In 1614 Carr was appointed
Lord Chamberlain. He supported the Earl of Northampton and the Spanish party in opposition to the old tried advisers of the king, such as the
Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, who were endeavouring to maintain the union with the
Protestants abroad. At the infamous trial
Edward Coke and
Francis Bacon were set to unravel the plot. Eventually, four people had been convicted for taking part in the murder, and hanged at
Tyburn at the end of 1615. They were Sir
Gervase Helwys,
Lieutenant of the Tower of London, Richard Weston, a gaoler,
Mrs Anne Turner, a "waiting woman" of Frances Howard, and an apothecary called Franklin.
Sir Thomas Monson, 1st Baronet of Carlton was also implicated in the case, but the charges against him were later dropped. Somerset and Howard were brought to trial in the spring of 1616. The latter confessed, and her guilt is widely accepted. Somerset's share is far more difficult to uncover, and probably will never be fully known. The evidence against him rested on mere presumption, and he consistently declared himself innocent. Probabilities are on the whole in favour of the hypothesis that he was no more than an accessory after the fact. Fearing Somerset might seek to implicate him, James repeatedly sent messages to the Tower pleading with him to admit his guilt in return for a pardon stating, "It is easy to be seen that he would threaten me with laying an aspersion upon me of being, in some sort, accessory to his crime". The king eventually let matters take their course, and both Somerset and Howard were found guilty and confined to the Tower. The sentence, however, was not carried into effect against either culprit. Howard was pardoned immediately, but both remained in the Tower until 1622. Somerset appears to have refused to buy forgiveness by concessions, and did not obtain his pardon until 1624. He emerged into public view only once more when, in 1630, he was prosecuted in the
Star Chamber for communicating a paper recommending the establishment of arbitrary government by
Robert Dudley to
John Holles, 1st Earl of Clare. Somerset died in July 1645, leaving one daughter,
Anne, the sole issue of his ill-fated marriage, afterwards wife of
William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford. == Material culture ==