Cast of ravens : the strange case of sir Thomas Overbury

B. White

An account of the mystery which surrounds the death of Sir Thomas Overbury in the Tower of London. - King James ran an openly homosexual court. He had his successive favorites and one was a beautiful, rather dull young Scot named Robert Carr. Carr, on the evidence, was bouncily bi-sexual, addicted to the ladies while attractive to the king. Carr's possessively close advisor was Sir Thomas Overbury. Overbury, on the author's guess, was the more compleat homosexual. The two quarreled violently when Overbury disapproved of Carr's marriage to Frances Howard, divorced wife of the earl of Essex. Overbury's hostility was so marked that the Howard family brought pressure to bear, and James I had Overbury imprisoned in the Tower, where he was slowly poisoned. Carr and Frances Howard were convicted of his murder, but their lives were spared by the king.