Category: William Hobbes

The Death of Edward IV

9/4/2016

King Edward IV is said to have been tall and handsome, a charismatic and affable character, but in months before his death that man had long since disappeared and in his place, according to Dominic Mancini, was a

"a tall man and very fat though not the point of deformity." who had "to take an emetic for the delight of gorging his
stomach for this reason.........he had grown fat in the loins."

On the 9th April 1483 King Edward IV died suddenly and unexpectedly, his death has been attributed to pneumonia, typhoid, or appendicitis. Mancini's suggested that during a fishing trip Edward had "allowed the damp cold to strike his vitals." Many of his court must have known, but dare not say, that it was Edward himself who was to blame for the situation he now found himself in, and they would have been right, only nineteen days before his forty second birthday his hedonistic life of drinking and sexual pleasure had finally caught up with him.

Another suggestions as to the cause of Edward's death was poison. Polydore Vergil wrote that Edward

"died of a disease utterly unknown to all the physicians which showeth some that there was some foul play, and
that may be understood to be either poison or sorcery"

Whatever the mode of death, it was a shock for the family on a personal level, but it would turn out to be an absolute catastrophe for the House of York which Edward's brother, the Duke of Gloucester foresaw and was quick to act upon.

"...we heartily pray you to come unto us in London in all the diligence ye can possible, after the sight hereof, with
as many as ye can make defensibly arrayed, there to aid and assist us against the Queen, her blood, adherents and
affinity, which have intended and do intend, to murder and utterly destroy us and our cousin, the Duke of Buckingham, and the old royal blood of this realm, and as it is now openly known, by their suble and damnable ways forecasted the same"

While his country fell into a state of panic and his family into infighting, Edward's body was passed into the care of his personal physician

"our trusty and well-beloved servant, William Hobbys, cirurgion for oure body."

William Hobbes had been in the pay of Richard, Duke of York as his medicus et sirurgicus up to his untimely death at Wakefield in the December of 1460, and following that, Hobbes became a member of the household of York's heir Edward, being appointed his Sergeant Surgeon. It was in this capacity that he attended both Edward and Richard, Duke of Gloucester and following his accompanying the Duke of Gloucester to Scotland, Hobbes returned to find the king ailing.

On the death of any anointed king there was a specific ritual that would have been performed, the body would have been washed and dressed and laid out on a board and covered with gold cloth. This ritual, in the case of Edward's death is documented in Gairder's 1861 work the Letters and Papers illustrative of the reigns of Richard III and Henry VI.

According to this Edward's body was

"first the corps was laide upon a burdle, all naked saving he was covered from the navyll to the kneys, and
so laie x (10) or xij(12) hours" to be viewed and then " shewid to his nobles by the space of ij (2) days and more
if the weather it be suffre, when he may not goodly lenger endure, thake hym away, and bowel hym and then efstone bame (embalm) him" after which he would have been placed in a lead coffin.

Edward was later buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Thus ended the reign of King Edward IV, his death lit the fuse on a giant powder keg, it finally exploded on the 29th April 1483.

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William Hobbes: Sergeant Surgeon to the House of York

22/9/2015

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The Sergeant Surgeons were originally military surgeons, it was their duty to attend the monarch on the battle field.
At the Battle of Dettingen in Germany in 1743, one John Ranby was the last man to perform this duty when he accompanied King George II into battle.

In 1461, William Hobbes was the first person to be appointed to this position, and Hobbes proved to be one of the few trusted servants of the House of York. Hobbes was born in London to a father who also practiced in medicine. John Hobbes sent his son to study in Oxford, and it was there, in 1459, that he trained as a Bachelor of Medicine, and after completing three years training he moved to Cambridge to practice as a doctor.

We can see Hobbes name written in the Common Plea Rolls. Second row down - William Hobbes Doctor of Medicine.

Men like William Hobbes would have trained much as our doctors do today, beginning as an apprentice, starting with the
more mundane tasks of bandaging and cleaning wounds and then moving onto minor and major surgery. The role of royal surgeon meant that he followed his king into battle and dealt with a range of injuries that might have been inflicted. His
other duties would be administering to the king on a regular basis and interestingly, checking applicants who were to be
touched by the king for what was called the 'Kings Evil' or Scrofula, the swelling of the lymph nodes in the neck caused by tuberculosis. The Sergeant Surgeon would also have had the job of witnessing the torture of prisoners, they were responsible for making sure that the torture was

"not so prolonged that it endangered the prisoners life."

In his article Sergeant Surgeons to their Majesties, H Thompson states that Hobbes was sergeant surgeon to Henry VI in 1461 but Mary Ann Lund in her article Richard's Back, Death, Scoliosis and Myth Making states that it was in fact Edward IV who employed Hobbes in this capacity, it seems that the latter statement is correct as Hobbes was in the pay of Richard, Duke of York as his medicus et sirurgicus up to his untimely death at Wakefield in the December of 1460, and following that, Hobbes became a member of the household of York's heir Edward, later Edward IV, being appointed his Sergeant Surgeon.

Within a month of Edward IV claiming the throne Hobbes was reaping in the benefits. He received 'a place, wharf, crane and diverse houses' to the value of £14 from the king as well as being paid a yearly sum of just over £26 pounds for his duties of 'principal surgeon of the royal body.'  In 1473 Edward granted him an exemption from that years Act of Resumption, calling him

‘our trusty and well-beloved servant, William Hobbys, cirurgion for oure body’

It seems that William Hobbes, in his medical capacity, had no contact with Edward's sons, we know that Edward, the older boy was thought to be sick, but he was attended by the more famous John Argentine, also a Cambridge scholar. In 1475 Hobbes accompanied Edward to France, where in the August Edward negotiated the Treaty of Picquigny, and in 1479 he was appointed, along with one Walter Bate, as Master of St. Mary of Bethlehem, a lunatic asylum in London, that today we know as Bedlam.

Another of the duties of the sergeant surgeon was to embalm the body of the king, no doubt this was not on his mind when he accompanied Richard, Duke of Gloucester to Scotland in the August of 1482, but by the following April, William Hobbes did find himself performing this task on the body of Edward IV.

Dr Lund describes the ritual Hobbes had to follow from an account dated 1483.

   "at the death and buryall of an annoynted king" Dr Lund explains that the body has been washed and dressed and
laid out on a board covered with gold cloth  "and so shewid to his nobles by the space of ij (2) days and more if the weather it be suffre, when he may not goodly lenger endure, thake hym away, and bowel hym and then efstone
bame (embalm) him" and the body placed in a lead coffin.

Dr Lund goes on to state that in Edwards case

"first the corps was laide upon a burdle (board), all naked saving he
was covered from the navyll to the kneys, and so laie x (10) or xij (12) Ours' to be viewed.

Following Edward IV's death, Hobbes became physician to Richard, Duke of Gloucester. In this capacity Hobbes would have dealt directly with Richard's body. One of his tasks was to manipulate joints, and we can only wonder if the vast increase to his wage from £26 to £40 a year, was the reward for managing the kings scoliosis successfully. William Hobbes retained this post throughout Richards short reign, but the kings death at Bosworth in 1485 saw the end of his career.

On the 27th September 1488, William Hobbes died a loyal servant to the House of York. He was buried at Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, London.

The wording on Hobbes tomb suggests that he was proud of his achievements and his place in the royal court.

Hic jacet Willelmus Hobbes quondam medicus et Sirurgicus Illustrissimi domine ducis Eboracencis ac filiorum suorum
regum Illustrissimorum Edward iiiji et Ricardi tercii quorum anime et animabus propicietur Deus amen

"Here lies William Hobbes, once physician and surgeon of the most noble kings Edward IV and Richard III, to whose soul,
and to whose souls, may God be merciful, Amen"

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The Death of Edward IV

William Hobbes: Sergeant Surgeon to the House of York

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