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280:, "he was a man of wit and heat, of spirit and candour. He never gave bad advices; but when the king followed the ill advices which others gave, he thought himself bound to excuse if not to justify them. For this the Duke of York commended him much. He said in that he was a pattern to all good subjects, since he defended all the king's counsels in public, even when he had blamed them most in private with the king himself".
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253:, cracked under the strain, Coventry generally maintained his composure, but he was concerned at the public hysteria: "the nation and the city are in as great a consternation as can be imagined". His cynical, sceptical nature, like Charles II's, disinclined him, at least in the early stages, to believe in the Plot, and he was particularly wary of the notorious
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Writing to Sir Robert Carr on 12 September 1676 and regretting his inability to fulfil some promise relative to a vacant post, he said: "Promises are like marriages; what we tie with our tongues we cannot untie with our teeth. I have been discreet enough as to the last, but frequently a fool as to
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Coventry's loyalty as a friend would be further demonstrated by his attitude to
Clarendon in exile: he cancelled the prohibition on visits by his children to Clarendon in his French exile and may have been working towards Clarendon's eventual return from exile when Clarendon died in 1674. Coventry
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He had "an unclouded reputation" for honesty: it is to his credit that after holding public office for nearly 20 years he had not accumulated any large fortune; though no doubt in easy circumstances, he wrote of himself as feeling straitened by the loss of his official salary on 31 December 1680.
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and banishment, and his eloquent speeches in the House of
Commons in Clarendon's defence enhanced his reputation. When the King, who was determined that Clarendon must fall, expressed his displeasure at his known wishes in the matter being defied, Henry with his usual frankness replied that if he
233:, compelled him to retire from public life. He was a capable administrator, who built up an efficient intelligence service: even the most minor complaints against the Crown, such as the "curse on the King for his bad example to other husbands", uttered by the wife of the town gaoler in
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the first." Clarendon, grateful for Henry's loyalty to him at the lowest point of his career, called him "a much wiser man" than his brother, William, whom
Clarendon never forgave for what he saw as William's betrayal of him in 1667.
105:, and he remained one until 1648. He graduated in both arts and law. He may have become Chancellor of the diocese of Llandaff as early as 1638. In 1640, he obtained leave to travel, and was abroad until just before the
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could not speak his mind in
Parliament, he had best not go there at all. To the King's credit, despite their disagreements, he was later willing to raise Henry to high office,
176:, where he remained for the next two years, "accustoming himself to the northern ways of entertainment, and this grew upon him with age". In 1667, he was sent, jointly with
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During the negotiations at Breda, he found time to write a heartfelt letter of condolence to his old friend Lord
Clarendon on the death of his wife
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from the succession might lead to civil war: "if that Prince go into another place, it must cost you a standing army to bring him back".
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Francis had ceased to take any active part in public affairs, and
William had devoted himself more especially to the service of the
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133:. The reports of his whereabouts at this date are very confused; Henry, his elder brother Francis, and his younger brother,
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in his exile. During part of his time abroad, he was employed as a royalist agent in
Germany and Denmark, in company with
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in 1674. In this office, he continued till 1680, when his health, shattered by frequent attacks of
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in 1632 aged 14, and graduated the following year. Within a year, he was a Fellow of
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61:(1619–1686), styled "The Honourable" from 1628, was an English politician who was
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In 1671 he was again sent on an embassy to Sweden, and in 1672 he was appointed
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In 1660, he returned to
England with letters for Presbyterian leaders including
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145:, whose secretary he continued to be while the duke held the office of
404: This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
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By 1654, he was a captain in the Dutch army, but in contact with
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184:, which, after the disgraceful summer, was finally concluded at
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264:, he was one of the first to warn that any attempt to bar
200:. Unlike his brother, William, Henry opposed Clarendon's
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from 1662 to 1672, and in
September 1664, he was sent as
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Coventry was the third son by the second marriage of
366:Handley, Stuart. "Coventry, Henry (1617/18–1686)".
735:Members of the Parliament of England for Droitwich
81:to Elizabeth Aldersley; he was the brother of Sir
700:Secretaries of state for the Southern Department
695:Secretaries of state for the Northern Department
637:Secretary of State for the Southern Department
610:Secretary of State for the Northern Department
482:History of Parliament Online - Coventry, Henry
466:"Archival material relating to Henry Coventry"
423:. Vol. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
223:Secretary of State for the Northern Department
209:then organised Clarendon's private funeral in
95:Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
63:Secretary of State for the Northern Department
109:. He was thus absent from England during the
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372:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
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369:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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647:Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland
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180:, as plenipotentiary to negotiate the
30:For the English religious writer, see
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18:Henry Coventry's Estate Act 1688
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685:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford
249:, while the nerve of his colleague,
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79:Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry
158:Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
47:Memorial to Henry Coventry in the
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343:Phoenix Press Reissue 2000 p. 155
330:Longmans Green and Co. 1958 p. 23
34:. For the English cricketer, see
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