Robert Corbet (1542–1583) was an English landowner, diplomat and politician of the Elizabethan period, a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Shropshire, his native county.
Background and education
Robert Corbet was the eldest son of
Sir Andrew Corbet of Moreton Corbet, Shropshire.The Corbets had a history as Marcher lords in Shropshire stretching back to the Norman conquest and were the leading landed gentry family in the county, although they were never ennobled. Their seat was at Moreton Corbet Castle, although they had very large property holdings across Shropshire and in many other parts of the country. Jane Needham the daughter of Sir Robert Needham of Shavington Hall, Shropshire. The Needhams were another important Shropshire gentry family and close neighbours of the Corbets.
Sir Andrew was to emerge in the 1560s as a pillar of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. He was a member for a quarter of a century of the Council in the Marches of Wales, of which he became vice-president and effective leader in his last years. However, when Robert was born he was still a youth of about nineteen, not yet a knight. Like his father, Roger Corbet, Andrew underwent a prolonged wardship although he was fortunate that the wardship was purchased by his uncle Richard Corbet. Richard was responsible for arranging his marriage to Jane Needham and it is likely that they had been married for only a very short time before the conception of their first child. Robert was born more than a year before Andrew could take livery of his estates. He was one of at least eleven children of the marriage, including six sons. Robert had been a favourite name for Corbet heirs for centuries but had been demoted in recent generations. Elizabeth Corbet, née Vernon, Robert's great-grandmother, who survived until 1563, may have had a decisive say in the choice of name.
Augusta Corbet, the family historian, maintains that Robert Corbet was educated at Shrewsbury School and cites a known payment of 3 shillings and ninepence by Sir Andrew to the school for his three sons. While plausible, there is no other evidence. The Corbet family did have a close association with the school: Reginald Corbet, Robert's great-uncle and recorder of Shrewsbury played an important part in getting permission to establish it in 1548. However, if Robert did get his schooling at Shrewsbury, it would have been in the very early days, as the school was opened only in 1552. From the outset, it had a distinctly Calvinist ethos, and under Thomas Ashton, its head appointed in 1561, it developed a reputation as a centre for humanistic learning and drama. It is quite possibly where Corbet developed an international outlook and facility for languages that would be useful in his later career.
Political and diplomatic career
Member of Parliament for Shropshire
Many Corbet's had been knights of the shire for Shropshire over the centuries and it was to replace one of them that Robert Corbet became a member of parliament in 1566. The parliament had been called as long before as November 1562 and assembled in January 1563. It showed much concern with the succession question and the queen prorogued it, only recalling it in 1566 to seek a financial bail-out.
Richard Corbet, brother of Reginald and a great-uncle of Robert Corbet, had been duly elected in 1562 but died in July 1566. The young Robert was slotted into his uncle's place and held the seat until the parliament was dissolved in January 1567. He was listed as "junior" in the parliamentary record to distinguish him from his uncle Robert of Stanwardine, near Baschurch. Shropshire's second MP was Edward Leighton (died 1593), an older and more experienced man and a close colleague of Sir Andrew in the military organisation of the county and the Council in the Marches, and he was a member of the committee investigating the succession question, which continued to preoccupy parliament. However, Leighton was granted leave of absence on 16 November, leaving Robert Corbet as the county's sole representative for the closing stages of the parliament.
Travels
During the 1570s Robert Corbet travelled widely in mainland Europe, sometimes in company with Philip Sidney, an alumnus of Shrewsbury School whose father, Sir Henry Sidney, was president of the Council in the Marches and a close friend of Sir Andrew Corbet, who was formally recognised as his deputy in 1574.
On 15 April 1574 Sidney, residing in Venice, recommended Corbet in a letter to Hubert Languet, a Huguenot who acted as diplomatic representative of Augustus, Elector of Saxony and who was at that time at the court of Maximilian II, the Holy Roman Emperor in Vienna: