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
THE FORERVNNER OF REVENGE Vpon the Duke of BVCKINGHAM for the poysoning of the most potent King IAMES of happy memory King of great Britan and the Lord Marquis of Hamilton and others of the nobilitie Discouered by M. GEORGE EGLISHAM one of King IAMES his Physitians for his Majesties person aboue the space of ten yeares FRANCKFORT 1626. TO THE MOST POTENT MONARCH CHARLES KING OF GREAT BRITAN FRANCE AND IRELAND The humble complaint of GEORGE EGLISHAM Doctor of Physicke and lately one of King IAMES his Physitians for his Majesties person aboue the space of tenne yeares SIr no better motiue there is for a safe gouernemēt thē the sincere meditatiō of death equalling Kings to beggers and of the seuere and exact iustice of God requiring of him that the good suffering miserie in this life should receiue ioy in the other and the wicked flourishing securely in this might be punished in the other That which pleaseth lasteth but a momēt which tormēteth is euerlasting Many things we see vnrewarded or vnpunished in this inferior world which in the vniuersall weights of Gods iustice must be counterpoised elsewhere but wilfull and secret murder hath seldome bene observed to escape vndiscouered or vnpunished euen in this life such a particular and notable reuenge perpetually followeth it to the end that they who ar either Atheists Lucianistes or Machiauellists may not trust too much to there owne wits in doing so horrible iniustice Wold to God your Majestie wold well consider what I have often sayd to my Master King Iames The greatest policie is honestie and howsoëuer any man seeme to him selfe wise in compassing his desires by trickes yet in the end he will prooue a foole for falsehood euer deceiveth her owne master at length as the deuill author of all falshood alwayes doth leauing his adhaerents desolate when they haue greatest need of his helpe No falshood without iniustice no iniustice without falshood albeit it were in the person of a king There is no iudge in the world more tied to doo iustice then a King whose coronation tieth him vnto it by solemne oath which if he violat he is salfe and periured It is iustice that maketh Kings iustice that maintaineth Kings and iniustice that bringeth both Kingdomes and Kings to destruction to fall in miserie to die like asses in ditches or more beastly deathes with eternall infamie after death as all histories from time to time doe clearly testifie What need hath mankinde of Kings but for iustice men ar not borne for them but they for men What greater what more Royall occasion in the wold could be offered vnto your Majestie to show your vnpartiall disposition in matter of iustice at the first entree of your raigne then this which I offer my iust complaint against Buckingham by whom your Majestie suffereth your selfe so farre to be led that your best subiects ar in doubt whether he is your King or you his If your Majestie Know and consider how he hath tyrannised ouer his Lord and master King Iames the worldly creator of his fortunes how insolent how ingrat an oppressor what a murtherer and treator he hath proued himselfe towards him how treacherous to his vpholding friend the Marquis of Hamilton and others your Maiestie may think the giuing way to the lawes demanded against him to yeeld a most glorious field for your Majestie to walke in and display the banner of your Royall vertues Your Majestie may perhaps demand what interest haue I therin What haue I to doe therewith that I should stirre all others being quiet Sir the quietnes or stirring of others expecteth onely a beginning from me whom they know to be so much obliged to stirre as that none can be more both in respect of knowledge of passages and in regard of humane obligation and of my independencie from the accused or any one that his powar or credit can reach vnto Many know not what I know therein others ar litle or nothing beholding to the dead others albeit they know as well as I and ar obliged as deeply as I yet dare not complaine so safely as I being out of there reach who ar inseparable from him by his enchantemēts and able to obscure my selfe vntill that the powar of iust reuenge vpon him and his adherents be obtained from God What I know sufficient against him I haue set downe in my petition to the parliament vnto which if your Majestie dismisse him sequestred from your Majestie chiefely in an accusation of treason your Majestie shall doe what is most iust and deliuer your selfe and your Kingedoomes from the captiuitie in which he holdeth them and your Majestie oppressed How easily I may ecclipse my selfe from his powar to do me harme vnlesse he hath legions of infernall spirits at his command to pursue me your Majestie may well know I being vltramarin vnto these dominions where he raigneth and rageth How farre I am obliged to complaine more then others I will only in few words expresse that neither your Majestie nor any man may thinke otherways but that I haue most iust reason not to be silent in wrongs so intolerable The interest of bloud which I haue to any of them of whose death I complaine either by the house of Balgony Lundy or by the house of Siluertonhill albeit it is easy to be made manifest and sufficient to moue me yet is it not the sole motiue of my breach of silence For birth and ancestors and vvhat vve haue not done Scarce call I ours But the interest of receaued courtesies and the heape of infallible tokēs of true affection is more then sufficient to sturre me therto vnlesse I wold proue the most ingrate in the world and senselesse of the greatest iniuries that can be done to my selfe For who hath killed King Iames and the Marquis of Hamilton in that parte of the iniurie which is done to me therein he hath done as much as robbed me of my life and of all my fortunes Friends with such constant and louing impressions of me ar neither to be recouered nor duely valued For his Majestie from the third yeare of my age did practise honourable tokens of singular fauor towards me dayly augmented them in word in writ in deed accomplished them with giftes patents offices recommendations both in priuat and in publicke at home and abroad graced me so farre that I could scarce haue asked him any thing which I could not also obtaine How much honor he hath done to me me there needeth no witnes vnto your Majestie who is sufficient for many No lesse was my Lord Marquis of Hamilton his friendship established by mutuall obligation of most acceptable offices continued by our ancestours these three generations engrauen in the tender mindes and yeares of the Marquis and me in the presēce of our soueran King Iames. For when the Marquis his father with the right hand vpon his head and the left vpon mine did offer vs young in yeares so ioyned to kisse his
Maiesties hand recommending me vnto his Maiesties fauour said I take God to vvitnes that this young man his father vvas the best friend that euer I had or euer shall haue in this vvorld Wherupon the young Lord resolued to put trust in me and I fully to addict myu selfe vnto him to deserue of him as much commendation as my father did of his father This Royall celebratiō of our friendship rooted it selfe so deepe in my minde that to my selfe I proposed this remembrance giuing it to the young Lord and to my familiar freinds and set it vpon all the bookes of my study Semper Hamiltonium c. Alvvayes the King and Hamilton VVithin thy breast conserve VVhat euer be thy action Let Princes two deserve Neither was it in vaine for both our loues increased with our age the Marquis promising to ingage his life and his whole estate for me if need were and to share his fortunes vvith me and not only promising but also performing vvhen euer there vvas occasion Yea for my cause offering to hasard his life in combat vvhose minde in vvishing me vvell vvhose tongue in honouring of me and vvhose hands and meanes in defending me both absent and present vnto the last period of his life hath euer assisted me I should be more tedious then vvere fit if I rehearsed euery particular fauor so manifestly knovvē to the whole court and to the freindes of both Who then can iustly blame me for demanding iustice as vvell for the slaughter of the Marquis of Hamilton as of my most gratious soueran King Iames seinge I knovve vvhom to accuse My profession of Physick nor my education to lettres can not serve to hinder me from vndertaking the hardiest enterprise that euer any Roman vndertooke so farre as the law of conscience vvill giue vvay VVhy shall I stay at thy decay Of Hamiltons the hope VVy shall I see thy foe so free Vnto his ioy giue scope Rather I pray a dolefull day Set me in cruell fate Then thy death strange vvithout reuenge Or him in safe estate This soule to heavens hand to the dead I vovve No fraudfull minde no trembling hand I haue If pen it shun the svvord reuenge shall follovve Soule pen and svvord vvhat thing but iust do craue What affection I boore to the liuīg the same shall accompany the dead For vvhen one vvhose trueth and sinceritie vvas vvell knovven to me told me that it vvere better for the cheifest of my friends the Marquis of Hamilton to be quiet at home in Scotland then to be eminent in the court of England to vvhom by the opinion of all the vviser sort his being at court vvold cost him no lesse thē his life sith that I stretching forth my arme apprehending some plottes layd against him ansvvered if no man dare revenge his death I vovve to God this hand shall revenge it scarcely any other cause cā be found thē the bond of our most close freindship vvhy in the scroll of the noblemēs names vvho vvere to be killed I hould be set downe next to the Marquis of Hamiltō in these vvordes The Marquis of Hamilton and Doctor Eglisham to enbavvme him to vvitt to the end that no discoverer or reuenger should be left This roll of names I knovv not by vvhat destinie found neere to VVestminster about the time of the Duke of Richemund his death and brought to the L. Marquis by his cousin the daughter of the Lord Oldbarre one of the priuy counsell of Scotland did cause no terrour in me vntill that I did see the Marquis poysoned and remembred that the rest therin noted vvere dead and my selfe next pointed but suruiuing Why stay I any more the case requireth the pen no more but the svvord I do not vvrit so boldly because I am amongst Buckingham his enemies but I haue retired my selfe to his enemies because I vvas resolved to vvrit and doo earnestly against him as may very vvell appeare For since the Marquis of Hamilton his death the most noble Marquis de Fiatta embassador for the most Christian King of France and also Buckingham his mother sent on euery side to seeke me inuiting me to them but I did forsake them knowing certenly the falshood of Bukingham who wold rather haue suffered the Embassador to receiue an effront then to be vnsatisfied of his bloodthristie desire of my blood to silence me with death for according to the prouerbe the dead can not bite if he could haue found me for my L. Duke of Lenox who was often crossed by Buckingham and with his brother and the Erle of Southampton and others now dead was one of the roll found of those that were to be murdered vvell assured me that where Buchinghā once misliked no apologie no submission no reconciliation could keepe him from doing mischeefe Neither do I writ this in this fashion so freely for any entertainement here present which I haue not nor for any future which I haue no ground to looke for seing Buckingham hath so misled your Maiestie that he hath caused not only here but also vnto all natiōs all Britannes natives to be disgraced and mistrusted Your Maiesties Royall word which should be inuiolable your hand and seall which should be true to be most shamefully violated and your selfe to be helde most ingrat for your most kinde vsage in Spaine which Buckinghā maketh to be requited with iniuries in a most base false māner vnder Protestatiō of friendship a bloudy warre being kindled on both sides wherby he hath buried with King Iames the glorious title of a peacemaker Kinge who had done much more iustly more advisedly if he had procured peace vnto Christiandome Wherby small hope I have of obtaining iustice in my most iust complaint vnto vvhich my true affection to my dead friends murthered and the extreme detestation of Buckinghā his violēt proceedings hath brought me Your Maiestie may find most iust forces of reason to accuse him in my petition to the parliament which shall serue for a tutchestone to your Maiestie and a whitstone to me and many other Scotsmen And which if it be neglected will make your Maiestie to incurre such a censure amōgst all vertuose men in the world that your Maiestie will be loath to heare of and I am astonied to expresse at this time a serpent lurketh in this grasse No other way there is to be found to saue your honor but to giue way to iustice against that traitor Buckingham by whom manifest dāmage apphroacheth vnto your Maiestie no otherways thē death approached vnto King Iames. If your Maiestie will take any course therin the examinations vpō oath of all those that were about the King and the Marquis of Hamiltō in there sicknes or at there death or after there death before indifferent iudges no dependers of Buckingham will serve for sufficient prooffe of Buckingham his guiltines In the meane time vntill I see what shall be the issue of my complaint without any more
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