Thomas Overbury

[citation needed] Knighted by James in June 1608, from October 1608 to August 1609, he travelled in the Netherlands and France, staying in Antwerp and Paris; he spent at least some of this time with his contemporary, the Puritan theologian Francis Rous.[citation needed] Overbury was from the first violently opposed to the affair, pointing out to Carr that it would be hurtful to his preferment, and that Frances Howard, even at this early stage in her career, was already "noted for her injury and immodesty."It was at this time, too, that Overbury wrote, and circulated widely in manuscript his poem A Wife, which was a picture of the virtues which a young man should demand in a woman before he has the rashness to marry her.[7] James I offered Overbury an assignment as ambassador, probably to the court of Michael of Russia, relations with Russia being at that time a potential issue between those who favoured a strongly pro-Protestant and anti-Catholic foreign policy, and those, centred on the Howards, who favoured accommodation with Catholic powers on the Continent; there were political reasons of international policy as well as personal ones involving the King's jealousy of Overbury's relationship with Carr, to persuade James to send the former away and also a private interest for Carr and Northampton to urge the offer upon him.[9] The Howards won James's support for an annulment of Frances's marriage to Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, on grounds of impotence, to free her to remarry.[11] The marriage two months later of Frances Howard and Robert Carr, now the Earl of Somerset, was the court event of the season, celebrated in verse by John Donne.Almost two years later, in September 1615, and as James was in the process of replacing Carr with new favourite George Villiers, the governor of the Tower sent a letter to the King, informing him that one of the warders had been bringing the prisoner "poisoned food and medicine.Weston, afterwards aided by Mrs Anne Turner, the widow of a physician, and by an apothecary called Franklin, plied Overbury with sulfuric acid in the form of copper vitriol.[17] Four accomplices – Richard Weston, Anne Turner, Gervaise Helwys and Simon Franklin – were found guilty prior to that in 1615 and, lacking powerful connections, were hanged.
Engraving of a younger Overbury. Made after his death by Renold Elstracke, c. 1615–1616
Engraving of Overbury in later years
WarwickshireTower of LondonLondonPoisonEnglishMiddle TempleQueen's College, OxfordcourtierRobert CarrPoetrymurderFrances HowardHenry HowardThomas HowardCharles HowardLord KnollysAnne of DenmarkIlmingtonNicholas OverburyGloucesterSir Robert CecilEdinburghEarl of DunbarJames Itilt-yardNetherlandsAntwerpPuritanFrancis RousViscount RochesterRobert CecilSir Thomas LakeFrances Howard, Countess of EssexViscount LisleMichael of RussiaRobert Devereux, 3rd Earl of EssexEarl of SomersetJohn DonnefavouriteGeorge VilliersEdward CokeFrancis BaconWilliam WadeGervase HelwysMrs Anne Turnersulfuric acidvitriolJohn Chamberlain1614 in poetry1620 in poetryHic MulierJames VI and ISir Anthony WeldonSir Thomas OverburyRichard SavageAnne SomersetMarjorie BowenRafael SabatiniThe King's MinionJohn Fordlost workNathaniel HawthorneThe Scarlet LetterCharles MackayExtraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of CrowdsMiriam Allen deFordEdgar AwardMystery Writers of AmericaElizabeth FremantleCobbe portraitWilliam Shakespearepublic domainGosse, Edmund WilliamEncyclopædia BritannicaWikisource