CHAPTER XXVII

MARRIAGE After a jury of matrons had been empanelled, and its evidence heard, the packed commission delivered its sentence of nullity, transforming the Countess of Essex back again into the Lady Frances Howard, within a week of Sir Thomas Overbury's death. The seven commissioners who voted in favour of it earned thereby the lasting approval of the King; the five who opposed it deserved his unuttered rancour. Nor did it soften this to discover that among the great majority of his subjects noble and simple the opposi…