Sir William Lower at The Hague

Abstract

One of the most neglected literary figures among English royalist exile communities is Sir William Lower. Living at The Hague during the last five years of the Interregnum, Lower was close to, and is likely to have held positions at, the courts of both Mary of Orange and Elizabeth of Bohemia. His work in this period, which was published in his adopted home city, therefore represents a rich resource for examining the influence of translation and drama in “writing” the royalist exile, and for assessing the particular features of life and letters in the United Provinces which both chime with and distinguish it from other centres of royalist displacement on the continent. This essay considers, in particular, how Lower's works exhibit a complex partisanship which seeks to combine, inter alia, the cultural elevation derived from the romance genre with the linguistic faithfulness and personal loyalties of the author.