Sir Dudley, was born in Oxfordshire in 1573, and educated at Christ Church College, Oxford. He went in a diplomatic capacity to the Low Countries when King James resigned the cautionary towns to the States; and he was afterwards employed for twenty-nine years as ambassador to Venice, Savoy, and the United Provinces. Charles I. created him Viscount Dorchester, and appointed him one of his principal secretaries of state, an office which he held till his death in 1651. He published several works, consisting chiefly of speeches, letters, and other productions on political subjects. The most valuable was published after his death, and consist of a selection of letters to and from Sir Dudley Carleton during his embassy to Holland, from January 1616 to December 1620, 4to, 1757.