Francis Mowbray

rdf:langString Francis Mowbray

rdf:langString Francis Mowbray or Moubray (died 1603) was a Scottish intriguer. Francis Mowbray was a son of John Mowbray, Laird of Barnbougle Castle and Elspeth or Elizabeth Kirkcaldy, daughter of James Kirkcaldy. His sisters, or half-sisters, Barbara Mowbray and Gillis Mowbray were servants of Mary, Queen of Scots in England. Barbara married the queen's secretary Gilbert Curle and lived in the Spanish Netherlands. Gillis Mowbray is associated with the jewels of Mary, Queen of Scots. Another sister, Agnes Mowbray (died 1595), married Robert Crichton of Eliok. He was probably the son of the Laird of Barnbougle who carried letters between Mr Archibald Douglas and his nephew Richard Douglas in 1587. He spent some time at the court of Isabella Clara Eugenia in Brussels. In July 1592 the English ambassador Robert Bowes reported that Mowbray had brought letters to Scotland from Spain. He told Bowes that he been in a Spanish prison on suspicion of spying and preventing an attack on English shipping. Archibald Douglas had given him money. Mowbray told him of plans to send Spanish gold to Scotland to finance rebellion. Bowes doubted the stories of elusive Spanish gold, having heard that Philip II was not interested. Bowes recommended Mowbray to William Cecil as someone who could do some service for England as he was sent abroad on the affairs of Catholics, but he wanted more money than he had previously received. On 14 April 1596 he wounded William Schaw, the royal master of work, with a rapier, apparently in a family feud. He spent some time with Walter Scott of Buccleuch, though denounced at the horn as a rebel. He told Robert Bowes about a league or contract between some border lairds against the Octavians. Mowbray was known to be an agent for the Earl of Huntly and Lord Sanquhar. In December 1596 he took the author of a newsletter sent to James Hudson to "a tailor's house in the Cowgate" to meet Huntly, Sir George Home and Sir Robert Melville. In August 1601 he was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle and interrogated by the Lord Chancellor and Sir George Home about a letter in cipher code and whether he had any secret dealings with Sir Robert Cecil. Mowbray declared his loyalty to James VI and denied knowledge of the coded letter. Cecil wrote to the Master of Gray in October that Mowbray was not in his employ, he had heard that Mowbray had been tortured with the boot, a device for crushing the leg. On 5 October it was agreed that Mowbray and his servant George Brock would go to Rossend Castle in the custody of Sir Robert Melville and then leave Scotland. Roger Aston wrote that Mowbray was free in November and waiting at Prestonpans for a ship to England. Mowbray wrote to Cecil from Edinburgh complaining about the Scottish merchant and poet John Burrell in London who ridiculed him in verse and now had a sonnet against him published. Mowbray enclosed a copy of the poem and wanted the poet put in prison.