He went to Spain with Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder who was accredited as ambassador resident at Madrid in 1561, returning to England the same year with despatches.
[2] In 1570 Cobham was sent to Antwerp, ostensibly on a mission of courtesy, but really to ascertain the destination of the fleet which the Duke of Alva was then equipping.
He went on to Speyer, where he had audience of the Emperor (17 September), and went via Paris to Spain, accredited to Philip II as an envoy extraordinary.
He was instructed:[2] He was joined by Somers and Francis Walsingham in 1581, when the three ambassadors urged the substitution of a "league of amity" for the match.
[1] Cobham married Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Sutton of Nottinghamshire, widow of Walter Haddon by whom he had three sons.