[1] According to Sullivan, the connections Robert Constable acquired through his marriage 'opened up a career of military service and public office'.

[6] Henry Constable matriculated as a fellow commoner at St John's College, Cambridge at Easter 1578, and took his BA on 29 January 1580.

[11] Constable was probably at the English court during 1588–9, as he is recorded as having attended the funeral of his kinsman, John Manners, 4th Earl of Rutland, in March 1588, and as having been in contact with Arabella Stuart in 1589.

[12] He was sent to Edinburgh in 1589 on the occasion of King James VI's marriage, and by this time was a member of the circle of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.

About this time he is credited with having written the anonymous tract Examen pacifique de la doctrine des Huguenots, published in September 1589, in which, according to Sullivan, he wrote as a Roman Catholic urging his countrymen to support Henri IV, who had just been crowned King.

At some time between his arrival in France and the death of his father on 12 November 1591 Constable openly embraced Roman Catholicism.

[19] On James's accession Constable hoped to return to England, and wrote first to friends in Scotland for support, and on 11 June 1603, to his kinsman, Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland, and to Sir Robert Cecil.

By December of that year he was back at court, and was granted a warrant on 8 February 1604 by which he obtained possession of his inherited lands.

[20] However his continued pursuit of plans to influence King James towards toleration of Catholics resulted in his imprisonment in the Tower, where he remained from 14 April to 9 July 1604.

[21] The Venetian ambassador Nicolò Molin heard that Constable had written letters to the Papal nuncio or envoy in Paris, which were intercepted, leading to his arrest.

He returned to Paris, and on 27 November 1611 rumours of his death were passed on by John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton: 'Sir William Bowes is lately dead, and we hear that Harry Constable hath taken the same way in Fraunce'.

[31] The Todd manuscript contains additional love sonnets by Constable, and Harleian MS 7553 contains seventeen 'Spirituall sonnettes, to the honour of God: and hys saintes'.