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Francis Fowler II, English Secretary of the Spanish Embassy, 1609–1619

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

Albert J. Loomie
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Extract

‘In this embassy’, Antonio Foscarini reported to the Doge in Venice in 1611 from London, ‘there has always been an Englishman as interpreter, a Catholic, who has regularly attended the church without anyone hindering him. The same goes on in the French and Spanish embassies, to his Majesty's entire satisfaction.’ Little is known about this type of employment, aside from James's atypical toleration of an Englishman's public non-conformity. It can be of interest to see what sort of Englishman could be selected by a foreign power to serve in its embassy in seventeenth-century London. There can be more curiosity to learn what type of work he could in fact be called upon to do. Fortunately, sufficient evidence has survived in the case of at least one Englishman of clear recusant connections, Francis Fowler II, to make an attempt. Curiously, in preparing this study an unexpected problem emerged in the discovery of another Englishman of an identical name who lived in Madrid with some of the same duties to perform. This surprising career of a Francis Fowler I is also described here. From this pair of biographies it is hoped that fresh clues have been found about the family of the distinguished printer of early recusant books, John Fowler.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 1973 , pp. 70 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973 

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References

Notes

1 Calendar of State Papers Venetian, 1610-13, p. 222, Foscarini to Doge, 6 October 1611.

2 Duque, de Alba, ed. Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de España, vol. 1, pp. 171–2, Gondomar to Philip HI, London, 30 December 1617.Google Scholar

3 Liber Ruber, C.R.S. 37, p. 87.

4 Letters of William Allen and Richard Barret, 1572–98, C.R.S. 58, pp. 267, 269-70.Google Scholar

5 Foley, , Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, vol. 6, p. 44.Google Scholar

6 Letter cited in note 2.

7 Public Record Office, S.P. 94/14/36 ‘A noate of severall dispatches from Sir Charles Cornwallis’.

8 H.M.C. Salisbury MSS., vol. 19, pp. 50,Google Scholar 511-12, Bindon to Salisbury, 20 February 1607.

9 Winwood, , Memorials, vol. 2, pp. 368–9,Google Scholar Cornwallis to Salisbury, Madrid, 10-20 January 1607-08.

10 H.M.C. Salisbury MSS., vol. 20, pp. 21–22,Google Scholar Cornwallis to Salisbury, Madrid, 18 January 1608.

11 Memorandum of 20 August 1608. Harris, P. R., ‘The Reports of William Udall, Informer, 1605-12’, Recusant History 8 (1966), p. 237.Google Scholar (Francis, not John, was on the embassy staff.)

12 Willaert, L., ‘Negotiations Politico-Religieuses entre l'Angleterre et les Pays-bas Catholiques, Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique 8 (1907), p. 81.Google Scholar

13 Archivo General de Simancas, Estado 2587/89, Velasco to Philip III, London, 14 June 1610. This salary was equal to £5 per month. Taylor had first received 500 escudos at the request of the Constable of Castile. Because of his skill in assisting in the release of a Spanish troop convoy delayed at Dover it was increased to 700 escudos (Estado 2571/167, Philip III to Zúñiga, Madrid, 27 March 1606).

14 The following payments have been traced for Francis Fowler: ‘Mils reales’, Accounts of Velasco, 29 April 1611. The real was exchanged at 6d. (Estado 2588/31). ‘4 mil reales’, Accounts of Gondomar, 31 December 1617 (Documentos Inéditos, vol. 1, p. 191, with an additional ayuda de costa of 1475 reales: ‘for the great trust that has been placed in him’). ‘2400 reales’, Accounts of Gondomar, 1 July 1619 (Ibid,, vol. 2, p. 185).

15 Documentos Inéditos, vol. 3, pp. 144–56Google Scholar, Sarmiento to Philip, London, 16 November 1613 (Original in Estado 2590/8 y 10).

16 Estado 2591/43: Certificación de lo que passo el Licenciado Francisco Fuller con el Condede Somerset sobre las cosas del Duque de Saboya en 13 de Deziembre de 1614’.

17 Estado 2595/36, Sarmiento to Philip with enclosure, London, 20 January 1616.

18 Letter cited note 2.

19 Estado 2572/322, consulta of Council of State, undated; Estado 2572/333, Philip III to Gondomar, Madrid, 15 July 1618. (The embassypaid 4687 reates to settle his debts, DocumentoInéditos, vol. 2, p, 185.)

20 Madrid, Real Academia de Historia, Salazar MSS. 9/84, Countess of Bruay to Gondomar, Brussels, 7 October 1618.

21 Documentos Inéditos vol. 2, p. 185.Google Scholar

22 Biblioteca del Palacio Oriente, Manuscritos, vol. 2108 n. fol. Accounts of Gondomar of 31 December 1623.

23 See ‘Richard Berry: Gondomar's English Catholic Adviser’, Recusant History, vol. 11 (1970), pp. 54 ff.Google Scholar

24 ‘el y Juan Fuler su hermano han seruido...’ is a statement of general loyalty not employment since he used the same verb to describe his unsalaried attendance at the Spanish court below.

25 Estado 2742, n. fol., original consulta of 5 May 1605.

26 Knox, T. F., Letters and Memorials of Cardinal Allen, p. 216.Google Scholar

27 Public Record Office, S.P. 94/13/102, Fitzherbert to Fowler, Rome, 16 October 1606.

28 Winwood, , Memorials, vol. 2, p. 369,Google Scholar Cornwallis to Salisbury, 10-20 January 1607-08. The career of Robert Taylor is described in ‘Sir Robert Cecil and the Spanish Embassy’, Bulletinof the Institute of Historical Research, vol. 42 (1969), pp. 36 ff.Google Scholar

29 H.M.C. Salisbury MSS., vol. 20, pp. 21–22.Google Scholar

30 Winwood, , Memorials, vol. 3, p. 37,Google Scholar Cornwallis to Privy Council, Valladolid, 10-20 May 1609.

31 Harris, P. R., art. cit. Recusant History 8 (1966), p. 220,Google Scholar 254; H.M.C. Salisbury MSS., vol. 18, p. 94.Google Scholar

32 Southern, A. C., Elizabethan Recusant Prose, 1559-82, pp. 342–4.Google Scholar The editor of the chronicle of the Convent of Gravelines indicated a ‘near relative’ (possibly a daughter?) of the printer, Margaret Fowler, Sr Clare of St John, 1574-1656, C.R.S., vol. 14, p. 32.