Tales from the Tower of London II

(Hosts: Kristin, Christine) 

In this episode, Kristin and Christine bring back a fan-favorite topic, the Tower of London! First, Kristin talks about Jewish connections to the Tower in the Middle Ages. Then, Christine takes you to the Stuart era to talk about the death of Tower prisoner Sir Thomas Overbury. 

 

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
[Kristin:] The Tower of London has a million good stories, and we’re here to tell you a

(00:04):
few in this new installment of Footnoting History’s series Tales from the Tower.
We’ve got Jewish connections to the Tower and a murder-mystery this week on Footnoting History!
[Kristin:] Hello Footnoting History friends, it’s Kristin, and we’re back to add to our

(00:28):
collection of tales from the Tower of London. Remember if you’d like a captioned version of
this episode, you can find it on our website, FootnotingHistory.com as well as our YouTube
Channel. I’m going to begin with a story about a group of people’s connection to the Tower:
the Jews of England. But before I begin, I would like to express how indebted I am – we

(00:53):
all are – to the current work being done by the Jewish History of the Medieval Tower of London
Project, through the Historic Royal Palaces organization and headed by Dr. Rory MacLellan;
as well as the Medieval Londoners Database Project, run through Fordham University and
headed by Dr. Maryanne Kowaleski – the latter project I have personally been

(01:17):
involved with as an editor – and it’s pretty amazing, if I do say so myself, and oh,
I do. We’ll link to both of these projects in the Further Reading for this episode, and if you’ve
got time, I highly recommend checking them out. Especially with the Medieval Londoners Database,
you can learn a lot about medieval London and the people who lived there and where they lived – and

(01:40):
it’s a really incredible way to spend – if you’re anything like me – hours of your day.
So. I’ll of course start with the source material and how we know what we know. Historians hear
about the Jewish experience in England from a few places. Jewish people were a continuous
presence in England for a few hundred years in the Middle Ages and much of our source material

(02:05):
for them comes from documents such as the Pipe Rolls – named for literally how they look,
they’re all rolled up like big pipes, they’re pretty cool looking. Pipe Rolls
were the financial records of the Crown and like tax stuff. But of course there
are other things like the Patent Rolls which tell us about Jewish life in medieval England,

(02:26):
and Patent Rolls were another royal record that detail privileges granted to people, charters,
chronicles and records of fines and stuff like that. Some records are more voluminous
for the 13th century than the 11th and 12th centuries, but that’s the general overview.
The medieval Jewish community existed physically in England for a finite period of time,

(02:51):
sometime after the Norman Conquest in 1066 until their formal expulsion by Edward I in 1290. But
in the medieval imagination, Jews never really left England, and there is a really fascinating
collection of essays edited by Sheila Delany that explores through the works of Geoffrey

(03:12):
Chaucer what historian Gloria Cigman has called “an absent presence” in the medieval mind. Chaucer
probably never met an actual practicing Jewish person (there may have been a few converted Jews
still alive in England in his time but he probably didn’t know them and they weren’t practicing Jews

(03:32):
anymore anyway). But that didn’t stop Chaucer – and a lot of other medieval writers and
artists – from representing Jews in their work. Most people tend to think of Shakespeare and his
Merchant of Venice to illustrate this point but it was happening a lot earlier than Shakespeare.
It’s a very particular slice in time that Jews were present in medieval England, but they were

(03:57):
definitely there, primarily located in the larger cities, like London but not exclusively London.
To date, we are aware of hundreds of Jewish individuals who were connected to the Tower
of London. Some we know more about than others. Some we have only a name. And
some are really not even more than a vague name and are listed in a single

(04:21):
entry as just “Jews of Oxford,” or “Jews in the Tower beyond the elephant house.” (Yes,
there was an elephant house at one time and lots of other exotic animalswere kept at the
Tower over the course of its lifetime. Different story for another day but there is an episode
in the Footnoting History archives that talks a little bit about this, if you’re interested now.)

(04:43):
With respect to the Tower, the first reference we get to the Jewish community is in 1189 and … it’s
not a great beginning. During Richard I’s coronation in September of 1189,
there were a lot of people who were really angry that there were Jews in London,
and they felt the Jews should not be allowed to attend the coronation. And … there … was a riot

(05:09):
in London and a lot of Jewish people were killed and their property destroyed. An unknown number
of Jews fled to the Tower for protection. They are listed as “anonymous Jews in the Tower in 1189.”
Some sources at the time say that the only people who survived were those who fled to the Tower or

(05:29):
who hid in the houses of their Christian friends. These are not the only Jewish sanctuary-seekers

in the Tower that we know of (05:36):
there are more in  1220 who were more pre-emptory sanctuary-seekers
(it was Henry III’s coronation and they were hip to the danger as it were, people remembered what
happened at Richard’s). This happens again in 1236 for the coronation of Eleanor of Provence,
Henry III’s queen, and there are a few more instances of groups of Jews taking refuge during

(06:01):
Eastertime, which was generally a dangerous time for medieval Jewish communities, or after other
political turmoil – and there a few individual seekers named over the years. For example, someone
named Leo son of Preciosa hid in the Tower during Simon de Montfort’s attack on London in 1268.

(06:21):
Officially, the Jewish community of England was considered the king’s property and they were
under royal authority with each community around the kingdom being overseen by a royal appointee:
the sheriff or a constable of a castle or whatever. In the 13th century, Jews were
put under the authority of the Constable of the Tower – basically the guy running

(06:43):
the Tower of London. These men were generally pretty powerful individuals in their own right,
and the position was one that was appointed by the king. They were in charge of the prisoners,
but also stuff like building maintenance and the menagerie, when there was a menagerie.
It’s a position that actually still exists. The Constable of the Tower was in charge of

(07:04):
the London Jewish community – but he could also arrest Jews anywhere in England. He was
also supposed to be protecting the Jews, which is why we see the Tower used as sanctuary during
times of violence and imminent danger. But of course there’s also that power to arrest
and punish which is the context in which we find the majority of Jews in the Tower.
Most of the entries in the Medieval Londoners Database – 225 out of 236 entries (and

(07:31):
remember entries can be “anonymous Jews” or some unspecified number, so the number of individuals
is greater than that 236) – most are there for imprisonment. Mostly people were there because
they were accused of coin-clipping, but also there is tax evasion stuff along with murder,
handling of stolen goods and one person was in there for blasphemy though I’ve yet to figure

(07:56):
out exactly what this person said or did that counted as blasphemy. I talked about
coin-clipping in my Licoricia of Winchester episode, if you’d like to hear more about that,
but it’s basically shaving bits of precious metals off coins and watering down the currency
and robbing the Crown – and Licoricia also spent time in the Tower while her estate and taxes were

(08:18):
being sorted out after the death of her husband. Some people who were imprisoned got out after
paying a fine – like Isaac of Norwich who was a prominent moneylender who ran afoul of my friend,
King John. He was first arrested in 1210 and imprisoned in Bristol – there was a tallage,
or tax, levied on him and a few other Jews and they were being kept until they paid

(08:42):
up. Isaac was pretty loaded and his estate was about 10% of the taxable wealth of the English
Jewish community. Isaac was eventually transferred to the Tower in 1213 and
paid a pretty medieval English penny (10,000 marks or almost £7,000) to avoid execution.

(09:04):
As other prisoners in the Tower, Jews could pay for better treatment or terms
of confinement. In the 1270s, at a time when many Jews were imprisoned for coin-clipping,
some unknown number of Jews paid to be able to celebrate a festival while in the Tower.
This was sometime between June 1277 and December 1278. This entry sounds like the High Holidays,

(09:28):
especially since other entries in this same time frame say people paid to be
able to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Also in this same time frame,
a Jewish man named Hake Heringuad paid a bit over £15 for “easy imprisonment,
gates, and for respite of imprisonment.” It is not explained what “easy imprisonment”

(09:49):
was exactly but it the whole thing kind of reads like he was allowed out on a day pass
or something. We do know that “gates” meant that he was allowed to move around inside the Tower.
Hake wasn’t the only Jewish person to pay for better treatment, there are others. Interestingly
to me, a woman identified as the wife of Cok, son of Jacob paid to be able to go into the city of

(10:13):
London because she was pregnant and to also be able to move about the Tower during the day.
Not everyone was quite so lucky – and/or rich enough to pay for release or better treatment.
Such as one Abraham son of Deulecresse, who was a big deal in the Norwich Jewish community
in the later 1200s. He was one of Norwich’s chirographers. Chirographers were in charge

(10:36):
of the archa chests in towns that contained charters of people’s debts, which again,
you can hear more about in my Licoricia episode. Abraham was ultimately accused of coin-clipping
and was imprisoned in the Tower between 1277-1279, until he was executed in the winter of 1279,
though actually not for the coin-clipping charge, or at least not mainly. This is our blasphemer.

(11:04):
I wish I could tell you more about the details of the charges that brought him to the stake,
but we’re only told “blasphemy and other unspecified trespasses.” The Patent Rolls
tell us that poor Abraham was drawn and burnt. Hundreds of coin-clippers in the
later 1200s were hanged so this was a pretty particularly brutal punishment for Abraham.

(11:29):
There are a few people we hear about who don’t have quite such dark connections to the Tower.
One guy, Philip le Convers, who – as his name might tell you – was a convert from Judaism to
Christianity. That guy worked as a crossbowman at the Tower from 1225-1237. Another convert
named Henry of Winchester (also known as Henry de Derngate) was part of the Tower staff in 1278.

(11:55):
Henry III was personally involved in this guy’s conversion – thus the name Henry – and he even
knighted him and gave him a substantial stipend for life. Wish I knew more about what happened
there to make the king so interested. Henry of Winchester went on to work at the Exchequer of
the Jews – which was a financial office inside the Tower meant specifically to deal with taxes

(12:19):
on English Jews – Henry worked as a clerk and was able to write stuff in Hebrew – he also
was a bonds trader and a wool merchant, this guy did a lot of stuff. He was arrested in
1278 with the coin-clippers but managed to survive. He got arrested again in 1279 for
dealing in stolen goods and was imprisoned and owed some fines and got out on bail.

(12:44):
The only known unconverted Jewish person to work at the Tower was someone named Jurnet, son of
Abraham. He was an attorney and a moneylender and seems to have been pretty well-off, owning some
property and a few houses. He was on the wrong side of the law a few times – and imprisoned
once for failing to pay some taxes and other wonderfully vague “diverse trespasses” and the

(13:08):
Constable of the Tower was ordered to arrest him and a man named Hake of Canterbury for taunting
and beating someone named Thomas of St. Michaels. But they settled out of court. Jurnet is referred
to as a “sergeant of the Tower of London” in a court case in June/July of 1281. Jurnet and two

(13:29):
other men – Aaron son of Elias and Moses of Dog Street – were carrying the body of a man who had
been murdered – Josce of Guildford – on a cart to the Jewish cemetery and while they were passing
through Southwark, which was a suburb of medieval London, a bailiff demanded a toll, and they said
they didn’t have to pay because they were excused by the king, the bailiff attacked them and stole

(13:53):
stuff for his toll and they sued him – and they won. So while we don’t know exactly what Jurnet’s
Tower duties were – it seems that at least one of them was transporting bodies to the Jewish
cemetery, a job that unfortunately saw an uptick in the 1270s with the mass coin-clipping charges.
The records of Jewish prisoners at the Tower of London in the Middle Ages tell us a lot about the

(14:18):
greater Jewish community in England – but also what it was like for people in the Tower. I find
it fascinating that people paid to be shackled “singly”, or that some imprisoned Jews paid the
Sergeant of the Tower to be able to be servants to other imprisoned Jews, who were also paying for
the privilege of having servants; or that there were people being kept inside the elephant house;

(14:42):
or that there were just all these other structures inside the Tower that we can only kind of guess
at. Some people were being kept in “Brother John’s stables” – or “the cellar of Brother John’s
stables.” Who’s Brother John and where was this and also his stables had a cellar? I don’t know
much about the architecture of medieval stables, so I found that surprising. I love that I know

(15:06):
that there was a woman named Contessa Cat which is the single most awesome name I’ve yet to come
across. Bravo, Contessa Cat; or Contessa Cat’s parents, bravo. So many people were incarcerated
in the 1270s on those charges of coin clipping, it’s really sobering to think about. Some of them

(15:27):
may have been guilty, but a lot of them weren’t. A lot of them didn’t make it out of that situation
alive, and those who did didn’t find themselves in great circumstances either. They were living in a
kingdom that was increasingly anti-Jewish and would soon find themselves expelled completely
and … there weren’t many better options of where to go. We don’t always get to see much of ordinary

(15:51):
people in medieval records – and these are really not much different, but you see glimmers and the
occasional longer story and you know you’re just scratching the surface. There were probably lots
of other Jewish people imprisoned at the Tower – or who worked at the Tower – and they deserve
to be remembered as that greater history of the Tower of London and medieval England.

(16:15):
[Christine:] Hey everyone, Christine here. I’m excited to follow up Kristin’s excellent selection
of medieval Jewish connections to the Tower with a story of intrigue, imprisonment…and murder?
Our story takes place in England, during the reign of Stuart King James
I (also known as James VI in Scotland).The center of our attention is Sir Thomas

(16:41):
Overbury. Thomas was born in the early 1580s, and had a pretty well-off upbringing. He was educated,
admitted to Middle Temple–that’s one of the Inns of Court significant in the English
legal world–and moved in circles that put him in close proximity to up-and-coming
and already-important people.Thomas’ closest friend was Robert

(17:03):
Carr. In fact, historian Alastair Bellany, who wrote at length about Thomas and whose
work I must tip my hat to for this episode, said, “Overbury's relationship with Robert Carr…was the
most significant of his life.” While we do not know the true depth of their relationship, as it
might have been sexual but we don’t know for sure, these friends were certainly emotionally entwined

(17:29):
enough to stick together for a long time. It was also the relationship that led to Thomas’ death.
You see, Robert Carr was a royal favourite. That means that King James was besotted with him. Born
into a well-to-do family, Robert eventually became one of James’ grooms of the bedchamber,

(17:49):
putting him in the orbit of the king on a regular basis and in an intimate fashion since the grooms
helped the king do things like get ready for his day. While exactly how intimate Robert and the
King were is still often a matter of dispute among historians, we know that in 1607, Robert broke his
leg during a tilt at a royal celebration. King James was moved to aid Robert in his recovery,

(18:15):
and soon enough Robert was attached to his side, receiving gifts and titles and responsibilities
and all the rewards that come from being beloved by the most powerful man in the land. As Robert
became closer and more established with the King, he kept Thomas with him as his right-hand man.
Thomas helped with anything Robert asked of him, be it related to the King or his own personal

(18:39):
matters. This made him privy to a great deal of rewards (like knighthood) and information
that others were not. If it sounds like a pretty sweet life, that’s because it basically
was…until Thomas and Robert found themselves on opposing sides of a very important situation.
In the early 1610s, Robert (who was, by now, titled Viscount Rochester), developed a romance

(19:04):
with a woman named Frances Howard. Now, you might be asking yourself, what’s the big deal
about that? Well, Frances was married to Robert Devereaux, the earl of Essex. It was an unhappy
union, a political match and not one containing any affection, but it was a union nonetheless.
Initially, it appears that Thomas was–if perhaps not overly joyous about the affair–at

(19:29):
least supportive of his friend Robert’s romantic situation enough that he helped it along. Most
interestingly to me, it appears that Thomas went so far as to write Robert’s letters to
Frances for him. However, as things grew more and more serious between Robert and Frances, Thomas’
disapproval levels rose. What happened next was a messy entanglement of personalities and politics.

(19:54):
Robert and Frances decided they wanted to be together. This meant filing for a dissolution
of Frances’ marriage to the earl of Essex–the grounds of which would be that the earl was
impotent and had never consummated their marriage. Once that union was terminated,
she would marry Robert Carr. In theory they would live happily ever after, while her family enjoyed

(20:16):
closer proximity to the king and, they surely hoped, increased influence on him. Thomas was
not a fan of the Howards, politically or religiously, and he certainly was not a
fan of anyone being closer to his bestie Robert than himself. He became an outspoken opponent
of the relationship between Robert and Frances, though Robert had no inclination to listen to him.

(20:38):
As the scuffle for proximity to Robert (and by extension, the King) continued, it also became
clear that Thomas was growing unpopular in general. His arrogant personality had rubbed the
Queen wrong, so she didn’t like him, while King James felt he was a meddler and wasn’t thrilled
by the amount of influence Thomas had over Robert. Whatever security Thomas once had due to

(21:00):
his friendship with Robert, it was eroding fast.In spring of 1613, the writing for Thomas’ career
and influence was on the wall. The King offered him a position as an ambassador. That meant he
would be sent abroad, basically riding off into the sunset and away from Court politics and,
most importantly, away from Robert. We all know that in this case, when I say he was

(21:24):
“offered” the position, I don’t really mean it was an offer. The King expected him to accept,
and it was really a thinly-veiled command. Thomas, however, believed that Robert would protect him,
so he flat-out refused to go anywhere and…you guessed it…Robert didn’t. Thomas got arrested
and thrown into the Tower of London for contempt.Almost as soon as he was out of the way–seriously,

(21:49):
it was very quick–Frances petitioned for the dissolution that would clear the way for her
to marry Robert. For months, Thomas lingered in the Tower. He was purposely ignored by those who
had sought to get rid of him and had barely any contact with the outside world anyway. He stewed
and raged about it, but no one particularly cared. Robert was going to marry Frances as soon as her

(22:13):
current marriage was nullified. Even though it seems Thomas was offered a lifeline–freedom
if he agreed to make amends and support the union, which he appears to have accepted–Thomas
remained in prison. The movement for the dissolution progressed onward while Thomas’
health deteriorated quickly and painfully.On September 15, 1613, Thomas died in the

(22:36):
Tower and was quickly buried. Everyone probably muttered, oh what a shame, or something similar,
but the whole situation was ascribed to natural causes, as Thomas had been undergoing health
issues during his time in the Tower. Frances was granted her dissolution, Robert was made
earl of Somerset, and the two were married by the end of the year. End of story…right?

(22:58):
Not right.Two years later, there was a major plot twist.
You see, by 1615, Robert was no longer shiny and untouchable as the King’s most beloved–in fact,
a new potential favourite was on the rise, making Robert’s position tenuous. Plus, Robert
had long been acting as the King’s unofficial secretary, but now the King had an official

(23:21):
secretary in Sir Ralph Winwood…and Ralph had no love for Robert and his circle of associates. So,
when the secretary got wind of rumors that Thomas’ death might not have been as natural as it first
appeared, he investigated it, and it was decided that murder was what actually ended Thomas’ life.

(23:41):
Keeping in mind that this investigation took place two years after Thomas’ passing,
that they knew the conclusion of the investigation would have huge impact on certain persons,
and that the means of procuring information like confessions wasn’t always done peacefully,

here is the sketch of what allegedly happened: Frances Howard, at the time hellbent on marrying (23:57):
undefined
Robert Carr, was livid that Thomas Overbury was working against her. She pulled lots of strings
to have people in high positions in the Tower be those she could use to get to Thomas. Of course,
she couldn’t kill him herself, so over time she had friends and dependants gain access to Thomas

(24:20):
and do their best to poison him. The poison was, then, the reason Thomas died a long painful death
and not the fact that he had bad health combined with medical care in that era not being the
best. Alastair Bellany tells us that during the trials it was alleged that “Potions and powders,
disguised as medicines, had been taken to him; poisoned pies and jellies had

(24:43):
been delivered to his table; and, when all else failed, an apothecary’s assistant had
been bribed to finish him with a poisoned enema.” Big yikes, if true. Except…we will
probably never know if it was the full truth.While it is likely that there was an attempt at
poisoning him, it has not been explicitly proven that poison was the full cause of Thomas’ death.

(25:06):
The sensational accusations, trials, and scandal that came from the investigation’s conclusion
was enough to make it be seen as proof and to ruin many lives other than Thomas’. Frances’
multiple alleged accomplices–including a Tower official and Frances’ friend Anne
Turner-were rounded up and eventually lost their lives by execution for the crime.

(25:28):
As for Frances and Robert, well, Frances eventually confessed to her role in the poisoning
plot, but Robert never did. Still, both were convicted and set to face execution, but spared
by the King. Instead, with their reputations and lives in tatters, they were imprisoned in the
Tower of London, though unlike Thomas they were able to walk out, in 1622. Still, Robert’s time

(25:52):
in the positive spotlight was over. He and Frances remained together, but could no longer take part
in Parliament or Court. Frances passed away in 1632 and Robert in 1645. They had one daughter,
Anne, who had been born during their imprisonment.What a story.
Thank you for joining me –and Kristin, too, of course — for this episode of Footnoting History.

(26:16):
Please check out FootnotingHistory.com for our further reading suggestions so you can learn
more details about this case that I didn’t have time to include here. Then you can come to your
own conclusion about whether poison really succeeded in killing Robert’s former bestie,
Thomas. Oh, and never forget, the best stories are in the footnotes.