MIDDLETON, ROBERT [SSNE 4879]

Surname

MIDDLETON

First name

ROBERT

Nationality

SCOT

Text source

Sir Robert Middleton served at one time as a commissioner to the Dutch Republic. He also acted as secretary to the Vice Chancellor of Poland and secretary in London to Sir Robert Stuart [SSNE 529] when he tried to build up an anti-Swedish army in Britain. Unknown to Stuart, Middleton passed letters on to the British and Swedish ambassador, Sir James Spens of Wormiston. 

Sources: Swedish Riksarkiv, Oxenstiernska samlingen, E724. James Spens to Axel Oxenstierna, 10 March 1624 (addendum, copy letter of KIng James VI & I to Sigismund Vasa); G.M. Bell, A Handlist of Diplomatic representatives 1509-1688 (London, 1990), p.195; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.263-264, 276.

Service record

POLAND, LONDON, SIR ROBERT STEWART'S OFFICE

Arrived 1610-01-01, as SECRETARY

Departed 1624-01-01, as SECRETARY

Capacity SECRETARY, purpose DIPLOMACY

STUART KINGDOMS, THE DUTCH REPUBLIC

Arrived 1614-12-29

Departed 1615-05-05

Capacity COMMISSIONERS, purpose DIPLOMACY

SWEDEN, LONDON

Arrived 1624-01-01

Capacity SPY, AGENT, purpose DIPLOMACY