Ancient & Medieval Traitors

by Kerr, Gordon

  The relationship between the two men became increasingly strained when More refused to attend the coronation of the new queen, Anne Boleyn, in 1533. His absence was enough for Henry to consider him a traitor and, more importantly, acted to undermine the king’s authority. Although More had never committed any concrete acts of treason against the king, Henry was now determined to implicate him in a plot against him led by Elizabeth Barton, the nun of Kent. Barton was in great opposition to Henry’s decision to break with Rome and she sought to pass a bill through parliament, stressing the sympathy of others to this point of view. Henry’s plan to link the innocent More to this plot backfired when the Lords refused to pass the bill until More’s name was removed from it.

  The king’s frustrations grew as he failed to convict More of any treasonable acts, but More’s ultimate downfall came when he refused to swear to the Act of Succession and Oath of Supremacy in 1534, legitimising Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn as the rightful monarchs of England. More tendered his resignation and was forced to relinquish his complete income minus only £100 allowance per year. In addition to this, he was thrown into the Tower of London and reported by the king’s solicitor general to have denied parliament’s power to confer ecclesiastical supremacy on Henry. Whether or not this conversation actually took place is questionable, but Henry now had the concrete evidence he needed to sentence More to death. On the 1 July he was indicted for high treason at Westminster Hall and sentenced to beheading on Tower Hill. He was executed on 6 July 1535, alongside Bishop Fisher who had also opposed Henry’s break with Rome.

  More’s legacy lived on for many years and he was remembered by the Catholic church by being canonised by Pope Pius XI in 1935. His literature has also stood the test of time with Utopia often being read by students around the world even to this day. More can be seen as a man whose morality was dear to him and who was forced to give his life as a punishment for speaking his views publicly.

  Sir Francis Walsingham

  As with many of the ‘squealers’ discussed throughout this book, Walsingham grew up with a very privileged lifestyle. His family was very wealthy and in possession of enough capital to invest in a large manor in Kent. The boy’s connections with the royal family came from an early age as they were closely related to one of Henry VIII’s ministers, Sir Anthony Denny. Sir Francis Walsingham’s interest in politics could have stemmed from his early association with this influential family member, but the boy would surely have been steered towards a career in politics with the influence of his father, who was a renowned lawyer.

  Following the death of his father, Walsingham’s youth became enriched by more useful connections. His mother was remarried to a relation of Henry Carey, a man closely connected to the Boleyn family, whose daughter Anne would soon become Queen of England. As a consequence, Walsingham spent much of his youth in the company of Anne’s daughter Elizabeth, who would ultimately ascend to the throne of England. Brought up as a staunch Protestant, Walsingham stayed true to his religious convictions and imposed a voluntary exile upon himself after Elizabeth’s older sister, Mary, ascended to the throne. The new ruler was a very strict Catholic and was well known for her violent execution of ‘heretics’ who did not follow the Catholic faith. Walsingham was able to use his self-imposed exile to his own advantage by venturing abroad to pursue other avenues not accessible to him in England.

  WALSINGHAM’S EDUCATION

  For the next five years Walsingham lived abroad and began a rigorous training in both foreign languages and law. His goal was to carve a political career out for himself and to offer his services to the British monarchy. Throughout the period of his training two English monarchs had died; both Queen Mary and King Edward, and the ascension to the throne of Elizabeth, pleased Walsingham greatly. Not only had she been a close acquaintance of his throughout his youth, she also held the same religious beliefs as he did, which meant that he would be free to return to England whenever he desired. Throughout the period of his education Walsingham became deeply interested in the idea of constructing a secret service which would act to expose the plans of enemies of the monarch as soon as they had been formulated. These ideas came into the young man’s mind whilst he was continuing his studies in law. He continued to remain abroad in Padua until 1555 when he made the decision to return to his homeland.

  Upon return to England Walsingham built up many useful connections which allowed him to rise quickly in the field of politics. He often assisted one of Elizabeth I’s most trusted advisers, Sir William Cecil, who gradually instigated the young man’s return to the Commons. Due to his excellent education, he was able to assist in matters of great importance regarding foreign affairs, and in 1570 was sent to France by the queen on a very important mission to secure favourable terms for the Huguenots in their negotiations with Charles IX. Following a negative experience with the French king he returned to England with a lasting distrust for the man and warned Elizabeth not to enter into any political agreements with him. His skills at dealing with foreign affairs were duly noted by the queen, and he became one of her principal secretaries of state soon after his experience in France. He also proved himself an invaluable assistant to the queen with his intricately masterminded ability to obtain intelligence from abroad. Clearly he had great talents in the field of secret service and he was frequently able to make a great contribution to Elizabeth’s throne by combining information from sources at home and abroad.

  WALSINGHAM AND ELIZABETH CLASH

  It was never in dispute that Queen Elizabeth held her adviser Walsingham in high regard, but there gradually came a time when the two strong characters began to clash with one another. On one hand, there was the fiercely determined Walsingham, fixed in his opinion that he knew best and that Elizabeth would be wise to adhere to his every word of counsel. The queen on the other hand, felt that her adviser was forcing her to make decisions without allowing her to have any input herself. The queen clearly did not think much of Walsingham’s character but was well aware that his master minding of the now well-established secret service in England, had helped her to combat her enemies for the duration of her reign.

  As time went on, the pair continued to clash. Firstly there was an issue with some intelligence that Walsingham had received from abroad. He discovered that under the auspices of Felipe II, Spain was preparing to invade England. The motives for this were tied up with the continuing religious disagreements between Catholic Spain and Protestant England. The queen could not agree with Walsingham’s advice to fight the advancing Spanish forces, and decided on using peaceful methods to come to some sort of agreement with Spain. Unfortunately for Walsingham he would never have as much backing as the queen and he grew increasingly frustrated that his advice was constantly being ignored. Walsingham did himself no favours by allowing his relationship with other members of the privy council to deteriorate. He found himself disagreeing with the Earl of Leicester and gradually became estranged by him, which left him isolated and alone.

  He was undoubtedly devoted to protecting England and clearly believed that he had the queen’s best interests at heart with every decision he made on her behalf. In 1581 he was sent to France to forge an Anglo-French alliance in order to unite the two countries against the increasing power of Spain. Elizabeth was encouraged to take François, Duke of Anjou, in marriage, but stubbornly refused any such union as she believed that it would undermine her authority as a female ruler. Again Walsingham felt exasperated that the queen would not heed his useful advice, and he continued to immerse himself in the work of his secret service. Regrettably for Elizabeth, her status as a ruler was never safe and she was now faced with a threat from Scotland in the form of Mary Queen of Scots. The queen of Scotland held a genuine claim to the throne of England, but this was reliant upon the demise of childless Elizabeth. She was implicated in a number of plots against the queen of England but Elizabeth was not keen on executing her enemy as she was royalty just like herself. Instead she chose to imprison her in the
Tower of London for a number of years and believed that this would put an end to Mary’s plotting against her.

  WALSINGHAM’S FALL FROM GRACE

  At this time Walsingham became increasingly paranoid about the threat that Scotland posed to Queen Elizabeth. He became convinced that it was not only Mary Queen of Scots who was conspiring against Elizabeth, but was also persuaded that James VI of Scotland was also in on the plotting. As a consequence, he desired to implicate Mary Queen of Scots heavily in the Babington plot, led by Anthony Babington, which sought to take the life of their ruler. A series of letters were reportedly sent disguised in bottles between the Queen of Scots and the main conspirator, Babington. Walsingham’s superior secret service quickly got wind of this plot and set about to bring the conspirators to justice.

  There is much dispute regarding whether or not Mary actually had any involvement in this plot, and many believed that Walsingham had fabricated the evidence to render her guilty of committing treason against the Queen of England. Elizabeth did not know what to do. On one hand she felt that she was being pushed into executing her cousin because Walsingham had shown her to be a traitor, and on the other she knew that it would not be a wise decision to murder a royal. After increasing pressure from Walsingham to put Mary to death, Elizabeth finally caved in. However, Walsingham’s position as adviser was permanently compromised from this point onwards and he was no longer held in high regard by the queen.

  After a lifetime of service to the sovereign he completely lost his political standing and was left with grave financial debts. He died alone and miserable in 1590 and was heavily in debt to the queen.

  Sir Anthony Babington and Gilbert Gifford

  As with many of the medieval traitors mentioned previously, the clash between Catholic and Protestant was the reason behind a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I. Sir Anthony Babington was one such traitor and as a result of his strong Roman Catholic convictions, he sought to take the life of the Protestant queen.

  Born in 1561, Babington was brought up within a stable household. Due to the general religious unrest in England from the different rulers, Babington was secretly raised as a Roman Catholic. From an early age he served as a page to the young Mary Queen of Scots and was something of an admirer of the queen’s talents and religious devotion. Babington did not begin to rally himself against Queen Elizabeth until 1580, when he moved to London and joined a secret society in support of Jesuit missionaries.

  Like Babington, Gilbert Gifford was also brought up in a Catholic family and intended to devote his life to the Catholic church by entering Cardinal Allen’s English college at Douai in 1577, with the hope of becoming a missionary priest. The following years were filled with many different relocations abroad as Gifford failed to decide what he wanted to do. In 1582 he returned to Cardinal Allen’s college which was now based in Rheims, and was ordained as a deacon in 1585. Gifford’s allegiances soon became more sinister when, shortly afterwards, he made the acquaintance of a student named John Savage who was involved in a plot to assassinate the Queen of England. In 1585 he left Rheims again and met one of Mary’s agents, Thomas Morgan. He then quickly became involved in the Babington plot, which sought to kill the Elizabeth I.

  THE BABINGTON PLOT

  As he had in his youth, Babington was able to provide more assistance for Mary Queen of Scots when he arrived in Paris and became associated with her supporters. She was grateful to him for delivering various letters to her and he became an even greater supporter of the Scottish queen. In April 1586 he began to hatch a plan with John Ballard. They aimed to murder Elizabeth I and her ministers, to organise a general Roman Catholic uprising in England to liberate Mary and install her on the throne of England.

  The plot proved potentially to be one of the most serious threats to the monarchy in a long time as more and more influential supporters were choosing to support Mary Queen of Scots. One of the most powerful supporters of the plot was King Philip II of Spain, a Catholic ruler who believed that Elizabeth should be killed in order for Catholicism to be reintroduced into England. Babington’s plot was soon discovered, no matter how intricate he had made it. Later in the year of 1586 Babington wrote a letter to Mary Queen of Scots, outlining the details of the plot and requesting a token of her appreciation in return. This letter was intercepted by Walsingham’s advanced spy network, but it was a while before his forces were able to catch up with the elusive Babington.

  Prior to this, Gilbert Gifford had also become involved with the plot and had been made responsible for transporting the messages between Mary and Babington. He was soon arrested by Sir Francis Walsingham and brought to London for questioning. Babington’s plot struck another blow here, as Gifford agreed to preserve his life by acting as a double agent for Walsingham. He seemed to forget all his religious convictions overnight and sought to preserve his life over his own integrity. Gifford then arranged to gain the trust of Queen Mary through taking the role of smuggling secret messages to her by concealing them in beer bottles.

  Unaware that they had a double agent behind the scenes, Babington obliviously continued to send messages to Mary detailing his plans for Elizabeth’s murder. He was, however, very aware of the risks that he was imposing upon his personal safety and was simultaneously making arrangements to gain a passport to go abroad, under the pretence of spying on refugees. During this time Babington’s ally, Ballard, had been caught and detained and finally broke down to betray his comrades when he was subjected to Walsingham’s renowned torture methods. Following the delay in the receipt of his passport and with the knowledge of Ballard’s confession becoming apparent to him, he decided to try and bargain with Walsingham. He offered to inform him of another dangerous conspiracy to murder the queen but no reply was sent to Babington. As the ports were closed no one was allowed to leave England and the plotter began to realise how serious things were getting.

  His freedom was retained and the conspirator was allowed to stay at Walsingham’s own residence. Babington’s comfort was short lived, however, when he discovered a memorandum about him in Walsingham’s house; he quickly disguised himself and fled. Shortly afterwards the man was discovered and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was tried with all of his accomplices and, when questioned, he cowardly tried to place the entire blame upon John Ballard. Needless to say, no one believed this unlikely allegation and he was promptly sentenced to death for high treason. Ever the manipulator, he then tried to escape his fate by appealing to Queen Elizabeth that she grant him mercy in return for his offering of £1,000. This was quickly rejected and he was executed ten days later.

  All of the conspirators involved in the Babington plot were punished by death and Elizabeth was very concerned that this be the case to show that she took a very firm line against those who had betrayed her. Even Gilbert Gifford, who had served Walsingham as a double agent, was not really rewarded. Shortly after the plot he fled to France where he was arrested by the French catholics and left to die in prison. In short, neither man prospered for attacking the British monarchy and each suffered a somewhat tortuous death as a result of their involvement or treachery in the Babington plot.

  Earl of Essex

  Robert Devereux was born in 1566, the son of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, and Lettice Knollys, granddaughter of Mary Boleyn. The young boy’s childhood was marred by the death of his father when he was a mere nine years of age. As a result he was adopted as a ward of the queen’s trusted adviser and the late Devereux’s closest friend, Lord Burghley. Devereux’s fortunes were further lifted when his mother remarried Queen Elizabeth’s most trusted friend, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester. Such a strong association with the queen proved to be very useful for the young Earl of Essex and he gradually began to win the queen’s favour, as both his father and step-father had done in the years previously.

  A NEW GENERATION

  After the long drawn out celebrations upon the defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588, Elizabeth began to find herself and
her government floundering. Not only was the queen suffering problems with health due to old age, she was also forced to face the repercussions of the deaths of three of her closest advisors, Dudley, Walsingham and Cecil. As a result of the queen’s isolation, a window opened for a new generation to take on the role of advisors. Among these were the sons of Devereux and William Cecil, Robert Devereux and Robert Cecil. Within a very short period of time Robert had established himself as a favourite of the queen and by 1590 he had impressively built up such a successful relationship with the monarch that he effectively had replaced his late stepfather’s own intimate standing with her. Their relationship was not a simple one, mainly because Elizabeth was thirty-four years his senior, and the pair were often found arguing upon matters of foreign policy and even trivial personal difficulties. Despite their differences, they remained great friends and the queen seemed to offer an almost maternal devotion to the young Devereux.

  Robert’s fiery temper and readiness to cause tensions amongst his rivals also caused trouble for him shortly after he joined the Privy Council in 1591. His direct rival, Robert Cecil had followed in the footsteps of his father and in 1591 had also become a member of the Privy Council. The Earl of Essex was not comfortable with Cecil’s growing closeness as adviser to the queen, and was not best pleased when he discovered that Cecil was to be the new Secretary for the State as he was ultimately appointed in 1596. The two men continually fought for Elizabeth’s approval and argued over religious and military policy. Luckily for Devereux though, he was clearly Elizabeth’s favourite and was bestowed with many important roles, the first being the Master of the Horse. Robert was quick to fall from the queen’s favour in 1590 when he was joined in marriage to Frances, the widow of his cousin Philip Sydney, and daughter of the late Sir Francis Walsingham. Elizabeth I was greatly displeased by this union and hoped her annoyance would act as a warning to the impulsive young man.