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{{Short description|English poet (1562–1613)}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox noble
|name         = Henry Constable
|image        = Liege-Blaeu-00.jpg
|image_size   = 300px
|caption      = Liège in 1649, a few decades after Constable's death there in 1613
|noble family = 
|birth_date   = 1562
|birth_place  = [[Newark-on-Trent]], Nottinghamshire, England
|death_date   = 9 October {{death year and age|1613|1562}}
|death_place  = [[Liège]], [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège]], {{awrap|Holy Roman Empire}}
|burial_place = 
|spouse       = 
|father       = [[Robert Constable (died 1591)|Sir Robert Constable]]
|mother       = Christiana Dabridgecourt
|}}
'''Henry Constable''' (1562 – 9 October 1613) was an English poet, known particularly for ''Diana'', one of the first English [[sonnet sequence]]s. In 1591 he converted to [[Catholicism]], and lived in exile on the continent for some years. He returned to England at the accession of [[James VI and I|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 [[Robert Constable (died 1591)|Sir Robert Constable]] (d. 12 November 1591) and Christiana Dabridgecourt, widow of Anthony Forster, and daughter of John Dabridgecourt of Langdon Hall, Warwickshire. His paternal grandparents were [[Robert Constable (died 1558)|Sir Robert Constable]] (before 1495 – 29 October 1558) and Katherine Manners, the daughter of [[George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros]], and sister of [[Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Richardson I|2011|p=529}}.</ref> 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 [[Rising of the North|Northern Rebellion]] of 1569, and was knighted by Sussex at [[Berwick-upon-Tweed|Berwick]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Shaw|1906|p=74}}.</ref> He was Marshal of Berwick from 1576 to 1578, and was appointed [[Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance]]<ref>Sullivan states that he was Master of the Ordinance, although [[Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick]], was Master of the Ordinance from 1558 to 1590; {{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}.</ref> at some time before 4 August 1588.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lemon|2005|pp=555, 583, 593, 589, 611, 666}}.</ref> In the same year he had a son who was also named Henry, who became a Royalist army officer and the 1st Viscount Dunbar.<ref>Jack Binns, 'Constable, Henry, first Viscount Dunbar (1588–1645)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004</ref> Other children included daughter, [[Dorothy Lawson (recusant)|Dorothy Lawson]], who became a priest harbourer.<ref>Claire Walker, 'Lawson , Dorothy (1580–1632)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/69034, accessed 11 June 2017]</ref>

==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.<ref>{{acad|id=CNSL578H|name=Constable, Henry}}</ref> His contemporary at Cambridge was [[Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Hammer|1999|p=176}}.</ref> He was enrolled at [[Lincoln's Inn]] on 21 February 1583, but there is no further record of his legal studies.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}.</ref> On 12 September of that year Constable was in Scotland. He was then posted to Paris on the recommendation of his father's friend, [[Francis Walsingham|Sir Francis Walsingham]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Stockard|2012|p=209}}.</ref> serving under the English ambassador there, [[Edward Stafford (diplomat)|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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}.</ref>

Constable was probably at the English court during 1588–9, as he is recorded as having attended the funeral of his kinsman, [[John Manners, 4th Earl of Rutland]], in March 1588, and as having been in contact with [[Arabella Stuart]] in 1589. During this period he was reported to have been one of Queen Elizabeth's favourites.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}.</ref>

He was sent to [[Edinburgh]] in 1589 on the occasion of [[James VI and I|King James VI's]] marriage, and by this time was a member of the circle of [[Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex]]. His religious convictions were still to outward appearances Protestant. About this time he is credited with having written the anonymous tract ''Examen pacifique de la doctrine des Huguenots'', published in September 1589, in which, according to Sullivan, he wrote as a [[Roman Catholic]] urging his countrymen to support [[Henri IV of France|Henri IV]], who had just been crowned King.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}; {{Harvnb|Stockard|2012|p=209}}.</ref> Constable seems to have left Scotland with the French diplomat [[Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul|Jean Hotman]] in October 1589, but returned in 1590, and wrote a sonnet, "To the King of Scotland upon the occasion of his longe stay in Denmarke by reason of the coldnesse of the winter and the freezing of the sea."<ref>Roderick J. Lyall, ''Alexander Montgomerie: Poetry, Politics, and Cultural Change in Jacobean Scotland'' (Arizona, 2005), p. 179.</ref>

In 1591 Constable went to [[Normandy]] with the English forces under Essex who laid siege to [[Rouen]]. At some time between his arrival in France and the death of his father on 12 November 1591 Constable openly embraced Roman Catholicism.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}; {{Harvnb|Hammer|1999|p=176}}.</ref> Henri IV granted him a small pension.<ref>{{Harvnb|Patterson|1997|p=51}}.</ref> For the next decade he was principally based in Paris, but travelled to Rome in 1595. On 3 October 1596 he was in [[Rouen]], from which [[Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury]], wrote to [[Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury|Sir Robert Cecil]] that 'Here is Mr. H. Constable; who, lest he should have intruded himself into my company, I desired Mr Edmunds to let him know my desire he should forbear either coming, writing, or sending unto me, which he hath hitherto performed'.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lodge|1838|p=497}}.</ref> During this period he was also in [[Antwerp]] and [[Brussels]]. Until 1597 he kept up his connections with the Essex circle, writing to Essex himself and to [[Anthony Bacon (1558-1601)|Anthony Bacon]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Hammer|1999|p=176}}; {{Harvnb|Hazlitt|1859|pp=x–xii}}.</ref> He continued to claim loyalty to [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth]], and supported King James' claim to the English throne in preference to the claim of the Spanish [[Isabella Clara Eugenia|Infanta]], daughter of [[Philip II of Spain]]. On 1 March 1599 Constable arrived at [[Leith]] in Scotland, and eventually obtained access to King James, remaining until September, 'hunting and conversing on poetry and divinity' with the King. In 1600 he again travelled to Rome to seek [[Pope Clement VIII]]'s approval of another visit to King James.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}.</ref>

On James's accession Constable hoped to return to England, and wrote first to friends in Scotland for support, and on 11 June 1603, to his kinsman, [[Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland]], and to [[Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury|Sir Robert Cecil]]. By December of that year he was back at court, and was granted a warrant on 8 February 1604 by which he obtained possession of his inherited lands.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}.</ref> However his continued pursuit of plans to influence King James towards toleration of Catholics resulted in his imprisonment in the [[Tower of London|Tower]], where he remained from 14 April to 9 July 1604.<ref>{{Harvnb|Patterson|1997|pp=50–2}}; {{Harvnb|Stockard|2012|p=210}}.</ref> The Venetian ambassador [[Nicolò Molin]] heard that Constable had written letters to the Papal nuncio or envoy in Paris, which were intercepted, leading to his arrest.<ref>Horatio Brown, ''Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603–1607'', vol. 10 (London, 1900), p. 146 no. 213.</ref>

Constable was subsequently placed under house arrest,<ref>Horatio Brown, ''Calendar State Papers, Venice: 1603–1607'', vol. 10 (London, 1900), p. 174 no. 259.</ref> and deprived of his inheritance. He was in the [[Fleet prison]] on 11 February 1608, when [[John Chamberlain (letter writer)|John Chamberlain]] wrote to [[Dudley Carleton, 1st Viscount Dorchester|Sir Dudley Carleton]] that no sooner was [[Tobie Matthew|Sir Tobie Matthew]] released, and 'no sooner gan nor his nest scant cold, when Harry Constable was committed in his roome and nestles in the same lodging'.<ref>{{Harvnb|McClure|1939|p=255}}.</ref> Constable was imprisoned on at least one other occasion. On 31 July 1610 he was granted licence to leave England. He returned to Paris, and on 27 November 1611 rumours of his death were passed on by John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton: 'Sir William Bowes is lately dead, and we hear that Harry Constable hath taken the same way in Fraunce'.<ref>{{Harvnb|McClure|1939|p=319}}.</ref> Little more is known of his activities apart from the record of his presence at a theological disputation on 4 September 1612. In 1613 his friend, [[Jacques Davy Duperron|Cardinal Perron]], sent him to [[Liège]] on a mission to convert an English Protestant divine, [[Benjamin Carier]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Questier|2006|p=384}}.</ref> Constable died at Liège on 9 October 1613.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}.</ref>

==Literary accomplishments==
[[File:Bodleian Libraries, Poems and sonnets.jpg|thumbnail|right|An 1897 edition of ''The Poems of Henry Constable'' in [[Art Deco]] binding]]
In 1592 ''Diana'', a sequence of twenty-three sonnets by Constable, was published in London by Richard Smith, one of the first [[Sonnet sequence|sonnets sequences]] in English.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}; {{Harvnb|Stockard|2012|p=209}}.</ref> A second edition, containing five new sonnets by Constable with additions by [[Sir Philip Sidney]] and other poets followed in 1594. Sullivan considers that the 1594 publication was undertaken on Richard Smith's initiative. There were two further editions in 1597 and 1604.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hazlitt|1859|p=vii}}; {{Harvnb|Drabble|1985|p=226}}; {{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}.</ref> Four poems by Constable were included in ''[[England's Helicon]]'' in 1600,<ref>{{Harvnb|Hazlitt|1859|p=vii}}; {{Harvnb|Drabble|1985|p=226}}.</ref> among them ''Damelus Song to his Diaphenia'' and ''Venus and Adonis''. According to W. Carew Hazlitt, 'A more beautiful specimen of early English lyric poetry than ''The Sheepheard's Song of Venus and Adonis'' could hardly be found in the whole circle of Elizabethan poetry'.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hazlitt|1859|p=vi}}.</ref>

The Todd manuscript contains additional love sonnets by Constable, and Harleian MS 7553 contains seventeen 'Spirituall sonnettes, to the honour of God: and hys saintes'.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}.</ref>

Constable's verse is characterised by fervour and richness of colour. Of the numerous sonnets he wrote, the twenty-eight of the sonnet sequence ''Diana'', and the four prefixed to [[Sir Philip Sidney]]'s ''[[An Apology for Poetry]]'', contain his best work. In ''My lady's presence makes the roses red'', he is able to capture [[Edmund Spenser|Spenser's]] charm. His [[rhyme scheme]] is mixed Italian and English, like Sidney's, the octave being Italian and the sestet English.

Constable was highly reputed as a poet in his day.<ref>{{Harvnb|Stockard|2012|p=210}}.</ref> In the censure of contemporary poets in Act I, Scene ii, of the anonymous Elizabethan play, ''[[Parnassus plays|The Return From Parnassus]]'', Iudicio passes judgment favourably on Constable, saying that:<ref>{{Harvnb|Hazlitt|1859|p=xv}}; {{Harvnb|Macray|1886|pp=84–5}}.</ref>
<blockquote>Sweete Constable doth take the wondring eare<br>
And layes it up in willing prisonment.</blockquote>

[[Ben Jonson]] also pays tribute to Constable's verse in ''Underwood'':<ref>{{Harvnb|Hazlitt|1859|p=xvi}}.</ref>
<blockquote>Hath our great Sydney Stella set,<br>
Where never star shone brighter yet?<br>
Or Constable's ambrosiac muse<br>
Made Diana not his notes refuse</blockquote>

Constable is known to have written two theological tracts in 1596 and 1597 which are no longer extant. He also responded to ''[[A Conference about the Next Succession]]'', generally attributed to [[Robert Persons]]. Constable's ''Discoverye of a Counterfecte Conference … for Thadvancement of a Counterfecte Tytle'', which supported King James' claim to the English crown, was printed in Paris in 1600, although the title page falsely claimed that it had been printed in [[Cologne]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Sullivan|2004}}.</ref>

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== References ==
*{{Cite book |title = The Oxford Companion to English Literature
  |editor-last = Drabble
  |editor-first = Margaret
  |location = Oxford
  |publisher = Oxford University Press
  |year = 1985
  |edition = 5th
  }} {{ISBN|0-19-866130-4}}
* {{Cite book |title = The Poems of Henry Constable
  |last = Grundy
  |first = Joan
  |location = Liverpool
  |publisher = Liverpool University Press
  |year = 1960
  }}
* {{cite book | last=Hammer | first=Paul E. J. | title=The polarisation of Elizabethan politics : the political career of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, 1585–1597 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | publication-place=Cambridge | date=1999 | isbn=0-521-43485-8 | oclc=39539158}}
*{{Cite book |title = Diana: The Sonnets and Other Poems of Henry Constable
  |last = Hazlitt
  |first = William Carew
  |location = London
  |publisher = Basil Montagu Pickering
  |year = 1859
  |url = https://archive.org/details/dianasonnetsothe00consuoft
  |access-date = 23 December 2012
}}
*{{Cite book |title = Calendar of State Papers Domestic Series of the Reign of Elizabeth 1581–1590
  |editor-last = Lemon
  |editor-first = Robert
  |location = Burlington, Ontario
  |publisher = TannerRitchiePublishing
  |year = 2005
  |edition = Searchable text
  }} {{ISBN|1-55429-368-5}}
*{{Cite book |title = Illustrations of British History, Biography and Manners
  |last = Lodge
  |first = Edmund
  |location = London
  |publisher = John Chidley
  |year = 1838
  |edition = 2nd
  |volume = II
  |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Y20EAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA497
  |access-date = 27 December 2012
}}
*{{Cite book |title = The Letters of John Chamberlain
  |editor-last = McClure
  |editor-first = Norman Egbert
  |location = Philadelphia
  |publisher = American Philosophical Society
  |year = 1939
  |volume = I
  }}
*{{Cite book |title = ''The Pilgrimage to Parnassus'' With the Two Parts of ''The Return from Parnassus''
  |last = Macray
  |first = William Dunn
  |author-link = William Dunn Macray
  |location = Oxford
  |publisher = Clarendon Press
  |year = 1886
  |url = https://archive.org/stream/pilgrimagetoparn00macruoft#page/84/mode/2up
  |access-date = 27 December 2012
}}
*{{Cite book |title = Catholicism and Community in Early Modern England
  |last = Questier
  |first = Michael C.
  |location = Cambridge
  |publisher = Cambridge University Press
  |year = 2006
  }}
*{{Cite book |title = King James VI and I and the Reunion of Christendom
  |last = Patterson
  |first = W.B.
  |location = Cambridge
  |publisher = Cambridge University Press
  |year = 1997
  |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zYK_Czpa1WwC&pg=PA51
  |access-date = 26 December 2012
|isbn = 9780521793858
 }}
*Pérez-Jáuregui María Jesús, ed. (2024). ''Henry Constable. The Complete Poems''. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. ISBN 978-0-88844-232-1
*{{Cite book |title = Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham
  |last = Richardson
  |first = Douglas
  |location = Salt Lake City
  |year = 2011
  |edition = 2nd
  |volume = I
  |ref = {{sfnref|Richardson I|2011}}
}} {{ISBN|1449966373}}
*{{Cite ODNB |title = Constable, Henry (1562–1613)
|last = Sullivan
|first = Ceri
|id = 6103
|year = 2004
}}
*{{Cite book |chapter = Constable, Henry
  |title = The Encyclopedia of English Renaissance Literature
  |last = Stockard
  |first = Emily E.
  |editor1-last = Sullivan
  |editor1-first = Garrett A.
  |editor2-last = Stewart
  |editor2-first = Alan
  |location = Chichester, Sussex
  |publisher = Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
  |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=R7UeL_0Pu3oC&pg=PA209
  |access-date = 22 December 2012
|year = 2012
  |page = 209
  |isbn = 978-1-4051-9449-5
}}
*{{Cite book |title = The Knights of England
  |last = Shaw
  |first = William A.
  |author-link=William Arthur Shaw
  |location = London
  |publisher = Sherratt and Hughes
  |year = 1906
  |volume = II
  }}
*{{cite DNB|wstitle=Constable, Henry (1562-1613)|volume=12|pages=34–5}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Constable, Henry | volume= 6 |last= Gosse |first= Edmund William |author-link= Edmund Gosse | page = 982 |short= 1}}
* Ceri Sullivan, "The Physiology of Penance in 1590s Weeping Texts", ''Cahiers Élisabéthains'' 57 (2000), pp.&nbsp;31–48, examines Constable's religious verse.

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=8290| name=Henry Constable}}
* {{Librivox author |id=11539}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry Constable |sopt=t}}
*[https://archive.org/details/dianasonnetsothe00consuoft  ''Diana: The Sonnets and Other Poems of Henry Constable'']
*[[s:A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Constable, Henry|Constable, Henry, in A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Constable, Henry}}
[[Category:1562 births]]
[[Category:1613 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:English Catholic poets]]
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:People from Newark-on-Trent]]
[[Category:16th-century Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:17th-century Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:16th-century English poets]]
[[Category:16th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century English poets]]
[[Category:17th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century English writers]]
[[Category:English male poets]]