Venetia Stanley - Mysterious Death

Mysterious Death

The last time Venetia was painted was in May, 1633. She went to bed as usual on the night of April 30, but never woke the next morning. Digby had been up late, and had chosen to sleep in another room so as not to wake her. When her maid tried to wake Venetia on the morning of May 1 for her customary morning horseback ride, she found Venetia dead in the same position in which she had left her the night before.

Venetia's death was a major tragedy for Digby, probably the single most defining event of his life. Although he had not been faithful, and would fall in love again, it was a definite dividing line between two phases: the one in which he was a bright young courtier jockeying for position, and the one in which he was a melancholy scientist and Catholic apologist. Within two days, he had plaster casts made of her head, hands, and feet, and had Van Dyck, a good friend, paint Venetia on her deathbed. There was an elaborate evening funeral at Christchurch, Newgate, in London, and a spectacular monument.

There were also suspicions. Autopsies were rare at the time, but an autopsy was performed before Venetia was buried, in an attempt to determine the cause of death. Digby reported that she had always been healthy, but had suffered occasional headaches through the previous eight years, for which she took "viper-wine" (which could have been one of several concoctions involving vipers or their venom in wine, and which in any case is not likely to have been toxic through ingestion). "When her skull was opened, they found but very little brain," is the autopsy quote, and the probable cause of death was believed to have been some form of cerebral hemorrhage. However, what we know of her symptoms does not line up with that diagnosis, so it is likely that her death will always be a mystery.

This did not set gossip to rest. It was widely suspected that Venetia had killed herself or been murdered by Digby, perhaps out of jealousy. Digby eventually fled to Gresham College, where he first spent time writing letters about his wife (which eventually formed a volume titled In Praise of Venetia) and contemplating her deathbed portrait obsessively. He began dressing all in black and letting his hair and beard grow out enough to be cause for comment, and eventually took up in seriousness the scientific experimentation that he was to be known for through the rest of his life. He lost the deathbed portrait in one of his flights from England during the English Civil War. It is now in Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, and another version is at Althorp.

Another mystery is a letter which has survived, from Venetia's maid to Digby, saying that she had been given the enclosed paper to forward to Digby on the event of Venetia's death, because Venetia thought that it would be helpful to him. However, we have no idea of what was enclosed.

Digby died in 1665 and was buried next to Venetia in the splendid monument he had had built for her more than 30 years earlier. However, the area burned in the Great Fire of 1666. John Aubrey later saw the gilded bronze bust of Venetia from the top of the monument in a shop window, but "the fire had got off all the gilding." Later he noted that the bust was missing and that it had been melted down.

The Private Memoirs were finally published in London in 1828, in a bowdlerized form. The cut scenes, mostly sexual in nature, were first privately circulated in a pamphlet, and eventually included as an appendix to a later printing within a year or two of the first publication. The book describes the childhood romance of "Stelliana" and "Theagenes," various obstacles throughout their adolescence, and final union in a secret marriage. Their child is also born secretly in Stelliana's father's house, after she has successfully hidden her pregnancy. The book ends with Theagenes on a maritime expedition (modelled after Digby's own exploits), looking forward to his return home to his wife and sons.