Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hawkins, Nicholas
HAWKINS, NICHOLAS, LL.D. (d. 1534), bishop-designate of Ely, nephew and godson of Bishop West of Ely, was born at Putney, and was educated at Eton, whence he was elected scholar of King's College, Cambridge, in 1514. He became rector of Doddington in the Isle of Ely (19 Jan. 1518–1519), of East Dereham, Norfolk (1520), and Snailwell, Cambridgeshire (20 June 1526). He devoted himself to the study of civil and canon law, proceeded to the degree of LL.D., and was admitted an advocate 30 Nov. 1528. We learn from a letter of Chapuys that at one time he embraced the teaching of the reformers, and was thrown into prison for Lutheranism, but subsequently recanted and was compelled to ‘carry a fagot’ as a repentant heretic by his uncle the Bishop of Ely (Letters and State Papers of Hen. VIII, v. No. 1377). He was well rewarded for his compliance. He became a diplomatic servant of the crown, and it was when absent on a foreign mission that he was collated to the rich archdeaconry of Ely, to which he was admitted by proxy 9 Nov. 1527, resigning the rectory of Doddington. As archdeacon he attended the convocation of 1529. When Henry VIII was prosecuting his divorce with the pope and the emperor, Hawkins's reputation as an ecclesiastical lawyer and diplomatist led to his appointment in 1532 as resident ambassador at the imperial court in succession to Cranmer. He was sent with credentials to the Duke of Brunswick, the king of Hungary, and the Elector Palatine, October 1532, at a salary of 30s. a day, paid a year in advance (ib. v. 1372, 1380, 1388). Chapuys, writing to the emperor 1 Oct., gives a full account of his earlier life, and states that he had rendered eminent service to the king when he declared himself head of the church, and had written against the authority of the pope. Hawkins was instructed to procure opinions relative to the divorce, and was credited with possessing ample funds to prosecute his object (ib. 1377). A commission was also given him in common with Jerome (Ghinucci), bishop of Worcester, Dr. Cranmer, and others, to treat for a universal peace (ib. 1482). Hawkins landed at Calais 5 Oct., and reached Mantua 16 Nov., when he had an audience with Charles V, and his credentials were accepted. He employed himself in translating into Latin Henry's ‘Glass of Truth’ on the unlawfulness of marriage with a deceased brother's wife (ib. 1564). By Christmas eve he had reached Bologna, where Clement VII had come to confer with the emperor. Thence he wrote to the king that he had finished his translation, and requested him to send him his book ‘De Potestate Papæ.’ At the same time he complained to Cromwell that while the other ambassadors had silver plate he was compelled to eat off pewter. By 22 Feb. 1533 he had had an interview touching the divorce with the pope (ib. vol. vi. No. 177), who, in pursuit of his policy of delay, demanded fuller and more accurate information (ib. vol. vi. Nos. 206, 226). Hawkins followed the emperor to Spain, and being a ‘sorry seaman’ begged Henry not to insist on his going by water. Writing to Cranmer from Barcelona, 11 June, he complained of the lowness of his funds—‘he had only forty pieces left’—and craved for news of ‘his country, his relations, and his friends.’ Cranmer replied, 17 June, in the well-known letter, describing the promulgation of the sentence of divorce at Dunstable and Anne Boleyn's private marriage with Henry (Ellis, Original Letters, 1st ser. ii. 33; Cranmer, Remains, Parker Soc., ii. 244; Froude, History, i. 457). Cranmer also sent Hawkins a bill for four hundred ducats out of his ‘alonely benevolence.’ During the latter half of the year letters frequently passed between the king and Hawkins, who had removed from Barcelona to ‘Almunia’ in Arragon. Henry dictated what Hawkins was to say to the emperor in justification of the divorce, and instructed him to show the emperor an exemplified copy of the sentence. Hawkins was specially enjoined to contradict the report that his aunt Katherine and the Princess Mary were ill-treated (ib. Nos. 775, 838, 855, 903, 1053). In December Hawkins received his last letter from Cranmer, announcing the birth of Elizabeth (Cranmer, Remains, Parker Soc., ii. 272). Henry VIII designated Hawkins bishop of Ely late in 1533. But no formal election had taken place when the news arrived in England of Hawkins's death. He died of dysentery early in January 1533–4 ‘at a village named Balbase, in the realm of Arragon, two leagues from Mousa’ (Letters, &c., of Henry VIII, vii. No. 115, 2). According to his will, dated 29 Dec. 1533, as quoted by Bentham, he died ‘in civitate Barbatrensi,’ where he desired to be buried. Other authorities wrongly make Barcelona the place of his death. The emperor sent him medicines in his last illness. According to Chapuys, Anne Boleyn showed more grief at his death than the king, and suggested that he had been poisoned (ib. No. 171). According to Fuller (Hist. of Cambr. p. 152), Hawkins was ‘a person of such eminent charity that in a time of famine he sold all his plate and goods for the relief of the poor of Ely, being served in wooden dishes and earthen pots.’
[Bentham's Ely, pp. 189, 276; Blomefield's Norfolk, x. 209; Cal. State Papers, loc. cit.; Baker MSS. xxx. 116, 120; Cole MSS. i. 146, iv. 97, xiii. 160; Harl. MS. 7011, art. 35; Cranmer's Works (Parker Soc.), ii. 244, 272; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 48.]