in London Philips was born in 1560 or 1561, possibly in
Devonshire or London. From 1572 to 1578 he began his career as a boy chorister at
Old St Paul's Cathedral in London, under the aegis of the Catholic master of choristers,
Sebastian Westcott (died 1582), who had also trained the young
William Byrd some twenty years earlier. Philips must have had a close relationship with his master, as he lodged in his house up to the time of Westcote's death, and was a beneficiary of his will. In the same year (1582), Philips left England for good, like so many others for reasons of his Catholicism, and stayed briefly in
Flanders before traveling to Rome where he entered the service of
Alessandro Farnese (1520–1589), with whom he stayed for three years, and was also engaged as organist at the
English College in Rome. It was here that in February 1585 he met a fellow Catholic exile,
Thomas, third Baron Paget (c. 1544–1590). Philips entered Paget's service as a musician, and the two left Rome in March 1585, traveling over several years to
Genoa,
Madrid,
Paris,
Brussels, and finally
Antwerp, where Philips settled in 1590 and where Paget died the same year. After settling, Philips married and gained a precarious living by teaching the
virginals to children. In 1593 he went to
Amsterdam "to sie and heare an excellent man of his faculties", doubtless
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, whose reputation had by then long been made. On his way back, Philips was denounced by a compatriot for complicity in a plot on
Queen Elizabeth's life, and he was temporarily imprisoned at
the Hague, where he probably composed the pavan and galliard
Doloroso (
Fitzwilliam Virginal Book nos. LXXX and LXXXI). Philips himself translated the accusations made against him during his trial, showing that he could speak
Dutch. He was acquitted and released without further charges. at the
Coudenberg Palace in Brussels Philips' fortunes took a turn for the better on his return, and in 1597 he was employed in
Brussels as organist to the chapel of
Albert VII, Archduke of Austria who had been appointed governor of the
Spanish Netherlands in 1595. Here, after the death of his wife and his child, he was ordained a priest in either 1601 or 1609; in any case, he received a
canonry at
Soignies in 1610, and another at
Béthune in 1622 or 1623. His position at court allowed Philips to meet the leading composers of the time, including
Girolamo Frescobaldi, who visited the Low Countries in 1607–1608, and his fellow-countryman
John Bull, who had fled England on a charge of adultery. His nearest colleague, however, was
Peeter Cornet (c. 1575–1633), organist to Archduchess Isabella, wife of Philips' employer, the archduke. Philips died in 1628, probably in
Brussels, where he was buried. ==Works==