n, the reputation of his parts was so great,
that he was made choice of to be sent into Spain, to recover of the
Spanish monarch a rich English ship, seized by the Viceroy of Sardinia
for his master's use, upon some pretence of prohibited goods being
found in it.

During his absence, he was elected Fellow of Jesus College, 1623, and
upon his return, was patronized by Emanuel, lord Scroop, Lord
President of the North, and by him was made his secretary[2]. As he
resided in York, he was, by the Mayor and Aldermen of Richmond, chose
a Burgess for their Corporation to sit in that Parliament, that began
at Westminster in the year 1627. Four years after, he went secretary
to Robert, earl of Leicester, ambassador extraordinary from England to
the King of Denmark, before whom he made several Latin speeches,
shewing the occasion of their embassy, viz. to condole the death of
Sophia, Queen Dowager of Denmark, Grandmother to Charles I. King of
England.

Our author enjoyed many beneficial employments, and at length, about
the beginning of the civil war, was made one of the clerks of the
council, but being extravagant in his temper, all the money he got was
not sufficient to preserve him from a Jail. When the King was forced
from the Parliament, and the Royal interest declined, Howel was
arrested; by order of a certain committee, who owed him no good-will,
and carried prisoner to the Fleet; and having now nothing to depend
upon but his wits, he was obliged to write and translate books for a
livelihood, which brought him in, says Wood, a comfortable
subsistance, during his stay there; he is the first person we have met
with, in the course of this work, who may be said to have made a trade
of authorship, having written no less than 49 books on different
subjects.

In the time of the rebellion, we find Howel tampering with the
prevailing power, and ready to have embraced their measures; for which
reason, at the reiteration, he was not contin[u]ed in his place of
clerk to the council, but was only made king's historiographer, being
the first in England, says Wood, who bore that title; and having no
very beneficial employment, he wrote books to the last.

He had a great knowledge in modern histories, especially in those of
the countries in which he had travelled, and he seems, by his letters,
to have been no contemptible politician: As to his poetry, it is
smoother, and more harmonious, than was very common with the bards of
his tim