SIR THEODORE MAYERNE.
Painter unknown.
BORN 1572-3, DIED 1656-7.
Seated in an arm-chair. Dressed in a black gown. White collar and cuffs. Black skull-cap. Grey beard and whiskers. His hand resting on a bust of Hippocrates. A large clasped book on the table, inscribed ‘Hermes.’ The painting is on wood.
THEODORE TURQUET, Sieur de Mayerne, Baron D’Aumont, born at Geneva. His father was an author of no very great repute. Theodore was Physician-in-Ordinary to Henry IV. of France, and after his death, came to England, and occupied the same post at the courts of James I., Charles I. and his Queen, and Charles II. His name is specially remembered in connection with that of Henry, Prince of Wales, whose last illness was so sudden, but it was not for some days after the attack that Mayerne was called in to consult with Henry’s own medical adviser. There were rumours afloat that the hope of the nation, the darling of his father’s people, was the victim of poison, administered by Lord Rochester, the King’s favourite, through jealousy of the Prince’s supposed admiration for the beautiful but abandoned Countess of Essex, but Mayerne refuted the accusation, in an elaborate account of Henry’s illness, (which he published in English, French, and Latin,) proving that the Prince’s death was occasioned by natural causes.
He disagreed with the other physicians as to the treatment of the patient, and the King gave him a certificate, and the Lords in Council and the gentlemen of the Prince’s household expressed their entire satisfaction with the manner in which this able man had conducted the case.
Theodore Mayerne, Baron D’Aumont, received the honour of Knighthood from the hands of Charles I. His death was caused by drinking (though moderately) of bad wine when dining with a few friends at a tavern in the Strand. Bad wine is usually a slow poison, but in Sir Theodore’s case, advanced age, and consequent weakness, quickened the result. He foretold to his companions the exact hour at which death would ensue, and the prediction proved but too true. Mayerne had the credit of inventing many valuable medicines, and left behind him many receipts that were much esteemed. He was an excellent Latin scholar, and wrote several medical works in that language. He was moreover an admirable chemist, and Walpole tells us that the celebrated miniature painter Petitot owed the perfection of his colouring in enamel to some chemical secret imparted to him by the Court physician.
Sir Theodore was buried in the old church of St. Martin’s in the Fields. He had an only daughter, married to the Marquis de Cugnac, who died when only twenty. She was buried at Chelsea.