Often referred to as the “Guy Fawkes Plot”, and since its inception was celebrated nationally by bonfires and fireworks every year on the anniversary of the 5th November as “Bonfire Night”; in actual fact the charismatic ringleader, who was by far the deviser and instigator, was Robert Catesby who was known for this most audacious and in other ways “surreal plot”. It was really the culmination of the Papal Bull to excommunicate Queen Elizabeth 1st and brand her as a “pagan heretic” that kicked off a continual series of treasonous plots, and synonymous with the Islamic fatwah pronounced on the author, Salman Rushdie for his “Satanic Verses” by the Iyatollah of Iran. In effect it placed the life and reign of Elizabeth in peril from any disaffected Catholic at home and abroad. It has been reckoned that Elizabeth 1st was responsible for the death by execution or hanging of some 250 Catholic dissidents in the space of twenty years, in comparison with Mary Tudor who in the space of five years executed 500 Protestant supporters who were later recognised as martyrs. The gory detail of these horrific deaths included violent interrogation, torture, hanging, disembowelment, decapitation, and genital mutilation sometimes while the victim was still conscious. The Papal Bull of 1571 enacted upon Elizabeth and the measures she undertook to diminish the reaction at home left many Catholics little or no option but to become actively resistant to her reign; to a life of passive or active exile in the Netherlands, Spain, France or Italy or to remain in England with a measure of unequivocal acceptance of the restrictions imposed on them. In what can only be described as the “Stalinesque Era” of the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth 1st had managed to deprive Catholics of their “Four Basic Human Freedoms”; they were later defined by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 20th century as: “Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear”. However, it must be said that what followed from the loss of these basic freedoms was a deluge of plots, counter-plots, attempted assassinations, religious and political intrigues which finally culminated in the “Gunpowder Treason” of the 5th November 1605.
However, one can readily appreciate and understand the necessity of the Protestant state and the Anglican church to downgrade the ritual practices of the Catholic Mass into an obsolete pagan/magical cult with its extremely thin veneer of “European Christianity”. The Vatican Church was above all concerned with influence and power and an uninterrupted line of subjugation and unconditional obedience in Europe. A condemnation of which can be found in the institution of the 39 Articles of Faith, the abolition of the Catholic Mass and the retaliatory subjugation of Catholic worship and affiliation in England, most notably those with power and influence sufficient to overthrow the status quo. This was intended as a condemnation of Catholic superstitions around the “blood and body” of Jesus Christ and the theory or belief of “transubstantiation”. Other matters followed suit with the illegality of “forgiveness of sins” by someone with a degree of mortal indifference and secrecy which was in effect a danger to the monarch and the state as we shall see as the scale of conspiracies and actual assassination plots began to unfold. Elizabeth undertook to deny anyone of the Catholic faith the opportunity to supplant her or for that matter eliminate her from the throne of England with two important statutes, The Oath of Allegiance from Catholic nobles and an Act forbidding anyone to criticise her legitimate reign or to advocate, prepare and instigate acts of insurrection. Prominent as her official bodyguard and head of intelligence was Sir Francis Walsingham who operated a network of spies at home and abroad. However, the reaction from Catholics to retain the practice of their beliefs abroad was through the Jesuit Order’s seminaries in Europe especially Douai, France instituted by Cardinal William Allen. While other Catholic dissidents vowed to carry out terrorist activity at home and abroad for several reasons. There were several claimants and alternative contenders to the throne of England, namely Arabella Stuart, Mary, Queen of Scots, the Infanta Isabella of Spain, and Sir William Stanley who had exiled himself in Spain and led an Irish regiment in the Netherlands. Several plots of insurrection or treason were easily “nipped in the bud” by the agents and intelligencers employed by Sir Robert Dudley, Francis Walsingham and William Cecil. In particular, Christopher Marlowe was the first to undertake several missions for Lord Burghley and the Privy Council, the latter suspected of really benefitting financially from the discovery and implication of any Catholic noble whose estates were forfeit should they be found guilty of sedition. Marlowe actually travelled to the Catholic seminary founded by William Allen under the pretext of studying Catholic doctrine, even though he was known or suspected of being an atheist and a spy. One of these missions (devised by Lord Burghley) was to discover the whereabouts and recover a stolen treasure by Catholic agents (Captain Dyer, Captain Duffield, Edward Bushell, the latter cousin to Robert Catesby who was later involved in the “Gunpowder Treason”), from Winchester Cathedral and worth the astronomical grand sum of £1,800. It would appear that this treasure, when after being melted down eventually found its way into the Netherlands where it was to produce coinage for the Catholic rebels (Sir William Stanley’s army of recruits perhaps). However, what really got Marlowe into “deep water” was a secondary mission which he undertook to counterfeit Spanish doubloons and thereby crash the economy of Spain in 1592 in the company of a former Catholic priest, John Poole who was a close relative of Sir William Stanley. Also involved was Gifford Gilbert, a goldsmith and an ex-con known as Robert Baines (a double agent for Catholics who betrayed Marlowe’s activities to the Dutch authorities). The discovery by the English governor of Flushing, Robert Sidney of this illegal counterfeiting gang, sponsored it would seem by the English state itself, was an embarrassing affair and probably made Marlowe a “marked man” for elimination since he probably knew too much about the Privy Council and Stanley’s own personal involvement. Stanley’s justification for the theft was that he had been defrauded by the state when his lands and estates were awarded to Sir Walter Raleigh. Another unsolved theft that both Lord Burghley and his son, Robert Cecil were anxious to recover involved several previously known Catholic rebels (Jacomo di Franchesci, alias “Captain Jacques”, Sir Griffin Markham and an ex-con, Michael Moody) who broke into Whitehall Palace and removed a substantial treasure of jewels and plate which included the “Azores Diamond” which the Earl of Essex had obtained from Spanish galleons on his return from the Azores expedition. It amounted to an equivalent in today’s terms of some £900,000. It seems in an effort to finance his own desperate claim to power, as the Queen’s health was gradually failing, the Earl had craftily failed to declare the entire amount of his “booty” and used it instead to raise an army and finance his “Essex Rebellion” in 1601. (See “Who Killed Christopher Marlowe”). To this day, the Azores Diamond has never been found and if it were it would naturally be returned to the English Crown.
The “Ridolfi Plot” began the same year that many leading Puritans were attempting to persuade Queen Elizabeth to rid herself of the “Howard scourge”, that is Thomas Howard, the 4th Duke of Norfolk whose father, the Earl of Surrey had himself been executed for treason by Henry VIIIth. Howard was assisted at least in his public career by William Cecil in 1564 when he was enlisted on the Privy Council largely as a counter-weight to the extremes of Robert Dudley. The Earl of Leicester together with other liberal Protestant factions thought they might devise a plan to marry Howard off to Mary, Queen of Scots thereby neutralising the threat of her liaison with either a Spanish or French nobleman. However, this did not go down well with the Puritan factions who thought Howard, although the leading nobleman in England, to be a threat to national stability. At first the Duke of Norfolk was persuaded to support the Northern Earls’ rebellion but soon had second thoughts. William Cecil’s proposal inadvertently became intertwined with the revolt of the Northern Earls who expected a Catholic Spanish invasion organised by the Duke of Alba, governor of the Netherlands. John Hawkins uncovered the plot when in secret conversation with the Spanish ambassador, although the Grand Duke of Tuscany had also warned Elizabeth of the Vatican’s intentions and support for the plot. Roberto Ridolfi’s messenger, Charles Baillie was arrested at Dover carrying compromising letters and was subsequently tortured until he revealed all the details known to him of the conspiracy. The financier of this plot, an Italian money-lender, Roberto Ridolfi and banker who came to England, was also a paid informer for the French and Spanish courts and was in direct contact with the Pope’s officials. He was arrested by Francis Walsingham but later released due to lack of evidence, as it was suspected he might be merely the chosen financier of a plot. Some reports suggest he had agreed to work for Walsingham as a double-agent however, he escaped into Europe and continued to campaign for an insurrection in England in order to re-instate Mary Stuart as Queen of England. A short time before the Papal Bull was declared the Spanish Ambassador was expelled from England in January 1571 threatening war in retaliation. Shortly afterwards Pope Pius Vth issued the Papal Bull excommunicating Elizabeth 1st and enlisting further support to any Catholics prepared to depose her by any possible means including assassination. It seems Mary admitted to dealings with Ridolfi but Elizabeth was reluctant to execute her half-sister even though she was a threat to her reign. However, Howard was arrested on September 7th 1571 then sent to the Tower. He was later tried, found guilty and executed for his involvement in the conspiracy and rebellion on June 2, 1572. (See “The True Lamentable Tragedy of Mary, Queen of Scots”).
The next Catholic counter-conspiracy known as “The Throckmorton Affair” was discovered by Francis Walsingham with the help of the spy named as “Henry Fagot” (alias the occult scientist/astronomer Giordano Bruno) which implicated Francis Throckmorton and Henry Howard in an audacious plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth Ist. George Gifford, a Throckmorton on his mother’s side, was the protagonist who first approached Mary Queen of Scots with a conspiracy which she refused at first, seeing it as an inverted plot to implicate her and have her convicted and then beheaded for treason. The conspirators were actually in communication with Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador and conspired to overthrow the Queen with the financial assistance of the Duke of Guise and her half-sister Mary, Queen of Scots while she was herself imprisoned. George Gifford, a gentleman pensioner at court approached the Duke of Guise in Paris in 1583 arranging to shoot or stab the Queen while she was walking alone in her garden or while out horse-riding. As it turned out George Gifford, who was well known to Sir Walter Raleigh, Francis Walsingham and Christopher Hatton never made his attempt even though he might have been successful. Phillip, Earl of Arundel was also brought in for questioning, the Spanish Ambassador was dismissed and others suspected of aiding the conspirators were sought. Among those questioned about their involvement were the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere and Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland who were sent to the Tower for aiding the escape of Charles Arundel and Thomas Paget. Francis Throckmorton and Henry Howard were also arrested, imprisoned, tortured and then found guilty and so were finally executed. The enciphered messages were secretly smuggled into beer barrels but Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s spymaster knew about this and was able to intercept, decode and read all the communication of their secret arrangements and intentions. He successfully intercepted and deciphered the coded messages adding a request for the names of all those conspirators involved in the plot.
Following the papal bull excommunicating Elizabeth Ist, numerous Catholic priests arrived from European Jesuit seminaries from 1580 onwards and conspired to overthrow the Protestant Queen or undermine her authority in England. Apparently the Pope went further and said that anyone assassinating the Queen could do so with impunity. Edmund Campion had taken holy orders as deacon at an Anglican Church in 1568 then went to Ireland under the patronage of Henry and Phillip Sidney purporting to support Catholics there. He then fled to Douai where he attended a training college founded by Dr. William Allen (later Cardinal Allen). From there he went to Rome and joined the “Society of Jesus” founded by the Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola which was later known as the Jesuit Order. He then travelled to Austria, Moravia, and Prague to preach and finally returned again to Rome. Here it was decided that Father Edmund Campion, Gregory Martin and Robert Parsons of Jesuit persuasion were among those first missionaries who should augment and support those practising Catholics in Reformation England, who were from their point of view being persecuted and impeded in their faith. Often this meant the printing and dissemination of anti-Protestant pamphlets or those condemning Elizabeth’s reign. Those entering the Roman Catholic priesthood were often sent to Douai, France to train in counter-reformation, intellectually and politically. Cuthbert Mayne was one of the first to attend courses there after meeting Father Campion in Oxford while he was the chaplain of St. John’s College and a protégé of Robert Dudley. Mayne was caught and captured working undercover in Golden Manor, Cornwall. After a nationwide man-hunt Campion was discovered by Walsingham’s agent, George Eliot hiding in a secret space in a stairwell at Lyford Grange, Oxford along with two other priests. It was discovered that they had both attempted to re-introduce the system of pardons and indulgences with the use of an iconic emblem (Agnus Dei) a consecrated talisman of stone and silver. Campion maintained that he had no wish to interfere with English politics even though his tract “Campion’s Brag” was being disseminated in England. He produced a longer pamphlet entitled Decem Rationes, “Ten Reasons against the Anglican Church.”
Rumour and several reports from the time have it that even Queen Elizabeth was impressed by the scholarship and charismatic air of Edmund Campion but he was merely the tip of the iceberg where the Jesuit insurgency was concerned. When confronted by the Earl of Leicester he demanded a public debate to determine the issue. Meanwhile, Phillip of Spain had consolidated his empire by annexing Portugal and James VIth of Scotland was preoccupied with the Guise faction in France and the ongoing Wars of Religion in several regions of Europe. Elizabeth favoured Don Antonio’s cause to accede to the Portuguese throne although he too was an illegitimate heir. She built alliances in the Netherlands with the Duke of Anjou and invited the French court to send suitable suitors for her hand in marriage. The Statute of Recusancy drawn up in March 1581 proclaimed that any Catholic failing to attend an Anglican service would be subject to a fine of £20 a month, anyone participating in a Catholic Mass would be classed a traitor and suffer execution, and anyone making defamatory remarks against the Queen would be pilloried, their ears or tongue cut off and fined £200. A repeat of an offence would incur their immediate death by gruesome execution and disembowelment. Although many history books reveal Elizabeth as a tolerable monarch often quoting her famous phrase; “We have no intention of making windows into men’s souls”, the Edmund Campion affair illustrates how fearful and religiously intolerant she actually was of Catholicism. Edmund Campion did not relent at his trial maintaining his innocence to the end and denying the charge of treason. Even so he was brutally tortured in the Tower and was sent to Tyburn on the 1st of December and executed for his treasonable and anti-Protestant stance.
Another plot was being hatched by Phillip of Spain and the Vatican to assassinate the Protestant Queen Elizabeth and replace her with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots in 1586. This would coincide with a Spanish invasion of England assisted by the Guise faction in France. The chief conspirator on English soil was Sir Anthony Babington (1561-1586) a young Catholic nobleman although supported by Don Bernadino de Mendoza in Paris and King Phillip IInd of Spain in Madrid. Mary’s imprisonment after her abdication from the Scottish throne was the responsibility of the Earl of Shrewsbury, a loyal Protestant but in 1580 Mary was transferred to the custody of Sir Amias Paulet at Chartley Hall, Staffordshire. Considering the outcome of the Throckmorton Affair (see above) Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council devised a “Bond of Association” that was signed by those aristocrats who were in direct or indirect succession to the throne to pledge their undying loyalty to serving Queen Elizabeth. Thereby anyone found guilty of infringing this special bond for any reason, including her half-sister Mary, would automatically face investigation and if found guilty ultimately public execution.
In 1585 a Catholic exile, Gilbert Gifford was intercepted at Rye, in Sussex by Walsingham’s agents and when interrogated he confessed to being involved in a Catholic plot against Elizabeth. Walsingham then offered to spare his life if he would work as a double agent and Gifford naturally agreed. The plot as such had two principal origins, one from Spain, the another a home-spun plot by Morgan and Charles Paget to muster support for the assassination of the Queen. John Ballard, a Jesuit priest enlisted the support of John Savage, an ex-soldier who was already involved in a separate plot to kill the Queen and secured the assurance of Sir Anthony Babington of support from the Northern Earls should a Spanish or French invasion be required after the success of the assassination. Unfortunately for the conspirators Francis Walsingham was well acquainted with every aspect of this conspiracy through his ciphered intercepts with Mary and his numerous agents (Gilbert Gifford and Robert Poley) at home and abroad. Moreover, Walsingham required definite proof of Babington’s supporters and Mary’s consent to the plot in order to determine the extent of their involvement. The intercepted letters to Mary were deciphered and copied with an addition asking for the names of the conspirators. Walsingham probably knew who was involved but being an unadulterated perfectionist he wanted absolute proof in order to implicate and convict Mary Stuart, who was after all a step-sister to the Queen. This vital piece of information did not arrive on time but other parties must have confessed the names of the conspirators to Walsingham. Mary’s secretaries, Claude Nau de la Boisseliere and Gilbert Curle were arrested and interrogated in August 1586. Likewise the conspirators Babington, Ballard, Chidiok Tichbourne, Sir Thomas Salisbury, Robert Barnwell, John Savage and Henry Dunn together with their accomplices Edward Habington, Charles Tilney, Edward Jones, John Charnock, John Travers, Jerome Bellamy and Robert Gage were all tried, found guilty and executed on September 20th. This was probably the most gruesome and barbaric series of executions to ever take place in England. The horror of being hung until nearly dead, being disembowelled, having one’s tongue cut out, genitals or heart removed and then finally being quartered and decapitated must have been truly shocking. Such was this horrific spectacle that after the first series of executions Queen Elizabeth ordered the remainder of conspirators just to be hung until dead and then have them disembowelled. Such was the scale and measure of her sovereign mercy!
After the failure of these extensive and complex plots Catholic insurgents remained determined to re-instate their liberties and freedom of worship by fair means or foul (“Fair is foul and foul is fair”, spoken by all three of the witches in Macbeth). An attempt of another plot by Catholics was known as the “Bye Plot” or “Surprise Treason” during the reign of James 1st. Their plan was to capture the King on midsummer’s night in 1603 in order to prise certain concessions in religious toleration and obligations from him. Two secular priests, William Watson and William Clarke who were financed by Sir Griffin Markham who were ostensibly anti-Catholic, had travelled to Scotland to meet James VIth before his coronation and while Elizabeth was still alive but visibly nearing her death-bed. Markham confirmed that James had given his word of compliance to their requests but when James acceded to the throne he denied ever having complied or assented to these assurances.
Having been betrayed by the sovereign himself several Catholics took it upon themselves to restore their rights by force if necessary, and as customary a plan was drawn up with the main supporters, Anthony Copley and several others, Edward Bushell and Ralph Sheldon taking an oath of secrecy. Sir Robert Cecil and the Chief Justice, Sir John Popham received intelligence that something was brewing by a handful of rebels in Tewkesbury, who, armed with pistols were making their way on horseback to London. As it turns out the rebels appeared to retire and postpone their plans until they could garner further support for them. Thomas, Lord Grey, regarded as a leader for the Puritan faction was approached but he declined the invitation although his name was subsequently bandied about in intelligence circles as a supporter. Among the confirmed plotters was John Parry of Potson, the son and heir of James Parry, lately Master of the Hounds to Queen Elizabeth. Others include Richard Croft, a relative of Sir Herbert Croft, and John Scudamore of Kentchurch but their involvement and support for the plan was betrayed by the archpriest George Blackwell and Henry Young who turned “King’s Evidence” and then disclosed the names of the plotters, thereby Father William Holt, Richard Williams, Edmond Yorke, John Gage, John Scudamore and Anthony Copley as well as Sir Walter Raleigh were arrested for questioning thereby widening the net of sedition. The Earl of Northumberland was also on the suspect list of plotters and supporters since his contemplation of a marriage to Lady Arabella Stuart which would have put him closer to the line of succession. Raleigh was seething with anger that he had subsequently lost his post as Captain of the Guard, his coveted mansion at Durham House and together with Lord Cobham losing his seat on the Privy Council. The plotters even approached Henri IIIrd of France for support but he simply refused their offer so they turned to Archduke Albrecht through his London envoy, Charles de Ligne, Comte d’Aremburg who promised some 500,000 crowns from the Spanish treasury. While being questioned, Walter Raleigh was fully aware of this secret arrangement but was anxious to avoid any complicity in the plot itself, nevertheless he was imprisoned in the Tower awaiting trial. The trial took place mid to late November and the plotters’ confessions were enough to find all of them guilty except for Sir Edward Parham who was released. Cobham attempted to implicate Lady Arabella but her representative at the trial denied any knowledge or involvement of the plot by her. However, on the day of execution and at the eleventh hour the sheriff delayed execution expecting or anticipating a late pardon by the King. Lord Grey and Lord Cobham were naturally relieved, the former dying in prison in 1614, the latter died shortly after in 1619. Markham was exiled to the Low Countries but Watson and Clarke were scheduled to, as they say, “lead the bloody dance to the scaffold”.
Often chronicled in isolation by English schoolteachers as a “one off” singular event and the closest England ever came to a “social or political revolution”, largely it seems for the benefit of children’s historical education. In fact the “Gunpowder Plot” was the culmination of a long drawn-out series of insurrections and odious seditions that England has ever known and endured. One wonders what might have actually transpired had this horrific plot succeeded? Strangely enough Robert Catesby was born early November just eleven miles north from Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakspere at Bushwood Hall near Lapworth in 1573. He was the only surviving son of a devout Catholic, Sir William Catesby and Lady Anne, the daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton. He was educated at Worcester College, Oxford which is where Catholic recusants traditionally sent their children to escape the “oath of supremacy” and from there, after marrying the Protestant Catherine Leigh, assumed to have been sent to Douai for further study and qualification. Having participated and supported the Earl of Essex’s Rebellion in 1601 he was heavily fined and for causing an affray in London. When his father’s estate, Castleton Hall had been sold he conjoined with another Catholic dissident Thomas Winter. Catesby had a fashion for wearing red clothes which reflected his fiery and combustible character and was by some academics compared to Shakespeare’s leading man, in “Hamlet” in the play of the same name. He may have even known something of his countryman, William Shakespeare who knows. In contrast the gradual evolution of the “Gunpowder Plot” was partly informal and casual or probably the result of a chance encounter when Thomas Percy visited Ashby St. Legers and declared his vehement hostility towards James 1st for his perfidy, he went on to say that he would kill the King with his own hands if needs be. Catesby advised Percy as follows:
“No, no, Tom, thou shalt not venture to small purpose, but if thou wilt be a traitor thou shalt be to some great advantage”, adding; “I am thinking of a most sure way and I will soon let thee know what it is”.
On the following All Hallow’s Eve Catesby sent a message to Thomas and Robert Winter at Huddington to meet him in London on important business. At first Thomas and Robert hesitated to comply but following a further request agreed as they had been engaged by Henry Garnet for missions of Catholic relief in Spain and had also met Father Greenway (alias: Oswald Tesimond) who had been to school with the mercenary adventurer, Guido Fawkes. Furthermore, their missions had been financed by Lord Monteagle whose secretary was Thomas Winter. There, with an introduction from a Jesuit Father Creswell, Winter coincidentally met his own relation by marriage, Christopher Wright and Guido Fawkes himself. It seems they were attempting to raise military support from William Stanley’s regiment and additional finance for another plot since their earnings as mercenaries were insufficient. This was prior to Elizabeth 1st’s death and now they were out on a limb, all fired up, penniless and up to no good. Robert Catesby knew and understood all this and it was the main reason, among several others that he intended to divulge his plans to them. At the meeting was Mr. John Wright, an eager swordsman easily provoked to violence and fond of hazard, Robert Catesby coolly revealed his plans to them for blowing up Parliament after which an invasion from Spain would ensure their success saying:
“In that place have they done us all the mischief and perchance God hath designed that place for their punishment”.
At first Thomas and Robert, who had experienced military activity were taken aback by the scale and enormity of the plot and were prepared to listen further to Robert before admitting their astonishment or announcing the absurdity of the scheme. Robert ended his proposal with the admonition: “The nature of the disease required so sharp a remedy”.
Their main reservations were indeed whether or not this grandiose scheme would achieve or inevitably receive Papal approval? After some deliberation and further discussion they agreed to participate in Catesby’s plan and sought to notify the Constable Don Juan de Velasco of the state of Catholics in England where they would endeavour to liberate from their interminable suffering at the hands of the state and the monarchy. In the meantime another conspirator, Hugh Owen suggested Guy Fawkes as an engineer of siege warfare and tunnelling to be a member of the party and Sir William Stanley commended the appointment by messenger. The main participants and characters now arranged (Guido Fawkes-technical support, Catesby-operations, and Winter-finance) the stage being set and all members in agreement and sworn to secrecy the time had surely come to put their macabre thoughts and plans into action. However, they were still a long way off from their major objectives and a great deal more necessitated consolidation to a very high degree if they were at last to be successful.
The next chapter in the “Catesby’s Gunpowder Treason” can be accessed by clicking on the link: “The Denouement of the Gunpowder Plot”.
