Overbury, Sir Thomas

Including "The proceedings which happened touching the divorse betweene the Lady Francis Howard & Robert Earle of Essex," "The proceeddinges against Richard Weston," "The Arraignement of Ann Turner," "The proceedings against Sir Jarvis Elvash [Gervase Elwes]," "The Confession of James Franklin," and "The proceeddinge against Sir Thomas Monson," in a single scribal mixed hand with contemporary pagination, 154 pages, 4to (190 x 155 mm), early seventeenth century. Contemporary sheep with triple fillet border in blind, centerpiece gilt stamp of the arms of James I with crown and garter (probably applied later), spine with gilt fleurons; scuffed.

Thomas Sharp, 1693–1758 (armorial bookplate) — Sir Thomas Phillipps, MS 3969 — Phillips, London, 22 March 1990, lot 110. acquisition: Purchased at the foregoing sale through Bernard Quaritch

A manuscript collection relating to the greatest scandal of the jacobean court. In 1613 the 23-year-old Lady Frances Howard divorced the Earl of Essex (claiming he was impotent) in order to marry the King's favorite, the Earl of Somerset. Rumors then emerged that Somerset's close friend, Sir Thomas Overbury, who had opposed the marriage, had been poisoned when imprisoned in the Tower. A series of spectacular show trials followed in 1615 in which the Lieutenant of the Tower, Frances Howard's waiting woman, and others, confessed — under threat of torture — to being part of a sensational plot in which astrologers, love charms, poisoned tarts, prostitution, and starched yellow ruffs all played a part. Accounts of the trial circulated widely in manuscript.