Richard Fanshawe

Sir Richard Fanshawe, 1st Baronet (June 1608 – 16 June 1666) was an English diplomat, translator, and poet.

He was born in Ware Park, Hertfordshire, and educated at Jesus College, Cambridge. He travelled on the Continent, and when the English Civil War broke out sided with the King and was sent to Spain to obtain money for the cause. He acted as Latin Secretary to Charles II, when in Holland. He was a royalist in the English Civil War, and was captured at the Battle of Worcester.

After the Restoration he held various appointments, and was Ambassador to Portugal and then to Spain successively. He served as Member of Parliament for Cambridge University from 1661 until his death in Madrid.

He translated Giovanni Battista Guarini's Il pastor fido, Selected Parts of Horace, and The Lusiad of Camoens, the first English translation of the latter work (circulated from 1655 or earlier).

His wife, nee Anne Harrison, wrote memoirs of her own life.

A portrait of Richard Fanshawe is on display with other portraits of the family at Valence House Museum in east London.