Thomas Overbury
Thomas Overbury was an English courtier and writer born in June 1581 in Warwickshire, the son of Sir Nicholas Overbury. After completing his education at Queen's College, Oxford, he pursued a social life at the Middle Temple and became close friends with Robert Carr, who rose to prominence as a favorite of King James I. Overbury utilized Carr's influence to gain royal favor, receiving financial support and a knighthood. His involvement in Carr's relationship with Frances Howard, the wife of the third Earl of Essex, positioned him as a pivotal figure in a scandal that would lead to his downfall.
In 1613, Overbury was imprisoned in the Tower of London under mysterious circumstances and died under distressing conditions later that year, sparking rumors of poisoning. An inquiry revealed a web of intrigue involving Frances Howard and her marriage to Carr, now the Earl of Somerset. Although Overbury's death prompted significant scandal and scrutiny, the exact motivations and details surrounding it remain unclear. Posthumously, his literary works were published, but their authorship is often disputed, overshadowed by the drama of his life and suspicious death.
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Subject Terms
Thomas Overbury
Poet
- Born: June 18, 1581
- Birthplace: Compton Scorfen, Warwickshire, England
- Died: September 15, 1613
- Place of death: Tower of London, London, England
Biography
Thomas Overbury was born in June, 1581, at Compton Scorfen in Warwickshire, the third of ten children of Sir Nicholas Overbury, a judge and member of parliament, and Mary, née Palmer. He completed his education at Queen’s College, Oxford, in 1598, then moved on to the Middle Temple—more for the social life than to study law—and sporadic travels. In Edinburgh in 1601, he met Robert Carr, with whom he formed a close relationship.
In 1604, Carr became a favorite—numerous histories describe him, with unusual frankness, as a “minion”—of James I, whose accession to the English throne in 1603 was associated with a mass southward migration of ambitious Scotsmen. Overbury took full advantage of Carr’s influence; the king gave him money in 1606 and a lease on a saltworks in 1607 before knighting him in 1608, and his bothers also benefitted from royal largesse. He presumably served in this period as an agent in both personal and political affairs that the king conducted in secret.
Carr was also the lover of Frances Howard, the notorious wife of the third Earl of Essex; Overbury operated as their go- between, but when Carr told his friend of his intention to marry Lady Essex if a divorce could be procured, Overbury apparently judged that the lady would “do as a mistress but not as a wife.” Lady Essex allegedly took mortal offense at this slight. On April 26, 1613, Overbury was thrown into the Tower, on the pretext that he had refused to take part in a diplomatic mission. He was ill when he arrived there and his condition rapidly grew worse. He died in severe distress on September 15.
Overbury’s death went unremarked at first, but rumors began to spread that he had been poisoned. An inquiry into his death was launched in 1615, and a series of confessions was extracted by torture from four alleged conspirators, implicating Frances—who had married Carr, now Earl of Somerset, in December, 1613. She and her husband were prosecuted by Francis Bacon; she was persuaded to plead guilty and her husband was convicted in spite of his refusal to do likewise, but they were pardoned by royal prerogative and released from the Tower in 1622. The truth of who did what to whom, and for what motive, remains stubbornly obscure, but the affair was a colossal scandal.
All the works attributed to Overbury were issued posthumously, and their authorship is dubious. A Wife, Now A Widowe, a forty-seven-verse commentary on the politics of choosing a wife, written with callously detached cynicism, was reprinted with a set of Characters—exemplary studies in prose illustrating various follies and vices, including a romantic account of “a faire and happy milk-maid,”—but it is unlikely that any of them are his. The mildly scandalous Crumbs Fal’n from King James’s Table must have been attributed to him to protect its true author.
None of these works could compare with the delicious drama of his death, which featured in many subsequent works, although John Ford’s account of “Sir Thomas Overbury’s Ghost” has unfortunately been lost. Overbury should not be confused with his similarly-named nephew, who published some minor essays on religious disputes.