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Endymion Porter

Endymion Porter (1587–1649) was an English diplomat and royalist.

He was descended from Sir William Porter, sergeant-at-arms to Henry VII, and son of Edmund Porter, of Aston-sub-Edge in Gloucestershire, by his cousin Angela, daughter of Giles Porter of Mickleton, in the same county.

He was brought up in Spain—where he had relatives—as page in the household of Olivares. He afterwards entered successively the service of Edward Villiers and of Buckingham, and through the latter's recommendation became groom of the bedchamber to Charles I.

In October 1622 he was sent to negotiate concerning the affairs of the Electorate of the Palatinate and the proposed "Spanish Match" of the Prince of Wales with the Infanta. He accompanied Charles and Buckingham on their foolhardy expedition in 1623, acted as their interpreter, and was included in the consequent attack made by Lord Bristol on Buckingham in 1626.

In 1628, Porter was employed as envoy to Spain to negotiate for peace, and in 1634 on a mission to the Netherlands to the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand. He was one of the promoters of the 1635 Courteen association.

During the Civil War Porter remained a constant and faithful servant of the king. He was with him during the two Scottish campaigns, attended him again on the visit to Scotland in August 1641, and followed Charles on his last departure from London in 1642, receiving the nominal command of a regiment, and sitting in the Royalist parliament at Oxford in 1643.

He had, however, little faith in the king's measures. "His Majesty's businesses," he wrote in 1641, "run in their wonted channel—subtle designs of gaining the popular opinion and weak executions for the up-holding of monarchy." His fidelity to Charles was of a personal, not of a political nature. "My duty and loyalty have taught me to follow my king," he declared, "and by the grace of God nothing shall divert me from it." This devotion to the king, the fact that he was the agent and protégé of Buckingham, and that his wife Olivia, daughter of John Boteler, 1st Baron Boteler of Bramfield, and niece of Buckingham, was a zealous Roman Catholic, drew upon him the hostility of the opposite faction. Olivia was a lady-in-waiting to Queen consort Henrietta Maria.

As member of the Long Parliament, in which he sat as member for Droitwich, he was one of the minority of 59 who voted against Strafford's attainder, and was, in consequence, proclaimed a "betrayer of his country."

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English politician (1587-1649)
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