An enquiry into the circumstances of the death of King Charles the Second, of England / by Norman Chevers.

  • Chevers, Norman, 1818-1886.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An enquiry into the circumstances of the death of King Charles the Second, of England / by Norman Chevers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    songs in that glorious gallery, whilst about twenty of tlie great courtiers and other dissolute persons were at Basset round a large table, a bank of at least 2,000 in gold before them; upon which two gentlemen who were with me made reflections with atonishment. Six ” (live) “ days after, all was in the dust !’ ”* The King's fatal illness, of which there are several narra- fives by eye witnesses and persons about the court,f com- menced on the morning of Monday the 2nd of February 1 681. On the previous day, he ate little all day, finding himself not well, which he did not confess, and came to Lady Portsmouth at night, (this must have been late—after the amusements in Whitehall, witnessed by Evelyn, were over,) and called for a porringer of spoonmeat. It was made too strong for his stomach; so he ate little of it; and he had an unquiet night.J Lin gaud says,—“ a feverish and restless night.” Wei wood says, “ After he was a-bed, he was overheard to groan most of the night, and, both then and next morning, before he fell into the lit, he complained, first, of a heavy oppression in his stomach and about his heart, and afterwards of a sharp pain in those parts.” The circumstances of the first attack are somewhat differ- ently stated. In a narrative of the time, from a broadsheet, reprinted in Somers’s Tracts, it is stated that, on that day, the King rose early, saying he had not slept well last night, and Edition of 1850, page 210, vol. 2. f The following narrative is taken, principally, from those of the sub- joined authorities :—Burnet; Evelyn; Mons. Barillon’s Letter to the King, in Appendix to Mr. Fox’s History, page 11; Letter to the Rev. Francis Roper, detailing the particulars of the Death of King Charles the Second ; Sir H. Ellis’s Original Letters, First Series, vol. III. page 333; Mr. Huddleston’s “ Brief Account;” Ibid 2nd Series, vol. IV ; The Life of Bishop Ken by a Layman ; Welwood; Jesse’s Memoirs of the Court of Eng- land during the Reign of the Stuarts ; Macpherson’s and Lord Macaulay’s Histories;—but the main thread of the narrative is taken from a docu- ment which has, I believe, never yet passed through the hands of an his- torian, namely a letter,—unfortunately without signature, but evidently written by a lady, the wife of a person about the Court of Whitehall,—which was, some time since, discovered at Draycot House, the seat of the ancient family of the Longs, and which has been printed in vol. IX., page 277 of “ Household Words.” This document certainly, in my humble judg- ment, bears every mark of authenticity, and contains a fuller account of the medical featuros of King Charles’s case than any other with which 1 have met. X Burnet.