Fair copy letters concerning Queen Anne's poor health, originals sent December 1713 - March 1714.

Bookseller Notes

Fair copies of nine pseudonymous letters by royal physician-in-ordinary Sir John Shadwell (1671-1747), penned during the last illness of Queen Anne (1665-1714). The original letters were sent to the Duke and Duchess of Shrewsbury while Shrewsbury was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Shadwell was both personal physician and friend to the couple, having grown up in court as the son of William III's poet laureate, Thomas Shadwell (d. 1692).The letters are prefixed with a note suggesting that Shadwell disagreed with enduring medical opinion regarding the Queen's gout, and the letters themselves demonstrate Shadwell's concern over her treatment, giving various particulars of her state of mind and constitution over her final days. The Queen was attended by several competing doctors and Shadwell had a history of opposing their decisions: 'he disagreed with the administration of several doses of Jesuits' bark, a form of quinine often taken for ague, which caused uterine contractions and could be used to induce labour. Although the queen recovered from her winter illnesses and by spring addressed Parliament, her physicians prescribed snake root to fortify her for the long afternoon's activities. Once again, Shadwell demurred, instead calling for traditional cupping and bleeding to prevent "too great a load of ill-humours from falling upon the leg." Though the queen consumed a large meal the following day, Shadwell remained worried about her condition' (Furdell, p. 421). Owing to the politically unstable nature of the royal court and the dissenting tone of their content, Shadwell's letters were sent and later published as they here appear, under the name of John Smith. The letters would go on to inform Abel Boyer's History of the Reign of Queen Anne (1735); 'Boyer recorded Shadwell's opinion that the queen died of 'gouty humour translating itself upon the brain' (Boyer, 714)' (ODNB). See: Elizabeth Lane Furdell, "The Medical Personnel at the Court of Queen Anne." The Historian, vol. 48, no. 3, 1986, pp. 41229; W.W. Webb and Patrick Wallis. "Shadwell, Sir John (16711747), physician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP, 2004).