’ and charged him with seeking a vain popularity (Cal. Hatfield MSS. iv. 68, where the date seems in error). Nevertheless in December 1595, through Essex's influence, Unton was sent a second time to France as ambassador. Essex gave him a paper of circuitous instructions whereby Unton might maintain the earl's private influence with Henry IV. The main object of Unton's mission was to keep alive the enmity between France and Spain and to dissuade Henry from making peace.
Unton was received by the king with enthusiasm, and had a long interview with him on 13 Feb. 1595–6 at Coucy-le-Château on the Flemish border, where the war with Spain was in progress. The king was in a frivolous mood, and mainly confined himself to expressing extravagant admiration for Queen Elizabeth's person (Motley, United Netherlands, iii. 342). Finally he invited Unton to accompany him to the French camp outside the city of La Fère, on the upper Oise. The city was in the hands of the Spaniards, and Henry's forces were besieging it. Unton no sooner reached the camp before La Fère than he fell dangerously ill of what was suspected to be ‘a purple fever.’ Despite the risk of contagion, Henry paid him a visit, and for some weeks it was anticipated that he would recover, but, to the French king's grief, he died on 23 March. On 1 April following Henry IV sent the queen a letter of condolence on her ambassador's death, and expressed admiration of his virtues, of which, the king wrote, he had had frequent experience (Birch, Memoirs of Elizabeth, i. 459). Unton's body was brought home to Wadley, and he was buried in Faringdon church on 8 July. A sumptuous monument was erected to his memory by his widow.
Unton showed some literary taste. In 1581 Charles Merbury acknowledged his aid in preparing his ‘Briefe Discourse of Royall Monarchie.’ To him was dedicated Robert Ashley's Latin translation (from the French) of Du Bartas's ‘L'Vranie Ov Mvse Celeste par G. de Saluste Seigneur du Bartas. Vrania sive Mvsa …’ (London, by John Wolfe, 1589, 4to; Brit. Mus.). Ashley noticed Unton's close friendship with Sir William Hatton. Matthew Gwinne [q. v.] went with him to France in the capacity of physician. In Unton's memory there was published at Oxford a voluminous collection of Latin verse (with two elegies by Professor Thomas Holland in Greek and Hebrew respectively) under the title: ‘Funebria nobilissimi ac præstantissimi Equitis, D. Henrici Vntoni, ad Gallos bis Legati Regii, ibiq: nuper Fato functi, charissimæ Memoriæ, ac Desiderio, à Musis Oxoniensibus apparata,’ Oxford, by Joseph Barnes, 1596. The volume was edited by Robert Wright, Unton's chaplain, afterwards bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, who inaccurately points out in the preface that a like honour had been paid previously to Sir Philip Sidney, and to none besides (Brit. Mus.).
Unton had no issue, and left an embarrassed estate. His debts are said to have amounted to 23,000l. His personal property was valued at about 5,000l. His nieces—the three daughters of his sister Anne, wife of Valentine Knightley, and his sister Cicely, wife of John Wentworth—claimed his lands, which were extensive and valuable, and in December 1596 called upon Lord Burghley, as master of the court of wards, to stay the sale of his estates in the interest of his creditors (Cal. State Papers, Dom., Addenda, 1580–1625). His widow seems to have enjoyed his Berkshire property for her life.
Unton married Dorothy, eldest daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Wroughton of
