Drawing Threads Together

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n                   What do the following have in common, other than beingnmentioned by me in this blog? Treacle, Holy Wells, the Gunpowder Plot, HangingnDrawing and Quartering, Stonyhurst, Robert François Damiens, Kenelm Digby,nVenice Treacle, and Viper Wine?

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nLet’s see if we can find a link.

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nI mentioned Treacle Wells the other day. One such holynwell is that of St Winefrede, at Holywell, North Wales, and in 1601, the priestnFather Edward Oldcorne sought a cure for his cancer there. Four years later henreturned, to give thanks, and with him went about thirty Catholic pilgrims.nOldcorne was the chaplain to Sir Everard Digby and his wife, and when, later innthe year, the Gunpowder Plot was discovered, it was said that its foundationsnhad been laid during the pilgrimage. Oldcorne was arrested for his supposedninvolvement, and tortured although no real link was discovered, he wasnsentenced to death and on April 7^th 1606, with three others, he wasnhanged, drawn and quartered; his final words were a prayer to St Winefride. Asnthe executioner struck the blow to behead him, its force was such thatnOldcorne’s eye flew out of its socket. This relic is now preserved atnStonyhurst. 

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nSir Everard Digby was also arrested and was the only man to pleadnguilty to the charges of high treason, and on January 30^th 1606 henwas, with three others, taken from his cell in the Tower of London. All fournwere strapped to wicker hurdles, dragged behind horses through the mud and dungncovered streets of a wintery London, and bruised and battered by the lurchingnof the hurdles. After just over a mile, they reached the west end of old StnPaul’s Cathedral, where Digby was told he was the first to be executed. He madena short speech to the crowd, admitting his act may have been sinful but hisnintentions were pure, and knelt and prayed for a while. His hands were boundnand he was stripped of all bar his shirt, then taken up a ladder, a noose putnabout his neck and the ladder turned away. In an instant, the hangman cut thenrope, and Digby’s body fell to the ground, bruising his forehead. Still living,nhe was dragged to block, castrated, his entrails drawn out and his body cutninto quarters. Legend says that when the executioner, according to the custom,nheld it up, saying, “Here is the Heart of a Traitor”, Sir Everard answered,n“Thou liest.” (This treatment of potential regicides has all too many shades ofnthe fate of Robert François Damiens). 

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nDigby had two infant sons, the eldestngrew to be Sir Kenelm Digby, he of the Closet Open’d cookery book. Bornnin 1603, Kenelm attended Oxford but left without taking a degree. He switchednfrom Catholicism to Anglicanism and took office in the Privy Council. Aboutn1624 or 1625, he secretly married the celebrated beauty Venetia Stanley, whomnhe had known from childhood. 

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nFrom 1628, he was a privateer (a state-registerednpirate), and captured a number of Spanish, Dutch and Flemish vessels, (thesenadventures will keep for another post); he was feted for his good-looks andnprodigious strength, and returned to England to take up work for the Admiralty.nHis wife, Venetia, was, shall we say, a ‘friendly’ girl and rumoured to be asnstupid as she was beautiful. She was also said to be suffering fromnconsumption, and on the morning of May 1^st 1633, she was found deadnin bed, with her head on her hand. Sir Digby had not wanted to disturb her whennhe went to bed late on the previous night, and had slept in another room.nRumours began to be spread that the jealous husband had poisoned her, and henadmitted that, to cure her headaches he had given her ‘viper wine’, which, younmay recall, was an ingredient of Venice Treacle. He was known to dabble innmedical matters, so it may well be he gave her a draught of this supposednpanacea. Very unusually for the time, an autopsy was performed, and it was notednparticularly that she had a very small brain in her skull (a result of cerebralnhaemorrhage, maybe). Digby’s reaction to her death was profound, making andeliberate poisoning seem unlikely, but an accidental one possible; he stoppednshaving, he grew his hair long, and, in contrast to his former flamboyantnclothes, only wore black garments with white collars. He withdrew from society,nreturned to Catholicism, gave up his adventurer’s life, devoted himself to hisnstudies, and went into voluntary exile in Paris. I’ll tell you more tomorrow.

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