Thomas Fowler (died 1590) was an English lawyer, diplomat, courtier, spy, servant of the Countess of Lennox, broker of the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley, steward of the Earl of Leicester, advisor to James VI of Scotland and the Scottish ambassador in London, Archibald Douglas.
The Fowler family in Scotland and England John Knox and the English diplomat Thomas Randolph wrote that Thomas Fowler was an Englishman.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 213 It is not known if Thomas was any relation of the Scottish poet and royal secretary William Fowler.Alessandra Petrina, Machiavelli in the British Isles (Ashgate, 2009), pp. 69, 84 (Petrina notes that Fowler was English): Conyers Read, Mr. Secretary Walsingham and the policy of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 2 (1925), p. 377 (makes Thomas the father of the poet)
The Fowler surname is found in the parish registers of Settrington, Margaret Douglas' Yorkshire manor, and Thomas may have been a member of an English family, or perhaps a Scottish family settled in England, attached to the Lennox household.Francis Collins, Register of the Parish of Settrington (Yorkshire Parish records Society, 1899): Further documents concerning these families are among the Sykes of Sledmere papers at the University of Hull. In 1562, Fowler, clerk of the Countess' kitchen, was noted with Laurence Nisbet, Francis Yaxley, and Hugh Allan, the schoolmaster, as a potential witness against the Countess. This Fowler had killed a stranger servant (meaning not English) in 1561.Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 5 (London, 1867), p. 15.
There were two other notable contemporary Thomas Fowlers in London; the "comptroller of the works" (paymaster of the royal works d. 1595),Howard Colvin, History of the King's Works, vol. 3 (HMSO, 1975), pp. 87–9. who married for his second wife a Margaret Johnson who has been mistakenly identified as the mother of the poet Ben Jonson;"Northumberland Street", in Survey of London, St Martin-in-the-Fields II: The Strand, vol. 18 (1937), pp. 21–26. Thomas Fuller wrote that Ben Jonson's step-father set him up as a bricklayer, so prompting the connection with Fowler of the royal works. and Sir Thomas Fowler of Islington.
Scotland's flying post Thomas Fowler (called "Mr" meaning he was a university graduate) was employed in the English household of Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. He came to Edinburgh briefly on behalf of the Earl of Lennox on 10 November 1564, and returned in March bring a license for Lennox to come to Scotland. William Cecil became interested in Fowler's activities and obtained a sheet of his notes on business and news memoranda. The English diplomat in Scotland Thomas Randolph, who would shortly become Master of the Posts called Fowler the "Flying Post." Fowler brought letters in cipher from William Maitland of Lethington to Mary. One message in April 1565 saddened the court, and an entertainment where Mary and her ladies were to go in Edinburgh dressed as "bourgeois wives" was put aside.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 94–5, 139, 140, 148
After Fowler had slandered one of Randolph's men in June 1565, one of Fowler's servants fought a duel with Randolph's servant and lost two fingers.Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 7 (London, 1870), no. 1259. Before the wedding of Mary and Darnley, Fowler, "old Lady Seton", and David Rizzio were with the couple when they walked in disguise or masque costume on Edinburgh's High Street.Joseph Stevenson, Selections from unpublished manuscripts illustrating the reign of Mary Queen of Scotland, pp. 119–120. Fowler was credited for having brought Lord Darnley to Scotland.William K. Boyd, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 9 (Glasgow: HMSO, 1915), p. 636 no. 542.
In September 1565 Randolph listed him, an Englishman, with the Italians David Riccio and Francisco de Busso as "unworthy persons" and foreigners who were exciting suspicion for their influence at court.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 153, 213: HMC Manuscripts of the Marquis of Salisbury at Hatfield House, vol. 1 (London, 1883), p. 325 nos. 1075–6, 324 no. 1067. John Knox recorded the same point about Fowler's undue influence, made in September by the Scottish lords of parliament.David Laing, ed., Works of John Knox, History, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1848), p. 507.
In December 1565 Fowler was discharged from Darnley's service in disgrace and he wrote to the Countess that Lord Darnley had attended Catholic mass on Christmas Day.Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, vol. 7 (London, 1870), nos. 1748, 1750: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), p. 246: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 31 no. 22, (note of Cecil's interrogation of Fowler, dated 1564, but refers to Christmas 1565/6) He brought the Earl of Lennox's letter from Glasgow to the Countess, which mentions his leaving Darnley's service.Samuel Haynes, Collection of State Papers (London, 1740), p. 443.
On 27 December 1566 Fowler cut off his beard, assumed the name "Forster", took ship from Leith for England on the Ayde of Pittenweem, was arrested in London and sentenced to death. William Cecil obtained information about his contacts and movements between Scotland and England. Maitland of Lethington and Queen Mary wrote to Elizabeth I of England to beg for his life.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 246, 251–252, 256: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 31 no. 22, (notes of Cecil's interrogation of Fowler, dated 1564, but refers to Christmas 1565/6). Queen Mary wrote to Elizabeth on 2 February for his release, naming him "Foulard".Alexandre Labanoff, Lettres de Marie Stuart, vol. 1 (London: Dolman, 1844), pp. 311-314.
Continuing to serve the Lennoxes, Fowler was in Scotland in December 1570 and the Earl, now Regent Lennox paid the expenses of his return to England.Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), p. 229. Fowler was arrested in July 1574. Francis Walsingham drew up a list of questions for his interrogation. Walsingham wanted to know if Fowler had been at Temple Newsam in the previous summer and if he knew of discussions about a marriage between Bess of Hardwick's daughter, Elizabeth Cavendish and Margaret's son, Charles Stuart, Lord Darnley and Earl of Lennox. Walsingham also wanted to know if he knew about correspondence between Margaret Douglas, John Lesley Bishop of Ross the secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots and the Laird of Kilsyth, and was also curious about a Spanish and a Portuguese man who may have visited the Countess' house in Hackney. Fowler was kept prisoner and Walsingham asked the Earl of Huntingdon to interrogate him again in December 1574. (Huntingdon worked for the Council of the North, so this suggests that Fowler was detained at York, near Margaret's estate at Settrington.)Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 30–1 nos. 21–22, (the second item is a note of Cecil's interrogation of 1566)
When the Countess died in 1578, Fowler was named her sole executor.North Country Wills, vol. 121 (Surtees Society, 1912), p. 90. He was bequeathed the sheep at Settrington and custody of all her "clocks, watches and dials."Susan E. James, The Feminine Dynamic in English Art, 1485–1603: Women As Consumers, Patrons and Painters (Ashgate, 2009), p. 100. He was responsible for the construction of her tomb at Westminster Abbey.Description of Margaret Douglas' tomb, Westminster Abbey The chronicle writer Raphael Holinshed mentioned that the tomb, which also commemorated Charles, Earl of Lennox who died in 1577, was almost completed in Margaret's lifetime.Raphael Holinshed, Scottish chronicle or, a complete history and description of Scotland, vol. 1 (Arbroath, 1805), pp. 394–5: Chronicles (Scotland), vol. 5 (London, 1808), pp. 674–5. Mary, Queen of Scots required him to deliver to Bess of Hardwick any jewels that the Countess had left to Arbella Stuart.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 250 no. 428
In the London household of the Earl of Leicester Fowler joined the household of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, serving as his steward.Simon Adams, Household Accounts of Robert Dudley (RHS, 1995), p. 470, Adams assumes Fowler was a Scot. In November 1581 John Selby of Twizel sent Fowler and the Earl of Leicester news of Scottish politics from Berwick. Selby asked Fowler, who was then living in Aldersgate Street in London, to pass his compliments to Roger Aston, an English courtier of James VI.Border Papers, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1894), p. 78 Around this time, Fowler was mentioned in letters of Mary, Queen of Scots, to the French ambassador Michel de Castelnau encoded in cipher.George Lasry, Norbert Biermann, Satoshi Tomokiyo, "Deciphering Mary Stuart's lost letters from 1578–1584", Cryptologia, 47:2 (8 February 2023), pp. 40-41, 61.
When John Colville sent news of the Gowrie Regime to Walsingham in June 1583, he asked him to inform Leicester, but not tell Fowler details about Colonel Stewart, "for he will reveal it again."Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), p. 512. Fowler sent news of Francis Walsingham's mission to Scotland after the fall of the Ruthven Regime to the Earl of Shrewsbury on 10 August 1583 from Woodhouse in Nottinghamshire.G. Dynfnallt Owen, ed., HMC 58, Manuscripts of the Marquess of Bath, vol. 5 (London, 1980), p. 44.
in August 1585, Elizabeth I gave him a lease of the grange at Lasingby or Lazenby, in consideration of his long service to Lady Margaret Douglas.HMC Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Salisbury, 3 (London, 1889), p. 148. Fowler was at the camp at Tilbury in August 1588 with the Leicester during the crisis of the Armada.Dynfnallt Owen, ed., HMC 58, Manuscripts of the Marquess of Bath, vol. 5 (London, 1980), p. 214.
In Scotland Following Leicester's death Fowler retired to Scotland without permission. The English privy council at the request of the Countess of Leicester ordered a search of his house in Bishopsgate.Dynfnallt Owen, ed., HMC 58, Manuscripts Marquess of Bath, vol. 5 (London, 1980), p. 220. James VI of Scotland discussed a possible marriage between Arbella Stuart and Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox. Fowler advised against this, and James also considered if he had the right to bestow Arbella as a bride.Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 17. In October 1588, Chancellor Maitland began in confide in him over the issue of the Scottish royal marriage, "as if they had been acquainted seven-year." At this time he became estranged from his second wife Elizabeth who remained in London. Her parents, who lived at the "Spittle", had a dispute with Fowler. (Elizabeth's surname was "Mainie" or "Venstrie.")Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 118. Fowler wrote from Aberdeen to English ambassador in Edinburgh, William Asheby, on 28 July 1589 that James VI was keen to marry Anne of Denmark and would not press details of their marriage contract;It is thought the King will not insist upon his hard conditions; "for the cheffe of all is that the yonge ladi is so far in love with the Kinges majeste as it were deathe to hir to have it broken of, and hathe made good proffe divers ways of hir affecyon, which his majeste is apt inowghe to requite."Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1936), p. 118, some historians have attempted to see in Fowler's remark "apt enough" the suggestion that James VI was homosexual, e.g., Ethel Carleton williams, Anne of Denmark (Longman, 1970), pp. 14–5, (reading "inowghe" enough as "in no way.")