Edward Herbert of Cherbury

Armed Forces Personnel

  • Born: March 3, 1583
  • Birthplace: Eyton-on-Severn, Shropshire, England
  • Died: August 20, 1648
  • Place of death: London, England

Biography

The brother of famed Metaphysical and devotional poet George Herbert, Edward Herbert was himself known as a poet, philosopher, soldier, diplomat, and historian. Also known as Lord Herbert of Cherbury and Baron Herbert of Castle Island, Herbert was born on March 3, 1583, at Eyton-on-Severn, Shropshire, England. He was the eldest of the ten children of Magdalen Newport and Richard Herbert, of Montgomery Castle. After being educated by a private tutor, Herbert matriculated in 1596 at University College, Oxford, at the age of thirteen.

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After marrying his cousin, Mary Herbert, on February 28, 1599, Herbert relocated to London, where he established a friendship with Metaphysical poet John Donne that lasted until the latter’s death in 1631. Herbert continued his studies until 1603, at which time he received the Order of the Bath from King James I, becoming the sheriff of Montgomeryshire in 1605. In 1608, Herbert left his wife and four children in England while he traveled throughout Europe; his first known poem is “Parted Souls” (1608), apparently written at the forlorn prospect of his separation from his wife.

Herbert was back in London within a year, but would continue to travel extensively throughout France and Italy. In 1610, he served in the English Army in Holland, returning in 1614 to aid in another military action; from Holland, he traveled to Italy for two years. His pro-Protestant, anti-Catholic military service indicated as well the general trend of his philosophical and religious thought. In 1619, Herbert was appointed ambassador to Paris for five years; he received peerages in Ireland and England for his political services.

Although suited in many ways for the aristocratic life of an English courtier, Herbert was continually drawn to a life of study and writing. In 1624, he published his first major work, De veritate provt distingvitvr a revelatione, a verisimili, a possibili, et a falso, and thereafter devoted himself to writing. De veritate was a philosophical work designed to show the adequacy of reason in apprehending necessary truths regarding God and our religious duties. Herbert turned away from revealed religion in his writing, gaining the sobriquet “the father of English Deism”; in this respect Herbert’s thinking was strikingly different from that of John Donne and that of his brother, George Herbert, both of whom became explicitly Christian in their writings. Two of Herbert’s later works were added to De veritate in its third edition, published in 1645. After Herbert’s death another religious work, De religione gentilium errorumque apud eos causis (1663, on the religion of the gentiles), was published, along with some collected poetry (1665). In his later work, Herbert rejected many Christian doctrines, including the resurrection of the body, in his poem “October 14, 1644,” written after he had returned to London in ill health.

Other of Herbert’s posthumous works include a history of King Henry VIII (1649) and Herbert’s own autobiography (not published until 1764). His autobiography ends at the year 1624, twenty-four years before Herbert’s death in London in August, 1648.