The Real Guy Fawkes
Page 24
23. Robert Catesby was distantly related to the second viscount, whose mother was born Dorothy Catesby. Robert Catesby also famously, if obliquely, warned Viscount Montague to stay away from Parliament on 5 November 1605, as we shall see later
Chapter 8
1. State Papers, SP14/216/17, Examination of John Johnson, 6 November 1605
2. Ibid. (answer number three)
3. Thomas Percy entered Cambridge University in 1579
4. Robert Catesby entered Oxford’s Gloucester Hall College in 1586, and was one of a number of Catholic students there even though it was impossible for them to graduate unless they forswore their faith by taking the Oath of Allegiance. Gloucester Hall is the present-day Worcester College, Oxford
5. Before the 1530s reformation, monasteries, nunneries and the church owned around half of all the land and property in London: for example, Covent Garden was once a convent garden
6. Although King Henry VIII made the stews of Bankside in Southwark illegal on 13 April 1546 this doesn’t seem to have stopped prostitution in the area
7. Ward, Joseph P., London: A Social and Cultural History, 1550-1750, p. 43
8. Maynard, Jean Olwen, Margaret Clitherow, p. 51
9. Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, Volume 6, p. cxxix
10. Walsingham’s double agents Gilbert Gifford and Thomas Phelippes had been placed by him inside Chartley Castle, where Mary was imprisoned, and on his instructions they encouraged the plot and intercepted Mary’s coded messages
11. Francis Tresham, Thomas Percy, and even Robert Catesby have all been accused of being agents for Cecil over the centuries, with some accusations and theories more plausible than others
12. Fraser, Antonia, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 123
13. In 1597 Ben Jonson’s play The Isle of Dogs, co-written with Thomas Nashe, caused such offence to the court that he was imprisoned. A year later he was imprisoned again, this time for killing the actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel. It is believed that he converted to Catholicism in prison, under the influence of the imprisoned Jesuit priest Father Thomas Wright
14. Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy and a former room-mate of Marlowe’s, spent time in prison and died a year later in 1594
15. The coroner’s inquest of Friday, 1 June 1593, concluded that Marlowe had become involved in a fracas with one Ingram Frizer, who we now know to have been a government agent, and that Frizer killed Marlowe in self-defence. Frizer was found not guilty of murder and freed
16. Hugh Owen was born in Caernarvonshire in Wales; he sometimes used Welsh in the coded letters that he sent
Chapter 9
1. Richard Collinge was the nephew of William Harrington, who was the cousin of Guy’s father Edward. William Harrington was arrested in 1581 for harbouring the fugitive Jesuit priest Edmund Campion. Campion was hung, drawn and quartered in December of that year, and canonised as a martyr, alongside St. Margaret Clitherow, in 1970
2. Morris, John (ed.), The Condition of Catholics Under James I: Father Gerard’s Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot, pp. 57-8
3. Although the passing of time leaves the records far from complete, some of Guy’s records of service in Flanders and elsewhere can be found in the Royal Archives in Brussels
4. This was one of the questions posed by King James, see SP14/216/18, Interrogatories of James I for John Johnson, 6 November 1605. Undoubtedly they wanted to connect Johnson, as they then knew Guy Fawkes, to the activities of Catholic exiles such as Hugh Owen and Robert Stanley in France and Flanders, but Guy was wise to this
5. State Papers SP14/216/9, Examination of John Johnson in Response to Interrogatories, 6 November 1605
6. He also reigned as King Charles I of Spain. With Spanish lands in America and Asia also under his control, his empire was described as ‘the empire on which the sun never sets’. He was succeeded by Philip II
7. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 1939, p. 44
8. Falls, Cyril, Elizabeth’s Irish Wars, pp. 128-9
9. At the Battle of Bunamargey Abbey, 1 January 1585, when he was surprised by the enemy and had no time to don his armour
10. Froude, James Anthony, History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, p. 187
11. Dutton, Richard, Findlay, Alison Gail, and Wilson, Richard, Theatre and Religion: Lancastrian Shakespeare, p. 137
12. Sir Philip Sidney developed gangrene in a thigh wound, and died twentysix days later aged 31
13. Fraser, Antonia, The Gunpowder Plot, pp. 72-3
14. The Jesuit Cardinal William Allen made a defence of Stanley’s actions in a lengthy epistle entitled ‘Concerning the yielding up of the city of Deventer, unto his Catholic Majesty, by Sir William Stanley Knight. Wherein is shown both how lawful, honourable and necessary that action was: and also that all others, especially those of the English nation, that detain any towns, or other places, in the low countries, from the King Catholic, are bound, upon pain of damnation, to do the like’
15. Haynes, Alan, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 21
16. Garnet, Henry, Portrait of Guy Fawkes, p. 46
17. Ibid., p. 48
18. A fourteen-day siege was ended by a lightning assault by the Spanish. In under an hour they had conquered the Calais stronghold, losing just nineteen men, while the defending French lost around a thousand
19. Loomie, Father Albert J., Guy Fawkes in Spain, p. 23
20. Bostock took command when Sir William Stanley left the regiment to pursue negotiations with Spain aimed at getting them to launch another invasion of England
21. Van der Hoeven, Marco (ed.), Exercise of Arms: Warfare in the Netherlands, 1568-1648, p. 106
22. King James himself ordered that Guy be asked where the scars on his chest came from, as revealed in State Papers SP14/216/18. Guy responded with the unlikely explanation that they had resulted from a bout of pleurisy
23. Edwards, Father Francis (ed.), The Narrative, p. 69
24. Edwards, Father Francis (ed.), The Narrative, p. 68
25. State Papers, SP14/216/9, Examination of John Johnson in Response to Interrogatories, 6 November 1605
Chapter 10
1. The trials lasted two years and implicated seventy people, from lowly midwives to the Earl of Bothwell
2. A True Discourse of the Apprehension of Sundrye Witches lately taken in Scotland: Whereof some are Executed, and some are yet Imprisoned, p. 13
3. Strickland, Alice, Lives of the Queens of England, p. 326
4. Ibid.
5. Levack, Brian P. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America, p. 302
6. King James’s Daemonologie is now held in the British Library, London
7. King James VI of Scotland had four regents governing for him during his childhood. As an indication of how violent and unpredictable the Scottish court was at that time, two of the regents were assassinated, one executed, and one is presumed to have died of poisoning
8. Wagner, John (ed.), Historical Dictionary of the Elizabethan World, p. 262
9. Weir, Alison, Mary Queen of Scots: and the Murder of Lord Darnley, p. 190
10. Ibid., p. 251
11. John of Gaunt was himself the son of a King, Edward III
12. A copy can be read at the British Library, London
13. Tallis, Nicola, Crown of Blood, p. 274
14. Margaret Tudor married King James IV of Scotland, and ruled as Queen of Scotland from 1503 until 1513
15. Fraser, Antonia, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 5
16. Childs, Jessie, God’s Traitors, p. 280
17. Original manuscripts of the letters are at Hatfield House, or see Bruce, John (ed.), Correspondence of King James VI of Scotland with Sir Robert Cecil and others
18. As well as serving as Northumberland’s intermediary with King James, Thomas Percy was also constable of Alnwick Castle and in charge of the earl’s estates. The earl later gained him a position as o
ne of the King’s bodyguards. Little wonder that some have conjectured that he may have been an illegitimate half-brother to the earl
19. Edwards, Father Francis (ed.), The Narrative, pp. 58-9
20. Loomie, Father Albert J., ‘King James I’s Catholic Consort’, Huntington Library Quarterly 34, pp. 303-16
21. Guy was on the diplomatic mission that became known as the Spanish Treason – see Chapter 11
22. Edwards, Father Francis (ed.), The Narrative, pp. 52-3
Chapter 11
1. Fraser, Antonia, The Gunpowder Plot, p. xxvii
2. Father Garnet was executed due to his supposed links to the gunpowder plot
3. Coffey, John, Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England 1558-1689, p. 117
4. One of the strangest anomalies of Baldwin’s life is that he died of natural causes aged 69. One of the English authorities’ most vilified and sought-after Catholics, he was arrested twice, in 1594 and 1610, but despite spending more than eight years imprisoned the authorities could prove no charge against him and he was freed both times
5. Thomas James also wrote a book entitled The Jesuits’ Downfall in 1612, in which he looked at the Gunpowder Plot and the impact it had upon Jesuits in England
6. Fraser, Antonia, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 48
7. Childs, Jessie, God’s Traitors, p. 280
8. Loomie, Father Albert J., Guy Fawkes in Spain, p. 20
9. Thomas Wintour was the only major conspirator captured alive at the siege of Holbeche House after the failure of the plot, and so his confessions at the Tower of London form key evidence alongside the confessions of Guy Fawkes
10. State Papers, SP14/216/16, Examination of Guido Fawkes, 25 November 1605
11. Spanish state paper E840/129
12. Father Hill had presented the petition to the King in York, during his journey from Scotland to London
13. The letter of Guy Fawkes is now contained in the Spanish state papers. For further details, see Loomie, Father Albert J., Guy Fawkes in Spain, p. 22
14. Ibid.
15. Loomie, Father Albert J., Toleration and Diplomacy: The Religious Issue in Anglo-Spanish Relations, p. 12
16. Morrill, John (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain, p. 417
17. Howell, Thomas Bayly, A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanours from the Earliest Period to the Year 1783, pp. 62-3
18. Sir Walter Ralegh spent thirteen years in the Tower before being pardoned in 1616. It is noteworthy that both Thomas Wintour and Guy Fawkes were asked whether Ralegh had been involved in the early planning of the gunpowder plot. A positive answer to that question would undoubtedly have seen Ralegh lose his head
19. Stuart, Arbella, The Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart, p. 45
20. Britton, John, and Brayley, Edward Wedlake, Memoirs of the Tower of London, p. 132
21. Sharpe, J.A., Remember, Remember, p. 45
Chapter 12
1. No record survives of Catesby’s birth or baptism, although given the strong recusancy of his parents they may not have registered his birth officially, choosing instead to have him baptised surreptitiously by a Catholic priest. Nevertheless, 1572 is uniformly accepted as the year of his birth
2. Owen Tudor’s marriage, far in excess of what his social standing entitled him to expect, to Catherine of Valois, widow of King Henry V, was the rock on which the royal Tudor dynasty was founded
3. Sir William Catesby served Richard III as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons
4. Catesby was the cat of the poem (Sir Richard Ratcliffe and Francis Lovell are the others referred to), the writing of which led to Collingbourne being hung, drawn and quartered for treason in the same year
5. Wagner, John A., Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses, p. 49
6. We’ll read later how this Catholic network, spread across the Midlands, was central to Robert Catesby’s plan to seize control of England after the initial explosion under the House of Lords
7. It seems likely that Catesby was actually 32 or 33 at the time of the plot, not 34
8. Edwards, Father Francis (ed.), The Narrative, p. 54
9. Hall, Campion, The Reckoned Expense: Edmund Campion and the Early English Jesuits, p. 52
10. Haynes, Alan, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 48
11. The records are held at St. Mary the Virgin’s Church, Chastleton
12. Childs, Jessie, God’s Traitors, p. 273
13. Wagner, John A. and Schmid, Susan Walters, Encyclopedia of Tudor England, Volume 1, pp. 1091-2
14. Sharpe, J.A., Remember, Remember, p. 30
15. Gerard, Father John, The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest, pp. 170-1
16. Ibid., p. 171
17. Anne Vaux was the daughter of William Vaux, Baron Harrowden, who had been tried alongside Sir William Catesby for hiding Father Edmund Campion. Anne had a network of houses specifically to be used for harbouring Catholic priests. Foremost among them was White Webbs, which became home to Father Henry Garnet and in which she lived under the alias of Mrs Perkins. She was related to Francis Tresham, and White Webbs was often visited by the gunpowder conspirators
18. Edwards, Father Francis (ed.), The Narrative, p. 61
19. Ibid.
20. Plowden, Alison, The Elizabethan Secret Service, p. 143
21. Haynes, Alan, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 47
22. Fraser, Antonia, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 99
23. Ibid., pp. xxv
24. Monteagle’s letter is reproduced in full in The Gentleman’s Magazine, Volume XIV, 1840, p. 632
Chapter 13
1. Fraser, Antonia, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 99
2. Thomas Wintour never revealed who had asked him to undertake his mission to Spain, only hinting that they were friends who had been connected to the Essex rebellion, but it is commonly accepted that the instigators of the trip were Robert Catesby and Lord Monteagle
3. Haynes, Alan, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 47
4. Morgan, George Blacker, The Great English Treason, p. 80
5. De Fonblanque, Edward Barrington, Annals of the House of Percy, from the Conquest to the Opening of the Nineteenth Century, p. 252
6. Fraser, Antonia, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 40
7. Thomas Percy and his wife Martha had periods of separation, and in 1605 Martha and her daughter (the one betrothed to Robert Catesby’s son) were living on an annuity being paid to them by a man who turns up frequently in the story of the gunpowder plot – Lord Monteagle
8. Morris, John (ed.), The Condition of Catholics under James I, p. 57
9. Ibid., p. 58
10. Haynes, Alan, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 50
11. We shall see later how Guy Fawkes had an opportunity to kill King James at a society wedding in 1604
12. Edwards, Father Francis (ed.), The Narrative, pp. 54-5
13. See State Papers, SP14/216/114, Confession of Thomas Wintour
14. Ibid.
15. Haynes, Alan, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 50
16. State Papers, SP14/216/114, Confession of Thomas Wintour
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Wintour had been badly injured in the siege at Holbeche House that claimed the lives of Catesby and many of the other conspirators, and it was his injury that allowed him to be taken alive and then interrogated by Sir Robert Cecil’s men
20. The Constable of Castile was Juan Fernandez de Velasco, the Duke of Frias. He was a central figure in the negotiation and signing of the Treaty of London, sealing peace between Spain and England, in August 1604
21. State Papers, SP14/216/114, Confession of Thomas Wintour
Chapter 14
1. Haynes, Alan, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 21
2. We find ‘Mr Faukes of Yorkshier’ listed as a member of Lord Arundell’s Company of the English Regiment as late as the autumn of 1605, even though Guy was in England then. See State Papers, SP77, Bundle 7, Part I, ff. 329r.
-32v
3. State Papers, SP14/216/114, Confession of Thomas Wintour
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Fraser, Antonia, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 69
7. State Papers, SP14/216/114, Confession of Thomas Wintour
8. Ibid.
9. Edwards, Father Francis (ed.), The Narrative, p. 61
10. State Papers, SP14/216/114, Confession of Thomas Wintour
11. Sadler, Geoffrey, Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and around Chesterfield, p. 12
12. Haynes, Alan, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 46
13. Edwards, Father Francis (ed.), The Narrative, p. 208
14. State Papers, SP14/216/114, Confession of Thomas Wintour
15. Lady Elizabeth Stuart was being raised at Coombe Abbey in Warwickshire, a place Catesby knew well. She was the second child of King James and Queen Anne. The plotters assumed that Prince Henry would be killed in the blast they planned as well as his father, and the third child, Charles, was a sickly infant and considered unsuitable for what they had in mind
16. State Papers, SP14/216/114, Confession of Thomas Wintour
Chapter 15
1. Haynes, Alan, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 54
2. Northumberland’s wholly unsuitable selection of Thomas Percy as a Gentleman Pensioner, and his failure to make him take the oath of supremacy, was later used as evidence to prove the earl’s complicity in the gunpowder plot.
3. John Whynniard was among the party, along with Lord Monteagle and the Earl of Suffolk, who made the first search of the cellars underneath Parliament
4. Anstruther, Godfrey, Vaux of Harrowden: A Recusant Family, p. 184
5. Edwards, Father Francis (ed.), The Narrative, p. 198
6. Gerard, Father John, The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest, p. 51
7. Gardiner, Samuel Rawson, What Gunpowder Plot Was, p. 86
8. Donaldson, Peter, The History of Sir William Wallace, p. 61.
9. Fraser, Antonia, The Gunpowder Plot, p. 74
10. Garnet, Henry, Portrait of Guy Fawkes: An Experiment in Biography, p.135
11. The very first response of Guy Fawkes to his interrogators on 6 November 1605, was ‘He saith his name is John Johnson’, see State Papers, SP14/216/19
12. This was the conclusion of explosives expert Dr Sidney Alford in the New Civil Engineer and in the 2005 BBC docu-drama The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Legend