Giles Fletcher

Giles Fletcher, The History of Russia titlepage, 2nd Ed.

Giles Fletcher, the Elder ( – 1611) was an English poet and diplomat, and a member of the English Parliament.

He is best known for his sonnet Licia. He is the father of the poet Giles Fletcher, the Younger and the son of Richard Fletcher, vicar of Bishop's Stortford.

Biography Fletcher was born in Watford, Hertfordshire. He spent his early life at Cranbrook in Kent before entering Eton College in about 1561. From there, Fletcher continued his education at King's College, Cambridge, where he was appointed a fellow in 1568 and gained his Bachelor of Arts in the academic year 1569–1570. In 1588, he was an ambassador to Russia to reestablish the treaty with Tsar Feodor I of Russia, but failed. Fletcher published a treatise, Of the Russe Common Wealth (1591). The treaty to be reestablished was primarily concerning the English trade, but before he departed Queen Elizabeth made him a Master of Requests. Fletcher's account gives a vivid description of the Russian world pre-1600.