Binding: Hardcover
Description: In early 1618, Anne Cecil (nee Lake) Lady Roos accused Frances Cecil countess of Exeter of having committed adultery and incest with her husband the countess's step grandson William Cecil Lord Roos. The countess had attempted to poison her twice first with a poisoned enema and later with a poisoned syrup of roses. With the help of the countess Lord Roos secretively fled England for Catholic Italy leaving his wife and family behind. Now the murderous countess was again planning to poison Lady Roos and perhaps also her father Sir Thomas Lake the king's Secretary of State. The countess vehemently denied these sensational charges fell on her knees before the king and asked for justice and restoration of her damaged honour. The accusations and the countess's defence quickly became a public scandal. The king and council investigated and ordered the matter be solved in the Court of Star Chamber. The Lake and Cecil families promptly sued and counter - sued each other for slander. The trials attracted much attention not least because Lake's position as Secretary hung in the balance and because King James decided to emulate the Biblical King Solomon and sit as a judge himself. While the feud and entangled scandals make for sensational reading they also offer unexplored windows into the culture society and politics of Jacobean England. These were events with resounding reverberations and profound impacts on the Jacobean court involving both its domestic and foreign spheres. Here Johanna Luthman scrutinises the scandals in detail for the first time. Employing a diverse range of methodologies and critical lenses including those from the history of medicine and gender and an analysis of several court cases that have not yet been studied Luthman demonstrates the importance of incorporating the history of these scandals into an understanding of complex and fraught world of the court of King James VI. In so doing the book offers new perspectives from which to understand the period and will be necessary reading for all those interested in Jacobean history as well as the history of gender family medicine and scandal more generally.
Title: Family And Feuding At The Court Of James I The Lake And Cecil Scandals
Author(s): Luthman Dr Johanna (Professor Of History Professor Of History University Of North Georgia)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Barcode: 9780192865786
Pages: 368 Pages
Publication Date: 3/1/2024
Category: Social & Cultural History