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SIR ROBERT BRUCE COTTON

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 256 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SIR See also:ROBERT See also:BRUCE See also:COTTON  , See also:Bart . (1571-1631), See also:English See also:antiquary, the founder of the Cottonian library, See also:born at See also:Denton in See also:Huntingdonshire on the 22nd of See also:January 1571, was a descendant, as he delighted to boast, of See also:Robert See also:Bruce . He was educated at See also:Westminster school under See also:William See also:Camden the antiquary, and at Jesus See also:College, See also:Cambridge . His antiquarian tastes were See also:early displayed in the collection of See also:ancient records, charters and other See also:manuscripts, which had been dispersed from the monastic See also:libraries in the reign of See also:Henry VIII.; and through-out the whole of his See also:life he was an energetic See also:collector of antiquities from all parts of See also:England and the See also:continent . His See also:house at Westminster had a See also:garden going down to the See also:river and occupied See also:part of the site of the See also:present House of Lords . It was the See also:meeting-See also:place in the last years of See also:Elizabeth's reign of the antiquarian society founded by See also:Archbishop See also:Parker . In 1600 See also:Cotton visited the See also:north of England with Camden in See also:search of Pictish and See also:Roman monuments and See also:inscriptions . His reputation as an See also:expert in See also:heraldry led to his being asked by See also:Queen Elizabeth to discuss the question of See also:precedence between the English See also:ambassador and the See also:envoy of See also:Spain, then in treaty at See also:Calais . He See also:drew up an elaborate See also:paper establishing the precedence of the English ambassador . On the See also:accession of See also:James I. he was knighted, and in 16o8 he wrote a Memorial on Abuses in the See also:Navy, that resulted in a navy See also:commission, of which he was made a member . He also presented to the See also:king an See also:historical Inquiry into the See also:Crown Revenues, in which he speaks freely about the expenses of the royal See also:household, and asserts that See also:tonnage and poundage are only to be levied in See also:war See also:time, and to " proceed out of See also:good will, not of See also:duty." In this paper he supported the creation of the See also:order of baronets, each of whom was to pay the crown £See also:i000; and in 1611 he himself received the See also:title . Cotton helped See also:john See also:Speed in the compilation of his See also:History of England (1611), and was regarded by contemporaries as the compiler of Camden's History of Elizabeth .

It seems more likely that it was executed by Camden, but that Cotton exercised a See also:

general supervision, especially with regard to the See also:story of See also:Mary queen of Scots . The presentation of his See also:mother's history was naturally important to James I., and Cotton himself took a keen See also:interest in the See also:matter . He had had the See also:room in Fotheringay where Mary was executed transferred to his See also:family seat at Connington . Meanwhile he was enlarging his collection of documents . In 1614 See also:Arthur See also:Agarde (q.v.) See also:left his papers to him, and Camden's manuscripts came to him in 1623 . In 1615 Cotton, as the intimate of the See also:earl of See also:Somerset, whose innocence he always maintained, was placed in confinement on the See also:charge of being implicated in the See also:murder of See also:Sir See also:Thomas See also:Overbury; he confessed that he had acted as intermediary between Sarmiento, the See also:Spanish ambassador, and Somerset, and had altered the See also:dates of Somerset's See also:correspondence . He was released after about eight months' imprisonment without formal trial, and obtained a See also:pardon on See also:payment of £500 . His friendship with See also:Gondomar, Spanish ambassador in England from 1613 to 1621,brought further suspicion, probably undeserved, upon Cotton, of unduly favouring the See also:Catholic party . From See also:Charles I. and See also:Buckingham Cotton received no favour; his attitude towards the See also:court had begun to See also:change, and he became the intimate friend of Sir John See also:Eliot, Sir Simonds d'Ewes and John See also:Selden . He had entered See also:parliament in 1604 as member for See also:Huntingdon; in 1624 he sat for Old Sarum; in 1625 for See also:Thetford; and in 1628 for See also:Castle Rising, See also:Norfolk . In the debate on See also:supply in 1625 Cotton provided Eliot with full notes defending the See also:action of the opposition in parliament, and in 1628 the leaders of the party met at Cotton's house to decide on their policy . In 1626 he gave See also:advice before the See also:council against debasing the See also:standard of the coinage; and in January 1628 he was again before the council, urging the See also:summons of a. parliament .

His arguments on the latter occasion are contained in his See also:

tract entitled The Danger in which the See also:Kingdom now standeth and the Remedy . In See also:October of the next See also:year he was arrested, together with the earls of See also:Bedford, Somerset, and See also:Clare, for having circulated, with ironical purpose, a tract known as the Proposition to bridle Parliament, which had been addressed some fifteen years before by Sir Robert See also:Dudley to James I., advising him to govern by force; the circulation of this by Parliamentarians was regarded as intended to insinuate that Charles's See also:government was arbitrary and unconstitutional . Cotton denied knowledge of the matter, but the See also:original was discovered in his house, and the copies had been put in circulation by a See also:young See also:man who lived after him and was said to be his natural son . Cotton was himself released the next See also:month; but the proceedings in the See also:star chamber continued, and, to his intense vexation, his library was sealed up by the king . He died on the 6th of May 1631, and was buried in Connington See also:church, Huntingdonshire, where there is a See also:monument to his memory . Many of Cotton's See also:pamphlets were widely read in See also:manuscript during his lifetime, but only two of his See also:works were printed, The Reign of Henry III . (1627) and The Danger in which the Kingdom now Standeth (1628) . His son, Sir Thomas (1594=1662), added considerably to the Cottonian library; and Sir John, the See also:fourth See also:baronet, presented it to the nation in 1700 . In 1I the collection, which had in the See also:interval been removed to the Strand, and thence to See also:Ashburnham House, was seriously damaged by See also:fire . In 1753 it was transferred to the See also:British Museum . See the See also:article LIBRARIES, and See also:Edwards's Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, vol. i . Several of Cotton's papers have been printedunder the title Cottoni Posthuma; others were published by Thomas See also:Hearne .

End of Article: SIR ROBERT BRUCE COTTON
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