Death and funeral of James VI and I
James VI and I (1566–1625), King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, died on 27 March 1625 at Theobalds, and was buried at Westminster Abbey on 7 May 1625.
When King James was on his deathbed at Theobalds, it was said that Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham had arranged for his treatment with a plaster or poultice applied to his chest, stomach, and wrist.
My Lord of Bukkinghame wishing mutche the Kings healthe caused splaister to be applyed to the Kings breast, after which his Majesty was extremely sick, and with all did give him a drink or syrup to drink; and this was which has spread such a business here and discontent as you would wonder, and Doctor Craig is now absented from court and Harry Gibb of the bedchamber is quarrelled for it (blamed), and my Lord Buckingham so incensed".
[12] After the king's death, Remington and other physicians including Matthew Lister disputed the provenance and composition of a medical plaster found on the body.
[13] Subsequently, George Eglisham amplified rumours by publishing the Forerunner of Revenge,[14] a pamphlet blaming Buckingham and his doctors for hastening the king's death.
[21] The proclamation sent for reading at the Mercat cross of Edinburgh accordingly referred to the "late King of Grite Britane, France and Ireland".
[22] A messenger was sent to Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, at The Hague with money and black cloth to place her household in mourning.
[23] A commission of Earls met in the council chamber at Whitehall Palace to determine the detail of the funeral and processions.
Instead, the Earls of Roxburghe and Morton went out of London to make merry with Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford at Moor Park.
[36] Two days before the funeral, the effigy was moved into the Great Hall at Denmark House, a room with a bay window, which was now decorated and draped in black like a funerary chapel.
[37] Charles I stayed at Whitehall Palace where the chapel was draped with black cloth like the rooms at Denmark House.
A number of servants, gunners, and former members of the household of Anne of Denmark petitioned the committee for an allowance of mourning livery, including Robert and John Wood who had kept the king's cormorants for 16 years.
[48] Colt also made a crown for the effigy set with counterfeit jewels, an orb, and a sceptre, which were gilded by John de Critz.
[53] As the king's effigy was placed in Inigo Jones's hearse or catafalque in the choir of Abbey, the Catholic ambassadors left the building.
[55] A diplomat from Tuscany, Alessandro Antelminelli alias Amerigo Salvetti of Lucca, described the procession from Denmark House and the funeral.
The place of his interment was rediscovered by Dean Stanley in February 1869 in the vault containing the coffins of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York.
[59] The antiquary John Dart saw a labelled urn containing the embalmed organs of Anne of Denmark in 1718, which he thought had been moved in 1674 during the reburial of the Princes in the Tower.
The other Scottish earls at the ceremony, not among the "close mourners", included; Linlithgow, Home, Wigton, Tullibardine, Roxburghe, Kellie, Buccleuch, Melrose, Annandale, and Lauderdale.
