ABSTRACT
In 1 6 1 4 Frances Howard stood on top of the world. Her marriage had harnessed Robert Carr to the Howards, and her family prospered. In 1 6 1 5 Roger Wilbraham summed up their position:
[Suffolk] Lord Treasurer; his son-in-law, the Earl of Somerset, Lord High Chamberlain and the most potent favorite in my time; Lord Knollys, another son-in-law, Treasurer of the Household and by his favor made Master ofWards; the Earl of Salisbury another son-in-law; the Lord Walden, his eldest son, married to the heir of the Earl of Dunbar, another of the chief favorites of King James; all the younger sons married to livings of £1 ,000 and more; the Chancellor of Ex chequer and many other officers placed by his means and his son-in law Somerset's, that great favorite. 1
But even as Wilbraham was writing this letter the series of revelations that were to culminate in the trials for the murder of Thomas Overbury was beginning to unfold. A summary account of the events is the necessary prelude to this chapter.
