the knight held the candle O there was a clear inspection. In turn, Essex claimed that he was capable with other women, but was unable to consummate his marriage. According to a friend, one morning (while chatting with a group of male companions) he had stood up and lifted his nightshirt to show them his erection—proving, if nothing else, he was physically capable of arousal. When asked why only she caused his failing, he claimed that "she reviled him, and miscalled him, terming him a cow, and coward, and beast." The idea of satanic involvement was seriously considered by the judges and at one point it was proposed that Essex should go to Poland to see if he could be "unwitched". The annulment languished and possibly would not have been granted if it were not for the king's intervention (Somerset was the favourite of King James). James I of England granted the annulment on 25 September 1613. Frances married Somerset on 26 December 1613. A murderous plot Sir Thomas Overbury, a close friend and advisor of Somerset, had tried to advise Somerset not to marry Frances Howard, but the Howard family and their allies were powerful. The Howard faction persuaded the king to offer Overbury the post of Ambassador to Russia, knowing he would refuse in order to stay in England by Somerset's side. When he did so, the king viewed this as an insult and imprisoned Overbury in the Tower of London, where he died. The annulment of Frances and Essex's marriage went through eleven days after Overbury's death, in September 1613. 18 months later, in the summer of 1615, a Yorkshire apothecary's assistant confessed on his deathbed that he had been paid £20 by the Countess of Essex to supply her with poisons for murdering Overbury. James I's Secretary of State, Sir Ralph Winwood, brought the accusations to the King's attention in September, and James in turn urged his Privy Council to investigate the matter. The subsequent investigation and trial revealed that Frances had been surreptitiously poisoning Overbury for some time before his death, by smuggling jellies and tarts into his chamber tainted with white arsenic and other toxic compounds. The Lieutenant of the Tower, Gervase Helwys, admitted that he had received a confession from Overbury's keeper, Richard Weston, that he had been bribed by the Countess of Essex to administer the poison. Helwys intercepted the tainted sweets