Bulwer, William Henry Lytton Earle, Baron Dalling and Bulwer [key], 1801–72, English diplomat and author; brother of the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He was known most of his life as Sir Henry Bulwer. Although he sat in Parliament for some years (1830–37, 1868–71), he was most prominent as a diplomat. As secretary of the embassy in Constantinople (1837–38) he secured a commercial treaty with Turkey. He was ambassador to Spain (1843–48) during the affair of the Spanish Marriages (see Isabella II) but was ordered to leave by the dictator Ramón Narváez, whom he offended. As minister to Washington (1849–52), he concluded the important Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850. Among his later diplomatic posts were Florence, Bucharest, and, again, Constantinople (1858–65). He was created a baron in 1871. His writings include An Autumn in Greece (1826), France: Social, Literary, and Political (1834–36), Historical Characters (1867), and biographies of Lord Byron (1835) and Viscount Palmerston (1870–74, unfinished).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: British and Irish History: Biographies