Sir David Foulis (died 1642) was a Scottish diplomat and politician.
Life Foulis was the third son of James Foulis of Colinton, by Agnes Heriot of Lumphoy, and great-grandson of Sir James Foulis of Colinton (d. 1549). His brothers were James Foulis of Colinton, and George Foulis (goldsmith and Master of the Mint (1569–1633)). His sister, Margaret, married lawyer and king's advocate Thomas Hamilton in 1597. Goldsmith Thomas Foulis was his uncle.James Dennistoun, Moysie's Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1830), p. xxiv.
The family lived in Old Colinton House (later called Woodhall). Agnes Heriot, his mother, died on 8 August 1593 and is buried in the floor of Colinton Parish Church.J. Calder Ross and P. C. Robertson, "Colinton Churchyard", Scottish Notes and Queries (August 1890), Agnes appears to have been a sister or relative of George Heriot a notable Edinburgh merchant and goldsmith.Joseph Foster, Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire, 2 (London, 1874).
From 1594 onward, David Foulis was actively engaged in politics, and many of his letters are published and calendared in the Calendar of Scottish State Papers edited by John Duncan Mackie in 1969.
Essex and a diamond ring Foulis was often in London and concerned with the receipt of an annuity or subsidy from Queen Elizabeth.Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1593–1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 627. He made friends with Anthony Bacon, a client of the Earl of Essex.Alexander Courtney, The Secret Correspondence of James VI, 1601-3, Susan Doran and Paulina Kewes, Doubtful and dangerous: The question of the succession in late Elizabethan England (Manchester, 2014), p. 136.Paul Hammer, The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics, The Political Career of the Earl of Essex (Cambridge, 1999), p. 168. In his letters, he referred to Essex as "Plato."Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), pp. 163, 178, 183.
On 1 July 1594, he received £4,000 sterling for James VI.Paul Hammer, The Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics: The Political Career of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 168–169, 411: Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1593–1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 471: Joseph Bain, Calendar of Border Papers (Edinburgh, 1894), p. 550: HMC 3rd Report: De L'Isle and Dudley (London, 1872), p. 229 (as David "Forbes"). His uncle, the goldsmith and royal financier Thomas Foulis, made an account of the spending of this money for James VI, along with the tax money on his gold mines, money coined at the royal mint by Thomas Acheson, and £680 Scots received from the Secretary, Richard Cockburn of Clerkington in December 1594, with another £3,000 received by David Foulis at London in August 1595.Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, "KIng James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts, 1588–1596", Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, XVI (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2020), pp. 74–86: William Murdin, Collection of State Papers (London, 1759), p. 807. Foulis himself received £1000 (Scots) from the subsidy for the expenses of this journey to London.Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, "King James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts", Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, XVI (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2020), p. 79.
Foulis wrote to Anthony Bacon about the arrival in July and August 1594 of the ambassadors for the baptism of Prince Henry. Foulis (and the English ambassador Robert Bowes) heard of discussions that Anna of Denmark's sister Augusta might marry Count Maurice.Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), p. 184: Annie I. Cameron, Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 404.
Foulis was a success at both courts, and James VI wrote to Elizabeth I on 26 July 1594 thanking her for "the kind and loving speeches it pleased you to use to my servant Foulis, the bearer of my last [letter]; for surely I cannot yet weary to hear him oft repeat your kind and loving speeches of me".James Halliwell-Phillipps, Letters of the Kings of England, 2 (London, Colburn, 1846), pp. 90.
After the baptism at Stirling Castle, Foulis went to the north of Scotland with James VI. He wrote to Essex that the king had pawned his jewels for £2,000 sterling to fund this military mission, and declared that no house where the Catholic Mass has been said would remain standing.Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), p. 186. In a letter to Anthony Bacon, Foulis reported on demolition works at Huntly Castle while the Countess of Huntly looked on, and destruction at Slains.Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), p. 192.
On 8 July 1595, at Falkland Palace James VI gave him a diamond ring worth 200 crowns to give to someone in London, probably the Earl of Essex.Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, "King James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts, 1588–1596", Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, XVI (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2020), pp. 76, 88. His mission was to ask for money for James VI and financial assistance for his brother, Thomas Foulis. He was also to discuss the affairs of the west border and the border warden Walter Scott of Buccleuch, and congratulate the Queen on the Earl of Essex.Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1593–1595, vol. 11 (Edinburgh, 1936), pp. 634–635: HMC 3rd Report: De L'Isle and Dudley (London, 1872), p. 229 (as David "Forbes").
On his return to Scotland, on 27 September at Falkland, Foulis wrote a letter in French to the Earl of Essex, assuring him that James VI had a good opinion of Elizabeth. He had not given the earl's letter to the Chancellor, John Maitland of Thirlestane, who was ill. Foulis thought the Chancellor would recover, and form a firm alliance with the Earl of Mar and abandon the cause of William Ker of Cessford and Buccleuch, who had lost the support of Anne of Denmark. She was now in accord with her husband, who was dissatisfied with the amount of English money Foulis had received in London (only £2,000). Unfortunately for Foulis's scheme, Maitland did not recover to cement these alliances, but died at Thirlestane Castle on 3 October.Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), p. 299.
Kinmont Willie Foulis was sent to London in March 1596 with the king's letters and news of foreign Catholics in Scotland.Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1595–1597, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), pp. 148, 158. He was given 100 crowns and a promise of a monthly allowance of 60 crowns.Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, "James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts, 1588–1596", Scottish History Society Miscellany XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), pp. 89–90. James VI received an anonymous letter criticising Foulis's abilities, and suggesting William Cecil and the Earl of Essex were working together against the king's interest.Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1595–1597, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), p. 161. This year, Elizabeth delayed giving money to Foulis for James VI because of the offence caused by Walter Scott of Buccleuch who had rescued Kinmont Willie from Carlisle Castle.M. S. Giuseppi, Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), p. 253 no. 212. On 8 July 1596 Walter Stewart of Blantyre wrote to Foulis that he should return if Elizabeth's attitude did not improve.Thomas Birch, Memorials of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 2 (London, 1754), pp. 44-5.
Foulis wrote to James VI on 20 July that his discussion were going well with the queen, and he used a figure of speech drawn from tennis, "I praise God the ball is yet aloft and I hope shalbe kept at the stotte."HMC 6th Report: Moray (London, 1877), p. 668: Cited, 'Stot, Stotte', Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700) An exchange of letters with Robert Cecil on the followings days suggests his mission was stalled, as he had said that James would not write to Elizabeth.Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 2 (London, 1754), pp. 73–44.
At the end of July, James VI wrote an order for Foulis to reimburse an English diplomat George Nicolson £300 Sterling for a sum given to John Colville. Foulis was instructed to pay from the subsidy money which he was still waiting for.Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, "King James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts", Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, XVI (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2020), p. 91.
James wrote to Foulis to continue asking for the money, pointed to agreements made in 1588 and a promise made by the ambassador William Asheby. James Hudson wrote to Robert Cecil about the king's letter, saying that Foulis was "perplexed with fear" about the outcome. Hudson suggested that Scotland's exchequer was now solvent, and withholding the money would only hurt the king and Thomas Foulis and Robert Jousie who administered the money. Roger Aston later noted that Thomas Foulis and Jousie had persuaded James VI not to recall Foulis before he obtain the subsidy money. David Foulis received £3,000 on 18 September.Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), p. 146; vol. 2, p. 184. In October David Foulis was ready to leave London with seven trunks, three with goods for the Scottish royal household, and some packs and hampers of broad cloth, kerseys, and silks.Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1595–1597, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1952), pp. 251, 253, 256, 278–9, 334–5.
Succession tracts The English diplomat George Nicholson reported in February 1598 that Foulis had directed the printer Robert Waldegrave to publish a Latin succession tract written by Walter Quinn, a tutor to Prince Henry and corrected by a Flemish resident in Edinburgh, Adrian Damman. Such works argued that James VI should be Elizabeth's successor. Waldegrave was reluctant to print it. No copies of this work are known to have survived.John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1597–1603, 13:1 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 167. It has also been suggested that Foulis smuggled manuscripts of succession tracts by Peter Wentworth from England to be printed in Edinburgh.Nicholas Tyacke, 'Puritan Politicians and King James VI and I', Thomas Cogswell, Richard Cust, Peter Lake, Politics, Religion and Popularity in Early Stuart Britain: Essays in Honour of Conrad Russell (Cambridge, 2002), p. 35. This work was A Pithie Exhortation to her Majesty for Establishing a Successor to the Crown, printed by Waldegrave in 1598.Tara L. Lyons, 'Male Birth Fantasies and Maternal Monarchs', in Helen Ostovich, Holger Schott Syme, Andrew Griffin, Locating the Queen's Men, 1583–1603 (Ashgate, 2009), pp. 196, 259.
Valentine Thomas and the king's honour