Literary patron

Overbury graduated BA from Queen 's, Oxford in 1598, and entered the Middle Temple. On a visit to Edinburgh in about 1601, he was introduced to Robert Carr; their acquaintance and friendship was renewed when Carr came to London with James I upon the latter's accession in 1603. He was subsequently to inherit some of the property confiscated from Robert Wintour (1607); he became sewer to the king and was knighted in June 1608. It was increasingly recognised that he controlled access to Carr, now Viscount Rochester and the king 's favourite. He encouraged Carr's affair with Frances Howard , countess of Essex , but actively opposed their subsequent marriage when she managed to obtain a divorce. Carr attempted to sideline Overbury by securing him a diplomatic post; when this failed he had him imprisoned in the Tower in Apr. 1613. Apparently through the instructions and machinations of Frances Howard , he was slowly poisoned to death there over a period of three months, and he died in the Tower on 15 Sept. 1613. Carr and the countess married on 26 Dec. Murder was not suspected for almost two years, but after a series of trials the earl and countess were convicted of murder and imprisoned in the Tower for five years; their (lower-born) accomplices and agents were executed. James I pardoned and released the Somersets in 1621. Overbury's poem on marriage 'A Wife' was first published in 1614, and republished repeatedly (with many additions by other poets) in subsequent years.

Manningham was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge (BA 1596), and was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1605. His diary of the years 1602-3 is a valuable record of London life and gossip, especially that relating to the theatre; it was first published for the Camden Society in 1868.