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

Abstract

‘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.

John Taylor (1597–1655), English Catholic Gentleman and Caroline Diplomat

“…His wife Mary was very likely the daughter of John Fowler, eminent printer of early recusant literature. 28 Robert became a professor of civil law at Douai and later served as secretary of English letters to the Spanish ambassadors in England, from 1603 until his death in 1609. As secretary, he participated in the most sensitive Anglo-Spanish negotiations of the day.…”

“…Anne (Taylor) Fowler was a well-known Catholic bookseller who plied her trade out of her home near the Inns of Court. 34 Several of Taylor's first cousins went on to careers in the Church. All three of Robert Taylor's sons had a religious vocation: Anthony, who studied at St. Omers and the English colleges in Madrid and Valladolid, died before he could realize his goal of becoming a priest; Thomas, who studied at St. Omers and the English College at Rome, was ordained in 1628 and died while doing missionary work in England; and the most illustrious, Henry, who was educated at St. Omers and the English College at Rome, became a resident agent for the Spanish Habsburgs in London, court chaplain in Brussels, and Dean of Antwerp Cathedral.…”