Did James the First of England die from the effects of poison, or from natural causes? / by Norman Chevers.

  • Chevers, Norman, 1818-1886.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Did James the First of England die from the effects of poison, or from natural causes? / by Norman Chevers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    hat was set on his head, he would not take the pains to alter it, but it sate as it was put on.”* The accounts of the king’s habits given by the foreign envoys at the court of England, cited by Yon Raumer,t when brought together, afford us a most extraordinary picture of one who, for a long series of years, continued, gradually, to impair the vigour of his mind and body by a course of systematic vice and intemperance. In 1606, Villeroi writes that the king had, lately, been represented in a play as cursing and swearing because he had been robbed of a bird; beating a gentleman because he had called off the hounds from the scent; and as being drank, at least, once a day. J In 1621, Til- lieres writes that, in order to confer an honor on the house of the Duke of Buckingham, the King determined to drink to excess at a banquet there. “ When he was a good way advanced and full of sweet wine,” he appears to have been guilty of some disgusting indecency, which the translator has the good sense to omit. The ambassador adds:—“ Had I not received this account from trustworthy persons, I should have considered it impossible : but this King is as good for nothing as possible, suffers himself to be walked in leading-strings like a child, is lost in pleasures, and buried, for the greater part of his time, in wine.” In November of that year, Til- lieres speaks of the king’s sullenness in the performance of public business having increased “ since violent headaches had weakened him and attacked him both in body and spirit.” Early in 1622, the same person writes “The vices of the king weaken his intellect, as appears from the letters which he has written to the parliament, and in which the want of order, connection, and judgement is apparent.”—“ He sinks so low in his nullity that sloth now appears to him the highest and only enjoyment,” and “the end of all is ever the bottle.” In May of that year.—“ For my part, I am convinced that the secret,” [Buckingham’s influence over the king] “ lies in his infamous licentiousness, his total want of spirit, and the * This is, probably, merely an ill natured description of the king’s usual manner of riding. According to Baker,—“ It is said that he had such a fashion in riding, that it could not so properly he said he rid, as that his horse carried him; for he made but little use of his bridle, and would say a horse never stumbled, but when he was reined. t History of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, illustrated by original documents, X Cp. cit. vol. 2, p. 220. b