Sir Richard Fanshawe, 1st Baronet

Sir Richard Fanshawe, 1st Baronet, PC (June 1608 – 16 June 1666) was an English poet and translator. He was a diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1661 to 1666. During the English Civil War he supported the Royalist cause and served Charles II of England in battle and in exile.

Early life Fanshawe was the fourth and youngest son of Sir Henry Fanshawe, of Ware Park, Hertfordshire and his wife Elizabeth Smythe, daughter of Thomas Smythe, of Ostenhanger Kent and was baptised at Ware on 12 June 1608. His father, who was Remembrancer of the Exchequer, died in 1616.

Fanshawe was admitted at Jesus College, Cambridge in November 1623 and was admitted to Inner Temple on 22 January 1626. He travelled on the Continent, and in 1635 was Secretary to the Embassy at the Court of Spain. In 1638, he was Chargé d'Affaires there. From 1662 to 1666, he was Ambassador to Portugal and from 1664 to 1666 was also ambassador to Spain.

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

Works Fanshawe 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).

Family Fanshawe married at Wolvercot, Oxfordshire on 18 May 1644, his second cousin Anne Harrison daughter of Sir John Harrison, of Ball's Park, Ware and Margaret Fanshawe, daughter of Robert Fanshawe of Fanshawe Gate in Holmesfield, Derbyshire. His wife, described as "devoted and able", wrote memoirs of her own life. They had fourteen children, but only five reached adulthood. The baronetcy became extinct on the death of their son Richard.

His brother Thomas was created Viscount Fanshawe.