Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/75

 Bowes part was published in 1586, and seems to have met with immediate popularity, for a fifth edition was issued in 1614. Along with the third edition in 1594 was published the translation of the second part. To both parts Bowes prefixes a letter to the reader, and in the longer of the two, prefixed to the second part, J. Payne Collier detects allusions to Marlowe, Greene, and Nash. The allusion to Marlowe can scarcely be maintained if the second part appeared for the first time in the 1594 edition; for Marlowe, who, if indeed he is meant, is alluded to as living, died in 1593. Bowes is denouncing the prevalence of atheistic and licentious literature, and after giving as an instance Ligneroles, a French atheist, goes on to quote from English imitators, but gives no names. He ends by denouncing lying romances about Arthur and Huon of Bordeaux. J. Payne Collier, in the 'Poetical Decameron,' discusses the whole passage. There is an edition of the third part of the 'Academy,' englished by R. Dolman, published in 1601. Strype mentions a certain Thomas Bowes, M.A., of Queens' College, Cambridge, whom some have identified with the translator.

 BOWES, WILLIAM (1389–1460?), military commander, was the founder of the political importance of his family. He was the son of Sir Robert Bowes, and of Maude, lady of Dalden. He married Jane, daughter of Ralph, lord Greystoke. His wife died in the first year of her marriage, whereon 'he toke much thoght and passed into France' about the year 1415. He showed much gallantry in the French war, and so commended himself to John, duke of Bedford, whom he served as chamberlain. He fought at the battle of Verneuil, where he was knighted. While in France he was impressed with the architecture of the country, and sent home plans for rebuilding his manor house at Streatlam, near Barnard Castle. He returned from France after seventeen years' service and superintended his buildings at Streatlam, which unfortunately have been entirely destroyed. After his return he took part in the government of the borders, as warden of the middle marches and governor of Berwick. He died at a good old age, and is known in the family records as 'Old Sir William.'

 BOWET, HENRY, LL.D. (d. 1423), bishop of Bath and Wells, and subsequently archbishop of York, was apparently a member of a knightly family that, about his time, migrated from the north to the eastern counties (, Hist. of Norfolk, x. 434-5; cf. Harleian MS. 6164, 92 b). His father was buried at Penrith, his mother in Lincolnshire. His kinsfolk mostly lived in Westmoreland (Testamenta Eboracensia, i. 398). The date and place of his birth, the university in which he studied civil and canon law, and of which he became a doctor, are, with the time of his ordination, equally unknown. He seems to have practised law in the ecclesiastical courts (, p. 63), and to have become clerk to the warlike Bishop Spencer of Norwich, whom he accompanied on his unlucky crusade to Flanders. On the bishop's impeachment in 1383, after his return, Bowet gave evidence before parliament that tended to clear his patron of the charge of receiving bribes from the French (Rot. Parl. iii. 152 a). A few years later he appears at Rome as a chaplain of Urban VI and auditor of causes in the court of the apostolic chamber (, vii. 569). In 1385 he was the only Englishman at the papal court who had courage to remain with Urban after the riots at Luceria, in which an Englishman named Alleyn was slain (, ii. 124). Early in February 1388 he acted as Richard II's agent in an important negotiation with the pope but had not sufficient powers from his master to complete the affair. He must then have returned to England, where already in 1386 he had been appointed archdeacon and prebendary of Lincoln. A namesake was at this time the archdeacon of Richmond (Test. Ebor. i. 390). That he was high in the confidence of Richard II is shown by his being excepted in 1388 by the Merciless Parliament from the pardon which they issued at the end of their work of proscribing the king's friends (Rot. Parl. iii. 249 b). It is not easy to understand Bowet's subsequent movements. He seems to have been primarily anxious for advancement, and with that object to have transferred his services to the house of Lancaster. In 1393 he was, with others, appointed to negotiate with the king of Castile, still on bad terms with England (, vii. 743, mispaged 739). On 19 July 1397 Bowet was made chief justice of the superior court of Aquitaine (ib. viii. 7), and on 23 July 1398 constable of Bordeaux (ib. viii. 43). In the latter year, Henry of Bolingbroke, Bowet's patron, was banished from England, but obtained permission to appoint a proxy to receive his inheritance in the event of the death of his