The Schemes of Countess Frances Carr

his grand tour around Europe for a few years. When he came back, he had smallpox, so you couldn't really blame Francis for not wanting to go to bed with him, even if she hadn't fallen in love with another man at court while her husband was gone, which she had. Francis was a daughter of the powerful Howard family, and the gossips surrounding the impending annulment gave the Court of James the first plenty to talk about during the early

sixteen hundreds. But during the long process of these annulment negotiations, Francis Howard had to deal with the second scandal, much smaller, and much easier resolved. Francis had a ring that went missing. The ring was stolen, or so Francis claimed, by a local faith healer who went by the name cunning Mary. When the authorities confronted Cunning Mary, who did indeed have

the diamond ring in her possession, Cunning Mary protested. She said that the ring wasn't stolen, that Francis Howard had given the ring as a deposit in exchange for her help in killing Francis's husband. Cunning Mary claimed that, of course she had refused Francis's request, and in Francis's rage at the rejection, she decided that she would frame the

old woman for robber. No one really took cunning Mary's defense seriously, after all, she was a folk healer with the name cunning Mary, and Francis Howard, by contrast, was one of the most powerful young women in England. And so Cunning Mary was tried and convicted of the robbery, and Francis went back to dealing with the larger problem of her annulment from her husband and her desire to

marry another man. This small story with the ring and Cunning Mary is often omitted in larger stories about Francis Howard. It's overshadowed by what comes next, an infamous murder trial for an actual murder that makes gossip about her annulment seem almost quaint by comparison. But I think the ring story is important to give the larger story context. Other or not Francis actually tried to use cunning Mary's folk magic in her early twenties to try to kill the

husband she wanted to get rid of. I'm not sure there's really no evidence beyond cunning Mary's word, but young girls in love have done crazier things, and as you'll soon discover, Francis Howard would do her fair share of crazy things in order to secure her future. But what I find so compelling about the ring story is the

power dynamic at play. Whether or not Francis Howard was attempting murder, it was the poor woman who took the blame for the missing ring, the poor woman who went to trial, who was convicted, and who faced the consequences. But what I do know is that Francis Howard's life for being in the seventeenth century feels like an all too modern indictment of the privileges of wealth. And influence.

Francis Howard would only ever be on trial for one murder, but nearly half a dozen bodies would hang because of her. Francis Howard, or as she's known later by her married name, Countess Francis Carr, didn't murder her first husband, nor was she ever seriously accused of it. The murder trial would come later. It would be a public spectacle, with people

selling tickets for admission. Her first husband would actually be in the courtroom that day, and at least in my imagination, he might have smiled when the judge declared Francis Howard guilty. I'm Danish Worts and this is noble blood. The War of the Roses created something of a power vacuum among the highest echelons of nobles in the English court. It was the dawn of a brand new dynasty the Tutors, and like it would be eventually with the American West.

With the new comes the exciting possibility that there's room for social advancement. There were new duchies to claim, new earldoms to be given away. Titles were given and taken back and restored again. Families like the Bolins tried to lobby for new power. They managed to get a queen

on the throne before their gambit famously collapsed. The Howards, another powerful family, also managed to achieve the crown for one of their daughters, the young, beautiful Catherine Howard, But like the Bolins, their stellar rise was preceded by this spectacular fall of another beheading. After King Henry the Eighth came the brief reign of his son Edward, the brief reign of his daughter Mary, and then the long reign

of his other daughter, Queen Elizabeth. The first Elizabeth was Miss Lee, a virgin queen, and so after Elizabeth, the throne went to King James, the first son of the executed Mary, Queen of Scots. Throughout all of this, families, like the Howards, continued to jockey for position, their fates rising and falling over the decades. The Howards were dealing with a particularly fallow period. The teenage Queen Catherine Howard

was executed. Another Howard cousin, Thomas Howard, was executed by King Henry the Eighth, who, in a fit of petulance, deemed his coat of arms to be treasonous. Thomas's son, another Thomas Howard, was also executed for becoming involved in a scheme to put Mary, Queen of Scotts, on the throne. It was looking like all the Howards could do was make the current monarch mad at them. But then the third Thomas Howard, son and grandson of the executed Thomas Howard's,

flipped the trend. This Thomas Howard was celeb rated as a hero in the battle against the Spanish Armada, and then he went on to an incredibly lucrative marriage with a young widow slash heiress. Thomas and his wife would go on to have fourteen children. One of these children was Francis, born in fifteen nine, and so Francis was born at a precarious but cautiously optimistic time When it came to her family's fortunes. The most important thing for Francis to do was Mary well, and so her family

made absolutely sure of that. At fourteen years old, Francis was married to Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex, who was thirteen at the time. While young marriages were common enough in the sixteenth and seventeen centuries, a new line of relatively scientific thinking believed that it was dangerous and a little unseemly to consummate marriages that young. For women, it was thought, correctly i belief that they would be too small and fragile to carry children at that young age.

And for men, it was believed that if they spent themselves sexually at a young age, it would deplete their vitality and vigor later in life. And so even though Francis and Devereaux were married, they were raised completely separately. When they were teenagers, Devereaux was sent on a three year grand tour of Europe, as was fairly common at

the time, and Francis was sent to court. Here's the problem with sending a beautiful teenage countess to court when she doesn't really know or care about her slightly younger husband. She might fall in love with someone else, which Francis did almost as soon as she made eye contact with Robert Carr, a handsome man a few years older than she was, a man with an easy laugh and bright eyes. Car was already one of King James's favorites, and stock at court was rising quickly. When he met Francis's I,

he was equally besotted. They were a perfect match, an old family and a new favorite. Two fair young, attractive people, both with charisma and charm. There was only one problem, the pesky issue of Francis already being married. Francis wouldn't have been much interested in her slightly younger, weedy husband, even if he hadn't come back from his grand tour with small Box. But as it happened, he came back from his grand tour with small Box, so perhaps justifiably,

she did everything she could to avoid him. She knew that if the marriage was never consummated, it might be annulled, so when she couldn't outright dodge her husband, she did everything in her power to make sure that he couldn't successfully accomplished the deed of the marriage. Bed she mocked him and scorned him him ugly called him a coward.

By now, Francis was a woman of twenty, and she saw her future happening one of two ways, getting to marry the man she was in love with, a rising star at court, or being saddled with a pox riden teenager who just happened to be her husband. Being a woman who couldn't take her own annulment case forward, Francis's father and uncle brought the case only too happy to encourage their daughters even more, promising second marriage to come.

The claim was that her first marriage had never been consummated, which Devereaux reluctantly acknowledged was true, but not for lack of trying on his part. He scoffed at the Howard's claim that Francis had made herself poliant and available to her husband at every opportunity. With the affair between Francis and Robert Carr at Court being an open secret, the whole thing was especially humiliating for Devereaux. Devereaux would take to whipping his erect member out of his pants to

show anyone who asked. Several friends testified to seeing it. It's not that I can't have sex, Devereau moaned, It's just that I can't have sex with her. One of the key steps in securing an annulment by non consummation was an examination of Francis to confirm that she was in fact still a virgin. There was a small council

of midwives who are appointed to do the examination. Yep, the midwives said, definitely a virgin, but it was slightly less clear cut than that Francis had insisted on wearing a full veil to protect her quote modesty during the examination, and so rumors circulated at court that she had actually employed a virginal body double to undergo the examination for her. That was the main gossip piece of court for a while, and there was even a mocking little poem written about it.

This dame was inspected, but fraud interjected a maid of more perfection, whom the midwives did handle whilst the night held the candle. Oh, there was a clear inspection. Still, the people in charge decided that yes, Francis Howard was a virgin. But still the annulment was slow moving to finalize. For one thing, the king didn't want to upset the status quo or upset the Devereaux family and their allies.

But a larger factor was a courtier behind the scenes doing everything that he could to prevent the annulment from happening, calling in favors and influence all to keep Francis Howard from being able to marry her love, Robert Carr. This courtier's name was Thomas Overbury. He was Carr's best friend and closest adviser. He hated Francis and he believe that his friend was blinded by lust, Overbury would make sure that Francis stayed married to her first husband so that

he could save his friend. What Overbury didn't realize was that in the process he was making some very powerful enemies. Thomas Overbury met Robert Carr when they were both young men living in Edinburgh. They were of similar ranks, both noble but not landed. Car was working as a page, Overbury was a student. The two hit it off, and almost immediately Overbury recognized that Car had something that he didn't charm. Car was charming. Everyone liked him. He was

good looking, athletic fun. Overbury was smart, but no one ever mistook him for fun. He just seemed to rub people the wrong way. But Car Car would be his answer. His friend would be his entry into the world of power and privilege. Overbury, a few years older, positioned himself as Carr's mentor and adviser, the staffer behind the politician, the brains behind the jock. From their youth spent in Edinburgh. The two men would be reunited at court in London,

ready to fulfill the glorious promise of their futures. As it happened, Overbury's prediction that Carr was a star was about to prove itself correct. In sixteen o seven, the very same year that Francis Howard's poor husband was about to go leave on his smallpox infected tour of Europe, Carr participated in a joust at court where the King

James the First just so happened to be in attendance. Carr, looking handsome as ever on his horse, lost around and fell from his mount, breaking his leg with a sickening snap. The King visited Car personally in the hospital, and from there a close personal friendship formed. The King spent days at Carr's bedside, teaching him Latin and then ultimately knighting him, gifting him the confiscated estates of Sir Walter Raleigh, and all in all just ensuring that Carr would have a

favorable future at court. Much has been written and said about the rumors of King James's homosexuality or bisexuality, and I'll leave it to historians smarter than I am to

tease out the exact nature of the parents relationship. But it's true that James openly had male favorites, even if the law at the time would have prohibited him from publicly acting on any gay feelings he might have had, and even if respect for the crown might have meant that gossip at the time that might have surrounded those relationships was more muted than it otherwise might have been. But everything was comin' up Car, and by extension, coming

up Overbury. That was until Overbury noticed Car beginning to entangle himself with the very pretty young Francis Howard. Her reputation already preceded her. She was married, first of all, but always flirtatious and famous for wearing particularly low cut dresses. In Overbury's opinion, at least, she was not nearly the type of woman that Carr should be marrying. Frances was outgoing and powerful. Her family was almost serpent like in

their machinations around court. Overbury didn't want Car to get sucked up in all of that. Carr needed a good girl, an unmarried girl from a good family who wouldn't say too many opinions, and Overbury also privately thought a girl whose family wouldn't take over the managerial role in Car's life. That was his job to try to convince his friend

that Francis was totally wrong for him. Overbury wrote a poem called The Wife, all about what a perfect wife should be in short, dutiful, modest, chased everything Francis wasn't. The poem was a wild hit, going into six printings in its first year alone. Meanwhile, Overbury was working overtime behind the scenes to ensure that Francis Howard wouldn't be able to get an annulment from her first husband. But

Overbury underestimated his opponents. The Howards wanted their daughter to get her second brighter marriage, and the Howards knew all too well how to play the games of court. The first step in their plan was manipulating Overbury into saying something distasteful about the Queen Anne of Denmark. I couldn't discover exactly what the insult was, but the Queen was apparently so put off by the already unlikable man that she wrote that Overbury shouldn't even be allowed to any

event that she'd be present at. But that wasn't good enough for the Howards. They wanted to get rid of Overbury altogether, and so using their influence, they sweet talked to the King into appointing Overbury an ambassadorship to Russia.

It was a checkmate They knew that Overbury would want to refuse the post so that he could stay close to Car, which he did, but of course that meant turning down a very prestigious post directly given by the King, which was a gross insult, and so when Overbury refused,

the King locked Overbury in the tower. Some speculate that it was also partially thanks to the King's jealousy of Overbury's close friendship with Car, the King's favorite, but whatever the reason, there it was Overbury was locked up and out of the picture. Five months after that, Overbury died in his cell. No one really cared or paid much attention. It was seemingly of natural causes, but we'll get to

that later. Two weeks after Overbury's death, the King tipped the scales in the five to five stalemate for Francis Howard's annulment and granted it. Francis Howard and her lover, Robert Carr, were almost immediately married, too much rejoicing, and no one gave a moment's more thought to the unlikable curmudgeon rotting six feet under. At least they didn't think

about him. Then. Two years later, Frances and Robert Carr were happily married the newly minted Countess and Earl of Somerset, but there was about to be a ripple in there. Happily ever after, on his deathbed, a young assistant to an apothecary may a startling confession. He had sold the poison that had been used to murder Thomas Overbury in prison,

and he had received twenty pounds for it. The King didn't really want to get involved, but at this point his hands were tied, and so he ordered an investigation. It probably didn't help things that Carr was losing favor, becoming replaced by another favorite. The investigation led to the governor of the prison, Mr Elwis, who had suspected that maybe something illicit was going on, but he had done

his best to try to keep Overbury safe. A guard, Weston, was put in place by some well connected nobleman, and Mr Elwis was suspicious of him from the start, especially after seeing their prisoners condition begin to deteriorate. When Elwis suspected that Overbury's food was being poisoned, he tried to prepare his own food for Overbury. The fact that he wasn't direct complicit in the murders didn't prevent his trial

and subsequent execution. As an accessory to the murder, also executed the guard Weston, who had actually made the deliveries of what the investigators determined had killed Overbury. The investigators figured out that Overbury hadn't died of natural causes. It had instead been poisoned tarts and jellies, and then finally a fatal enema laced with sulfuric acid. I have no more information on how the animal was delivered, or whether

Overbury knew at the time that it was poisoned. I have to assume that an animal was just considered part of his standard daily treatment, and that Overbury wasn't aware that this one was poison On the day of his hanging, the prison governor Mr. Elwis continued to deny his guilt

on the gallows. He stated, quote, I was so far from thinking myself foul in the fact that until I was told how deeply I had imbrowed my hands in the blood of Overbury, making me, by God's law as guilty in the concealing of it, as if I had been a personal actor in it. Till then I held myself ignorant of the deed, and my conscience so clear that I did never ask God's forgiveness. Before he was hanged,

Always also asked God's forgiveness for his gambling habit. Two more individuals were also hanged as accessories to Overbury's murder that chilly November day. First, the apothecary James Franklin, a seedy man who immediately admitted his guilt. Franklin claimed that he had sold the poison directly to Mr Elwis, even though always own personal letters proved that that wasn't true.

Those letters conveniently were left out of evidence. Also being hanged was a woman, a former lady's servant to Francis Howard, named Anne Turner. Anne Turner is a fascinating woman, actually briefly referenced as a murderess in the novel The Scarlet Letter. She was the widow of a fashionable London doctor. She ran two brothels and popularized the use of saffron to dye the boring old white ruffs that the glitterati were

wearing in the seventeenth century. When the inspectors ransacked her home, they found pornography and other heretical material, which meant that Anne was all too happy to confess to being an accessory to murder. She confessed that she had informed a certain Francis Howard of where she might buy certain poisons. Being an accessory to murder meant that Anne would hang instead of burning at the stake for being a heretic.

When Anne was sentenced to death, she was told to wear her fashionable yellow ruffs around her neck and wrists so that her shame would finally cause the trend to die. Four individuals, the governor of the prison, the guard, the apothecary, and the lady's maid all arrested and all hanged the same day for playing tiny rolls in a murder orchestrated

by those with real power. Francis and Robert Carr's guilt, at least of being involved in the murder seemed like a foregone conclusion, but their connections in Royal court made it so that their trial was delayed by almost a year. Francis was twenty five years old when she was finally brought before the court on May twenty four, sixteen sixteen.

The man who tried the case for the king was none other than the father of the scientific method, Sir Francis Bacon, who tried his best to treat Francis with the utmost kindness after she immediately pleaded guilty and burst into tears. The court case was a public spectacle. Not only was Frances already infamous for her earlier annulment, but this was a countess on the stand accused of murder. One man was recorded paying ten pounds for seats for

him and his wife in the stands. Extra scaffolding had to be built in Westminster Hall to contain all of the onlookers. Accounts at the time described Frances as incredibly beautiful, but also as faint and delicate. What those accounts don't usually remark on is the fact that Frances was heavily pregnant at the time she was found guilty and sentenced to death, and while she was imprisoned, she gave birth to what would be the couple's only child, a daughter

named Anne. The baby was cared for by Frances's sister until Frances was released, which she was fairly quickly. Within months, the King commuted her death sentence. Francis's husband, Robert Carr, was also tried, but unlike his wife, he denied all knowledge of any wrongdoing. While he was imprisoned, the King wrote him letters begging him to plead guilty, saying that of course he would pardon him immediately, he just needed

to plead guilty. The King, it appeared, was a little afraid of what Robert Carr might reveal over the course of a trial, which some historians believe indicates that the King too was responsible in some way for Overbury's murder. But still Carr maintained that he had no involvement in the actual poisoning, and that his only guilt was helping to cover up for his wife after the fact by burning some documents. Carr was convicted and sentenced to death,

but he too was almost immediately spared. The pair was released from prison, Francis in sixteen twenty two and Robert Carr in sixteen twenty four, and they went on to live perfectly happy, private lives in the relative obscurity of Oxfordshire. Scandalized, sure, but still wealthy, and with their heads still attached. Noble blood and the King's goodwill has the power to do

plenty when it comes to self preservation. That's the story of the infamous Countess Francis Carr, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit more about her trial. There's actually still some speculation today among historians as to whether Francis Carr was actually guilty or if she was just manipulated into taking the fall because she knew the King would pardon her. But most people do believe that she played, if not an active role

in Overbury's death, then at least an orchestral role. Enemies had real consequences in the seventeenth century. For some it was truly kill or be killed. But I hope you haven't forgotten that Francis's first husband, poor pox ridden Devereaux, who was so publicly humiliated when the entire world had to hear about him being unable to have sex with

his wife, well he got his revenge. Robert Devereaux, Earl of Sussex, was one of the members of the jury during Francis's trial, and he was one of the men who listened to the evidence, listened to her weep, and then proclaimed his former wife guilty. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. The show was written and hosted by Dana Schwartz. Executive producers include Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.

The show is produced by rema Ill Kali and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales, and you can learn more about the show over at Noble Blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M M