Henry Constable

Henry Constable (1562 – 9 October 1613) was an English poet, known particularly for Diana, one of the first English sonnet sequences. In 1591 he converted to Catholicism, and lived in exile on the continent for some years. He returned to England at the accession of King James, but was soon a prisoner in the Tower and in the Fleet. He died an exile at Liège in 1613.

Family

Henry Constable, born in Newark-on-Trent in 1562, was the only child of Sir Robert Constable and Christiana Dabridgecourt, widow of Anthony Forster, and daughter of John Dabridgecourt of Langdon Hall, Warwickshire. His paternal grandparents were Sir Robert Constable and Katherine Manners, the daughter of George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros, and sister of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland. According to Sullivan, the connections Robert Constable acquired through his marriage 'opened up a career of military service and public office'. Constable served under Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, in the campaign after the Northern Rebellion of 1569, and was knighted by Sussex at Berwick. He was Marshal of Berwick from 1576 to 1578, and was appointed Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance at some time before 4 August 1588. In the same year he had a son who was also named Henry, who became a Royalist army officer and the 1st Viscount Dunbar. Other children included daughter, Dorothy Lawson, who became a priest harbourer.

Career

Henry Constable matriculated as a fellow commoner at St John's College, Cambridge at Easter 1578, and took his BA on 29 January 1580. His contemporary at Cambridge was Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. He was enrolled at Lincoln's Inn on 21 February 1583, but there is no further record of his legal studies. On 12 September of that year Constable was in Scotland. He was then posted to Paris on the recommendation of his father's friend, Sir Francis Walsingham, serving under the English ambassador there, Sir Edward Stafford, between 14 December 1583 and April 1585. In May 1585 he was at Heidelberg, and he may have travelled to Poland. During this period, according to Sullivan, Constable acted as a spokesperson for Protestant causes.