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THE POPISH PLOT
THE POPISH PLOT
A STUDY IN THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES II BY JOHN POLLOCK FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE “Some truth there was, but dashed and brewed with lies.” Absalom and Achitophel. “Oh! it was a naughty Court. Yet have we dreamed of it as the period when an English cavalier was grace incarnate; far from the boor now hustling us in another sphere; beautifully mannered, every gesture dulcet. And if the ladies were ... we will hope they have been traduced. But if they were, if they were too tend
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PREFACE
PREFACE
When I first undertook the study of the Popish Plot the late Lord Acton wrote to me: “There are three quite unravelled mysteries;—what was going on between Coleman and Père la Chaize; how Oates got hold of the wrong story; and who killed Godfrey.” The following book is an attempt to answer these questions and to elucidate points of obscurity connected with them. In the course of the work I have received much kind help from Dr. Jackson and Mr. Stanley Leathes of this college, from the Rev. J. N.
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TABLE OF SOME EVENTS OCCURRING IN THE HISTORY OF THE POPISH PLOT
TABLE OF SOME EVENTS OCCURRING IN THE HISTORY OF THE POPISH PLOT
1677. Ash Wednesday Titus Oates converted to the Church of Rome. April Enters the English Jesuit college at Valladolid. October 30 Expelled from the college at Valladolid. December 10 Enters the English Jesuit college at St. Omers. 1678. April 24 Jesuit congregation held at St. James’ Palace. June 23 Oates expelled from the college at St. Omers June 27 and returns to London. August 13 Christopher Kirkby informs the king of a plot against his life. August 14 Kirkby and Dr. Tonge examined by the
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
TITUS OATES Titus Oates has justly been considered one of the world’s great impostors. By birth he was an Anabaptist, by prudence a clergyman, by profession a perjurer. From an obscure and beggarly existence he raised himself to opulence and an influence more than episcopal, and, when he fell, it was with the fame of having survived the finest flogging ever inflicted. De Quincey considered the murder of Godfrey to be the most artistic performance of the seventeenth century. It was far surpassed
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
THE NATURE OF THE DESIGNS For contemporaries the Popish Plot provided a noble field of battle. Between its supporters and its assailants controversy raged hotly. Hosts of writers in England and abroad proved incontestably either its truth or its falsehood. 23 With which of the two the victory lay is hard to determine. Discredit presently fell on the Plot, but the balance was restored by the Revolution, when Oates’ release, pardon, and pension gave again the stamp of authority to his revelations.
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
OATES AGAIN Thus the Popish Plot was introduced to the world, “a transaction which had its root in hell and its branches among the clouds.” 120 While Charles proceeded on his walk, Chiffinch, his confidential valet, refused Kirkby admittance into the royal bedchamber, not knowing his business. Kirkby therefore waited in the gallery till Charles returned and summoned him to ask the grounds of such loyal fears. Kirkby replied that two men, by name Pickering and Grove, were watching for an opportun
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
SIR EDMUND BERRY GODFREY The death of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey has passed for one of the most remarkable mysteries in English history. The profound sensation which it caused, the momentous consequences which it produced, the extreme difficulty of discovering the truth, have rendered Godfrey’s figure fascinating to historians. Opinion as to the nature of his end has been widely different. To the minds of Kennet, Oldmixon, and Christie the Catholics were responsible. North declared that he was mur
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
BEDLOE AND ATKINS On October 20 a proclamation was published offering a pardon and the reward of £500 to any one whose evidence should lead to the apprehension and conviction of the murderers. Four days later a second proclamation was issued containing in addition to these a promise of protection to the discoverer of the culprits. It is easy to point out that this course offered temptations to perjury and to sneer at the motives of the government, but it must be remembered that in the days when
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
BEDLOE AND PRANCE The change in the situation had been caused by the appearance of a witness whose evidence about the murder was of the greatest weight, and whose position in the intrigues of the Popish Plot has always been of some obscurity. Bedloe’s information was already of a startling character. It was as follows. Early in October he had been offered by two Jesuits, Walsh and Le Fevre, the sum of £4000 to assist in killing a man “that was a great obstacle to their designs.” He gave his word
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
PRANCE AND BEDLOE At this point the atmosphere begins somewhat to clear. Two trials have been discussed, and the result is seen that the two chief witnesses at them were guilty of wilful perjury. Bedloe contradicted himself beyond belief. Although it was by no means clear at the time, the men convicted upon the evidence of Prance were certainly innocent. This has since been universally recognised. Yet the verdict against them was not perverse, and small blame attaches to the judges and jury who
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
THE SECRET Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was an intimate friend of Edward Coleman, secretary to the Duchess of York. At the time of the murder Coleman lay in Newgate under an accusation of treason, and had so lain for a fortnight. He was therefore never examined on the subject of his friend’s death. The omission was unfortunate, for Coleman could probably have thrown some light upon the nature of the magistrate’s end. 269 It was constantly said, and the statement has often been repeated, that when Oa
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
THE GOVERNMENT “ The English nation are a sober people,” wrote Charles I to his abler son, “however at present infatuated.” Charles II had greater right than ever his father to believe that his subjects were mad. The appearance of Oates and the death of Godfrey heralded an outburst of feeling as monstrous as the obscure events which were its cause. From the sense of proportion they had displayed in the Civil War the English people seemed now divorced and, while they affected to judge those of “l
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
THE CATHOLICS Of the five hundred Cavalier gentlemen who fell in the Civil War more than one-third were Catholics, 349 The remnant of the class that had once been the most dignified and the wealthiest in England was thrown by the Popish Plot into the fiercest persecution known to its history. For the first time a real attempt was made to put the penal laws into full force. All over the country the prisons were filled, houses of Roman Catholics searched for arms, their estates confiscated. Fourte
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
SHAFTESBURY AND CHARLES Of all men whose reputation was made or raised by the Popish Plot, none have since maintained their fame at so even a height as John Dryden. His person but not his name suffered from the changes of fortune, and at a distance of more than two centuries the sum of continuous investigation has little to add to the judgments passed on his times by the greatest of satirists. The flashes of Dryden’s insight illumine more than the light shed by many records. In politics, no less
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
MAGISTRATES AND JUDGES The trials of the Popish Plot have remained the most celebrated in the annals of our judicial history. Their reports occupy three volumes of the State Trials and more than two thousand pages of crowded print. They contain twenty-two trials for treason, three for murder or attempt to murder, eleven for perjury, subornation of perjury, libel, and other misdemeanours. They gave rise to proceedings in Parliament against two Lord Chief Justices, and against two judges of the Co
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE The Reformation, as in almost all other branches of modern history, constitutes the starting-point at which the study of public procedure must be begun. Rather it would be true to say that in this as in other subjects it should form the starting-point. Unfortunately the necessary materials are here wanting. The State Trials, which afford not only the greatest quantity but the finest quality of evidence on the judicial history of England, are printed from reports which do not b
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
TRIALS FOR THE PLOT Such was the state of society and the procedure of the English courts when Edward Coleman was brought to the bar of the Court of King’s Bench on November 27, 1678 to be tried on the charge of high treason. The trial was a test case. In point of importance it was chief among the series of trials for treason which arose from the Plot, for all the others which followed to some extent depended from this. If Coleman had been acquitted, there could have been no more to come. His le
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APPENDIX A
APPENDIX A
Longleat MSS. Coventry Papers xi. 393 April 29, 1679. Dover. Francis Bastwick to Henry Coventry. This day I received advice of one Col. Scott coming from Folkestone to take horse here for London, and on his arrival I seized him and sent for the Comm. of the passage. His examination I send you enclosed, upon which we found cause to commit him (which was accordingly done by the deputy mayor) into safe custody until we had further orders from one of his Majesty’s principal secretaries what to do wi
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APPENDIX B
APPENDIX B
Longleat MSS. Coventry Papers xi. 237 October 28, 1678. Copy of the letter sent to Mr. Sec. Coventry subscribed T. G. Concerning the murder of Sir Edmond Bury Godfrey. This is to certify you that upon his Majesty’s Declaration I have been both at Whitehall and at your own house these three days together, and never can be admitted to come to the speech of your worship. Whereupon I thought fit to give you an account what it is I can declare, which is as follows:—Being on Tuesday the 15th, of this
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APPENDIX C
APPENDIX C
Longleat MSS. Coventry Papers xi. 148 Lord Windsor to Henry Coventry. July 8, 1676. I was yesterday at the trial of Studesbury of Broadly at Worcester assizes, where Judge Atkyns sat upon the bench. The treason was fully proved against him according to that information I did send you. The judge took occasion by advice of those justices which were upon the bench to make the trial long, the better to discover whether he were distracted or not: upon the whole examination and by the answers he made
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APPENDIX D
APPENDIX D
“ The trial of John Giles at the Old Bailey, for assaulting and attempting to murder John Arnold, Esq.,” is a case which presents some difficulty. 770 Arnold’s character for activity against the Roman Catholics has already been mentioned. The way in which this trial is regarded materially affects the answer to the question whether or no he exceeded the legitimate bounds of his magisterial duty. If Giles was rightly convicted, the excess was not great; if wrongly and the attempt on Arnold’s life
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APPENDIX E
APPENDIX E
Penal Laws in Force against Roman Catholics , 1678 1. 1 Eliz. cap. 1 (Act of Supremacy), 1559. No foreign potentate shall exercise ecclesiastical power in the Queen’s dominions. All the Queen’s servants, all temporal and eccles. officers, all with degrees in the universities shall take the oath of supremacy. None shall maintain the jurisdiction of any foreign potentate in the Queen’s dominions under penalty of fine and imprisonment for the first offence, for the second of Præmunire ( i.e. to be
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MATERIALS FOR THE HISTORY OF THE POPISH PLOT
MATERIALS FOR THE HISTORY OF THE POPISH PLOT
1. Manuscripts. Public Record Office. State Papers Domestic, Charles II 407–416. The state papers of the period have not been calendared and are preserved in loose bundles, some of which are ill arranged. Thus in referring to the S.P. Dom. Charles II 407, I have been compelled to add e.g. i. 285, ii. 23, as there are two sets of papers in the bundle bearing the same numbers. State Papers, Ireland 339. Transcripts from Paris: dispatches of the French ambassadors. Transcripts from the Vatican arch
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