- Robert Shirley
Sir Robert Shirley (c. 1581 –
July 13 ,1628 ) was an English traveller and adventurer, younger brother of Sir Anthony Shirley and of the adventurer Sir Thomas.He went with his brother Anthony to Persia in 1598. Anthony was in
Safavid Persia fromDecember 1 ,1599 to May 1600. He was given 5,000horse s to train the Persianarmy according to the rules and customs of the Englishmilitia . He was also commanded to reform and retrain theartillery . When he left Persia, he left his brother, Robert, behind with fourteen Englishmen who lived in Persia for years. Having married Teresia, aCircassia n lady, he stayed in Persia until 1608 when Shah Abbas sent him on a diplomatic errand to James I and to other European princes. He was employed, as his brother had been, asambassador to several princes ofChristendom , for the purpose of uniting them in a confederacy against theOttoman Empire .He went first to
Poland , where he was entertained bySigismund III Vasa . In June of that year he was inGermany , and received from the Emperor Rudolph II the title ofEarl (count palatine ) and knight of theRoman Empire .Pope Paul V also conferred upon him the title of Earl. From Germany Sir Robert went toFlorence and from thence toRome , where he entered, attended by a suite of eighteen persons, on Sunday,27 September ,1609 . He next visitedMilan , and then proceeded toGenoa , whence he embarked toSpain , arriving inBarcelona in December 1609. He sent for his Persian wife and they remained in Spain, principally atMadrid , until the summer of 1611.In 1613 he returned to Persia, but in 1615 he came back to Europe and lived for some years in Madrid. In a pleasingly serendipitous meeting Shirley's caravan came across that of Thomas Coryate, the eccentric traveller and travel writer (and attendant of Prince Henry's court in London) in the Persian desert in 1615. Shirley's third journey to Persia was undertaken in 1627, but soon after reaching the country he died at
Qazvin .There are several double portraits of Shirley and his wife in English collections, including the private collection of R.J.Berkeley and of
Petworth House .ee also
*
Safavid dynasty
*Military history of Iran References
*1911
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