Background
He was the son of Janet Fockhart and William Fowler, a well connected Edinburgh burgess. Following his return to Scotland, he visited London to retrieve some money owed to his father by Mary, Queen of Scots.
He was the son of Janet Fockhart and William Fowler, a well connected Edinburgh burgess. Following his return to Scotland, he visited London to retrieve some money owed to his father by Mary, Queen of Scots.
He graduated from Street Leonard"s College, Street Andrews in 1578.
By 1581 he was in Paris studying civil law. At this time he published An ansvver to the calumnious letter and erroneous propositions of an apostat named M. Io. Hammiltoun a pamphlet criticising John Hamilton and other catholics in Scotland, who he claimed had driven him from that country.
In response two Scottish Catholics, Hamilton and Hay manhandled him and dragged him through the streets to the Collège de Navarre.
Here he frequently visited the house of Michel de Castelnau, Sieur de Mauvissiere, where he met Giordano Bruno, currently staying there. He was soon recruited by Francis Walsingham to act as a spy until 1583, by which time he felt his consorting with French Catholics was compromising his religious integrity.
His letters to Walsingham mention his widowed mother"s concern at his role in London and her moneylending activities, and information he obtained in January 1583 from the exiled Duke of Lennox. Fowler was part of a literary circle around King James which has become known as the "Castalian Band", which included Alexander Montgomerie, John Stewart of Baldynneis, Alexander Hume, Thomas and Robert Hudson, and James VI himself.
In 1591 Fowler contributed a prefatory sonnet To the Only Royal Poet to James VI"s poem the Furies, printed in His Majesties Poeticall Exercises.
While James, in return, commended, in verse, Fowler"s Triumphs of Petrarke. In 1589 he was accompanied by William Schaw on the diplomatic mission to Denmark to arrange the marriage of James VI to Anne of Denmark. He was a paid negotiator for the city of Edinburgh, charged with raising the profile of the burgh.
Subsequently he was appointed private secretary and Master of Requests to Anne of Denmark, when she became James VI"s queen.
He retained these positions when Anne went to England. In England in September 1603, he met Arbella Stuart at Woodstock Palace, and sent her two sonnets, one addressed to her, and another, Upon an Horologe of the Clock at Loseley which contains a partial anagram of her name.
Fowler wrote to the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury that Arbella was the "eighth wonder of the world," and "the phoenix of her sexual" In 1609 he received a grant of 2,000 acres (8 km²) in Ulster as reward for his services. Two other volumes of his manuscript notes, scrolls of poems, et cetera are preserved among the Drummond manuscripts, currently in the library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
Fowler"s poetry was featured in the 1803 publication by John Leyden of Scottish Descriptive Poems.
A True Reportarie of the Most Triumphant, and Royal Accomplishment of the Baptisme of the Most Excellent, Right High, and Mightie Prince, Frederik Henry, By the Grace of God, Prince of Scotland. Solemnized the 30 Day of August 1594, Robert Waldegrave, Edinburgh (1594)
Henry Meikle, educated, The Works of William Fowler, 3 vols, volunteer I 1914, volunteer II 1936, volunteer
III 1940, Scottish Text Society, Edinburgh.
