siliarius in 1531, 1547, and 1549, elect in 1531, censor in 1552, 1553, and 1555, and president in 1541, 1542, and 1543. He does not appear, as is often stated, to have been physician to Henry VIII, but he served the Duke of Norfolk and Margaret Pole, countess of Salisbury [q. v.], in that capacity, receiving from her an annuity of 60 shillings, and corresponded with her son Reginald, afterwards Cardinal Pole (Cal. State Papers, Venetian, iv. 677). He died on 5 Oct. 1555, and was buried in St. Alban's Church, Wood Street, Cheapside, where also was buried his wife Katharine, who died on 4 Dec. 1558 (Lansd. MS. 874; Machyn, Diary, pp. 95, 346). His son Henry graduated M.B. from Christ Church, Oxford, in 1562, and M.D. in 1567, was proctor in 1556, and, like his father, Greek reader at Corpus; he was admitted a candidate of the College of Physicians on 12 May 1564, and fellow on 18 Jan. 1571–2, and was censor in 1581 and 1582 (Munk, Coll. of Phys. i. 70–1).
Wotton is said to have been the first English physician who made a systematic study of natural history, and he acquired a European reputation by his ‘Edoardi Wottoni Oxoniensis de Differentiis Animalium libri decem.’ The book was dedicated to Edward VI, and published at Paris in 1552; the copy in the British Museum, a fine folio, is probably unsurpassed in its typographical excellence by any contemporary work. Conrad Gesner, the great Zürich professor, who had commenced the publication of his ‘Historia Animalium’ in 1551, notices Wotton's work in the ‘Enumeratio Authorum’ prefixed to his fourth book (Zürich, 1558), and remarks that, while Wotton teaches nothing new, his book deserves to be read and praised as a complete and clearly written digest of previous works on the subject. Haller's verdict is very similar, while Neander declared that no one had written of animals more learnedly and elegantly than Wotton (Neander, Succincta Explicatio Orbis Terræ, Leipzig, 1597, p. 410). Wotton also collected materials for the history of insects, which were published in ‘Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum olim ab Edoardo Wottono, Conrado Gesnero, Thomaque Pennio inchoatum, tandem Tho. Moufeti … opera … perfectum,’ London, 1634, fol. [see Moffett, Thomas]. Engraved portraits of Wotton, Moffett, and Penny appear in the frontispiece (Bromley, p. 41).
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 226–7; Cal. Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, iv. 4, xiv. i. 181; Boase's Reg. Univ. Oxon.; Bloxam's Reg. Magdalen Coll. i. 4, iv. 48; Macray's Reg. of Magdalen Coll. Oxford; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Fowler's Hist. of Corpus Christi, Oxford; Munk's Royal Coll. of Phys. i. 27–9; Aikin's Biogr. Mem. of Medicine, 1780, pp. 66–8; Visitation of London (Harl. Soc.), ii. 369; Wotton's Works and authorities cited.]
WOTTON, EDWARD, first Baron Wotton (1548–1626), born in 1548, was the eldest son of Thomas Wotton (1521–1587) by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Rudston, lord mayor of London [see under Wotton, Sir Edward, 1489-1551]. Sir Henry Wotton [q. v.] was his half-brother. Edward does not appear to have been educated at any English university, but made up for the deficiency by long study on the continent. In 1579 Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, stated that Wotton had spent three or four years among the Spanish residents at Naples, and described him as 'a man of great learning and knowledge of languages' [Cal. Simancas MSS. 1568-79, pp. 672, 679). He was certainly an accomplished French, Italian, and Spanish scholar; Mendoza also thought him 'a creature of Walsingham's,' but was unable to discover what his religion was. He was early employed in diplomatic business by Walsingham, and in 1574-6 was acting as secretary to the embassy at Vienna, Sir Philip Sidney [q. v.] being for a time associated with him in these duties. In May 1579 Wotton was sent to congratulate the new king of Portugal on his accession, and on his way back had audience of Philip II at Segovia. In January 1583-4 it was proposed to send him to Spain to protest against Mendoza's conduct in England, and to explain his summary expulsion by Elizabeth. (Sir) William Waad [q. v.] was, however, sent instead, and on 9 Nov. following Wotton was returned to parliament as one of the knights of the shire for Kent.
In May 1586 Elizabeth, alarmed at the progress of the catholic league in France and the success of Alexander of Parma in the Netherlands, selected Wotton as envoy to Scotland to persuade James VI to enter into an offensive and defensive alliance, and to take the Dutch under his protection. He was also to suggest James's marriage to Anne of Denmark or Arabella Stewart, but it was not till six years later that the former scheme was adopted. Wotton received his instructions at the hands of his friend Sir Philip Sidney on 15 May, was at Berwick on the 26th, and was received by James VI at Edinburgh on the 30th. 'Doué de qualités brillantes, et qui excellait dans tous les exercices que Jacques VI aimait de prédilection, il ne tarda pas à prendre le plus
