Theodore de Mayerne

Sir Théodore Turquet de Mayerne (28 September 1573 – 22 March 1654 or 1655) was a Swiss-born physician who treated kings of France and England and advanced the theories of Paracelsus.

Mayerne was born in a Huguenot family in Geneve, Switzerland. His father was a Protestant French historian who had fled Lyon following the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and his godfather was Theodore Beza. Mayerne's first wife was Marguerite de Boetslaer and they had three children.

Mayerne studied first in Geneve and later moved to the University of Heidelberg. Later he moved to Montpellier to study medicine, graduated 1596 and received his doctorate in 1597. His dissertation defended the use of chemical remedies in medicine, under the guidance of Joseph du Chesne; this was the first intimation of his interest in Paracelsian theories. In May 1599, Mayerne joined Henri de Rohan, a Huguenot nobleman very powerful in Brittany, on his grand tour of Europe, visiting Germany, Italy, Bohemia, the Netherlands, England, and Scotland. During their visit to London in October 1600, Rohan and Mayerne were received by Queen Elizabeth I at her court, and in November 1600, when they reached Edinburgh, they were received by King James VI, before returning to France in early 1601. Despite his austere Calvinism, Mayerne greatly admired the many works of art and architecture he saw in his travels in Germany and Italy, especially liking the paintings of Albrecht Dürer and the Kunstkammer in Munich of curios kept by the Duke of Bavaria.

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