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.

    10/68 (page 8)
    horseman, but his courtiers invented for him a sort of hunt- ing made easy” in the practice of which, notwithstanding their system and his own great caution his majesty sustained falls.* His habits of intemperance were of very old date. Within a few months of his accession to the throne of England, he drank at an entertainment which he gave to the ambassadors of Denmark and Brunswick, for five hours, until he fell sense- less upon the table.t In October 1601, Beaumont,—referring to the measures which Anne of Denmark was then taking with a view that Prince Henry should, in future, reside in her court,—wrote that the Queen had said to him,—“ It is time that I should have possession of the Prince, for the King drinks so much, and conducts himself so ill in every respect, that I expect an early and evil result.” He adds, “ I know that she grounds herself in this, that, according to her expressions, the men of the house of Lenox have gene- rally died, in consequence of excessive drinking, in their fortieth year, or become quite imbecile, the King growing, daily, more weak and contemptible, the consideration of the Queen increases in proportion.” We are told, J in 1614, eleven years before his death, that this year, as it was the meridian of the king’s reign in England, so was it of his pleasures. The king was excessively addicted to hunting and drinking, not ordinary Frenchand Spanish Wines, but strong Greek wines ; and, though he would divide his hunting from drinking these wines, yet he would compound his hunting with these wines, and, to that purpose, he was attended with a special officer, who was, as much as he could be, always at hand to fill the king’s cup in liis hunting when he called for it.” The same authority continues, I have heard my father say that, being hunting with the king, after the king had drank of the wine, he also drank of it; and, though he was young and of a healthful disposition, it so disordered his head that it spoiled his pleasure and disordered him for three days after. Whether it were drinking these wines, or from some other cause the king became so lazy and unwieldy that he was treist on horseback, and as he was set so would he ride, without posing himself on his saddle; nay, when his * Pictorial History, f Raumer. j Roger Coke, as cited in Somers’s Tracts.