Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury (1583 - 1648). Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury KB was an Anglo-Welsh soldier, diplomat, historian, poet and religious philosopher of the Kingdom of England. Edward Herbert was the eldest son of Richard Herbert of Montgomery Castle and of Magdalen, daughter of Sir Richard Newport, and brother of the poet George Herbert. He was born within England at Eyton-on-Severn near Wroxeter, Shropshire. After private tuition, he matriculated at University College, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner, in May 1596. On 28 February 1599, at the age of 14, he married his cousin Mary, then aged 21, who was daughter and heiress of Sir William Herbert. He returned to Oxford with his wife and mother, continued his studies, and learned French, Italian and Spanish, as well as music, riding and fencing. During this period, before he was 21, he started a family. Herbert entered Parliament as knight of the shire for Montgomeryshire in 1601. On the accession of King James I he presented himself at court and was created a Knight of the Bath on 24 July 1603. From 1604 to 1611 he was Member of Parliament for Merioneth. From 1605 he was magistrate and appointed sheriff of Montgomeryshire for 1605. In 1608, Edward Herbert went to Paris, with Aurelian Townshend, enjoying the friendship and hospitality of the old Constable de Montmorency at Merlou and meeting King Henry IV; he lodged for many months with Isaac Casaubon. On his return, as he wrote of himself, he was in great esteem both in court and city, many of the greatest desiring my company. At this period he was close to both Ben Jonson and John Donne, and in Jonson's Epicoene, or the Silent Woman Herbert is probably alluded to. Both Donne and Jonson honoured him in poetry. In December 1609 he fought with a Scottish usher at Greenwich Palace who had snatched a ribbon from Mary Middlemore's hair, and if the Privy Council had not been prevented it, would have fought a duel in Hyde Park. In 1610 Herbert served as a volunteer in the Low Countries under the Prince of Orange, whose intimate friend he became, and distinguished himself at the capture of Juliers from the emperor. He offered to decide the war by engaging in single combat with a champion chosen from among the enemy, but his challenge was declined. Back in England in 1611 he survived an assault in London by Sir John Eyre who accused him of having an affair with his wife Dorothy Bulstrode. He paid a visit to Spinola, in the Spanish camp near Wezel, and afterwards to the elector palatine at Heidelberg, subsequently travelling in Italy. At the instance of the Duke of Savoy he led an expedition of 4,000 Huguenots from Languedoc into Piedmont to help the Savoyards against Spain, but after nearly losing his life in the journey to Lyon he was imprisoned on his arrival there, and the enterprise came to nothing. Thence he returned to the Netherlands and the Prince of Orange, arriving in England in 1617. In 1619, Herbert was made ambassador to Paris, taking in his entourage Thomas Carew. A quarrel with de Luynes and a challenge sent by him to the latter occasioned his recall in 1621. After the death of de Luynes, Herbert resumed his post in February 1622. He was popular at the French court and showed considerable diplomatic ability. His chief objects were to accomplish the marriage between Charles, Prince of Wales and Henrietta Maria, and to secure the assistance of Louis XIII for Frederick V, Elector Palatine. He failed in the latter, and was dismissed in April 1624. Herbert returned home greatly in debt and received little reward for his services beyond the Irish peerage of Baron Herbert of Castle Island on 31 May 1624 and the English barony of Herbert of Cherbury, or Chirbury, on 7 May 1629. In 1632, Herbert was appointed a member of the council of war. He attended the king at York in 1639, and in May 1642 was imprisoned by the parliament for urging the addition of the words without cause to the resolution that the king violated his oath by making war on parliament. He determined after this to take no further part in the struggle, retired to Montgomery Castle, and declined the king's summons, pleading ill-health. On 5 September 1644 he surrendered the castle, by negotiation, to the Parliamentary forces led by Sir Thomas Myddelton. He returned to London, submitted, and was granted a pension of E20 a week. In 1647 he paid a visit to Pierre Gassendi at Paris, and died in London the following summer, aged 65, being buried in the church of St Giles in the Fields. Lord Herbert left two sons, Richard, who succeeded him as 2nd Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and Edward. Richard's sons, Edward Herbert and Henry Herbert, each succeeded to the title, after which it became extinct.