A DECLARATION TO THE kingdom OF ENGLAND, CONCERNING The poisoning of King JAMES of happy memory, KING OF GREAT Britain.  
Wherein is contained, several remarkable Passages, touching the King's Majesty, and the Duke of Buckingham; With the manner, how the old Countess of Buckingham, and the Duke her Son, applied a plaster to the King's heart & breast, & administered a white Powder in a cup of Wine, which caused the King's body and head to swell above measure, his hair with the skin of his head stuck to the pillow, and his nails became loose upon his fingers and toes.  
Together with King JAMES His Protestation concerning our sovereign Lord the King that now is. And His majesty's last Speech upon His deathbed.  
Written by George Eglisham, doctor of physic, and one of the physicians to King JAMES of happy memory, for His majesty's Person above ten years' space.  
LONDON, Printed for GEO; HORTON., 1648.   

A DECLARATION To the kingdom of ENGLAND Concerning The poisoning of King James (of happy memory) King of Great Britain.  
WHereas the chief human care of Kings, and Courts of Parliament, is, the preservation and protection of the subjects lives, liberties, & estates, from private and public injuries; to the end, that all things may be carried in the equal balance of Justice, without which, no Monarchy, no commonwealth, no Society, no Family, yea no man's life or estate can consist, albeit never so little: It cannot be thought unjust to demand of Kings, the censure of wrongs; the consideration whereof was so great in our Monarch of happy memory King James, That He hath often publicly protested even in the presence of his apparent heir, That if His own son shoul● commit murder, or any such execrable act of inj●ry, he would not spare him, but would have him die for it, and would have him more severely punished then any other: For he very well observed, no greater injustice, no injury more intolerable can be done to man by man, than murder. And therefore, for a more further discovery of the Actors and Conspirators, in the late business touching the death of the most high and mighty Monarch King JAMES; this particular discourse doth fully remonstrate, and herein is exactly set down both the actors and their actions in this ensuing Declaration  

THE Duke of Buckingham being in Spain, advertised by Letters, how that the King began to censure him in his absence freely, and that many spoke boldly to the King against him, and how the King had intelligence from Spain, of his unworchy carriage in Spain; and (how the marquess of Hamilton (upon the sudden news of the Prince's departure) had nobly reprehended the King for sending the Prince with such a young man without experience, and in such a private and sudden manner, without acquainting the Nobility or council therewith, wrote a very bitter letter to the Marquis of Hamilton, conceived new ambitious courses of his own, and used all the devices he could to disgust the Prince's mind of the match with Spain, so far intended by the King, made haste home; where▪ when he came, he so carried himself, that what the King commanded in his bedchamber, he controlled in the next: yea, received Packets to the King from foreign Princes, and dispatched answers, without acquainting the King therewith in a long time after.  
Whereat, perceiving the King highly offended, and that the King's mind was beginning to alter towards him, suffering him to be quarrelled and affronted in his majesty's presence; and observing, that the King reserved my Lord of Bristol to be a rod for him, urging daily his dispatch for France, and expecting the Earl of Gondomor, who as it seemed, was greatly esteemed, and wonderfully credited by the King, & would second my Lord of Bristol his accusations against him. He knew also that the King had vowed, that in despite of all the devils in Hell, he would bring the Spanish match about again, and that the marquess of Inicosa had given the King bad impressions of him, by whose Articles of Accusation, the King himself had examined some of the Nobility and Privy council, and found out in the examination, that Buckingham had said after his coming from Spain, That the King was now an old man, it was now time for him to be at rest, and to be confined to some Park, and to pass the rest of his time in hunting, and the Prince to be crowned.  
The more the King urged him to be gone to France, the more shifts he made to stay, for he did evidently see that the King was fully resolved to rid himself of the oppression wherein he held him.  
The King b●ing sick of a certain ague, and that in the spring was of itself never found deadly; the Duke took opportunity when all the King's Doctors of physic were at dinner upon the Monday before the King died, without their knowledge or consent offered to him a white powder to take the which he a long time resused, but overcome with his flattering importunity, at length took it in wine, and immediately became worse and worse, falling into many swoonings and pains, and violent fluxes of the belly; and was so grievously tormented, that His majesty cried out aloud of this white powder, saying; Would to God I had never taken it, it will cost me my life: with divers other speeches to that effect.  
In like manner also the Countess of Buckingham, my Lord of Buckingham's mother, upon the Friday after, the physicians being also absent, and at dinner, and not made acquainted with her doings, applied a plaster to the King's heart and breast; whereupon he grew faint, short breathed, and in a great agony. Some of the physicians after dinner returning to see the King, by the offensive smell of the plaster, perceived something to be about him hurtful unto him, and searching what it should be, found it out, and exclaimed that the King was poisoned.  
Then Buckingham entering, commanded the physicians out of the room, caused one of them to be committed prisoner to his own chamber, and another to be removed from Court; quarrelling with others of the King's servants in his majesty's own presence, so far that he offered to draw his sword against them in His majesty's presence. And Buckingham's mother kneeling down before His majesty, cried out with a brazen face, justice, justice; Sir, I demand justice of your majesty. His majesty asked her for what? For that which their lives are no ways sufficient to satisfy; for saying that my son and I have poisoned your majesty. poisoned me! said he; with that turning himself swooned, and she was removed.  
The Sunday after, His majesty died; and Buckingham desired the physicians who attended His majesty, to sign with their hands a writ of testimony, that the powder which he gave him was a good and safe medicine; which they refused.  
Buckingham's creatures did spread abroad a rumour in London, that Buckingham was so sorry for His majesty's death, that he would have died, that he would have killed himself if they had not hindered him; concerning which, I purposely inquired after it, of them that were near him at that time, who said; That neither in the time of His majesty's sickness, nor after His death, he was more moved, then if there had never happened either sickness or death to His majesty.  
One day when his Majesty was in great extremity, he rod post to London to pursue his sister in law to have her stand in sackcloth in S. Paul's for adultery. And another time in his majesty's agony he was busy in contriving and concluding a marriage for one of his cousins.  
Immediately after his majesty's death, the physician who was commanded to his chamber was set at liberty with a Caveat to hold his peace, the others threatened if they kept not good tongues in their heads.  
But in the mean time the King's body and head swelled above measure, his hair with th' the skin of his head stuck to the pillow, his nails became loose upon his fingers, and toes.  
Thus endeth the Declaration, concerning the most potent Monarch, JAMES King of Great Britain.   

Concerning the poisoning of the Lord Marquess Hamelton.  
The Marquis of Hamilton being also poisoned, he was no sooner dead, but the force of the poison overcame the force of his body, and it began to swell in such sort, That his thighs were swollen six times as big as their natural proportion: his belly became as big as the belly of an ox, his arms as the natural quantity of his thighs his neck so broad as his shoulders, his Cheeks over the top of his Nose, that his Nose could not be seen or distinquished, the skin of his forehead, two fingers high swelled, the hair of his beard eyebrows and Head, so far distant one from mother, as if an hundred had been taken out between each one, and when one did touch the hair it came away with the skin as easily, as if one had pulled hay out of an heap of hay he was all over his neck, breast, shoulders, arms, and brows I say of divers colours full of water of the same colour, some white, some black, some red, some yellow, some green some blue, and that as well within his body as without.  
Also the concavities of his liver green, his stomach in some places, a little purpurated with a blue clammy water adhering to the sides of it, his mouth & nose foaming blood mixed with froth mightly, of divers colours a yard high.   
FINIS.