Not Just the Tudors: True Crime – The Lynching of the “Duke’s Devil”

Date: February 19, 2026
Host: Professor Suzannah Lipscomb
Guest: Professor John Alastair Bellany (Rutgers, author of The Murder of King James I)

Episode Overview

This riveting episode delves into the 1628 street murder of Dr. John Lamb, a notorious figure alleged to be both an occultist and a sexual predator, and closely associated with George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham – the polarizing favourite of both James I and Charles I. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Professor John Alastair Bellany unpack this singular act of mob violence, illuminating its connections not just to true crime and witchcraft, but also to high politics, royal favoritism, and the looming English Civil War. The conversation reveals how Lamb’s killing was more than just a grisly crime – it was a moment charged with social, political, and symbolic meaning.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Murder of John Lamb – Reconstructing the Fateful Night

[06:08–07:55]

• Sequence of Events: Lamb, an elderly and infamous figure, attended a play at the Fortune Theatre, dined at a tavern (possibly hiring bodyguards), then attempted to make his way home while pursued by an increasingly hostile crowd.
• Climax: Seeking refuge in the Windmill Tavern, Lamb was eventually ejected, abandoned by his would-be protectors, chased through the streets, and ultimately beaten savagely by a mob.
• Aftermath: Lamb survived the initial beating but died the next day in prison.

“So we're dealing with a kind of a street murder.”
— Professor John Alastair Bellany [07:55]

Sources & Crowd Composition

[08:02–10:16]

• Primary Sources: Testimonies from city officials, newsletters, and contemporary pamphlets help piece together the event.
• Who Killed Lamb?: Despite a royal investigation, no perpetrators were identified, but the mob was likely composed mainly of young London apprentices, a group with a reputation for moral regulation and public disorder.

“The best evidence we have is that we're dealing with a crowd dominated by young men, probably apprentices.”
— Professor John Alastair Bellany [10:16]

Lamb’s Notoriety: Witchcraft & Sexual Crime

[12:07–17:57]

• Witchcraft Conviction: Lamb, educated but with a shadowy biography, was convicted of witchcraft in 1622 after using alleged occult practices in an aristocrat’s household, but was reprieved.
• Sexual Assault: While in the King's Bench Prison, Lamb was convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl (a rare conviction given the standards of the era) but was swiftly pardoned and released.

“He is technically convicted witch... [but] in 1623 he's transferred to the King's Bench Prison in London where he's essentially able to resume his medical practice from prison.”
— Professor John Alastair Bellany [13:54]

“It is remarkable that he is convicted, but equally remarkable that he's very quickly pardoned.”
— Professor John Alastair Bellany [19:46]

Mob Justice or Political Violence?

[20:14–23:01]

• The murder took on the cast of judicial action. Contemporary ballads and pamphlets frame the lynching as either an execution of a witch or retribution for Lamb’s sexual crime, suggesting the crowd saw itself as acting in the absence of proper justice.

“It's not mindless violence. It may be violence that we find appalling ... but it is violence that has a structure to it, has a meaning to it, and has a kind of moral logic and a moral purpose to it, at least in the mind of the perpetrators.”
— Professor John Alastair Bellany [21:44]

Enter Politics: Lamb, Buckingham, and the “Duke’s Devil”

[24:04–31:02]

• Buckingham’s Controversy: As royal favorite to both James I and Charles I, Buckingham was resented, seen as dangerous, corrupt, and held responsible for the country’s ills, including failed foreign wars and domestic discontent.
• Lamb as Political Figure: Lamb’s rescue from legal consequences was attributed to Buckingham’s intervention, fueling rumors that Lamb was Buckingham’s “in-house sorcerer” and implicating both in witchcraft and scandal.

“He becomes both more notorious and ... a political figure... entirely based on perceptions of his relationship with ... George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham.”
— Professor John Alastair Bellany [23:29]

“So the two figures become fused. And I think it's important that we recognize that political storms around Buckingham include a lot of what we might now consider scandalous material, but which at the time had a deep kind of moral weight to them.”
— Professor John Alastair Bellany [47:32]

Witchcraft as a Political Weapon

[34:04–36:52]

• Accusations of sorcery accompanied criticism of Buckingham, explaining his hold over the king and linking the court to demonic machinations, thus providing a political explanation for otherwise inexplicable royal favoritism.

“One argument is that the King has been bewitched by the Jew, literally bewitched by the Jew... the suggestion that Lamb and other witches in the Duke's employ might be providing special kinds of filters of charms in order to control the King.”
— Professor John Alastair Bellany [35:42]

The 1628 Crisis: Tension, Prophecy & Civil War Foreshadowed

[37:01–43:18]

• Lamb’s murder took place amid high political stakes: the Petition of Right, ongoing wars, and widespread hatred of Buckingham.
• Prophecies and popular poems portended Buckingham’s downfall; Lamb’s killing was understood as a harbinger of Buckingham’s own assassination two months later.
• The violent act expressed the feeling that “the only way to regenerate English greatness... is to eliminate Buckingham.”

“And there's also a couplet that does the round, a little jingle... 'George and Charles do what they can, yet George shall die like Dr. Lamb.' And so immediately after Lamb's murder, the sense that this is the beginning of this regeneration of the nation. The Duke's devil is dead first and Buckingham will be next.”
— Professor John Alastair Bellany [44:21]

Popular Engagement in Politics

[49:47–52:40]

• The episode demonstrates the high level of political literacy and engagement among ordinary Londoners, especially apprentices.
• This moment helps set the stage for the popular mobilization that would mark the Civil War era little more than a decade later.

“I see the late 1620s as a moment in the intensification of popular political engagement, that ordinary people are invested in some of these big questions about the relationship between King and Parliament.”
— Professor John Alastair Bellany [51:36]

Memory, Legacy, and Witchcraft as Political Allegory

[52:52–59:31]

• The memory of Lamb’s murder and its political resonances survived into the 1640s, informing Civil War culture and rhetoric.
• The episode closes by cautioning against separating discussions of “witchcraft” and “high politics” – both were intertwined in the political imagination of the period, with notions of corruption, inversion, and conspiracy fueling unrest.

“The image of the court as a kind of a site of demonic activity is potentially very explosive. Particularly... if the inversion of witchcraft can be connected to the other great religious anxiety of the age, which is that the court has been corrupted by Catholicism.”
— Professor John Alastair Bellany [64:04]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Mob Motivation and Moral Logic:
  "There's an apprentice culture in which the kind of the apprentice is someone who is responsible for kind of keeping things in order. So it may be that what we're dealing with here is that a group of young men who thought when they were attacking this old man, that they were doing the right thing."
  — Professor John Alastair Bellany [11:06]

• On the Fusion of Sexual, Occult, and Political Scandal:
  "Lamb as sexual offender, Lamb as witch maps onto Buckingham as sexual offender, Buckingham as witch, and the two can become fused."
  — Professor John Alastair Bellany [46:45]

• On the Popular Slogan Linking Lamb and Buckingham:
  “Who rules the King? The Duke. Who rules the Duke? The devil's now dead. The Duke is next. Unless the King does something.”
  — Anonymous contemporary placard, recounted by Professor Bellany [44:00]

• On the Connection Between Witchcraft, Politics, and Catholic Conspiracy:
  "Witchcraft is this master inversion. What happens when the royal court becomes associated in ordinary people's minds with witchcraft, with the crime of witchcraft? ... Potpourri, like witchcraft, is often imagined through this series of inversions, that it's a back to front version, an upside out version of Christianity. And so the witchcraft-potpourri link is a particularly volatile political mix."
  — Professor John Alastair Bellany [63:41]

The Big Picture

This episode masterfully unpacks a singular moment of true crime to reveal its deep roots in the social, political, and cultural anxieties of 17th-century England. Lamb’s lynching was not only a reaction to his personal notoriety but a symbolic and political act – a warning shot in the gathering storm that would soon erupt into Civil War. The blurred lines between witchcraft, sexual crime, political scandal, and popular justice are laid bare, and listeners are shown how public violence, rumor, and political mythmaking shape history.

Useful Timestamps

• 05:38 — Introduction of guest and overview of the John Lamb case
• 06:08–07:55 — Recounting the lynching of John Lamb
• 08:02–10:16 — Sources and insight into crowd composition
• 12:07–17:57 — Lamb’s life, witchcraft conviction, and sexual assault trial
• 20:14–23:01 — Popular justice and the function of mob action
• 24:04–31:02 — Lamb’s links with Buckingham and politicization
• 34:04–36:52 — Witchcraft accusations in political rhetoric
• 37:01–43:18 — The murder’s timing during political crisis and apocalyptic prophecy
• 44:00–47:32 — The murder as a stand-in for violence against Buckingham
• 49:47–52:40 — The political culture of London’s streets
• 52:52–59:31 — Lasting legacy and connections to the Civil War
• 60:04–64:42 — On witchcraft’s role in the era’s political imagination

Tone & Language

The conversation balances scholarly depth and compelling storytelling, peppered with contemporary color and flavored by the dark allure of true crime, the weirdness of seventeenth-century politics, and the intrigue of courtly scandal. Both speakers combine analytical rigor with a genuine sense of fascination and, at times, horror at the events and beliefs they discuss.

For anyone interested in the intersection of crime, culture, and politics in early modern England, this episode offers a vivid narrative and rich context for a single, shocking event with ripples that extended all the way to civil war.