Théodore de Mayerne

Who was Théodore de Mayerne?

Sir Théodore Turquet de Mayerne 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.