Sir Henry Wotton

Sir Henry Wotton (; 30 March 1568 – December 1639) was an English author, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1614 and 1625. When on a mission to Augsburg in 1604, he famously said "An ambassador is an honest gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country".

The son of Thomas Wotton (1521–1587) and his second wife, Elionora Finch, Henry was the youngest brother of Edward Wotton, and grandnephew of the diplomat Nicholas and Margaret Wotton. Henry was born at Bocton Hall in the parish of Bocton or Boughton Malherbe, Kent. He was educated at Winchester College and at New College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 5 June 1584, alongside John Hoskins. Two years later, he moved to Queen's College, graduating in 1588.

At Oxford, he was the friend of Alberico Gentili, then professor of Civil Law, and of John Donne. During his residence at Queen's, he wrote a play, Tancredo, which has not survived, but his chief interests appear to have been scientific. In qualifying for his M.A. degree he read three lectures De oculo, and to the end of his life, he continued to interest himself in physical experiments.