View source for Thomas Overbury

{{Short description|English poet and essayist (1581–1613)}}
{{about||the 1723 biographical play|Sir Thomas Overbury (play)}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix   = [[Sir]]
| name               = Thomas Overbury
| image              = Tho overbury.jpg
| image_size         = 250px
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = Thomas Overbury
| birth_date         = 1581
| birth_place        = Compton Scorpion, [[Warwickshire]], England
| death_date         = 14 September 1613
| death_place        = [[Tower of London]], [[London]]
| body_discovered    = 
| death_cause        = [[Poison]]
| resting_place      = [[Tower of London]]
| resting_place_coordinates = 
| nationality        = [[Kingdom of England|English]]
| citizenship        = 
| other_names        = 
| known_for          = [[Poetry]], his [[murder]]
| education          = [[Middle Temple]]
| alma_mater         = [[The Queen's College, Oxford|Queen's College, Oxford]]
| employer           = [[Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset|Robert Carr]]
| occupation         = [[Poet]], [[courtier]]
| years_active       = 
| height             = 
| term               = 
| predecessor        = 
| successor          = 
| party              = 
| opponents          = {{ubl|[[Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset|Frances Howard]]|[[Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton|Henry Howard]]|[[Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk|Thomas Howard]]|[[Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham|Charles Howard]]|[[William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury|Lord Knollys]]|[[Anne of Denmark]]|Sir Thomas Lake}}
| boards             = 
| spouse             = 
| partner            = 
| children           = 
| parents            = Nicholas Overbury<br />Mary Palmer
| relations          = Sir Giles Overbury (brother)
| callsign           = 
| signature          = 
| website            = 
| footnotes          = 
}}

'''Sir Thomas Overbury''' (baptized 1581 – 14 September 1613) was an English [[poet]] and essayist, also known for being the victim of a murder which led to a scandalous trial. His poem ''A Wife'' (also referred to as ''The Wife''), which depicted the virtues that a young man should demand of a woman, played a significant role in the events that precipitated his murder.<ref>[http://www.eudaemonist.com/biblion/overbury/wife Thomas Overbury, ''A Wife'' retrieved 1 October 2014]</ref>

==Background==
Thomas Overbury was born near [[Ilmington]] in [[Warwickshire]], a son of the marriage of [[Nicholas Overbury]], of Bourton-on-the-Hill, [[Gloucester]], and Mary Palmer.<ref name=odnb /> In the autumn of 1595, he became a gentleman commoner of [[The Queen's College, Oxford|Queen's College, Oxford]]. He took his degree of [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in 1598, by which time he had already been admitted to study law in the [[Middle Temple]] in [[London]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/alumni-oxon/1500-1714/pp1084-1103}}</ref> He soon found favour with [[Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury|Sir Robert Cecil]], travelled on the Continent, and began to enjoy a reputation for an accomplished mind and free manners.<ref name=odnb>{{cite odnb|title=Overbury, Sir Thomas|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/20966}}</ref>

==Robert Carr==
{{Moresources|section|date=November 2022}}
About 1601, whilst on holiday in [[Edinburgh]], he met [[Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset|Robert Carr]], then an obscure page to the [[George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar|Earl of Dunbar]]. A great friendship was struck up between the two youths, and they came up to London together. Carr's early history is obscure, and it is probable that Overbury secured an introduction to court before his young associate contrived to do so. At all events, when Carr attracted the attention of [[James I of England|James I]] in 1606 by breaking his leg in the [[tilt-yard]],<ref>[https://shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu/2018/10/16/a-world-of-poison-the-overbury-scandal/ Poltrack, Emma. "A world of poison: The Overbury scandal", ''Shakespeare & Beyond'', Folger Shakespeare Library, 16 October 2018]</ref> Overbury had for some time been servitor-in-ordinary to the king.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

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]].{{sfn|McGee|2004|p=406}}

Upon his return he began following Carr's fortunes very closely. When the latter was made [[Viscount Rochester]] in 1610, the intimacy seems to have been sustained. With Overbury's aid, the young Carr caught the eye of the King, and soon became his favourite  and his lover. Overbury had the wisdom and Carr had the king's ear into which to pour it. The combination took Carr swiftly up the ladder of power. Soon he was the most powerful man in England next to [[Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury|Robert Cecil]].{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} However, Overbury and Rochester somehow offended [[Anne of Denmark]] in May 1611, and when she heard them laughing together in the garden at [[Greenwich Palace]], she complained to the King that they laughed at her. Overbury was excluded from court for a few months.<ref>Jackie Watson, ''Epistolary Courtiership and Dramatic Letters: Thomas Overbury and the Jacobean Playhouse'' (Edinburgh University Press, 2024), pp. 60, 77: A. B. Hinds, ''HMC Downshire'', 3 (London: HMSO, 1938), pp. 83, 180.</ref>

==Court intrigues and death==
[[File:Sir thomas overbury.jpg|left|thumbnail|150px|Engraving of a younger Overbury. Made after his death by Renold Elstracke, c. 1615–1616]]

After the death of Cecil in 1612, the Howard party, consisting of [[Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton|Henry Howard]], [[Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk|Thomas Howard]], his son-in-law [[William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury|Lord Knollys]], and [[Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham|Charles Howard]], along with [[Sir Thomas Lake]], moved to take control of much of the government and its patronage. The powerful Carr, unfit for the responsibilities thrust upon him and often dependent on his intimate friend, Overbury, for assistance with government papers,<ref>Willson, pg. 349; "Packets were sent, sometimes opened by my lord, sometimes unbroken unto Overbury, who perused them, registered them, made table-talk of them, as they thought good. So I will undertake the time was, when Overbury knew more of the secrets of state, than the council-table did." [[Francis Bacon]], speaking at the trial. Quoted by Perry, p. 105.</ref> fell into the Howard camp, after beginning an affair with the married [[Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset|Frances Howard, Countess of Essex]], daughter of the Earl of Suffolk.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

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." However, Carr was now infatuated, and he repeated to the Countess what Overbury had said. 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. Lady Essex believed that Overbury's object in writing this poem was to open the eyes of his friend to her defects. The situation now turned into a deadly duel between the mistress and the friend. The Countess tried to manipulate Overbury into seeming to be disrespectful to the queen, Anne of Denmark who took offence. Her chamberlain, [[Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester|Viscount Lisle]], wrote in November 1612 that Overbury was allowed to come to court, but not in the queen's sight, or into her side of the royal lodgings.<ref>William Shaw & G. Dyfnallt Owen, ''HMC 77 Viscount De L'Isle Penshurst'', vol. 5 (London, 1961), p. 65.</ref>

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 the Earl of Northampton to urge the offer upon him. Overbury declined, possibly because he felt tricked into it by Carr (precisely because refusing would ensure that Overbury would be imprisoned),<ref>Dunning, Chester. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2542372 "The Fall of Sir Thomas Overbury and the Embassy to Russia in 1613"], ''The Sixteenth Century Journal'', vol. 22, no. 4, 1991, pp. 695–704. ''JSTOR''. Accessed 30 July 2020.</ref> possibly because Overbury sensed the urgency to remain in England and at his friend's side. James I was so irate at Overbury's arrogance in declining the offer that he had him thrown into the [[Tower of London]] on 22 April 1613, where he died on 14 September.<ref>Annabel Patterson. ''Reading Between the Lines'' (Madison, Wis., 1993), p. 195.</ref>

==Beginnings of scandal==
{{Moresources|section|date=November 2022}}
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.  With James's assistance, the marriage was duly annulled on 25 September 1613, despite Devereux's opposition to the charge of impotence. The commissioners judging the case reached a 5–5 verdict, so James quickly appointed two extra judges guaranteed to vote in favour, an intervention which aroused public censure. When, after the annulment, Thomas Bilson (son of [[Thomas Bilson|Thomas Bilson, Bishop of Winchester]], one of the added commissioners) was knighted, he was given the nickname "Sir Nullity Bilson".<ref>Lindley, pg. 120.</ref> There were also rumours that the commission was tricked into believing that Frances was still ''virgo intacta''.<ref>Weldon, Anthony, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A65393.0001.001/1:5?rgn=div1;view=fulltext ''The Court and Character of King James'', 1650, pp. 73–74.]
Accessed 30 July 2020.</ref>

The marriage two months later of Frances Howard and Robert Carr, now the [[Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset|Earl of Somerset]], was the court event of the season, celebrated in verse by [[John Donne]]. The Howards' rise to power seemed complete.

Rumours of foul play in Overbury's death began circulating. Almost two years later, in September 1615, and as James was in the process of replacing Carr with new [[favourite]] [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham|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."<ref>Barroll, ''Anna of Denmark'', p 136.</ref> 

James showed a disinclination to delve into the matter, but the rumours refused to go away. Eventually, they began hinting at the King's own involvement, forcing him to order an investigation. The details of the murder were uncovered by [[Edward Coke]] and Sir [[Francis Bacon]] who presided over the trial.

==Trial==
{{More citations needed|section|date=August 2022}}
[[File:Thomasoverburyengraving.jpg|right|thumbnail|150px|Engraving of Overbury in later years]] In the celebrated trials of the six accused in late 1615 and early 1616 that followed, evidence of a plot came to light. It was very likely that Overbury was the victim of a 'set-up' contrived by the Earls of Northampton and Suffolk, with Carr's complicity, to keep him out of the way during the annulment proceedings. Overbury knew too much of Carr's dealings with Frances and, motivated by a deep political hostility to the Howards, opposed the match with a fervour that made him dangerous. The Queen had sown discord between the friends, calling Overbury Carr's "governor".

It was not known at the time, and it is not certain now, how much Carr participated in the first crime, or if he was ignorant of it. Lady Essex, however, was not satisfied with having had Overbury imprisoned; she was determined that "he should return no more to this stage." She had Sir [[William Wade (English politician)|William Wade]], the honest Lord Lieutenant of the Tower, removed to make way for a new Lieutenant, Sir [[Gervase Helwys]]; and a gaoler, Richard Weston, of whom it was ominously said that he was "a man well acquainted with the power of drugs", was set to attend on Overbury. Weston, afterwards aided by [[Anne Turner (murderer)|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]].

It cannot have been difficult for the conspirators to secure James's compliance because he disliked Overbury's influence over Carr.<ref>Lindley, p. 145</ref> [[John Chamberlain (letter writer)|John Chamberlain]] (1553–1628) reported at the time that the King "hath long had a desire to remove him from about the lord of Rochester [Carr], as thinking it a dishonour to him that the world should have an opinion that Rochester ruled him and Overbury ruled Rochester".<ref>Willson, p. 342.</ref> Overbury had been poisoned.<ref>Lindley, p. 146.</ref>

Frances Howard admitted a part in Overbury's murder, but her husband did not. Fearing what Carr might say about him in court, James repeatedly sent messages to the Tower pleading with him to admit his guilt in return for a pardon. "It is easy to be seen that he would threaten me with laying an aspersion upon me of being, in some sort, accessory to his crime".<ref>Stewart, p. 275.</ref>

In late May 1616, the couple were found guilty and sentenced to death for their parts in this conspiracy. Nevertheless, they remained prisoners in the Tower until eventually released in 1622 and pardoned.<ref>[http://www.earlystuartlibels.net/htdocs/overbury_murder_section/H0.html The Overbury Murder Scandal (1615–1616)] earlystuartlibels.net. Accessed 29 August 2022.</ref>

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.<ref>[http://www.earlystuartlibels.net/htdocs/overbury_murder_section/H0.html The Overbury Murder Scandal (1615–1616)] earlystuartlibels.net. Accessed 29 August 2022.</ref>

The implication of the King in such a scandal provoked much public and literary conjecture and irreparably tarnished James's court with an image of corruption and depravity.<ref>[http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=6231 Underdown, David. "Review of Bellany, Alastair, The Politics of Court Scandal: News Culture and the Overbury Affair, 1603–1660"], H-net.org. May 2002.</ref>

==Literary and cultural references==
{{More citations needed|section|date=August 2022}}
*Overbury's poem, ''A Wife'', was published in 1614 (see [[1614 in poetry]]), and ran through six editions within a year, the scandal connected with the murder of the author greatly aiding its success. It was abundantly reprinted within the next sixty years, and it continued to be one of the most widely popular books of the 17th century. Combined with later editions of ''A Wife'', and gradually adding to its bulk, were ''Characters'' (first printed in the second of the 1614 editions), ''The Remedy of Love'' (1620; see [[1620 in poetry]]), and ''Observations in Foreign Travels'' (1626). Later, much that must be spurious was added to the gathering snowball of Overbury's works.
*[[Hic Mulier]], an anonymous pamphlet published in 1620 in opposition to 'masculine' behaviour in females during the reign of [[James VI and I]], quotes from ''A Wife'', identified only through a marginal reference to ''S.T.O.''
*''The Court and Character of King James'', a gossipy and partisan memoir, published in 1650 by a longstanding courtier, [[Sir Anthony Weldon]]
*Tragic stage play, ''[[Sir Thomas Overbury (play)|Sir Thomas Overbury]]'', by [[Richard Savage (poet)|Richard Savage]] 1723
*Jean Plaidy's ''Murder in the Tower'' in 1964 tells of the love triangle between Overbury, Carr and Lady Francis Howard.
*For an alternative account of the trial, see [[Anne Somerset (historian)|Anne Somerset]]'s ''Unnatural Murder'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997).
*[[Marjorie Bowen]] wrote a fictionalised account of the case and trial in ''The King's Favourite''.
*[[Rafael Sabatini]]'s novel about the rise and fall of Robert Carr, ''[[The King's Minion]]'' (1930), argues Overbury's poisoning was ordered by James I and carried out by his personal physician after the failed attempts by Lady Essex and her conspirators.
*The dramatist [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford]] wrote a [[Lost literary work|lost work]] titled ''Sir Thomas Overbury's Ghost, containing the history of his life and untimely death'' (1615). Its nature is uncertain, but Ford scholars have suggested it may have been an elegy, prose piece or pamphlet.<ref>Stock, L. E., et al. (eds.) ''The Nondramatic Works of John Ford'' (Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1991); p. 340.</ref>
*[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] mentions Overbury's murder in his book ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]''.
*[[Charles Mackay (author)|Charles Mackay]] devoted much of the chapter on "The Slow Poisoners" in the second volume of ''[[Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds]]'' to Overbury's death and the various fates of his murderers.
*[[Miriam Allen deFord]] wrote ''The Overbury Affair'', which involves events during the reign of [[James I of England|James I]] of Britain surrounding the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. The book received a 1961 [[Edgar Award]] from the [[Mystery Writers of America]] for Best Fact Crime book.
*Brian Harris [[Queen's Counsel|QC]] offers a radical new approach to the poisoning conspiracy and suggests that Overbury may not have died {{clarify|date=June 2020}} at the hands of Frances Howard. See ''Passion, Poison and Power'', Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, 2010; ({{ISBN|9780854900770}})
*[[Elizabeth Fremantle]] (writing as E. C. Fremantle) wrote a fictional treatment of the story in ''The Poison Bed''.
* Lucy Jago's ''A Net for Small Fishes'' (Bloomsbury 2021) is a highly praised fictional account, focusing on Frances Howard and Anne Turner’s relationship

==See also==
* The [[Cobbe portrait]], frequently cited as one of a very few portraits of [[William Shakespeare]], is believed by several scholars to be a portrait of Overbury instead.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*Barroll, J. Leeds (2001) ''Anna of Denmark, Queen of England: a cultural biography''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press {{ISBN|0-8122-3574-6}}.
*Davies, Godfrey ([1937] 1959) ''The Early Stuarts''. Oxford: Clarendon Press {{ISBN|0-19-821704-8}}.
*DeFord, Miriam Allen (1960) ''The Overbury Affair: the murder trial that rocked the court of King James I''. Philadelphia: Chilton Company.
*Harris, Brian (2010 ) ''Passion, Poison and Power: The Mysterious Death of Sir Thomas Overbury'' Wildy, Simmonds and Hill. {{ISBN|9780854900770}}.
*Lindley, David (1993) ''The Trials of Frances Howard: fact and fiction at the court of King James''. London: Routledge {{ISBN|0-415-05206-8}}.
* {{cite journal |last1=McGee |first1=Sears J |title=Francis Rous and "scabby or itchy children": The Problem of Toleration in 1645 |journal=Huntington Library Quarterly |date=2004 |volume=67 |issue=3 |doi=10.1525/hlq.2004.67.3.401}}
*Perry, Curtis (2006) ''Literature and Favoritism in Early Modern England''. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press {{ISBN|0-521-85405-9}}.
*Stewart, Alan (2003) ''The Cradle King: a life of James VI & I.'' London: Chatto and Windus. {{ISBN|0-7011-6984-2}}.
*Willson, David Harris ([1956] 1963 ed) ''King James VI & I.'' London: Jonathan Cape {{ISBN|0-224-60572-0}}.
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Overbury, Sir Thomas | volume= 20 |last= Gosse |first= Edmund William |author-link= Edmund William Gosse| page = 384 |short = 1}}

==External links==
* [https://archive.org/details/b3050613x ''The tryal of Mr. Richard Weston, at the Guild-Hall of the City of London, for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, Knt. October the 19th, 1615. 13 Jac. I''], 1737 (unknown author, publisher)

{{Wikiquote|Thomas Overbury}}
{{Wikisource|Overbury, Thomas (DNB00)|Thomas Overbury}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Overbury, Thomas}}
[[Category:17th-century English poets]]
[[Category:17th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:English essayists]]
[[Category:17th-century English knights]]
[[Category:1581 births]]
[[Category:1613 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Warwickshire]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford]]
[[Category:English murder victims]]
[[Category:People murdered in England]]
[[Category:Prisoners in the Tower of London]]
[[Category:16th-century English poets]]
[[Category:16th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:English male essayists]]
[[Category:English male poets]]
[[Category:People murdered in the 1610s]]