The great oyer of poisoning : the trial of the Earl of Somerset for the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, in the Tower of London, and various matters connected therewith, from contemporary mss.

Front matter

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UNIVERSITY or PITTSBURGH

Chapter I

PARTICULARS CONCERNING THE PERSONS WHOSE NAMES ARE CON- SPICUOUS IN THE TRIALS NAMED, BY SIR EDWARD COKE, THE " GREAT OYER OF POISONING,"

The Masque of Hymen, that delightful relick of literature and manners in the days of King James the First, introduced to public notice a female of noble family, who became the heroine (if we may use this term in a bad sense) of the " Grand Oyer of Poisoning." This Masque was represented on the occasion of the marriage of the Earl of Essex with Lady Frances Howard. The Bridegroom was but fourteen years of age, the Bride was only thirteen. The elder of these children in after times commanded the Parliament's army at Edge Hill against the Cavaliers, headed by King Charles in person. The younger's career of guilty enjoyment, magnificence, crime, and degradation will appear in the transactions which are the subject of the following pages.

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The altar of Union, with which the scene of the Masque opened, the typification of the classical Deity Hymen, " with saffron robe and taper clear/' the invocation to King James, who presided at the festivity, and who thereby evinced, as was intimated by the poet, his desire to unite hearts and hands as he had united kingdoms, are familiar to the admirers of that Prince of Masquewriters, Ben Jonson ; at the call of whose genius there was wont, as he expressed it, to

Spring all the graces of tlie age,

And all the loves of time ; With all the pleasures of the stage,

And relishes of rhyme : Add all the softnesses of courts, The looks, the laughter, and the sports ; And mingle all their sweets and salts, That none may say the triumph halts.

Masque of the Fortunate Isles.

On the present occasion, Jonson's coadjutor for contriving the ingenious machinery of the Masque was the distinguished architect Tnigo Jones. These two eminent characters had not yet quarrelled about the precedency of their names in print. An eye-witness passes a high eulogium on their mutual exertions. He speaks of a dance in the shape of the Bridegroom's name ; he admires the white hern plumes worn by the maskers ; and says that all the jewels and ropes of pearls to be found in the West End or borrowed in the City were laid under contribution by the

Ladies of the Court, therein, as Jonson insinuates, betraying their motives prepense.

If not to mingle with the men, What do ye here 1 Go home again.

Your dressings do confess, By what we see of curious parts, Of Pallas' and Arachne's arts,

That you could mean no less.

Why do you wear the silkworm's toils. Or glory in the shell-fish's spoils.

Or strive to show the grains of ore That you have gather'd on the shore,

Whereof to make a stock To graft the greener emerald on, Or any better watered stone,

Or ruby of the rock 1

Masque of Neptune s Trkmiph.

The poet contrived a device for the Masque of Hymen, which subsequent events might lead us to characterise as prophetical of the disturbance that the marriage union he was called upon to celebrate was destined to undergo. He introduced eight maskers of the principal nobility, who represented the Perverse Affections. They were splendidly attired and distinguished by several ensigns and colours, and they issued from a globe allegorically figuring a man, on which were exhibited countries gilded, with the sea heightened by silver waves ; whilst the interior of the globe represented an illuminated mine of several metals. The maskers, or Perverse Affections, drew their swords, and offered to interrupt the marriage rites.

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These intruders were quieted by a venerable female, who advanced from the top of the globe, as from the brain of man. This allegorical personage was Reason : her hair was white, trailing to her waist, her garments blue, with stars ; her girdle covered with arithmetical figures : in one hand she bore a lamp, and in the other a bright sword.

But as Reason had been outraged by a ceremony in which neither Bride nor Bridegroom had attained the years pointed out by nature, and dictated by prudence, for contracting the marriage union, so no wedlock is recorded in English history that led to consequences in which morality, law, and religion were equally prostituted for the indulgence of guilty and impetuous passions.

About seven years had elapsed since the representation of the Masque of Hymen, when the attention of the people of England was fixed on a transaction in which the parties were the somewhat incongruous personages of a King, Bishops, Doctors of Civil Law, Matrons, and Midwives. The females of this junto were directed to examine whether the Countess of Essex (the Child-Bride of the Masque of Hymen) appeared to their eyes, when disrobed, to be still a virgin ; whilst their royal, right reverend, and learned associates were to decide, according to the verdict of the matrons, M'hether the lady had shown any adequate cause for divorce. The union-maker,

King James, not only sanctioned the proceedings, but impatiently urged them on, and dictated their final conclusion. This was, in effect, that the supposed marriage, at which the King had presided, was adjudged to be no marriage at all, on the ground, that, although it could not be suggested that the Earl of Essex, now arrived at the age of twenty-one, was incapable of having children by other women, yet that the matrons discovered apparent cause for believing him incapable of having any by his own wife. A contemporary writer alleges, on the authority of the Chamberlain who presided at the door of this court of female inquisition, that Miss Mounson, daughter of Sir Thomas Mounson, was substituted for the Countess, and that, with her face thickly veiled, she eluded the detection of her identity, as she braved the searching investigation of her chastity.* If we suppose that the Countess of Essex was herself examined, her previous intrigues with Prince Henry, and the anecdote of her glove, which His Highness refused to pick up, because, he said, " it had been stretched by another," and her midnight interviews, arranged by Mrs, Turner, in Paternoster-row, which are detailed in the course of the Overbury trials, or are to be found in contemporary histories, give room

* Sir A. Weldon's " Court and Character of King James." Wilson, the intimate friend of Lord Essex, confirms this story. He says that "another young gentlewoman was fobbed in her place."

to suspect that the matrons, who were doubtless carefully selected for the nonce, came resolved not to cast the first stone, whatever revelations might meet their eyes.

We may not be surprised at means being resorted to for duping or suborning the matrons, when we read how the King prohibited the Judges of the Ecclesiastical Court from giving reasons for their opinions, and endeavoured to overawe the Archbishop of Canterbury by a singular argument ad verecundiam, couched in the following terms : — " I will conclude, therefore, that, if a Judge should have a prejudice in respect of persons, it should become you rather to have a faith implicit in my judgment, as well in respect of some skill I have in dimnity^ as also that I hope no honest man doubts of the uprightness of my conscience. And the best thankfulness that you, that are so far ^ my creature^ can use towards me, is to reverence and follow my judgment, and not to contradict it, except where you may demonstrate unto me that I am mistaken or wrong informed. And so farewell. — James R." The royal writer of this letter assumed the character of a divine and a jurist, and trampled on the independence of a high court of justice, whilst he was, in reality, demeaning himself as the pander to a flagrant act of adultery.

On the festival day of St. Stephen, in the year

1613, King James, the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Heads of the Church, and the Peers and Peeresses of the reahn, were assembled in the Chapel of the Royal Palace of Whitehall, to witness the marriage of the divorced Lady Essex with the King's Favourite, created, for the occasion, in order that his rank might correspond with that of his bride, Earl of Somerset. On that same day, in the same place, just eight years before, the King had given away the same bride to a husband whom he may be justly charged with having, in effect, himself divorced. The same King paid the expenses of the second wedding. The same Dean of the Chapel, a Bishop of Bath and Wells, performed both ceremonies.

The Bride, according to the language of a contemporary writer, was married " in her hair," that is to say, her hair (which was very beautiful and long) hanging down to her feet. To be married " in their hair" was the appropriate etiquette of that day for virgi?i-hrk]es. The historian Wilson, from being the companion of the Earl of Essex in his campaigns, and the constant inmate of his house, may be supposed to have expressed himself on this occasion according to the views and feelings of his much-injured friend. He writes of the Countess of Somerset, that those " who saw her face might challenge Nature of too nnich hypocrisy for harbouring so wicked a heart under so sweet and bewitching

O THE GREAT OYER

a countenance." He adds, '* that she had grown to be a beauty of the greatest magnitude in the horizon of the Court, and every tongue grew an orator at that shrine."

It was in an Eclogue, written on the day of this marriage, in answer to a friend who reproached the poet for his absence on an occasion of so much festivity, that Donne wrote those lines which Dr. Johnson designates as " the poetical propagation of light," and which he adduces as one of the most striking examples of the conceits to be found in the works of the poets belonging to what Dryden calls " the metaphysical school," of which Donne and Cowley were the leaders.

" Then from those wombs of stars, the Bride's bright eyes, At every glance a constellation flies, And sows the Court with stars, and doth prevent, In light and power, the all-eyed firmament. First, her eyes kindle other ladies' eyes, Then from those beams their jewels' lustre rise ; And from their jewels torches do take fire ; And all is warmth, and light, and good desire."

Donne is more distinguished as a divine than as a poet ; he was Dean of St. Paul's, and, according to his epitaph, written by himself, be took orders after the age of forty, as he says, by the impulse of the Holy Ghost and by the suggestion of King James. That no qualms of religion or morality influenced his language as a courtier on the occasion of the marriage of the

Earl and Countess of Somerset, appears from his

compliments to the Bride upon her masculine

effrontery under circumstances at which female

"aodesty revolts.

" If by that manly courage she be tried, Which scorns unjust opinion, then the Bride Becomes a man."

Wilson observes of the Earl of Somerset, that he had a " comely personage, mixed with a handsome and courtly garb, which he had been practising in France." The Earl of Somerset, according to the description of Lord Thomas Howard, written shortly |)efore the marriage, was " straight-limbed, well-favoured, strong-shouldered, and smooth-faced, with some sort of show of modesty. He was so particular in his dress to please the King, that he had changed his tailors and tire-men many times. And he was so decidedly the Court Favourite, that the King would lean on his arm, pinch his cheek, smooth his ruffled garment, and, when directing discourse to others, nevertheless gaze on him." The King taught him Latin every morning. Lord Howard, in mentioning these facts to Harrington, then a young courtier in whose advancement he was interested, addg^ that, in order to rise in favour with King James, it might answer to tell his Majesty " that the stars were bright jewels fit for Carr's ears."

The various ceremonies and ' little sorceries incident to marriages at Court were doubtless observed on this occasion ; and if the details had been preserved, we should have found that King James had strenuously exerted himself in flinging the Bride's left stocking, sewing her up in the sheets, quaffing sack posset, drawing through the wedding-ring, playing a reveille matin, if he did not also, as he did in compliment to Sir T. Herbert and his ' lady, visit the newly-married pair before they rose from their bed. We are told by an eye-witness, that the King and Queen, at the Earl of Somerset's marriage, tasted hypocras* and wafers in the Chapel with the Bride and Bridegroom, and that gloves were liberally distributed, and, in particular, that " a very fair " pair of gloves, worth SI., was given to Secretary Winwood, whose wedding-dress, consisting of a doublet hose and cloak all black, cost fourscore pounds.

A nuptial sermon was preached by the Dean of Westminster ; and one of his hearers tells us, what we might have conjectured, that, like another " soft Dean" who "never mentioned Hell to ears polite," the gist of the discourse was the commendation, to use the writer's own words, " of the young couple, glancing also at the praise of

* See " Strutt's Manners and Customs," vol. iii. p. 74, for the " Crafte to make Hypocras ;'' Brand's " Popular Antiquities," vol. ii. p. 05, for the benediction on the hypocras. In Shakspere's " Taming of the Shrew," Petruchio, after quaffing the muscadel at his marriage, throws the sops in the sexton's face.

the Bride's mother, whom he styled the mothervine."* Donne, in reference to Cupid's conquest over the Favourite, writes —

" Our little Cupid hath sued livery, And is no more in his minority ; He is admitted now into that breast, Where the King's counsels and his secrets rest."

Though the marriage was celebrated on a Stmday, in the evening there was a *' gallant Masque of Lords." On comparing the lists of the noble dancers, it will be found that four out of twelve maskers had danced in the Masque of Hymen at the former wedding. The Masque of the second wedding is still extant ; it was composed by one Campion, who also wrote the Masque for the marriage of the Palgrave with Princess Elizabeth. This successful rival of Ben Jonson is now less read or known than even Lilly, Davenant, Shadwell, or Cibber, who pleased Sovereigns better, and were more munificently patronized by them, than their respective contemporaries Shakspere, Milton, Dryden, and Pope.

It has been represented, by Gilford, that Ben Jonson's virtuous indignation recoiled at writing a Masque for the Countess of Somerset's second marriage. But there seems no doubt that Jonson's Challenge at Tilt and his Irish Masque were written for that occasion, though they had not the honour

* A collection of " Wedding Sermons" was published, Lond. 1732.

to be represented on the wedding night. The " Challenge at Tilt" was exhibited the day after the marriage. The Irish Masque contains intrinsic evidence, which is conclusive, as to the occasion upon which it was written.

Den. And pleash, ty graish, I will tell tee, tere vash a great newesh in Ireland of a great brideal of one o' ty lords. Pat. Ty man E-obyne, tey stay.

Den. Marry ty man Toumaish his daughter, tey shay. Der. Ay, ty good man, Toumaish o' ShufFolke.

Ben Jonson deemed it prudent, in the collection of his works published by him after the downfall of the Earl of Somerset, to designate the " Challenge at Tilt" and the "Irish Masque" as having been respectively presented at a marriage. For the same reason the Masque of Hymen is described, in the same collection, as having been performed at a marriage ; though in the previous edition of this Masque, published soon after it was composed, the names of the bride and bridegroom were mentioned in the title-page.

Lord Bacon, who, in his Essays, has thought that the preparation of Masques was a subject worthy of his pen, presented the Earl of Somerset and his Lady with a Masque, which was performed eleven days after their marriage. The King and Queen honoured the representation with their presence. It was called the " Masque of Flowers." The maskers were the members of the learned society of Gray's Inn, who were mctamori)liosed into hyacinths.

jonquils, and other flowers. It is related that the Solicitor-General Yelverton was desirous of contributing to the expense of this Masque, which amounted to 2000^. ; but that Bacon, from an ambition of ingratiating himself with the Favourite, would not admit of any co-rival in his sycophancy and extravagance. The Masque was concluded with a tribute of respect and zeal to the Bride and Bridegroom. •

" Receive our flowers with gracious hand, As a small Avreath to your garland.

Flowers of honour, flowers of beauty, Are your own : we only bring Flowers of affection, flowers of duty."

Donne, in writing of the entertainments provided to celebrate the Earl of Somerset's marriage, says —

" The tables groan as though the feast. Would, as the flood, destroy all fowl and beast."

And, by way of curious illustration of the current controversy regarding the truth of the Copernican system, which, at that time. Bacon disbelieved, and, much later, Milton doubted, he writes that Copernicus was borne out in his opinions by the general movement of men and things in honour of the Earl and Countess of Somerset.

The Earl and Countess of Somerset were entertained by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, nine days after their marriage, at INIerchant Tailor's Hall. There was a grand procession of equipages by torch-light, through Cheapside. At the entry of the Bride and Bridegroom into the Hall, they were greeted with music and a congratulatory speech. At the feast they were served by the most comely of the citizens, selected out of the twelve companies, who wore their " gowns and rich foins." In the evening there was " a Wassaile," two Masques, and a Play. Nor did the Bride and Bridegroom return to St. James's till thi^e o'clock the next morning.

The Countess of Somerset being desirous of going to the City festival in great state, applied to Sir R. Winwood for the use of four of his horses to draw her carriage which were the handsomest in London. He answered her Ladyship, that it was not fit for so great a Lady to use any thing borrowed, and therefore begged her husband to accept bis horses as a present.

The Corporation of London, the East India Company, the Merchant Adventurers, the Farmers of the customs vied with each other in the costliness of their marriage offerings. The Queen gave silver dishes curiously enamelled. Sir E. Coke, the Chief Justice, presented a basin and cover of silver gilt ; his Lady a pot of gold. Another sycophant gave a gold warming-pan ; another hangings, worth 1500/. ; another a sword worth 500/., besides its workmanship of enamelled gold, Mhich cost 100 marks; another a cradle of silver to burn sea-coal ; another candlesticks worth 1000 marks ; another two oriental pearls ; another a fire-shovel, tongs, pokers, creepers, and other chimney furniture, all of silver. The wife of a Bishop presented the bridecake.

Somewhat less than three years had elapsed after this gorgeous display of wedding gifts and entertainments, when, on the 24th and 25tli of May, in the year 1616, a still more imposing spectacle occurred, in which the principal actors in the former scenes again engrossed the eyes and ears of the public. On the first of these days the Countess of Somerset, and on the second the Earl of Somerset, held up their hands in Westminster Hall, where all the nobles and courtiers of the realm, and a multitude of more humble byestanders, perhaps the very individuals who had formerly echoed their praises, or joined chorus in their epithalamiums, were now assembled to hear them answer upon their arraignments for the crime of murder.

All places of public business and amusement were deserted during these proceedings*, so intense was the curiosity thus excited. Ordinary courts of law presented the appearance of the Long Vacation. One corTtemporary letter-writer mentions that at the Earl's trial " a world of people were as spectators;" another contemporary letter-writer relates

* This is related by Sir F. Bacon, who says, " The term hath been almost turned into ajustitium, or vacancy ; the people themselves being more willing to be lookers-on in this business, than to follow their own."

that " four or five pieces was an ordinary price for a seat in the Hall." He " knew a lawyer who had agreed to give 10/. for himself and family for the two days;" and "fifty pounds were given for a corner that would hardly contain a dozen." The writer himself got a place for ten shillings at the Earl's trial, and, in order to secure it, went to Westminster Hall at six o'clock in the morning, the trial commencing at nine. His seat was probably incommodious in proportion to its cheapness, for he was obliged to leave it before the trial was over, in consequence of the heat, and fainting from fasting.

The interest of the trials was increased by feelings of a superstitious nature ; for at a previous arraignment of Mrs. Turner, whom the Countess calls in a letter " sweet Turner," some mysterious articles were introduced which had been seized in the study of a noted Astrologer, Dr. Forraan. This Magician is called by the Countess, in a letter, " Dear Father," and she subscribes herself " Your affectionate Daughter." He supplied her with philters to chill the love of Lord Essex for her, and to kindle that of the Earl of Somerset. The articles consisted of enchanted papers and puppets, a piece of human skin, and a black scarf full of white crosses. A roll of Devils' names had been produced at Mrs. Turner's trial just before a crash was heard from one of the scaffolds, which were erected round the Hall : this sudden noise, we are told, caused "great fear, tumult, and confusion among all the spectators, every one fearing as if the Devil had been present, and was grown angry to have his workmanship shewed by such as were not his scholars." Dr. Forman had also a book, which had been produced in Court at a former trial, when Sir E. Coke would not suffer it to be read ; for which the scandal of the day supplied a motive, — that he found the name of his own wife registered in it.

Lord Chancellor Ellesmere officiated as Lord High Steward ; he sat under a " Cloth of Estate," at the upper end of the Hall. Nearest to him stood an Usher bearing a white rod, the insignia of his office : a little farther off were Garter King at Arms, and the Seal-bearer, who were on his right hand ; and the bearer of the Black Rod on his left. Eight Serjeants at Arms were placed on each side, more behind. On either side of the High Steward, on benches somewhat lower than his raised seat, placed in a gallery raised from the floor by twelve steps, sat the twenty-one Peers who were summoned to constitute the Lord High Steward's Court. The Judges, dressed in their scarlet robes and collars of S. S., sat in a row somewhat lower than the Peers. Foremost among them was Sir E. Coke, whose name is still the most eminent of all names of lawyers that are repeated in Westminster Hall. At the lower end of the Hall sat the King's Counsel, headed by an Attorney-General, the most distinguished of all who have ever held that office, the great Sir Francis Bacon.*

The prisoners, at their respective trials, stood beyond the lawyers, and separated from them by a bar, in a place where every eye could behold the indications of inward emotion, evinced by expressions of countenance or changes of demeanour. A Gentleman Porter holding an axe stands before a Peer or Peeress under trial. The edge of the axe is turned from the prisoners ; but if sentence of death be pronounced, it is then immediately turned towards them. The Countess of Somerset, on her taking her place, " made three reverences to his Grace and the Peers." Writers, to whom every minute particular of these trials seems to have been matter of the deepest interest, relate that she was dressed "in black tammel, a cypress chaperon, a cobweb lawn ruff and cuffs." The Lord High Steward having explained the object of the proceedings, the Clerk of the Crown said, " Frances Countess of Somerset hold up your hand."f She

* In the 15th vol. of Howell's St. Tr. p. 771, will be found the ceremonial of a trial before the Lord High Steward, composed by Mr. King, Lancaster Herald. It is very minute in details ; as, for example, it mentions that the white staff is to be eight or nine feet long, and that the Lord High Steward is to come to the Hall in a coach with six horses, and is to sit on the head seat by himself. There are, however, various particulars in several of the ancient state trials which are not noticed in the programme of this herald.

t When Lord Essex was called upon to hold up his hand, he exclaimed, he had " often held up his right hand before that did so, and continued holding it up till the Lieutenant of the Tower told her to put it down. The indictment was then read. Whilst it was reading-, the Countess stood looking pale, — she trembled, and shed some tears. At the part of the indictment where the name of Weston, the actual perpetrator of the murder of Sir T. Overbury, was first mentioned, she put her fan before her face, and there held it covering her face till the reading of the indictment was concluded. The Clerk of the Crown then asked her, " Frances Countess of Somerset, art thou guilty of the felony and murder, or not guilty?" The Countess, making an obeisance to the Lord High Steward, answered " Guilty," " with a low voice, but wonderful fearful." Sir Francis Bacon next delivered an address to the Lord High Steward, in which he panegyrized the King, gave some account of the discovery of the plot by which Sir T. Overbury had been poisoned, and held out a plain intimation of pardon to the Countess, by citing the expression, that " mercy and truth be met together." The King's instructions for the investigation of Sir T. Overbury's murder were then read. After which Sir E. Coke extolled the King's sagacity, observing that the instructions that had beeji

time, at her Majesty's command, for a better purpose." The object of holding up the hand was originally to distinguish different prisoners, when several were arraigned together. It was held, in Lord Stafford's case, that the ceremony is not essential to the validity of a trial.

c2 read " deserved to be written in a sunbeam." The Clerk of the Crown then demanded of the Prisoner, "if she had any cause to allege why sentence of death should not be pronounced on her ? " She answered, " I can much aggravate, but cannot extenuate my fault: I desire mercy, and that the Lords will intercede for me to the King."" This she spoke "so low, humbly, and fearfully," that Sir Francis Bacon, who, as we have noticed, sat near her, was obliged to repeat the words to the Lord High Steward. An officer of the Court upon his knee delivered to the Lord High Steward the white staff. Sentence of death was then passed, but in passing it the Lord High Steward told the Countess of Somerset, "Since the Lords have heard with what humility and grief you have confessed the fact, I do not doubt they will signify so much to the King, and mediate for his grace towards you,"

An eye-witness observes, that the Countess, upon her arraignment, " won pity by her sober demeanor, which, in my opinion, was more curious and confidant, than was fit for a lady in such distress, and yet she shed, or made show of, some tears divers times." Another eye-M^tness writes, " The Countess, after sentence given, in a most humble, yet not base manner, besought the Lord High Steward, to whom she first directed her speech, (and then likewise to the rest of the Lords,) that they would be pleased to mediate his Majesty on her behalf for his gracious favor and mercy, which they promised to do; and then, expressing her inward sorrow by the manytears she shed, departed." Camden, in his jejune Annals, records the universal commiseration of the spectators. In those times, as on various occasions at the present day, and probably as long as human nature endures, the sympathies of mankind for a spectacle of suffering humanity, (especially in the instance of a lovely woman overwhelmed by contrition and fear of death,) immediately presented to the eyes, outweighed in strength the sentiments of justice, and effaced the recollection of a crime marked by extraordinary malice and cruelty.

Lord Essex, the former husband of the Countess, was present at her trial, but seemed purposely to keep out of public observation and the sight of the wife of his infancy.