What was the Gunpowder Plot? The Traditional Story Tested by Original Evidence

47

R.O. Dom. James I. lxix. 56.

48

Ibid., May 27, 1612. Bishop Goodman, no enemy of Cecil, is inclined to believe that at the time of the secretary's death there was a warrant out for his arrest. Court of King James, i. 45.

49

The first of these epigrams, in Latin, concludes thus:

Sero, Recurve, moreris sed serio;Sero, jaces (bis mortuus) sed serio:Sero saluti publicæ, serio tuæ.

The second is in English:

Whiles two RR's, both crouchbacks, stood at the helm,The one spilt the blood royall, the other the realm.

A marginal note explains that these were, "Richard Duke of Gloster, and Robert Earl of Salisburie;" the anagram, of which title is "A silie burs." He also styles the late minister a monkey (cercopithecus) and hobgoblin (empusa).

50

Osborne, Traditional Memoirs, p. 236 (ed. 1811).

51

Court of King James, i. 44.

52

Traditional Memoirs, 181.

53

This feeling was expressed in lampoons quoted by Osborne, e.g.:

"Here lies Hobinall, our pastor while here,That once in a quarter our fleeces did sheare.For oblation to Pan his custom was thus,He first gave a trifle, then offer'd up us:And through his false worship such power he did gaine,As kept him o' th' mountain, and us on the plaine."

Again, he is described as

"Little bossive Robin that was so great,Who seemed as sent from ugly fate,To spoyle the prince, and rob the state,Owning a mind of dismall endes,As trappes for foes, and tricks for friends."

(Ibid. 236.)

Oldmixon (History of Queen Elizabeth, p. 620) says of the Earl of Essex, "'Twas not likely that Cecil, whose Soul was of a narrow Size, and had no Room for enlarged Sentiments of Ambition, Glory, and Public Spirit, should cease to undermine a Hero, in comparison with whom he was both in Body and Mind a Piece of Deformity, if there's nothing beautiful in Craft."

54

Court and Character of King James, § 10.

55

Ambassade, i. 58.

56

Ibid. 401.

57

Against Northumberland nothing was proved (vide de la Boderie, Ambassade, i. 178), except that he had admitted Thomas Percy amongst the royal pensioners without exacting the usual oath. He in vain demanded an open trial, but was prosecuted in the Star Chamber, and there sentenced to a fine of £30,000 (equal to at least ten times that sum in our money), and to be imprisoned for life.

Mr. Gardiner considers that, in regard both of Raleigh and of Northumberland, Cecil acted with great moderation. It must, however, be remembered that in his secret correspondence with King James, before the death of the queen, he had strenuously endeavoured to poison the mind of that monarch against these his rivals. Thus he wrote, December 4th, 1601 (as usual through Lord Henry Howard): "You must remember that I gave you notice of the diabolical triplicity, that is, Cobham, Raleigh, and Northumberland, that met every day at Durham-house, where Raleigh lies, in consultation, which awaked all the best wits of the town … to watch what chickens they could hatch out of these cockatrice eggs that were daily and nightly sitten on." (Secret Correspondence of Sir Robert Cecil with James VI., King of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1766, p. 29.) Coming after this, the speedy ruin of all these men appears highly suspicious.

58

Sir Walter Cope in his Apology (Gutch, Collectanea Curiosa, i. No. 10) says: "When living, the world observed with all admiration and applause; no sooner dead, but it seeketh finally to suppress his excellent parts, and load his memory with all imputations of corruption."

Among such charges are enumerated "His Falsehood in Friendship. – That he often made his friends fair promises, and underhand laid rubs to hinder their preferment. – The secret passage of things I know not… Great Counsellors have their private and their publique ends…" etc.

59

Lord Castlemaine after mentioning the chief features of the Gunpowder Plot, goes on: "But let it not displease you, if we ask whether Ulysses be no better known?" (Catholique Apology, p. 30.)

Francis Herring in his Latin poem, Pietas Pontificia (published 1606), speaking of Monteagle (called "Morleius," from his father's title), who took the celebrated letter to Cecil, writes thus:

"Morleius Regis de consultoribus unum,(Quem norat veteri nil quicquam cedere Ulyssi,Juditio pollentem acri, ingenioque sagaci)Seligit, atque illi Rem totam ex ordine pandit."

60

This is so evident that it appears unnecessary to occupy space with proofs in detail. De la Boderie remarks (Ambassade, i. 71) on the extraordinary rancour of the minister against Catholics, and especially against Jesuits, and that "he wishes to destroy them everywhere." Of this a remarkable confirmation is afforded by the instructions given to Sir Thomas Parry when he was sent as ambassador, "Leiger," to Paris, in 1603, at the head of which stood these extraordinary articles:

1. "To intimate to the French king the jealousy conceived in England upon the revocation of the Jesuits, against former edicts.

2. "To inform the French king that the English were disgusted at the maintenance allowed to the French king's prelates and clergy, to priests and Jesuits that passed out of his dominions into England, Scotland, and Ireland, to do bad offices." (P.R.O. France, bundle 132, f. 314.)

61

Jardine, Gunpowder Plot, p. 5. Strype says of the time of Elizabeth: "The faction of the Catholics in England is great, and able, if the kingdom were divided into three parts, to make two of them." (Annals, iii. 313, quoted by Butler, Historical Memoirs, ii. 177.)

At the execution of Father Oldcorne, 1606, a proof was given of their numbers which is said to have alarmed the king greatly. The Father having from the scaffold invited all Catholics to pray with him, almost all present uncovered.

62

Of this there can be no doubt, in spite of James's subsequent denial. Father Garnet wrote to Parsons (April 16th, 1603): "There hath happened a great alteration by the death of the Queen. Great fears were, but all are turned into greatest security, and a golden time we have of unexpected freedom abroade… The Catholicks have great cause to hope for great respect, in that the nobility all almost labour for it, and have good promise thereof from his Majesty." (Stonyhurst MSS. Anglia, iii. 32.)

Goodman says: "And certainly they [the Catholics] had very great promises from him." (Court of King James, i. 86.)

63

"The Penal Laws, a code as savage as any that can be conceived since the foundation of the world." – Lord Chief Justice Coleridge. (To Lord Mayor Knill, Nov. 9, 1892.)

64

Gardiner, i. 100.

65

Jardine, Gunpowder Plot, 18.

66

Ibid. 20.

67

Gardiner, i. 166.

68

Green, History of the English People, iii. 62. Mr. Green adds: "Rumours of Catholic conversions spread a panic which showed itself in an Act of the Parliament of 1604 confirming the statutes of Elizabeth; and to this James gave his assent. He promised, indeed, that the statute should remain inoperative." In May, 1604, the Catholics boasted that they had been joined by 10,000 converts. (Gardiner, Hist. i. 202.)

69

Catholique Apology, 404.

70

Salisbury, in reward of his services on this occasion, received the Garter, May 20th, 1606, and was honoured on the occasion with an almost regal triumph.

Of the proceedings subsequent to the Plot we are told: "In passing these laws for the security of the Protestant Religion, the Earl of Salisbury exerted himself with distinguished zeal and vigour, which gained him great love and honour from the kingdom, as appeared in some measure, in the universal attendance on him at his installation with the Order of the Garter, on the 20th of May, 1606, at Windsor." (Birch, Historical View, p. 256.)

71

This belief is so notorious that one instance must suffice as evidence for it. A paper of informations addressed to Cecil himself, April, 1604, declares that the Catholics hoped to see a good day yet, and that "his Majesty would suffer a kinde of Tolleracyon, for his inclynacyon is good, howsoever the Councell set out his speeches." (S.P.O. Dom. James I. vii. 86.)

72

Mr. Gardiner (Hist. i. 229, note) says that arrears were never demanded in the case of the fine of £20 per lunar month for non-attendance at the parish church. Father Gerard, however, a contemporary witness, distinctly states that they were. (Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot, ed. Morris, p. 62.)

73

Court of King James, i. 100.

74

Narrative, p. 46.

75

Stonyhurst MSS., Anglia, iii. 103.

76

Of the Prince of Wales it was prophesied:

"The eighth Henry did pull down Monks and their cells,The ninth will pull down Bishops and their bells."

77

Concerning this letter see Appendix B, Digby's Letter to Salisbury.

78

R.O. Dom. James I. xvii. 10.

79

Hallam, Constitutional Hist. i. 392 (3rd ed.).

80

See Appendix C, The Question of Succession.

81

Agriculture and Prices, v. 5.

82

Jardine, Gunpowder Plot, p. 17.

83

Gardiner, Hist. i. 84.

84

Trial of Father Garnet (Cobbett's State Trials, ii. 243).

85

Camden, the historian, to Sir R. Cotton, March 15th, 1596. (Birch, Original Letters, 2nd series, iii. p. 179.) Various writers erroneously suppose this transaction to have occurred in March, 1603, on occasion of Elizabeth's last illness. The correct date, 1596, given by Sir Henry Ellis, is supplied by a statement contained in the letter, that this was her Majesty's "climacterick year," that is, her sixty-third, this number, as the multiple of the potent factors seven and nine, being held of prime importance in human life. Elizabeth was born in 1533.

From Garnet's examination of March 14th, 1605-6 (Dom. James I. xix. 44), we learn that Catesby was at large at the time of the queen's demise.

For Cecil's description of the men, see Winwood's Memorials, ii. 172.

86

Catesby purchased his life for a fine of 4,000 marks, and Tresham of 3,000. Mr. Jessopp says that the former sum is equivalent at least to £30,000 at the present day. (Dict. Nat. Biog., Catesby.)

87

But see Appendix D, The Spanish Treason.

88

Father Gerard says of him that "he paid them [the pursuivants] so well for their labour not with crowns of gold, but with cracked crowns sometimes, and with dry blows instead of drink and other good cheer, that they durst not visit him any more unless they brought store of help with them." (Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot, p. 86.)

89

Ibid., p. 57.

90

Catholique Apology, p. 403.

91

E.g., by Mr. Talbot of Grafton, father-in-law of Robert Winter, who drove their envoys away with threats and reproaches (Jardine, Gunpowder Plot, p. 112), and by Sir Robert Digby, of Coleshill, cousin to Sir Everard, who assisted in taking prisoners. (R.O. Gunpowder Plot Book, 42.)

92

History, i. 263.

93

Gunpowder Plot, p. 151.

94

Ibid., p. 38.

95

Life of a Conspirator, by one of his Descendants, p. 150.

96

English Protestants' Plea and Petition for English Priests and Papists. The author of this book (published 1621) describes himself as a priest who has been for many years on the English mission. His title indicates that he draws his arguments from Protestant sources.

97

P. 56.

98

November 25th, 1605, Stowe MSS. 168, 61.

99

Gunpowder Plot Book, 129. Printed in Archæologia, xii. 202*.

100

R.O. Roman Transcripts (Bliss), No. 86, December 10th, 1605 (Italian).

101

Mr. Jardine writes (Criminal Trials, ii. p. 235), "The True and Perfect Relation … is certainly not deserving of the character which its title imports. It is not true, because many occurrences on the trial are wilfully misrepresented; and it is not perfect, because the whole evidence, and many facts and circumstances which must have happened, are omitted, and incidents are inserted which could not by possibility have taken place on the occasion. It is obviously a false and imperfect relation of the proceedings; a tale artfully garbled and misrepresented, like many others of the same age, to serve a State purpose, and intended and calculated to mislead the judgment of the world upon the facts of the case." Of the Discourse he speaks in similar terms. (Ibid., p. 4.)

102

R.O. Dom. James I. xix. 94. Printed by Jardine, Criminal Trials, ii. 120 (note).

103

Answere to certaine Scandalous Papers, scattered abroad under colour of a Catholic Admonition. (Published in January, 1605-6.)

104

Traditional Memoirs, 36. Of this writer Lord Castlemaine says, "He was born before this plot, and was also an inquisitive man, a frequenter of company, of a noted wit, of an excellent family, and as Protestant a one as any in the whole nation."

105

Court of King James (1839), i. 102.

106

Stonyhurst MSS., Anglia, v. 67.

107

E.g., in the Advocate of Conscience Liberty (1673), p. 225.

108

History of Mary Queen of Scots and James I., p. 334. Bishop Kennet, in his Fifth of November Sermon, 1715, boldly declares that Sanderson speaks not of Cecil the statesman, but of Cecil "a busy Romish priest" (and, he might have added, a paid government spy). The assertion is utterly and obviously false.

109

Memoirs, p. 22.

110

History of England, Royal House of Stuart, p. 27.

111

General History of England, iii. 757.

112

History of His Own Times, i. 11.

113

Church History, Book X. § 39.

114

Antipathie of the English Lordly Prelacie, to the regall Monarchie and Civill Unity, p. 151.

115

A Short View of the English History, p. 296.

116

Note to Fuller's Church History, x. § 39, and to the Student's Hume.

117

Illustrations, iii. 172.

118

Parker and Co. This author says of Cecil and his rival Raleigh, "Both were unprincipled men, but Cecil was probably the worst. He is suspected not only of having contrived the strange plot in which Raleigh was involved, but of being privy to the proceedings of Catesby and his associates, though he suffered them to remain unmolested, in order to secure the forfeiture of their estates" (p. 338).

119

Criminal Trials, ii. 68.

120

History of England, i. 254, note.

121

Catholique Apology, p. 412.

122

Hist. Prov. Angl. S.J., p. 310.

123

Condition of Catholics under James I., p. 100.

124

R.O. Dom. James I., lxxxi. 70, August 29th, 1615.

125

A Plain and Rational Account of the Catholick Faith, Rouen, 1721, p. 197.

126

Certamen utriusque Ecclesiæ, James I.

127

The author of the English Protestants' Plea (1621) says: "Old stratagems and tragedies of Queene Elizabeth's time must needs be renewed and playde againe, to bring not only the Catholikes of England, but their holy religion into obloquy" (p. 56).

Peter Talbot, Bishop of Dublin, in the Polititian's Catechisme (1658) writes: "That Cecil was the contriver, or at least the fomenter of [the Plot,] was testified by one of his own domestick Gentlemen, who advertised a certain Catholike, by name Master Buck, two months before, of a wicked designe his Master had against Catholikes" (p. 94).

128

A writer, signing himself "Architect," in an article describing the old palace of Westminster (Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1800, p. 627), having occasion to mention the Gunpowder Plot, observes: "This Plot is now pretty well understood not to have been hatched by the Papists, but by an inveterate foe of the Catholicks of that day, the famous minister of James… All well-informed persons at present laugh at the whole of this business."

129

The name "old House of Lords" is somewhat ambiguous, being variously applicable to three different buildings:

(i.) That here described, which continued to be used till the Irish Union, a. d. 1800.

(ii.) The "Court of Requests," or "White Hall," used from 1800 till the fire of 1834.

(iii.) The "Painted Chamber," which, having been repaired after the said fire, became the place of assembly for the Lords, as did the Court of Requests for the Commons.

The original House of Lords was demolished in 1823 by Sir John Soane, who on its site erected his Royal Gallery. (See Brayley and Britton, History of the Palace of Westminster.)

130

The authority for this is the Earl of Northampton, who at Father Garnet's trial mentioned that it was so stated in ancient records. Remains of a buttery hatch in the south wall confirmed his assertion.

The foundations of the building were believed to date from the time of Edward the Confessor, and the style of architecture of the superstructure assigned it to the early part of the thirteenth century, as likewise the "Prince's Chamber."

131

Brayley and Britton, History of the Palace of Westminster, p. 421; J. T. Smith, Antiquities of Westminster, p. 39 (where illustrations will be found); Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1800, p. 626.

132

It was here that the death warrant of Charles I. was signed.

133

An old print (which states that it is taken from "a painted print in the Cottonian library,") representing the two Houses assembled in presence of Queen Elizabeth, has windows on both sides. The same plate, with the figure of the sovereign alone changed, was made to do duty likewise for a Parliament of James I. By Hollar's time (1640-77) the windows had been blocked up and the tapestry hung.

134

Cecil wrote to Cornwallis, Edmondes, and others, November 9th, 1605, "This Piercey had a bout a year and a half a goe hyred a parte of Vyniards house in the old Palace," which appears to be Mr. Hepworth Dixon's sole authority for styling the tenement "Vinegar House."

135

See Appendix E, Site of Percy's house.

136

Evidence of Mrs. Whynniard, November 7th, 1605. Epsley is evidently the same person as Hoppisley, who was examined on the 23rd of the same month.

137

Birch, Historical View, p. 227.

138

Historie, p. 1231.

139

Gunpowder Treason, Harleian Miscellany, iii. 121.

140

At his first examination, November 5th 1605, Faukes declared that he had not been sure the king would come to the Parliament House on that day, and that his purpose was to have blown it up whenever his Majesty was there.

141

The agreement between Percy and Ferrers is in the Record Office (Gunpowder Plot Book, 1.) and is endorsed by Cecil, "The bargaine … for the bloody sellar." Upon this there will be more to remark later.

142

Jardine, Gunpowder Plot, p. 42.

143

The 11th of December, O.S., was at that period the shortest day, which circumstance suggested to Sir E. Coke, on the trial of the conspirators, one of his characteristic facetiæ; he bade his hearers note "That it was in the entring of the Sun into the Tropick of Capricorn, when they began their Mine; noting that by Mining they should descend, and by Hanging, ascend."

144

"Gentlemen not accustomed to labour or to be pioneers." – Goodman, Court of King James, p. 103.

145

"The Moles that first underwent these underminings were all grounded Schollers of the Romish Schoole, and such earnest Labourers in their Vault of Villany, that by Christmas Eve they had brought the worke under an entry, unto the Wall of the Parliament House, underpropping still as they went the Earth with their framed Timber." – Speed, Historie, p. 1232 (pub. 1611).

146

In Barlow's Gunpowder Treason these foundations are stated to have been three ells thick, i. e., eleven and a quarter feet. Harleian Miscellany, iii. 122.

147

See Appendix F, The enrolment of the Conspirators, for the discrepancies as to dates. T. Winter (November 23rd, 1605) says that the powder was laid "in Mr. Percy's house;" Faukes, "in a low Room new builded."

148

There is, as usual, hopeless contradiction between the two witnesses upon whom, as will be seen, we wholly depend for this portion of the story. Faukes (November 17th, 1605) makes the mining operations terminate at Candlemas. T. Winter (November 23rd) says that they went on to "near Easter" (March 31st). The date of hiring the "cellar," was about Lady Day (March 25th).

149

The buildings of the dissolved College of St. Stephen, comprising those around the House of Lords, were granted by Edward VI. to Sir Ralph Lane. They reverted to the crown under Elizabeth, and were appropriated as residences for the auditors and tellers of the Exchequer. The locality became so populous that in 1606 it was forbidden to erect more houses.

150

Jardine, Gunpowder Plot, p. 48.

151

November 17th, 1605.

152

November 7th, 1605.

153

Winter says: "… We heard that the Parliament should be anew adjourned until after Michaelmas; upon which tidings we broke off both discourse and working until after Christmas" (November 23rd, 1605).

Lingard writes, "When a fortnight had thus been devoted to uninterrupted labour, Faukes informed his associates that the Parliament was prorogued from the 7th of February to the 3rd of October. They immediately separated to spend the Christmas holidays at their respective homes." —History, vii. 47 (ed. 1883).

154

Faukes, as has been said, makes the work upon the wall terminate at Candlemas. Winter (ut sup.) says that they brought over the powder at Candlemas, that is, after they had been some time engaged upon the wall, and found the need of the assistance of Keyes.