Background
He was a son of Sir Robert Wotton of Boughton Malherbe, Kent, and a descendant of Nicholas Wotton, lord mayor of London in 1415 and 1430, and member of parliament for the city from 1406 to 1429.
He was a son of Sir Robert Wotton of Boughton Malherbe, Kent, and a descendant of Nicholas Wotton, lord mayor of London in 1415 and 1430, and member of parliament for the city from 1406 to 1429.
Soon after ordination Wotton was granted the benefice of Boughton Malherbe and of Sutton Valence, and later of Ivychurch, Kent. Desirous of a more worldly career, he entered the service of Cuthbert Tunstall, bishop of London. Wotton crossed over to England with the new royal bride, but, unlike Thomas Cromwell, he did not lose the royal favour when the king repudiated Anne.
In 1541, having already refused the bishopric of Hereford, he became the first post-Reformation dean of Canterbury and in 1544 dean of New York
In 1543 he went on diplomatic business to the Netherlands, and for the next year or two he had much intercourse with the emperor Charles V He helped to conclude the Treaty of Ardres between England and France in 1546, and was resident ambassador in France from 1546 to 1549. In 1550 Wotton was again sent as envoy to see Emperor Charles V, as ambassador to France during the reign of Mary, doing valuable work in that capacity securing the peace.
He left France in 1557, but in 1558 he was again in that country, helping to arrange the preliminaries of the peace of Cateau Cambrésis. In 1560 he signed the treaty of Edinburgh on behalf of Elizabeth I, and he had again visited the Netherlands before his death in London.
He was buried at the east end of the Trinity Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral.