despatching Overbury began. Poisons were procured from Franklin, a physician, by Mrs Turner, and sent in tarts and jellies to the Tower, where Weston, the under-keeper, took charge of them. Overbury was drenched with rosealgar, sublimate of mercury, arsenic, diamond powder. It was averred that he had swallowed poison enough to kill twenty men. He died on 15 September 1613. The business of the divorce now went on without hindrance. To be rid of his wife, Essex was ready enough to allow a slur to be cast on his manhood; with the aid of the lawyers, the churchmen, a complaisant jury of matrons, and a young lady who, with muffled head, impersonated the countess for the occasion, the divorce was carried through. In view of the approaching marriage, Carr was created Earl of Somerset, and on 26 December the marriage took place. With magnificent effrontery, the lady was married ‘in her hair’ the mark of a virgin-bride. But some time afterwards an apothecary’s boy, who had been got out of the way, and was now at Flushing, began to talk of what he knew; inquiry was made, and in the end the criminals were put upon their trial.
On 23 October 1615, Richard Weston, the under-keeper of the Tower, was hanged at Tyburn. He was followed by Mrs Turner, hanged on 9 November, at the same place; on the 20th Sir Gervase Elwes, the lieutenant of the Tower, was executed on Tower Hill, and on 9 December, James Franklin, the physician, was executed at St Thomas’ Waterings. In the following year the countess was tried in Westminster hall, pleaded guilty, and was condemned. The next day the earl was brought to trial by his peers in the same place, and also found guilty. Neither was executed; each received a pardon. They lived together afterwards in the same house, hating one another with a perfect hatred; the countess died of a loathsome disease. There are mysteries in the case remaining after the most careful study of the facts. In spite of all attempts made to persuade Somerset to plead guilty, and throw himself on the King’s mercy, he steadfastly refused. Mr Amos inclines to believe him innocent of complicity in the murder. There are serious difficulties in the way of this theory, but it is certain that Somerset had the means of terrifying the King. Secret messages passed between the Tower and the palace, informing the king that the prisoner had threatened to refuse to go to the Court of his own will. Bacon consulted the judges as to what could be done to silence Somerset if he ‘should break forth into any speech of taxing the King.’ At the trial two servants were placed, one on either side of the prisoner, with a cloak on his arm. Their orders were that if Somerset ‘flew out on the King’, they should instantly throw the cloaks over his head, and carry him by force from the bar. Was James an accomplice in the murder of Overbury? Mayerne, the King’s physician, attended Overbury in the Tower and prescribed for him. Mayerne was not produced as a witness, nor were his prescriptions put in evidence. Or is the mystery connected with the death of Prince Henry, James’s son? The Prince was seized with sudden illness almost immediately after dining with his father. ‘In Mayerne’s collection of cases for which he wrote prescriptions,’ says Mr Amos, ‘everything that relates to Prince Henry’s last illness is torn out of the book.’ We can but fall back on the certainty that Somerset had it in his power to make some revelation of which James was terribly afraid.
1618, March 1 Touching the News of the Time: Sir George Villiers, the new Favourite, tapers up apace, and grows strong at Court: His Predecessor the Earl of Somerset hath got a Lease of 90 years for his Life, and so hath his Articulate Lady, called so, for articling against the frigidity and impotence of her former Lord. She was afraid that Coke, the Lord Chief Justice (who had used such extraordinary art and industry in discovering all the circumstances of the poisoning of
On 23 October 1615, Richard Weston, the under-keeper of the Tower, was hanged at Tyburn. He was followed by Mrs Turner, hanged on 9 November, at the same place; on the 20th Sir Gervase Elwes, the lieutenant of the Tower, was executed on Tower Hill, and on 9 December, James Franklin, the physician, was executed at St Thomas’ Waterings. In the following year the countess was tried in Westminster hall, pleaded guilty, and was condemned. The next day the earl was brought to trial by his peers in the same place, and also found guilty. Neither was executed; each received a pardon. They lived together afterwards in the same house, hating one another with a perfect hatred; the countess died of a loathsome disease. There are mysteries in the case remaining after the most careful study of the facts. In spite of all attempts made to persuade Somerset to plead guilty, and throw himself on the King’s mercy, he steadfastly refused. Mr Amos inclines to believe him innocent of complicity in the murder. There are serious difficulties in the way of this theory, but it is certain that Somerset had the means of terrifying the King. Secret messages passed between the Tower and the palace, informing the king that the prisoner had threatened to refuse to go to the Court of his own will. Bacon consulted the judges as to what could be done to silence Somerset if he ‘should break forth into any speech of taxing the King.’ At the trial two servants were placed, one on either side of the prisoner, with a cloak on his arm. Their orders were that if Somerset ‘flew out on the King’, they should instantly throw the cloaks over his head, and carry him by force from the bar. Was James an accomplice in the murder of Overbury? Mayerne, the King’s physician, attended Overbury in the Tower and prescribed for him. Mayerne was not produced as a witness, nor were his prescriptions put in evidence. Or is the mystery connected with the death of Prince Henry, James’s son? The Prince was seized with sudden illness almost immediately after dining with his father. ‘In Mayerne’s collection of cases for which he wrote prescriptions,’ says Mr Amos, ‘everything that relates to Prince Henry’s last illness is torn out of the book.’ We can but fall back on the certainty that Somerset had it in his power to make some revelation of which James was terribly afraid.
1618, March 1 Touching the News of the Time: Sir George Villiers, the new Favourite, tapers up apace, and grows strong at Court: His Predecessor the Earl of Somerset hath got a Lease of 90 years for his Life, and so hath his Articulate Lady, called so, for articling against the frigidity and impotence of her former Lord. She was afraid that Coke, the Lord Chief Justice (who had used such extraordinary art and industry in discovering all the circumstances of the poisoning of
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