In our post on Sir Francis Walsingham, it was noted how he fought diligently and hard to ward off plots to dethrone Queen Elizabeth I and replace her with the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots who was Elizabeth’s prisoner in England after abdicating her own throne. Elizabeth’s throne and her life were in dang while England remained under threat of invasion. This was due to the enduring legacy of Elizabeth’s father King Henry VIII and his religious policies.

Henry had championed the Church when he wrote a treatise, “Defense of the Seven Sacraments” in answer to Martin Luther’s call for reform of the church. The Pope gave Henry the title of “Defender of the Faith”. But when he wanted a divorce from Catherine of Aragon to marry his love, Anne Boleyn the Pope refused. Henry eventually broke with the Catholic Church and made himself head of the Church of England. He tried to walk a thin line by reforming but keeping most of the traditions of the Church but he ended up splitting his country into those who wanted reform and those who wanted to maintain the Catholic faith as it was.

Because of this turmoil there were always agents who wanted to return England to the Catholic fold. During the reign of Henry’s Protestant daughter, Queen Elizabeth, Walsingham uncovered the Ridolfi Plot, the Throckmorton Plot and the Babington Plot. In the reign of James I, the Gunpowder Plot was a Jesuit scheme to blow up the King. Even the Great Fire of 1666 in London was blamed on the Catholics. The Popish Plot, a fabricated conspiracy started by an Englishman named Titus Oates , caused a wave of anti-Catholic hysteria in England, Wales and Scotland from 1678 – 1681.

The Plot was discovered in an odd way. Oates, a Protestant chaplain, had collaborated with an educator and rector named Dr. Israel Tonge, in writing a long manuscript. The manuscript contained accusations the Catholic Church plotted to assassinate King Charles II with the Jesuits carrying out the deed. They proposed to shoot or stab the King or have the Queen’s physician poison him, kill all the leading Protestant leaders and install Charles’ Catholic brother James, Duke of York on the throne under the Pope. The document named 100 Jesuits and supporters being involved. Examination of the document over the years since then has proven none of the points to be true.

Oates slipped a copy of the manuscript into some wainscot of a gallery in Sir Richard Barker’s house. Tonge claimed he found the document and showed it to an acquaintance, Christopher Kirkby (or Kirby) who was alarmed enough to warn the King. On August 13, 1678, Kirkby approached Charles on his walk in St. James Park and told him his life was in danger. Charles shrugged off the worry for his personal safety and told Kirkby to tell his story to his personal staff member, William Chaffinch. Chaffinch and his wife were in charge of the private entrance to Charles apartments. They were personal friends of the King and served as go-betweens, arranging meetings with informers and spies on behalf of the Whigs and Catholic leaders who couldn’t be seen coming in the light of day to court. Charles asked Thomas Danby, Earl of Osborne, Lord Treasurer to look into the story.

Tonge went before Danby and said he found the document but didn’t know the author. Charles initially denied a request for an investigation but the Duke of York insisted. Oates’ name was revealed. On September 6, Oates gave a deposition to magistrate Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, with Oates claiming to have attended a meeting of Jesuits where they discussed regicide.

The conditions were ripe in the country, especially in London, for people to fall for such a plot. An economic depression weighed heavily on the city and many people were unemployed. Doomsayers fed the capital with rumors and prophecies of the threat of another civil war. Catholics were an easy target for the Londoners anger. As the King’s heir, the Duke of York was not well liked. If he had been able to keep his faith to himself, none of these strange events may have occurred.

A month later, Oates and Tonge were called before the Privy Council. Even more wild accusations were flying by the time of this meeting. The lists of allegations went to 43 and then to 81. The names given went as high as the offices of people in the employ of the Queen and the Duchess of York, archbishops and others in government. The allegations were seen as even more true when Godfrey was found murdered in October of 1678. To this day no one knows who murdered him and the rumors that Catholics did the deed started immediately. Oates and Tonge testified before Parliament. They were now accusing five Catholic lords who were subsequently arrested. One was beheaded, one died in captivity and the other three managed to get released eventually. There was now a call for excluding James from the succession and a bill was passed to exclude Catholics from membership in the House.

Another man named William Bedloe appeared on the scene accusing the Queen’s Catholic servants of killing Godfrey. They searched her home of Somerset House and then Oates denounced Queen Catherine herself as a traitor, asserting she knew of the plot to kill her husband and approved of it. Her motivations were supposedly to avenge herself on her unfaithful husband and to restore the Catholic Church in England.

Now the accusations appeared to fully be without foundation but the Earl of Shaftesbury used the plot to further his political agenda. Acceptance of the plot was so widespread, the House of Commons called for Queen Catherine to be banished from the court at Whitehall. The vote failed but the Queen was clearly in danger. Parliament insisted Charles divorce her. Charles sent his brother James out of the country. By April 1679, it was suggested Catherine return to her home in Portugal. Catherine refused. In July, the accusations against her were abandoned when the indictment against her physician for plotting to poison the King failed. Charles never agreed to divorce Catherine.

The new Parliament of 1679 openly attacked Charles’ brother James and asked that he be excluded from inheriting the throne. The Exclusion crisis was to last until 1681. Charles managed to dissolve Parliament before the Exclusion Act could be passed. Oates was given an apartment in Whitehall and an income. At one point the King personally interrogated Oates. He caught him in inaccuracies and didn’t believe his tales and wanted him arrested. Oates somehow managed to worm his way out of being arrested. He continued to weave even more lies. By July of 1681 as many as 35 people had lost their lives due to his falsehoods. The tide was turning against him and the Chief Justice began declaring people innocent and the King devised countermeasures. On August 31, 1681, they expelloed Oates from his apartment in Whitehall and he began making claims against the King and Duke of York. They arrested him for sedition, imprisoned and fined him £100,000.

The Society of Jesuits, the Carmelites, Franciscans and the Benedictines suffered under Oates allegations. Many were executed and died in prison. Even ordinary Catholics suffered later when a proclamation was issued in 1687 requiring all Catholics who were not tradesmen or property owners to leave London and Westminster and requiring them to get special permission to enter a 12 mile radius of the city. During these ensuing years, Catholics were subject to fines, harassment and prison. Eventually, the Duke of York became King. When he tried to change the official religion of England to Catholicism, they drove him into exile, elevating his daughter and son-in-law to the throne as William III and Mary II in the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Further reading: “The Popish Plot” by John Kenyon, “The Popish Plot: A Study in the History” by John Pollack