The Gunpowder Plot

by Antonia Fraser

  † It was discontinued along with the official commemoration of two other days of monarchical significance, 30 January (execution of Charles I, 1649) and 29 May (restoration of Charles II, 1660).

  * One Catholic schoolmaster, Dom. Antony Sutch O.S.B. of Downside, used to celebrate 6 November as opposed to the 5th, as a protest against such practices: on this day he recalled to his pupils the sufferings of the Elizabethan and Jacobean Catholic martyrs (information supplied to the author).

  * The Catholic parish priest at St Pancras, Lewes, since the mid-1980s, whose church is passed by the bonfire processions, emphasises that he has not found Lewes to be an anti-Catholic town in any way.

  * The Maccabees decided (unlike their brethren) to fight on the Sabbath day: let us not all die as our brethren died in their hiding-places’ (1 Maccabees 2:40–1).

  Notes

  Details of books, documents etc., given here in abbreviated form, will be found in the list of Reference Books.

  Prologue: Bountiful Beginnings

  1 Western, p. 222.

  2 Hurstfield, ‘Succession’, p. 370; Caraman, Garnet, p. 299; Harrison, Elizabethan, p. 70; Byrne, p. 244.

  3 Chamberlain, I, p. 188.

  4 H.M.C. Salisbury, XIII, p. 668.

  5 Henry IV, Pt 2, Induction.

  6 Carey, pp. 57–8 and note.

  7 Carey, p. 59.

  8 Carey, p. 60; Williams, Elizabeth, p. 352. Somerset, Elizabeth, p. 568; C.S.P. Domestic, VIII, p. 1; Chamberlain, I, p. 188; Bruce, p. li; Neale, ‘Sayings’, p. 229 and note 1.

  9 Handover, Arbella, pp. 158–60.

  10 Manningham, p. 159; Birch, pp. 206–7; Carey, pp. 61ff.

  11 Nichols, I, pp. 25ff.; Western, p. 222.

  12 Haigh, Elizabeth, p. 25; Clark, p. 212; Nichols, I, p. 30.

  13 Caraman, Garnet, pp. 305–6 and note 1.

  14 Anstruther, Vaux, pp. 258, 221.

  15 Byrne, p. 190.

  16 Nichols, I, p. 40; Smith, James, p. 4; Wormald, ‘James’, p. 188; Willson, p. 167.

  17 Tierney, p. lxxii.

  18 Edwards, Tesimond, p. 21.

  19 Cuvelier, pp. 289–90.

  20 Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 50.

  21 Dekker, Works, I, p. 99.

  22 Nichols, I, pp. 62ff.

  23 Mathew, James, pp. 117, 122.

  24 Nichols, I, p. 70.

  25 Loomie, ‘Toleration’, pp. 14ff.; H.M.C. Salisbury, XV, p. 232.

  26 H.M.C. Salisbury, XIV, p. 162.

  27 Peck, Mental World, p. 4.

  28 Chamberlain, I, p. 192; Nichols, I, p. 154.

  29 Caraman, Garnet, p. 305.

  30 Caraman, Garnet, p. 315; Weston, pp. 222–4.

  Chapter One: Whose Head for the Crown?

  1 Hale, pp. 124–5.

  2 Lee, p. 420.

  3 Mackie, pp. 267ff.

  4 Wormald, ‘James’, p. 189.

  5 It could be argued that the junior Suffolk line had a greater claim to legitimacy than the senior one, in that it descended from Lady Eleanor Brandon, who (unlike her elder sister Frances) had been born after the death of Suffolk’s earlier wife.

  6 Clancy, Pamphleteers, p. 79.

  7 Clancy, ‘Catholics’, p. 115.

  8 Published under the title A Conference about the Next Succession to the Crowne of Ingland, by R. Doleman; Hicks, ‘Persons and Succession’, p. in.

  9 Loomie, ‘Philip’, p. 509.

  10 Klingenstein, pp. 8ff.

  11 Klingenstein, pp. 85 ff., 296; Chambers, I, p. 270; Harrison, Elizabethan, p. 530.

  12 Parker, Europe, p. 137.

  13 C.S.P. Venetian, X, p. 136; C.S.P. Domestic, VII, p. 725.

  14 Parker, Revolt, p. 261; Dodd, p. 631 and note 5.

  15 C.S.P. Spanish, IV, p. 726.

  16 Doleman, p. 102; C.S.P. Spanish, IV, pp. 735, 660–2.

  17 Holmes, Resistance, pp. 179–80.

  18 Hurstfield, Freedom, p. 61.

  19 Hicks, ‘Cecil’, pp. 99ff.; Clancy, ‘Catholics’, p. 132.

  20 Bruce, p. xvi; MacCaffrey, p. 415.

  21 Bruce, pp. xxxi–xxxiii.

  22 Bruce, p. xxv.

  23 Mackie, pp. 276, 280.

  24 Bruce, p. 52.

  25 Williams, Anne, p. 51; Willson, p. 94; Nichols, I, p. 190.

  26 The identity of this ‘great princess’ is not known for certain; it may have been Anne’s Catholic cousin Christina of Denmark, or Cecilia of Sweden; see Stevenson, pp. 256ft; Stafford, p. 238.

  27 Stevenson, p. 260.

  28 Loomie, ‘Catholic Consort’, p. 305; Warner, pp. 124–7.

  29 Hicks, ‘Cecil’, p. 164; Stafford, p. 233; Loomie, ‘Philip’, pp. 502ff.

  30 Loomie, ‘Philip’, p. 512; Willson, pp. 143ff.

  31 C.S.P. Domestic, VIII, p. 60; Loomie, ‘Philip’, p. 508.

  32 Rodríguez-Villa, pp. 82–4; Stafford, p. 288.

  Chapter Two: The Honest Papists

  1 Western, p. 31.

  2 Vaux, pp. 48–9.

  3 Rowse, Cornwall, p. 366.

  4 Edwards, Jesuits, p. 30; Rose, p. 12.

  5 Anstruther, Vaux, p. 321; Rowse, Cornwall, p. 360.

  6 Willson, p. 122.

  7 H.M.C. Salisbury, XIV, p. 178.

  8 Trimble, p. 170.

  9 Southern, pp. 39–43.

  10 Southern, p. 63.

  11 H.M.C. Salisbury, XII, p. 32.

  12 Rowse, Cornwall, p. 353.

  13 Holmes, Resistance, p. 202; Rose, p. 99.

  14 Peck, Northampton, pp. 6ff.; Bossy, ‘Character’, pp. 241–2; Robinson, pp. 85–6.

  15 Peck, Northampton, p. 70; Walsham, p. 83; Manningham, pp. 170–1.

  16 Western, p. 71; Bossy, Bruno, p. 121; Kerman, pp. 42ft, 189ff.

  17 H.M.C. Salisbury, XVII, pp. 611–12.

  18 Walsham, p. 1.

  19 Hanlon, pp. 373 ff.

  20 Aveling, Handle, p. 66; Dickens, ‘First Stages’, p. 157.

  21 Haigh, Reformations, p. 266.

  22 Lawes Resolutions, p. 60.

  23 Caraman, Years, p. 67; Walsham, p. 79; Hanlon, p. 394.

  24 Rose, p. 113; Walsham, p. 79; Caraman, Garnet, p. 167.

  25 Warnicke, p. 170; Neale, Parliaments, II, p. 294.

  26 Rowlands, p. 157.

  27 Clancy, Pamphleteers, p. 39; Holmes, Resistance, pp. iojff.

  28 Bruce, p. 37.

  29 Rowlands, p. 158.

  30 Anstruther, Vaux, pp. 205ff.

  31 Gerard, Autobiography, p. 148.

  32 Anstruther, Vaux, p. 224.

  33 Gerard, Autobiography, p. 147; Anstruther, Vaux, p. 243.

  34 Hamilton, II, pp. 151ff.

  35 Caraman, Garnet, pp. 1ff.; Edwards, Tesimond, p. 174.

  36 Anstruther, Vaux, p. 118; Caraman, Garnet, p. 132; Edwards, Tesimond, p. 185.

  37 Anstruther, Vaux, pp. 191, 221ff.

  38 Southwell, pp. 98–9.

  Chapter Three: Diversity of Opinions

  1 Bruce, pp. 31–2.

  2 Bruce, pp. 33–4, 37.

  3 Bruce, p. 36.

  4 Nicholls, pp. 85 ff.; Shirley, pp. 206–7.

  5 Nicholls, pp. 102, 224.

  6 Nicholls, p. 118; Bruce, p. 47.

  7 Chamberlain, I, p. 212; Edwards, Tesimond, pp. 60–1; Edwards, Fawkes, p. 74.

  8 Edwards, Tesimond, pp. 58ff.; Goodman, I, p. 102.

  9 H.M.C. Salisbury, XVII, p. 550; Goodman, I, p. 102; although Nicholls, p. 109 note 47, thinks this bigamy is not proved he agrees that ‘it looks as if both [wives] were alive in November 1605’.

  10 Peters, p. 17; Aveling, East Yorkshire, p. 36.

  11 Goodman, I, p. 102.

  12 Nicholls, p. 98.

  13 Nicholls, p. 98; Edwards, Tesimond, pp. 58–9.

  14 Willson, pp. 148ff.; Nicholls, p. 98; Collinson, p. 447; Bruce, p. 56.

  15 Bruce, pp. 53ff.

  16 Aveling, Handle, p. 111; Hurstfield, ‘Succession’, pp. 382ff.; Bossy, ‘English Catholic’, pp. 92ff.; H.M.C. Salisbury, p. 44; Basset, pp. 85ff.
>
  17 Basset, p. 61.

  18 Bellamy, p. 108.

  19 Pollen, Archpriest, p. 99; Caraman, Garnet, p. 289; Holmes, Resistance, pp. 187ff.; Basset, p. 87.

  20 Basset, p. 87.

  21 Bossy, ‘Henri’, p. 87.

  22 Edwards, Tesimond, pp. 63–4, 83–4; Gerard, Autobiography, p. 59.

  23 Peters, p. 34; Edwards, Tesimond, p. 63.

  24 Edwards, Tesimond, pp. 55, 61, 69.

  25 Caraman, Garnet, p. 283; Loomie, Fawkes, p. 2 note 3.

  26 Gerard, Plot and Plotters, p. 21; Humphreys, ‘Wyntours’, pp. 55 ff.

  27 V.C.H. Worcestershire, III, pp. 123–7.

  28 Nash, ‘Littleton’, p. 136; Edwards, Tesimond, pp. 55, 62.

  29 Loomie, Fawkes, pp. zii.

  30 S.T., I, pp. 169ff.

  31 Loomie, Fawkes, pp. 43–4 note 4; Caraman, Garnet, p. 411 note 2.

  32 Pollen, ‘Accession’, pp. 578ff.; Loomie, Fawkes, pp. 11–12.

  33 Caraman, Garnet, p. 169; H.M.C. Salisbury, XV, p. 216.

  34 Bruce, pp. 31–2.

  35 Peck, Northampton, p. 23.

  36 Kerman, p. 317.

  Chapter Four: A King and his Cubs

  1 Willson, p. 165.

  2 Nichols, I, p. 22.

  3 Barroll, pp. 191ff.; H.M.C. Salisbury, XV, pp. vii, 348.

  4 Nichols, I, pp. 161, 124.

  5 Rowse, Forman, p. 106.

  6 Nichols, I, pp. 176ff.

  7 Strong, p. 10; Nichols, I, p. 188; Harrison, Jacobean, p. 43.

  8 S.T., II, p. 130.

  9 Nichols, I, p. 128.

  10 Edwards, Tesimond, pp. 28, 93; Morris, Gerard’s Narrative, p. 11.

  11 Gibbon, I, p. 167.

  12 Barlow, p. 47.

  13 Leatherbarrow, p. 150; H.M.C. Salisbury, XV, p. 119.

  14 Loomie, Fawkes, p. 27; Stevenson, p. 265; Loomie, Elizabethans, p. 124.

  15 C.S.P. Venetian, X, pp. 43, 40.

  16 Stafford, p. 284; Nicholls, ‘Treason’s Reward’, pp. 821–42.

  17 Recent research has newly established Ralegh’s involvement; see Nicholls, ‘Ralegh’s Treason’; Loomie, ‘Toleration’, pp. 15 ff.; C.S.P. Venetian, X, p. 82.

  18 Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 20 and note 63; Caraman, Garnet, p. 310; Dodd, p. 364.

  19 H.M.C. Salisbury, XV, pp. 277–8; Morris, Gerard’s Narrative, pp. 74-5.

  20 Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 14.

  21 Anstrufher, Vaux, p. 278.

  22 Willson, pp. 127–8.

  23 Willson, pp. 28ff.

  24 Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 23; The Kings Majesties Speech, 19 March 1603.

  Chapter Five: Spanish Charity

  1 Loomie, Fawkes, pp. 22ft; Edwards, Tesimond, p. 69; H.M.C. Salisbury, XVII, pp. 479ff.

  2 Longley, pp. 1–3; Spink, p. 30, Supplementum, I, p. 239; D.N.B. Fawkes; Aveling, ‘Recusants’, pp. 191ff.

  3 Edwards, Tesimond, p. 69.

  4 Goodman, II, pp. 121–2.

  5 Hyde Park Family History Centre, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Exhibition Road, London S.W.7; North Yorkshire County Council.

  6 Loomie, ‘Toleration’, pp. 22ft.; Loomie, Elizabethans, pp. 178ff.

  7 Loomie, Elizabethans, pp. 130ff.

  8 Edwards, Fawkes, p. 89; Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 82.

  9 In 1606 Christopher Wright would be lumbered with the charge of joining Guy Fawkes in Spain at this point (when he was no longer in a position to deny it) since Dutton had conveniendy vanished from sight. See Loomie, Fawkes, passim.

  10 Loomie, Fawkes, p. 21.

  11 Loomie, Fawkes, App., pp. 61–2.

  12 Loomie, Fawkes, p. 26.

  13 Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 20.

  14 Loomie, Spain and Jacobean, I, pp. 11ff.

  15 Cuvelier, pp. 289–90; Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 10.

  16 H.M.C. Salisbury, XV, pp. 245–6.

  17 Loomie, Spain and Jacobean, p. 11; Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 170.

  18 H.M.C. Salisbury, XV, pp. 245–6.

  19 Loomie, Spain and Jacobean, pp. 14ff.

  20 Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 25.

  21 Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 27.

  22 Loomie, Fawkes, p. 35.

  23 Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 21.

  24 Peck, Court Patronage, pp. 68–74; Clifford, p. 87 and note.

  25 Loomie, Spain and Jacobean, pp. 71–2; Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 25; Croft, ‘Reputation’, p. 58.

  26 Aveling, Handle, p. 131; Edwards, Fawkes, p. 75; Caraman, Garnet, pp. 308–9; Morris, Gerard’s Narrative, pp. 23–4.

  27 Caraman, Years, p. 82; Webb, p. 330; Bossy, ‘English Catholic’, pp. 98ff.; Magee, App. III, pp. 214–15.

  28 Caraman, Garnet, p. 309.

  29 H.M.C. Salisbury, XV, pp. 282–3, 27-

  Chapter Six: Catesby as Phaeton

  1 Ashton, p. 63; Akrigg, pp. 30–1; Salgado, p. 185.

  2 Harrison, Jacobean, p. 110; Strong, p. 96.

  3 Akrigg, p. 30; Strong, p. 10.

  4 Edwards, Tesimond, p. 43; ST., II, p. 77.

  5 Mcllwaine, pp. 269–80; Munden, p. 63.

  6 C.J., pp. 176ff.

  7 Peck, Mental World, p. 4; C.J., p. 177.

  8 C.J., pp. 187–8.

  9 Wormald, ‘Gunpowder’, pp. 158ff.; Peck, Mental World, p. 4.

  10 Eastward Ho!, pp. xxiiiff., 61; De Luna, p. 115.

  11 Clifford, p. 6; Cuddy, p. 163.

  12 Haynes, Cecil, pp. 129ff.

  13 C.S.P. Venetian, X, p. 230.

  14 Edwards, Tesimond, p. 43.

  15 Trans. Gavin Maxwell, The Ten Pains of Death, 1959.

  16 Edwards, Tesimond, p. 43; Morris, Gerard’s Narrative, p. 30.

  17 H.M.C. Salisbury, XVI, pp. 44–5; Dickens, ‘First Stages’, pp. 24ft; H.M.C. Salisbury, XVIII, p. 75.

  18 Morris, Gerard’s Narrative,. 54.

  19 ST., II, p. 190; Romeo and Juliet, Act III, scene ii.

  20 B.L., Cotton MSS, Titus B II, fol. 294.

  21 Edwards, Tesimond, p. 61.

  22 Wake, p. 39.

  23 D.N.B. Robert Catesby.

  24 Jones, pp. 1ff.; Chastleton, Oxon, Baptisms.

  25 Williamson, p. 73.

  26 Anstruther, Vaux, p. 305; B.L., MSS Royal, 12.E.X.

  Chapter Seven: So Sharp a Remedy

  1 Thomas Wintour’s Confession, Gardiner, Plot, pp. 57–69, amended H.M.C. Salisbury, XVII, pp. 509–13.

  2 Gardiner, Plot, p. 61.

  3 Gardiner, Plot, p. 61.

  4 Thomas Wintour was quite clear on the order of progression and, although there are some difficulties about his evidence, he had no reason to lie about Percy’s slightly later involvement; Haynes, Plot, p. 45; Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 53.

  5 Porter, p. 42; H.M.C. Salisbury, XVIII, p. 25; Hale, p. 456.

  6 Andrewes, p. 94; C.S.P. Domestic, VIII, p. 279; Gardiner, Plot, p. 50; HM.C. Salisbury, XVII, p. 479; Edwards, Tesimond, pp. 208–9 note.

  7 Edwards, Tesimond, p. 153; Carswell, p. 40; S.P. 14/216/145; ST., II, p. 230; H.M.C. Salisbury, XVII, p. 540; Morris, Gerard’s Narrative, pp. ccxxxi–ccxxxii.

  8 Morris, Gerard’s Narrative, p. 140.

  9 Edwards, Tesimond, pp. 87–8.

  10 Caraman, Garnet, pp. 316–17.

  11 Larkin and Hughes, I, p. 123 note 1.

  12 Camm, p. 319.

  13 Finch, App. VI, pp. 179–81.

  14 Gearty, citing W. Laqueur, p. 10; Wilkinson, p. xii.

  15 Wilkinson, pp. 5ff.; Clancy, ‘Catholics’, pp. 212ff.; Edwards, Jesuits, p. 22.

  16 Scarisbrick, p. 18; Skinner, pp. 345 ff.

  17 Hale, p. 40.

  18 Carswell, p. 159; Rose, p. 98.

  19 Edwards, Tesimond, p. 80; Bossy, ‘English Catholic’, p. 95.

  20 Edwards, Tesimond, p. 107; Edwards, Fawkes, p. 126.

  21 Andrewes, p. 89.

  22 Gardiner, ‘Garnet’s Declarations’, p. 515; Magee, p. 39; Jordan, II, p. 64.

  23 H.M.C. Salisbury, XI, pp. 156, 296; Gerard, What
Plot?, App. H, pp. 256-7.

  24 Dures, p. 42.

  25 Edwards, Tesimond, p. 46 note.

  26 Gardiner, Plot, p. 63 note 2.

  27 Edwards, Fawkes, p. 124.

  28 H.M.C. Salisbury, XVII, p. 528; XVI, pp. 208, 210, 220.

  29 S.P. 14/216/145; Hales, p. 30; Edwards, Tesimond, p. 99 note.

  30 S.T., II, pp. 175, 230.

  31 Edwards, ‘Still Investigating’, p. 331; Williamson, p. 121; Gerard, What Plot?, pp. 122ff.; Edwards, Fawkes, p. 175; Edwards, Tesimond, p. 72.

  32 Gerard, What Plot?, pp. 85–6; Williamson, p. 121.

  33 S.T., II, p. 179; C.J., p. 260; Williamson, p. 72; Dekker, Double P P.

  34 Seton, p. 373.

  35 Nichols, I, pp. 472ff.

  Chapter Eight: Pernicious Gunpowder

  1 Edwards, Tesimond, p. 100–1; H.M.C. Salisbury, XVIII, p. 52.

  2 H.M.C. Salisbury, XVII, pp. 500–1.

  3 Peters, p. 57.

  4 Paul, p. 226; Hales, pp. 26ff.; Milward, p. 21.

  5 Hotson, pp. 188, 143ff.: Eleanor Bushell (Ned’s sister) and Judith Shakespeare married two brothers called Quiney: they thus became ‘sisters’ according to contemporary usage.

  6 Nichols, I, p. 429; Oman, p. 26.

  7 C.S.P. Domestic, 1603–1610, pp. 246, 280.

  8 C.S.P. Domestic, 1603–1610, p. 246; Gerard, What Plot?, p. 81; Wormald, ‘Gunpowder’, p. 162.

  9 Morris, Troubles, 1st, p. 197.

  10 Edwards, Tesimond, pp. 80–1; H.M.C. Salisbury, XVII, pp. 527–8; C.S.P. Domestic, VIII, p. 246.

  11 Nicholls, p. 23.

  12 C.S.P. Venetian, X, p. 301.

  13 Nicholls, p. 23; but Nicholls, p. 205, points out that ‘a strong circumstantial case’ existed against Northumberland.

  14 H.M.C. Salisbury, XVIII, p. 96; S.T., II, p. 230.

  15 Chamberlain, I, p. 204; C.S.P. Venetian, X, p. 236.

  16 Willson, p. 221; Wormald, ‘Gunpowder’, p. 157 note 43; Loomie, ‘Toleration’, p. 410.

  17 Williamson, p. 118.

  18 Vetusta Monumenta, V, pp. 3ft; Smith, Westminster, pp. 39–41.

  19 Edwards, Fawkes, pp. 111–12.

  20 Williamson, p. 251; Gerard, What Plot?, p. 74; Garswell, p. 29 and note.

  21 Dr Constam, Royal Armouries, to the author; H.M.C. Salisbury, XVI, p. 341; Bull, ‘Furie of the Ordnance’; Cruickshank, p. 125.

  22 Southern, p. 288; C.S.P. Domestic, 1603–1610, p. 256.

  23 Constam; S.T., II, p. 183.

  24 Hale, p. 136; Stow, p. 819.

  25 Handover, Cecil, p. 265; Gerard, What Plot?, p. 99.