Editing Thomas Overbury (section)

==Court intrigues and death==
[[File:Sir thomas overbury.jpg|left|thumbnail|150px|Engraving of a younger Overbury. Made after his death by Renold Elstracke, c. 1615–1616]]

After the death of Cecil in 1612, the Howard party, consisting of [[Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton|Henry Howard]], [[Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk|Thomas Howard]], his son-in-law [[William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury|Lord Knollys]], and [[Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham|Charles Howard]], along with [[Sir Thomas Lake]], moved to take control of much of the government and its patronage. The powerful Carr, unfit for the responsibilities thrust upon him and often dependent on his intimate friend, Overbury, for assistance with government papers,<ref>Willson, pg. 349; "Packets were sent, sometimes opened by my lord, sometimes unbroken unto Overbury, who perused them, registered them, made table-talk of them, as they thought good. So I will undertake the time was, when Overbury knew more of the secrets of state, than the council-table did." [[Francis Bacon]], speaking at the trial. Quoted by Perry, p. 105.</ref> fell into the Howard camp, after beginning an affair with the married [[Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset|Frances Howard, Countess of Essex]], daughter of the Earl of Suffolk.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Overbury was from the first violently opposed to the affair, pointing out to Carr that it would be hurtful to his preferment, and that Frances Howard, even at this early stage in her career, was already "noted for her injury and immodesty." But Carr was now infatuated, and he repeated to the Countess what Overbury had said. It was at this time, too, that Overbury wrote, and circulated widely in manuscript his poem ''A Wife'', which was a picture of the virtues which a young man should demand in a woman before he has the rashness to marry her. Lady Essex believed that Overbury's object in writing this poem was to open the eyes of his friend to her defects. The situation now turned into a deadly duel between the mistress and the friend. The Countess tried to manipulate Overbury into seeming to be disrespectful to the queen, [[Anne of Denmark]] who took offence. Her chamberlain, [[Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester|Viscount Lisle]], wrote in November 1612 that Overbury was allowed to come to court, but not in the queen's sight, or into her side of the royal lodgings.<ref>William Shaw & G. Dyfnallt Owen, ''HMC 77 Viscount De L'Isle Penshurst'', vol. 5 (London, 1961), p. 65.</ref>

James I offered Overbury an assignment as ambassador, probably to the court of [[Michael of Russia]], relations with Russia being at that time a potential issue between those who favoured a strongly pro-Protestant and anti-Catholic foreign policy, and those, centred on the Howards, who favoured accommodation with Catholic powers on the Continent; there were political reasons of international policy as well as personal ones involving the King's jealousy of Overbury's relationship with Carr, to persuade James to send the former away and also a private interest for Carr and Northampton to urge the offer upon him. Overbury declined, possibly because he felt tricked into it by Carr (precisely because refusing would ensure that Overbury would be imprisoned),<ref>Dunning, Chester. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2542372 "The Fall of Sir Thomas Overbury and the Embassy to Russia in 1613"], ''The Sixteenth Century Journal'', vol. 22, no. 4, 1991, pp. 695–704. ''JSTOR''. Accessed 30 July 2020.</ref> possibly because Overbury sensed the urgency to remain in England and at his friend's side. James I was so irate at Overbury's arrogance in declining the offer that he had him thrown into the [[Tower of London]] on 22 April 1613, where he died on 14 September.<ref>Annabel Patterson. ''Reading Between the Lines'' (Madison, Wis., 1993), p. 195.</ref>