speech I rest Your Maiesties dayly suppliant GEORGE EGLISHAM TO THE MOST HONOVRABLE THE NOBILITIE KNIGHTS AND BVRGESSES OF BOTH THE HOVSES OF PARLIAMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF ENGLAND The humble supplication of M. GEORGE EGLISHAM Doctor of Physicke and one of the Physitians to King IAMES of happy memorie for his Majesties person aboue the space of tenne yeares WHeras the chief humane caire of Kings and courts of parliament is the preseruation and protection of the subiects liues liberties and estates from priuat or publike iniuries to the end that all things may be caried in the equall ballance of iustice without the which no Monarchie no common wealth no societie no familie yea no mans life or estate can consist albeit neuer so little it can not be thought iniust to demand of Kings and parliaments the censure of wrongs The consideration herof was so great in our late Monarch of happy memorie King Iames that he hath often publikly protested euen in the presence of his apparent heire that if his owne sonne should cōmit murther or any such execrable act of iniustice he would not spare him but would haue him die for it and wold haue him more seuerely punished thē any other For he well obserued no greater iniustice no iniury more intolerable cā be done by man to man then murther In all other wrongs fortune hath recours the losses of honor or goods may be repaired satisffaction may be made reconciliation may be procured so long as the party inuried is aliue but when the person murthered is bereft of his life what can restore it what satisfaction can be giuen him where shall the murtherer meete with him to be reconciled to him vnlesse he be sent out of this world to follow his spirite which by his wickednes he hath separated frō his body Therfor of all iniuries of all the actes of iniustice and of all things most to be looked into murther is the greatest and of all murthers the poysoning vnder trust aud profession of freindship is the most haynous Which if you suffer to go vnpunished let no man thinke him selfe so secure to liue amongst you as amongst the wildest aud most furious beastes in the world for by vigilancie and industrie meanes may be had to resist or euite the most violent beast thar euer nature bred but from false and treacherous hartes from poysoning murtherers what wit or wisdome can defend This concerneth your lordships every one in particular as well as any They of whose poysoning your petitioner complaineth to wit king Iames the L. Marquis of Hamiltō and others whose names after shal be expressed haue beene the most eminent of the kingdome and satte on these honorable benches wheron your honors now do sitte The party whom your petitioner accuseth the Duke of Buckingham is so powerfull that vnlesse the whole body of a parliament lay hold vpō him no iustice cā be had of him For what place is there of iustice what office of the crowne vvhat degree of honor in the kingdome vvhich he hath not sold and sold in such crast that he can shake the buyers out of them and intrude others at his Pleasure All the Iudges of the kingdome all the officers of the state ar his bound vassals or allies or afeared to become his outcasts as is notorious to all his Maiesties true and loving subiects Yea so farre hath his ambitious practises gone that vvhat he vvold have done should have beene performed vvhether the king would or not and vvhat the king vvold have done could not be done if he opposed vvherof many instances may be given vvhensoeuer they shall be required neyther ar they vnkovven to this honorable assemblie Hovvsoeuer the meanes he vseth be lavfull or vnlavvfull humane or diabolike so he tortereth the kingdome that he procureth the calling breaking or continuing of parliaments at his pleasure placeing or displaceing the Officers of iustice of the counsell of the kings court of the courtes of iustice to his violent pleasure and as his ambitious villanie moueth him What hope then cā your petitioner have that his cōplainte shall be heard or being heard should take effect To obtaine iustice he may dispaire to provoke the Duke to send forth a poysoner or other murtherer to dispetch him and send him after his dead freinds allready murthered he may be sure this to be the euent Let the euent be what it will come what soeuer can come the losse of his owne life your petitioner valueth not having suffered the losse of the lives of such eminent friends esteeming his life can not be better bestowed then vpon the discovery of so haynous murthers Yea the iustnes of the cause the dearenes aud neerenes of his freinds murthered shall prevaile so farre with him that he shall vnfold vnto your honors and to the whole world these raisons against the accused and named by him the author of so greate murthers George Villiers Duke of Buckingham which against any privat man ar sufficient for his apprehension and torture And to make his complaint not very tedious he will only for the present declare vnto your honors the two most eminent murthers committed by Buckingham to wit of the Kings Majestie and of the L. Marquis of Hamilton which for all the subtilitie of his poysoning art could not be so cunningly conveyed as the murtherer thought but that God hath discovered manifestly the author And to observe the order of the time of there death because the L. Marquis of Hamilton dyed first his death shall be first related euen from the roote of his last quarrell with Buckingham albeit many other iarres have preceeded from time to time betwixt them CONCERNING THE POYSONING OF THE L. Marquis of Hamilton Bucikngham ones raised from the bottome to the top of fortunes wheele by what desert by what right or wrong no matter is it by his cariage verifyed the prouerb No thing more proud then baser broud vvhen it doth rise aloft Suffered his ambition to cary him selfe so farre as to aspire to match his blood with the blood Royall both of England and Scotland and well knowing that the L. Marquis of Hamilton was acknowledged by King Iames to be the prime man in his dominions who next to his owne line in his propre season might clame an hereditarie title to the Kingdom of Scotland by the daughter of King Iames the first and to the crowne of England by Ioan of Somerset wife to King Iames the first declared by act of parliament heretrix of England in her due ranke neuer suffered the King to be at rest but vrged him alwayes to send some of the priuy counsell to sollicit the Marquis to match his eldest sōne with Buckinghās neece making greate promises of cōditiōs which the meane familie of the bride could not performe vvithout the kings liberalitie to vvit fiftie thousand pounds sterling valueing fiue hundreth thousand florens vvith the Erledome of Orknay vnder the title of a Duke whatsoeuer the Marquis
leasure to discouer the author the matter being so apparent and so many hundreths hauing seene his body to witnesse it for the doores were kept open for euery man to behold and to be witnes who wold The Duke of Buckingham making some counterfeited show of sorrow to meÌ„ of great qualitie found no other shift to diuert the suspicion of the poysoning of the Marquis from his selfe but to lay it vpon his Master the King saying that the Marquis for his persoÌ„ spirite cariage was such that he was borne worthy to reigne but the King his Master hated him to death because he had a spirit too much for the commonwealth Wherby the Duke shew him selfe no good subiect of the Kings who made the Kings humor to be tyrannicall and the King a bloodthristie murtherer and a most vile dissembler hauing heaped so many honors dayly vpon the Marquis euen to the very last making him Lord high Stevvard of his Maiesties house and iudge of the verge court whom he had made before Viceroy of Scotland for the tyme of the parliament in Scotland Erle of Cambridge a priuy counselor in EnglaÌ„d and Knight of the garter as if he had raised him to all these honors that the murthering of him might be the lesse suspected to proceed from him The Kings nature hath beeÌ„ allways obserued to be so gratious and so free harted to euery one that he would neuer haue wished the Marquis any harme vnlesse that Buckingham had put great feares and ialousies in his minde for if any other had done it he would haue acquainted his fauorite therewith theÌ„ was it Buckinghams duety to remoue from the King such sinistrous conceits of the Marquis as the Marquis hath ofteÌ„ doone for Buckingham vpholding him in all occasions and keeping the King from giuing way to introduce any other fauorite Wherefore BuckinghaÌ„ in that diuersion of the crime from him selfe hath not only made the King but also himselfe guylty of the Marquis his death But Buckinghams falshood and euill intention long before vvas rightly discouered vvhen he did what he could to make the Erle of Nâ—â—esdale and my L. Gordon both neere Kinsmen of my Lord Marquis so inceÌ„sed at him that they had likely all three killed one an other if it had not been that my L. Marquis by his vvisdome did let them all knovv how they vvere abused if any dissimulation be greater then Buckinghams let any man iudge for vvhen my L. Marquis his body vvas to be transported from Whitehall to his house at Bishopsgate Buckingham came out muffed and furred in his coatch giving out that he vvas sick for sorrovv of my L. Marquis his death but so soone as he vvent to his house out of London before his coming to the King he triumphed and dominired vvith his factioÌ„ so excessively as if he had gayned some greate victorie and the next day comming to the King put on a most lamentable and mournefull countenance for the death of the Marquis of Hamilton No greater victorie could he haue gotten to his mind then to haue destroyed that man vvho could and vvould haue fetched his head of his shoulders if he had outliued King Iames to haue knovven his cariage in the poysoning him in his sicknes wherfore he thought it necessary to remoue the Marquis before hand The same day that my L. Marquis dyed Buckingham sent my Lord Marquis his sonne out of the towne keeping him as a prisoner that none could haue priuat conference with him vntill his mariage of Buckinghams neece was complete but allwayes either my L. Denbigh or my lady Denbigh or my L. of Buckingham or the countesse of Buckingham or the Dutchesse of Buckingham was present that none could let him vnderstand how his father was murthered euen your pertioner him selfe when he went to see him within few dayes after his fathers death was intreated not to speake to him of the poysoning of his father which he did conceale at his first meeting because there sorrovv vvas too recent but he vvas preuented of a second meeting Neither vvould Buckingham suffer the young lord to go to Scotland to his fathers funeralls and to take order vvith his freinds concerning his fathers estate for feare that there intended mariage should be ouer throvvne This captiuitie of the young lord Marquis lasted so long vntill that Buckingham caused his Maiestie King Charles take the young lord with him selfe and Buckingham into K. Iames his Parke discharging all others to follovv them and there to perswade and vrge the younge lord without any more delay to accomphih his mariage vvith Buckinghams neece which instantly vvas performed so that Buckingham trusteth and presumeth that albeit the young lord should vnderstaÌ„d hovv his father vvas poysoned by his meanes yet being maryed to his neece should not sturre to reuenge it but comport with it To all what is obserued before it is vvorthy to be added that the bruit vvent through London long before my L. Duke of Richemonds death or his brothers or my lord of Southamptons or of the Marquis that all the noblemen that vvere not of Buckinghams faction should be poysoued and so remoned out of his way Also a paper vvas founde in kingstreete about the tyme of the Duke of Richemonds death wherin the names of all these noblemen vvho haue dyed since vvere expressed and your petitioners name also set next to the lord Marquis of Hamiltons name vvith these vvords to embavvme him This paper vvas brought him by my lord Oldbarres dawghter cousin german to the lord Marquis Likevvays a mountebanke about that tyme vvas greatly countenanced by the Duke of Buckingham and by his meanes procured letters patents and recommendation from the King to practise his skill through all England who coÌ„ming to London offered to sell poysons to kill men or beasts within a yeere or halfe a yeare or tvvo yeares or a moneth or tvvo or vvhat tyme praefixed any man desired in such sort that they could not be helped nor yet discouered Moreouer the Christmas before my L. Marquis his death one of the Prince his footemen sayd that some of the greate ones at court had gotte poyson in his belly but he could not tell vvho it vvas Here your honors considering the premisses of my L. of Buckingham his ambitious and most vindicatiue nature his frequent quarrels vvih my L. Marquis after so many reconciliations his threatning of him his threatning of the Phisitians to speake of poyson his triumphing after my Lord Marquis his death his detayning of his sonne almost as a prisoner vntill the mariage complete vvith his neece the preceeding bruit of poysoning of Buckinghams aduersaries the paper of there names found vvith sufficient intimation of there death by the conclusion of the vvord Embavvming the poysonmunger mountibanck graced by Buckingham may suffise for ground to take him and torture him if he were a priuat man And herein your petitioner most humbly and most ernesty demandeth iustice against that
treator seing by act of parliament it is made treason to conspire the death of a priuy counsellor out of this declaration interrogatories may be dravven for examination of vvitnes vvherin more is discouered to beginne vvith all then vvas layd open at the beginning of the discovery of the poysoning of sir Thomas Ouerbury CONCERNING THE POYSONING OF KING Iames of happy memorie King of great Britan c. THe Duke of Buckingham being in Spayne aduertised by letters how that the King begoud to censure him in his absence freely and that many spoke boldly to the King against him and how the King had intelligence from Spayne of his vnworthy cariage in Spayne and how the Marquis of Hamilton vpon the suddaine nevves of the Prince his departure had noblely reprehended the King for sending the Prince vvith such a young man vvithout experience and in such a priuat and suddain manner vvithout acquainting the nobilitie or counsell thervvith vvrotte a very bitter letter to the Lord Marquis of Hamilton conceiued nevv ambitious courses of his ovvne and vsed all the deuises he could to disgust the Prince his minde of the match vvith Spayne so farre intended by the King Made hast home vvhere vvhen he came he so caryed him selfe that vvhat soeuer the King commanded in his bedchamber he controlled in the next chamber Yea received packets to the King from forraine Princes and dispetched ansvvers vvithout acquainting the King therevvith not in a great time thereafter Wheras perceiuing the King highly offended and that the Kings minde vvas beginning to alter tovvards him suffering him to be quarrelled and effronted in his Maiesties presence and obseruing that the King reserued my Lord of Bristou to be a rod for him vrging dayly his dispetch for France and expecting the Erle of Gondomar his comming to England in his absence feared much that the Erle of Gondomar vvho as it seemed vvas greatly estemed and vvonderfully credited by the King vvold secund my Lord of Brestovves accusations against him He knevv also that the King had vovved that in despite of all the deuils of hell he vvold bring the Spanish match about againe and that the Marquis of Eâ—echosa had giuen the King bad impressions of him by vvhose articles of accusation the King him selfe had examined some of the nobilitie and priuy counsell and found out in the examination that Buckingham had said after his comming from Spayne that the King vvas an old man it vvas novv tyme for him to be at his rest and to be confined to some parke to passe the rest of his tyme in hunting and the Prince to be crovvned The more the King vrged him to be gone to France the more shiftes he made to staye for he did euidently see that the King was fully resolued to rid him selfe of the oppression wherin he held him The King being sicke of a tertian ague and that in the spring which vvas of it selfe neuer found deadly the Duke tooke his oportunitie when all the Kings Doctors of Physicke vvere at Dinner vpon the munday before the King dyed without there knovvledge or consent offered to the King a white povvder to take the which the King longtime refused but ouercome by his flattering importunitie at length tooke it drunk it in wine and immediatly became vvorse and worse falling into many soundings and paynes and violent fluxes of the belly so tormented that his Maiestie cryed out aloud o this white povvder this white povvder wold to God I had neuer taken it it wil cost me my liffe In lyke maner the countesse of Buckingham my L. of Buckinghams mother vpon the fryday therafter the Physitians also being absent and at dinner and not made acquainted with her doings applyed a plaster to the Kings harte and breast wherupoÌ„ his Maiestie grevv fainte short breathed and in great agonie Some of the Physitians after dinner retouning to see the King by the offensive smell of the plaister perceiued some thing to be about the King hurtfull to him and searched what it could be found it out and exclamed that the King vvas poysoned Then Buckingham entring commanded the Physitians out of the roome caused one to be committed prisoner to his ovvne chamber and another to remoue from court quarrelled others of the Kings servants in the sick Kings ovvne presence so farre that he offered to dravv his svvord against them in the Kings sight And Buckinghams mother kneeling before the King vvith a brazen face cryed out iustice iustice sir I demand iustice of your Maiestie The King asking for vvhat she answered for that vvich there liues is no sufficieÌ„t satisfaction for saying that my sonne and I haue poysoned your Maiestie poysoned me sayde the King vvith that he turning him selfe sounded and she vvas remoued The sunday thereafter the King dyed and Buckingham desired the Physitians vvho attended the King to signe vvith there handvvrits a testimonie that the povvder vvhich he gaue the King vvas a goode and a safe medicin vvhich they refused to do Buckinghames creatures did spred abroad a rumor in London that Buckingham vvas so sory at the Kings death that he vvold haue dyed that he vvold haue killed him self if they had not hindered him Which your petitioner purposly inquired of them that vvere neere him at that tyme vvho sayd that neither in the tyme of the kings sicknes nor after his death he vvas more moued then if there had neuer happened either sicknes or death to the King One day vvhen the King vvas in great extremitie he rode post to London to pursue his sister in lavv to haue her stand in sackcloth at Povvles for adultery an other tyme of the Kings agonie he vvas bussy contriuing and concluding a mariage for one of his cousins Immediatly after the Kings death the Physitian vvho vvas commanded to his chaÌ„ber vvas set at libertie vvith a caueat to hold his peace the others threatned if they kept not good tounges in there heades But in the mene tyme the Kings body and head svvelled aboue measure his haire with the skin of his head stucke to the pillow his nayles became loose vpon his fingers and toes your petitioner needeth to say no more to vnderstanding men Onely one thing he beseecheth that taking the traitor who ought to be taken without any feare of his greatnes the other matters be examined the accessories with the guilty punished