Sir John Smythe ( – August 1607) was an English soldier, diplomat, and military writer.
Early life and education, –72
Smythe was born in Essex, around 1531, as the eldest son and heir of Sir Clement Smith (died 1552), a staunchly Catholic administrator of Rivenhall and Little Baddow in Essex, and his wife, Dorothy (née Seymour). Clement was ultimately descended from an Essex family of little importance, and was brought to prominence as an affinal relation of the Seymour family, specifically as the brother-in-law of queen consort Jane Seymour, though this advancement was impeded by his unwavering Catholicism in the face of the ongoing Reformation. This relation evidently gave John some status later in life, as Elizabeth I referred to him as "a gentleman of her family" on one occasion.
According to Anthony à Wood, Smythe attended Oxford, though Wood neglects to give Smythe's College or date of matriculation as "both his names are very common" in the university records. Smythe never took a degree at the university, but "laid the foundation of literature" during his education, as Wood puts it; in his later writings he is comfortable quoting classical authorities, such as the Greek historians Herodotus, Thucydides, and Diodorus Siculus, and the Roman authors Pliny the Elder and Plutarch, demonstrating some degree of conventional education. Smythe likely left this education after a short time, serving "armed in the field" against Kett's Rebellion and the Western Rising, both in 1549, while still a teenager.
Independence and European military career, 1552–1576
Smythe's father died on 26 August 1552, and Smythe came into his inheritance as his father's heir. Almost immediately, Smythe began to sell off portions of this inheritance to fund his life as self-sufficient member of the English gentry. Sometime in the 1550s, Smythe set off from England in voluntary exile in order to gain military experience in the Continent. He volunteered in France, the Low Countries, and Hungary; in Hungary he fought in the ongoing Ottoman–Habsburg wars against the Turks in 1566, for which he caught the attention of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian II. Smythe joined with a group of Protestant volunteers to fight alongside Philip II of Spain in the Mediterranean front of these wars.
Smythe returned to England in 1572, where he was greeted with a grant of the manor of Little Baddow and the advowson of the parish church. This service had apparently been effective in developing him into "as well a compleat soldier as [a] gentleman", according to Wood; he was "well versed in a variety of military techniques and practices" by the end of his service, Artemis Gause, writing for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, claims, as the experience "shaped his firm opinions [...] that became the trademark of his written works." Additionally, Smythe's association with a group of English and Welsh military gentlemen, assembled in opposition to the European Counter-Reformation, indicates that he had rejected his father's Catholicism during this military service. Gause writes that Smythe likely embraced Protestantism, "albeit cautiously", and "was certainly anti-clerical" by this point.
Spanish ambassador, 1576–77
Smythe was appointed Elizabeth I's special ambassador to Spain on 18 November 1576. Having served under Philip II, Smythe was familiar with Spanish customs and military tactics, fluent in Spanish, and was already well liked within the Spanish court. Smythe likely obtained the position because of these skills, and valuable the political backing of his cousin, Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford. This position afforded Smythe many privileges. As a result of this selection, he was knighted in 1576, and, on his voyage to Spain, took the opportunity to visit Henry III of France. He was paid £2 10s a day, approximately £600 in modern GBP.
Smythe was appointed at a critical time for Anglo-Spanish relations, during which he was to "make her Majestie privy to the whole state of Spayne", as he explained in a letter to William Cecil. With the English-backed Dutch Revolt in 1576, and a large Spanish force in the Low Countries poised to attack, Smythe was to pose himself as a mediator of relations between the two nations. Elizabeth saw Smythe's arbitration as an opportunity to maintain temporarily favourable relations with Spain, preventing war for the time being. Smythe was also tasked with protecting English merchants within Spain, and freeing English Protestants victimised by the Spanish Inquisition.