without suspicion of having been poisoned by Buckingham. He was buried with great pleased in the court. Besides, the act itself (though it had been the best medicine in the world) was a daring not justifiable; and some of the king's physitians muttered against it, others made a great noise, and were forced to fly for it; and though the still voice was quickly silenced by the duke's power, yet the clamourous made so deep impressions, that his innocence could never wear them out. And one of Buckingham's great provocations was thought to be his fear, that the king being now weary of his too much greatness, and power, would set up Bristol, his deadly enemy against him to pull him down. And this medicine was one of those 13 articles that after were laid to his charge in parliament."-Dr. Welwood in his note on this passage observes, "that Dr. Eglisham, one of the king's physitians, was obliged to flee beyond seas, for some expressions he had muttered about the manner of his majesty's death, and lived at Brussels many years after. It was there he published a book to prove king James was poisoned; giving a particular account of all the circumstances of his sickness, and laying his death upon the duke of Buckingham and his mother. -Among other remarkable passages, there is one about the plaister applied to the king's stomach. "He says it was given out to have been mithridate, and that one Dr. Remington had sent it to the duke, as a medicine with which he had cured a great many agues in Essex. Now Eglisham denies it was mithridate, and says, neither he, nor any other physitians * Wilson, p. 287. magnificence at Westminster-Abbey' on could tell what it was. He adds, that Sir Matthew Lister and he being, the week after the king's death, at the earl of Warwick's house in Essex, they sent for Dr. Remington, who lived hard by, and asking him what kind of plaister it was he had sent to Buckingham, for the cure of an ague, and whether he knew it was the king the duke designed it for? Remington answered, "that one Baker, a servant of the duke's, came to him in his master's name, and desired him if he had any certain specific remedy against an ague, to send it him: and accordingly he sent him mithridate spread upon leather, but knew not till then that it was designed for the king. But," continues Eglisham, "Sir Matthew Lister, and I shewing him a piece of the plaister we had kept, after it was taken off, he seemed greatly surprized, and offered to take his corporal oath, that it was none of what he had given Baker, nor did he know what kind of mixture it was. -But the truth is, this book of Eglisham's is wrote with such an air of rancour and prejudice, that the manner of his narrative takes off much from the credit of what he writes b" The parliament, in the year 1626, a Gibson's Cambden, vol. I. p. 386. ↳ Compleat History, vol. II. p. 790. It is to be wished Welwood had given us the title of this book of Eglisham. In the second volume of the Harleian Miscellany there is a tract intitled the Forerunner of Revenge. Being two petitious: the one to the king's most excellent majesty, the other to the most honourable houses of parliament. Wherein are expressed divers actions of the late earl of Buckingham, especially concerning the death of king James, and the marquis of Hamilton, supposed by poison. By George EgJisham, doctor of physic, and one of the physitians to king James, of happy memory, for his majesty's person above ten years, 4to. Lond. 1642, though it appears to have been written in Buckingham's life-time, and I doubt not, was then printed. There is an air of rancour and prejudice in this small piece; but not a word of what Dr. Welwood relates. "The King," says he, "being sick of an ague, the duke took this opportunity, the seventh of May following; his son and charged Buckingham with having caused certain plaisters, and a certain drink to be provided for the use of his majesty king James, without the privity or direction of the physicians, and compounded of several ingredients to them unknown, notwithstanding the same plaisters, or some plaister like thereunto, having been formerly administered unto him, did produce such ill effects as that some of the physicians did disallow thereof, and utterly refuse to meddle any further with his majesty, until these plaisters were removed, as being prejudicial to his health, yet the same plaisters and drink was provided by the duke, and the plaisters applied to the king's breast and wrist, and the drink given to him at seasons prohibited by the physicians. After which, they set forth, divers ill symptoms appeared upon his majesty, and his majesty attributed the cause of his trouble to the plaister and drink which the duke had given him. The duke in his portunity, when all the king's doctors of physic were at dinner, and offered to him a white powder to take, the which he a long time refused; but overcome with his flattering importunity, at length took it in wine, and immediately became worse and worse, falling into many swoonings and pains, and violent fluxes of the belly, so tormented, that his majesty cried out aloud of this white powder, would to God I had never taken it.”—He then tells us of "the countess of Buckingham's applying the plaister to the king's heart and breast; whereupon he grew faint, and short breathed and in agony. That the physitians exclaimed that the king was poisoned; that Buckingham commanded them out of the room, and caused one of them to be committed prisoner to his own chamber, and another to be removed from court; and that after his majesty's death, his body and head swelled above measure, his hair with the skin of his head stuck to the pillow, and his nails became loose upon his fingers and toes." See Harleian Miscellany, vol. II. p. 71. 4to. Lond. 1744. If this was the book in which Dr. Welwood remembered to have read what I have quoted in the note, his memory discharged its office but very ill. However, I rather suspect, there is a larger account of Eglishain's in print, than that Welwood should have invented. * See Rushworth, vol. I. p. 351. successor Charles following, attending his answer insists on his innocency, declaring that the drink and plaister were procured by the king's own desire, on his recommendation; that by his own command they were applied; that he (Buckingham) gave the drink in the presence of some of the physicians, who tasted it, and did not shew their dislike of it; and that when he told the king it was rumoured that the physic he had gave him, had done him hurt, his majesty with much discontent answered, they are worse than the devils that say it. The commons having received a copy of the duke's answer from the lords, say, "they shall presently reply in such sort, according to the laws of parliament, that unless his power and practice undermine our proceedings, we do not doubt but we upon the same have judgment against him." But his power and practice so far undermined their proceedings, that a dissolution soon followed, by which they were prevented from producing their proofs of what they had asserted. This made a deep impression on men's minds, and caused them to apprehend that James had not had fair play for his life. The hindering a parliamentary inquiry into the death of a king, by putting an end to the parliament itself, had an odd appearance, and caused many to think that there was more at the bottom than it was convenient should see the light.-I will add a passage from Burnet, to what has been now produced, which, if true, will pretty well clear up this matter. King James," says he, "in the end of his reign was become weary of the duke of Buckingham, who treated him with such an air of insolent contempt, interment; Dr. Williams, lord keeper, and that he seemed at last resolved to throw him off, but could not think of taking the load of government on himself, and so resolved to bring the earl of Somerset again into favour, as that lord reported it to some from whom I had it. He met with him in the night, in the gardens at Theobalds: Two bed chamber men were only in the secret; the king embraced him tenderly and with many tears. The earl of Somerset believed the secret was not well kept; for soon after the king was taken ill with some fits of an ague and died. My father was then in London, and did very much suspect an ill practice in the matter: But perhaps Dr. Craig, my mother's uncle, who was one of the king's physitians, possessed him with these apprehensions; for he was disgraced for saying he believed the king was poisoned." These are the foundations on which the suspicion of James's being poisoned by Buckingham relies. Whether any thing more than suspicion arises from them, must be left to the reader to determine. Lord Clarendon, who could not be ignorant of a good part of what has been now related, speaking of James's death, says, "it was occasioned by an ague, (after a short indisposition by the gout) which meeting many humours in a fat unwieldy body of 58 years old, in four or five fits carried him out of the world. After whose death," adds he, "many scandalous and libellous discourses were raised without the least colour, or ground: as appeared upon the strictest and most malicious examination that could be made, long after, in a time of licence, when no body was afraid of offending majesty, and when prosecuting the highest re Burnet, vol. I. p. 20. |
