It was the greatest scandal of the Jacobean age. In 1616, Frances Howard and her husband the Earl of Somerset were found guilty of the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. Frances Howard was branded a lewd woman', a wife, a witch, a murderess and a whore', and has gone down in history as the model of female villainy. But has she been misjudged? In a fascinating examination of both the historical evidence and cultural representations of Howard, David Lindley presents important new insights into the case against her. In doing so he challenges the assumptions that have constructed Howard as a deviant woman, raising questions not only about how women were perceived in the seventeenth century, but how society still judges women today. Not just a historical biography, this book is also a close examination of the relationship between history and literature, the place of women in society, and the relationship between the law, politics and ideology.