The Poisoned Coat Meant for the Queen's Man

They didn’t use a blade or a bullet, but they attempted to assassinate the Queen’s right-hand man through his own wardrobe. In 1562, Sir William Cecil, the fiercely loyal chief advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, became the prime target of Spanish conspirators looking to destabilize England. Knowing his security was absolute, assassins bypassed his food and instead targeted his personal laundry. They bribed a palace servant to coat the inside velvet lining of his heavy riding doublet with a highly concentrated, lethal chemical paste derived from aconite and mercury. The dark genius of the plot relied on the physical warmth of his body; as Cecil rode his horse and began to sweat, his open pores would rapidly absorb the lethal toxins directly into his bloodstream. The plot was only foiled at the absolute last second when a suspicious head laundress noticed a faint, strange metallic odor coming from the fresh fabric and raised the alarm before Cecil ever put it on.

Interesting Fact The specific chemical mixture used on the clothing was designed to mimic the exact physical symptoms of the sudden, deadly sweating sickness. If the assassination had succeeded, Cecil’s death would have been recorded by royal doctors as an unfortunate natural illness, completely masking the Spanish political conspiracy and saving the assassins from a public execution.

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