- The Stanley Family Papers on the Earl of Derby's Mysterious Death.
- Another Account of the Mysterious Death of Fernando Stanley, Earl of Derby.
- The Mysterious Death of the Earl of Derby: Was it Witchcraft?
- The Mysterious Death of the Earl of Derby: Was it Poison?
- So then, What Did Cause the Mysterious Death of the 5th Earl of Derby?
That said, witchcraft was everywhere in 16th century England. The source of John Stowe's account of the event, subject of a previous post here, was headed “A True Report of such Reasons and Conjectures as Caused Many Learned Men to Suppose Him to be Bewitched,”1 The mysterious and gruesome death of Fernando Stanley, the Earl of Derby, could only be attributed to the practice by many from the time.
It was only to be expected that witnesses would report fearful evidence of it. Also that they would believe much or all of what they reported, though, surely, their imagination or desire for attention was the true source.
The first reported event of the matter before us, however, would seem to have been true. The Earl was staying at his estate in Lathom.
The first of Aprill, being the munday before his honour fell sick, a woman offered unto him a supplication, or petition, wherein her request was, that it would please him to give, or assigne her a dwelling place neere unto himself, that shee might from time to time reveale unto him such things with speed, which God revealed unto her for his good. This petition was thought vaine and therefore refused.2
Strange as it may seem, such petitions were not uncommon. The account of the encounter gives no indication that Derby thought her a witch. She was offering her services as a “wise woman” or “cunning woman”.
The Countess of Derby had suffered a miscarriage the week before. Such misfortunes were often thought to be the effect of witchcraft among the peasantry. It is quite possible that word of it had spread through the nearby villages. The woman likely kept a roof over her head by offering her services to counter witchcraft attacks.
The Countess was very much the source of concern as late as the night of April 4. We learn from the account in the family papers that Derby woke from a nightmare about her.
On the fourth of Aprill he dreamed that his Lady was most dangerously sicke to death, and in his sleepe beeing sore troubled therewith, he wept, sodanly cryed out, started from his bed, called for helpe, sought about the chamber, betwixt sleeping and waking, but being fully awaked was comforted, because he found her wel:... 3
The continuation of the sentence tells the modern reader a great deal: “here we omit strange dreames, or divinations of divers grave men, which happened before or about the time of his sicknes.” After the Earl's death, many remembered dreams that had foretold events about to be perpetrated.
Unbeknownst to all, Derby was already mortally ill himself, his body surging with toxins which surely raised his anxiety over his wife to nightmare. His wife, however, being well, he decided to return the next morning to his regular seat an Knowsley Hall. There he suffered an hallucination.
On the fift of April, in his chamber at [Knowsley] about five of the clocke at night, there appeared soddainly a tall man, with a gastley and threatening countenance, who twise or thrise seemed to cross him, as hee was passing through the chamber, and when hee came unto the same part of the chamber where this shadow appeared, he presently fell sicke, and there vomited thrise. After, Goborne one of his Secretaries attending then upon him saw nothing, which more amazed him. The same night he dreamed that he was in fighting, and twise or thrise stabbed to the heart, and also wounded in many other places of his bodie.
The hallucination, however, would be interpreted as the actual entrance of a demonic spirit into the room. The powers of evil were hovering around him.
Derby rode back to Lathom, accompanied by his Secretary Golborne,4 to engage the services of his close friend and trusted practitioner, Doctor Case, at the more convenient location. This while he was continually vomiting. Soon after arriving back in Lathom, diarrhea would be added to his miseries.
At this point, the world around Derby was surreal. Another Derby servant would report making a discovery on April 10.
The tenth of Aprill, about midnight, was found in his bed chamber by one master Halsall, an image of wax with haire, like unto the haire of his honours head, twisted through the belly thereof, from the navell to the secrets [privates]: This Image was spotted, as the same master Halsal reported unto master Smith, one of his secretaries, a day before any paine grew, and spots appeared upon his sides and bellie. This image ws hastily cast into the fire by master Halsall, before it was viewed, because hee thought by burning thereof, as hee sayd, hee would relieve his Lord from witchcrafft, and burne the witch, who so much tormented his Lord, but it fell out contrary to his love and affection, for after the melting thereof, he more and more declined.5
It is a matter of consequence that Halsall destroyed the voodoo doll before anyone else could see it and verify its existence. This kind of discontinuity is everywhere in such records of mysterious illness to the detriment of more rational reports.
In the meantime, the wise woman seems to have divided in two. By one report, a witch named Jane is asking, on April 12, after details of the Earl's condition. She has asked whether his urine has stopped, and, at precisely the time she does so, it stops: he can no longer urinate. Again, no confirmation by other witnesses is possible.
By another account collated into Stowe's source, the following:
A homely woman, about the age of fifty yeeres, was found mumbling in a corner of his honours Chamber, but what God knoweth. This wise woman (as they termed her) seemed often to ease his honor, both of his vomiting and hickocke [hiccup], but so it fell out, which was strange, that when so long as he was eased, the woman herselfe was troubled most vehemently in the same manner, the matter which she vomited, being like also unto that which passed from him. But at the last, when this woman was espied by one of the Doctors tempering and blessing (after her manner) the juyce of certaine herbes, her potte whereunto shee streined the iuyce, was tumbled downe by the sayd Doctor, and she [ejected?] out of the Chamber,...6
This is almost certainly the same Jane and the wise woman who offered her services to Derby after his wife's miscarriage. Surely, she would not be in a corner of his room working feverishly to fend of the witchcraft that she believed was killing him without having been called there by the Earl himself. Desperately ill in spite of his doctors' best efforts, he had engaged her services as wise woman.
1 Harl. MS. 247, fols. 204–205, article no. 58,
2Stowe, John. Annales or General Chronicle of England (1631). 767.
3 Ibid.
4 Daugherty, Leo. Investigating the Death of the Fifth Earl of Derby (2011). 182.
5Stowe.
6Stowe.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
The Stanley Family Papers on the Earl of Derby's Mysterious Death. April 8, 2023. “Strange events, of course, occurred at Lathom, according to statements later given under oath.”
Queen Elizabeth I’s Heart and the French Ambassador. March 21, 2023. "The reason to delay his first audience under this pretext would soon be known."
Young William, Lord Herbert, samples the pleasures. February 24, 2023. “...a bookish, melancholic young man, with an addiction to tobacco, only slightly less to the ladies...”
A Brief Introduction to the Tudor Inn. February 5, 2023. "A London inn was homey enough, it would seem."
Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Queen Elizabeth I Biography Page for many other articles.
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