Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, was the son of Sir John Temple the Elder (1600-1677), judge and historian, and his wife Mary Hammond. He married, in 1655, Dorothy Osborne (1627-1695) and they had nine children together, most of whom died in infancy. After leaving Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Temple travelled extensively throughout Europe and began to write essays and romances. After the Restoration of Charles II, he began his political career as an MP for Ireland. Subsequently, as special ambassador to the Prince of Munster, Temple played a key role in the negotiations of the Second Anglo-Dutch war of 1665, and was granted the residency of Brussels in 1665, followed by a baronetcy in 1666. He was made amabassador to the Netherlands in 1667, where he was partly responsible for arranging the marriage between William of Orange and Mary, daughter of James, Duke of York. He was later returned as MP for Cambridge University in 1679, and made ambassador-extraordinary to Spain in 1680. After the accession of William and Mary, Temple rejected the post of Secretary of State and returned home to Moor Park, Surrey, to focus on his writing, employing the young Jonathan Swift as his secretary. He is buried at Westminster Abbey but, according to family tradition, his heart was buried in a silver casket under the sundial in the rose garden at Moor Park.