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| Sir Thomas Overbury |
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n But this didn’t satisfy the vindictive Frances – “Henshall return no more to this stage,” – and she had her great-unclenNorthampton persuade the King to replace Sir William Wade, the trustworthy andnincorruptible Lieutenant of the Tower, with Sir Gervase Helwys, a compliantntool of the Howard family. The gaoler was the next to be replaced, by RichardnWeston, “a man well acquainted with the power of drugs,” and barely twondays into his new appointment, on May 19th, he had a little glass ofnrosaker (arsenic disulphide) sent to him, with which he poisoned Overbury’snbroth, and over the next three months almost all of his food was poisoned.
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| Mrs Anne Turner |
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nThenCountess and her confidante, Mrs Anne Turner, supplied a variety of poisons tonWeston, but there is some doubt that he used them all (it is possible that henwas selling them on and pocketing the profits), and Helwys, suspicious thatnOverbury was being poisoned, would sometimes substitute food from his ownnkitchen for that sent to the Tower by the Howards. Anne Turner was anothernnasty character, she was the widow of Dr George Turner, a quack doctor fromnwhom she had gained her knowledge of poisons (and who had once employednWeston), and she had supplied the charms and philtres to Frances when shensought to dampen the ardour of the Earl of Essex and quicken instead that ofnCarr.
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| The Yellow Ruff |
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nOutwardly respectable, she was the owner of several brothels, a providernof drugs and aphrodisiacs to the aristocracy, and had a virtual monopoly on thensupply of saffron-coloured starch for dyeing lace and ruffs a vivid yellow, a fashionnvery much in vogue at the time. Turnernworked with James Franklin of Tower Hill, an evil man steeped in sin, poisonousnboth within and without, and said to have poisoned his own wife. Frances begannto grow impatient as Overbury lingered on, emaciated and covered in sores,npassing up to sixty bloody stools in a day and vomiting blood, but tenaciouslynrefusing to die. Weston, who said he had administered enough poison to kill andozen men, was told that his money would be withheld until the deed was done,nand Helwys, still unsure of just what was going on, summoned a Dr Paul de Lobelnof Lime Street to attend Overbury, who was diagnosed with consumption due tonmelancholy. On September 14th 1613, Weston bribed ‘William’, Lobel’snapprentice, to inject Overbury with a clyster of corrosive sublimate (mercuricnchloride) and at five o’clock on the next morning he finally died.
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| The Poysoned Knight’s Complaint |
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nA verdict ofndeath by natural causes was declared on the following day, and it was said thatnhis body was buried in the choir of the Tower church on that very afternoon,nalthough this seems unlikely, as evidence of the crime would sensibly have beennconcealed. Ten days later the marriage of the Earl of Essex and Frances Howardnwas annulled by Royal edict and on December 26th 1613, she marriednRobert Carr. All was, it seemed, done and dusted.
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| Thomas Overbury – A Wife and other Works – 1616 |
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nThe King himself blessed thenmarriage in Westminster Chapel – the bride was married ‘in her hair’ (a customnwhere a bride wore her hair long and unbound, to signify her virginity), andnJohn Donne wrote the epithalamium ‘Blest Pair of Swans’ in their honour.nIn quick succession, Carr was raised to become the Treasurer of Scotland, thenEarl of Somerset and the Lord Chamberlain. It was impossible for him to go anynhigher, for there was nowhere higher to go.
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| John Donne – Blest Pair of Swans |
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nAnd then, after a couple of years, it started. Whispersnfirst, and half heard conversations. Sudden awkward silences and secondnglances. Excuses and half-truths, pointed fingers and stares. Accusations andnallegations, and always, everywhere, whispers.
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nSir Gervase Helwys, evernambitious and obsequious, was invited to dine with Sir Ralph Winwood, Secretarynof State, and hoping to gain favour, he had a private conversation with thisngreat man, hoping to clear the air about the rumours that he had, somehow, beenninvolved in the poisoning and murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. This was news tonWinwood, but a welcome confession anyhow, and Winwood resolved to make the bestnof this delicious titbit. Coincidentally, at the same time, Winwood received ancommunication from the Netherlands, which said that one William Reeve, annapothecary’s apprentice, had made a deathbed confession that he hadnadministered a poisoned clyster to Sir Thomas Overbury in the Tower of London.
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| King James I |
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nThe King was then on a Royal progress and had arrived at Royston, where henstayed for a week. Carr was with him, but when the King announced his desire tongo on to Newmarket, Carr returned to London. Winwood came to Royston and toldnthe King what he had heard, and the King, expressing surprise, sent a letter tonSir Edward Coke, the Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, ordering him tonarrest Carr. But why, you might ask, was the King so quick to order the arrestnof his favourite. Quite simply, because he was tired of him. James had a newnlove in his life, George Villiers, and he wanted rid of the old flame.
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| George Villiers |
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nSo Carrnwas taken into custody at Whitehall and his wife was also arrested, both onnsuspicion of murder. An investigation began and the first victims were Weston,nTurner, Franklin and Helwys. They were tried before Sir Edward Coke and SirnFrancis Bacon, the Attorney General, and were convicted of poisoning Overbury.nWeston, the gaoler who had administered the poisons, went to the gallows askingnthat the judges should not, “… make a net to catch the little fishes, andnlet the great go.” Franklin, supplier of the poisons, acted strangely onnthe gallows, boxing the hangman’s ears and beating the coffin with his hands,nseemingly mad or drunk, and spoke often about ‘the three great ones.’
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| Anne Turner |
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nAnne Turner, the go-between and organiser, went to Tyburn wearing her famousnyellow ruff, some saying (wrongly), on the orders of Sir Edward Coke, who hatednthe fashion and hoped that her execution whilst wearing one might put an end tonthe wearing of them. She admitted her guilt, a veil was pulled over her face,nthe cart was driven away from under her and, before a great crowd of courtiers,nshe died almost without a twitch. Helwys, the Lieutenant of the Tower, deniednall knowledge of the poisoning but one sentence in a letter to Northamptonncondemned him, and on November 20th 1615, he was taken to Tower Hillnand hanged.
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| Sir Gervase Helwys |
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nThe Earl and Countess of Somerset tried to cover theirntracks, destroying letters and, in Francis Bacon’s phrase, they ‘sewed fignleaves’ but there was no escape. On May 24th 1616, the Countessnof Somerset was brought to Westminster Hall, and pleaded guilty to murderingnOverbury. She was sentenced to death but being pregnant was told that the Lordsnwould intervene on her behalf.
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| Frances Howard |
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nRobert Carr was to be tried on the following daynbut at first he refused to attend, blackmailing the King with threats of publicnrevelation of what had occurred between them in the Royal bedchamber, until henwas eventually persuaded to go to Westminster. Just to be on the safe side, thenKing had men with blankets sit either side of the accused, ready to muffle himnif he said anything untoward. Like his wife, he too was found guilty andnsentenced to death. Sir Edward Coke, by the way, had declared them both guiltynbefore their trails had even taken place.
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| The Earl and Countess of Somerset |
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nThe 1st Earl of Northampton, Henry Howard, hadndied on June 15th 1614, and was the third of the ‘great ones’ninvolved in the murder. From his letters, it is clear he knew exactly what wasnbeing done to Overbury in the Tower, but his death prevented him being broughtnto trial.
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nThe ‘little fish’ went to the gallows, as Westonnhad suspected they would, the ‘great fish’ escaped, in part at least.nJames I showed the King’s mercy and had the pair sentenced instead to the Towernof London. Frances Howard’s only request was that she should not be housed innthe same cell that had held Overbury, as she feared his vengeful ghost. Theynwere stripped of all the honours and titles that had been heaped upon them,ntheir belongings were forfeited, and when, in January 1622, they wereneventually released, they were landless and friendless.
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| Anne Carr |
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nTheir only daughter, Anne, was born in the Tower of Londonnon December 9th 1615, and grew to be as great a beauty as hernmother. She was told nothing about her parents’ crimes and grew up in totalnignorance of their offences. The Earl of Bedford fell in love with her and,nalthough his father at first opposed the match, they were married. Her son,nWilliam, was involved in the Rye House Plot, a conspiracy to assassinate KingnCharles II, and was beheaded for his part in the plan. It was only then, bynaccident, that she found and read details of her mother’s crime and, it isnsaid, the revelation broke her heart, for she died at Woburn Abbey soonnafterwards.
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nSo, if this tale of friendship and betrayal, poisoning and witchcraft, adultery and a gay King, executions and poetry doesn’t appeal to you, how about a man who returned from the dead?
