Robert Shirley

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For the AFL player, see Robert Shirley (footballer)

Sir Robert Shirley (c. 1581 – July 13, 1628) was an English traveller and adventurer, younger brother of Sir Anthony Shirley.

He went with his brother to Persia in 1598. Anthony was in Persia from December 1, 1599 to May 1600. He was given 5,000 horses to train the Persian army according to the rules and customs of the English militia. He was also commanded to reform and retrain the artillery. When he left Persia, he left his brother, Robert, behind with fourteen Englishmen who lived in Persia for years. Having married a Circassian lady he stayed in Persia until 1608 when the Shah sent him on a diplomatic errand to James I and to other European princes. He was employed, as his brother had been, as ambassador to several princes of Christendom, for the purpose of uniting them in a confederacy against the Turks.

He went first to Poland, where he was entertained by Sigismund III Vasa. In June of that year he was in Germany, and received from the Emperor Rudolph II the title of Earl (count palatine) and knight of the Roman Empire. Pope Paul V also conferred upon him the title of Earl. From Germany Sir Robert went to Florence and from thence to Rome, where he entered, attended by a suite of eighteen persons, on Sunday, 27 September 1609. He next visited Milan, and then proceeded to Genoa, from whence he embarked to Spain, arriving in Barcelona in December 1609. He sent for his Persian wife and they remained in Spain, principally at Madrid, until the summer of 1611.

In 1613 he returned to Persia, but in 1615 he came back to Europe and lived for some years in Madrid. His third journey to Persia was undertaken in 1627, but soon after reaching the country he died at Qazvin.

His elder brother Sir Thomas was also a noted adventurer.