Assassination: The Royal Family's 1000-Year Curse (29 page)

Next there was trouble from the Ruthven family, headed by the Earl of Gowrie. According to James, when he was out hunting, Gowrie’s brother, the Master of Ruthven, invited James to Gowrie House to see a pot of gold. When James entered the room where the supposed gold was kept, the Master drew a dagger and held it to James’s throat saying that the Earl would join them and that James was to do as he was told. Again, James shouted “Treason!” repeatedly, and his retainers rushed to rescue him. In the melee, the Earl and the Master were killed.

James’s final years in Scotland passed without further attacks. However, as a precaution, in future he would always wear a heavily padded doublet – his own version of a bulletproof vest.

When Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, James (who had already been King James VI of Scotland for 36 years) was accepted by the English as the rightful heir. He was the great-grandson of Henry VIII’s older sister Margaret, he was Protestant and he already had two sons. Crucially, James’s succession was supported by Elizabeth’s chief minister, Robert Cecil (later the Earl of Salisbury), who had been in secret correspondence with James for several years. There was no opposition. On the contrary, men seeking office rushed to Scotland to ingratiate themselves with their new sovereign – 300 of them received knighthoods.

James adopted the title of King of Great Britain, although it was without authority as the English Parliament would not agree to a union of the two countries. James was King of England and, separately, King of Scotland.

From the start of his English reign, James disappointed his subjects because he was not interested in showing himself and seeking their favour. Also, he was at odds with the Puritans, being unwilling to accept their religious demands; and he was in constant conflict with Parliament and its claimed exclusive right to levy taxation. As for the Catholics, James was not in favour of persecution, and he promised them toleration. However, resistance from the Puritans meant that he did not deal with the issue as quickly as the Catholics expected.

The Puritans and Parliament would act in the next reign; the Catholics did not wait. Not only were they disappointed at the broken promise, but James had made peace with Spain. Paradoxically, the Catholics were unhappy at the signing of peace with the leading Catholic state; it meant that there was no chance of Spain invading and supporting them.

Unlike persecutions in continental Europe by Catholics, in England the Catholics were not maltreated merely for belonging to their faith. Rather, they faced numerous restrictions: they could not celebrate Mass, have their children baptised in the Catholic manner, marry in a Catholic service, or receive extreme unction (annointing with oil) when approaching death. They were also forced to attend Protestant services. The vast majority obeyed and were safe and could even attain high office, but those who disobeyed were heavily fined or imprisoned.

The Catholic reaction began in 1603, when a group led by Father Watson conspired to seize the King and his Council, intending to imprison them until every item of anti-Catholic legislation had been repealed. One of the conspirators feared retribution against all Catholics, and he informed the authorities. Watson and two accomplices were executed before the plot, known as the Bye Plot, could be put into operation. As a result, Catholic priests were ordered to leave England.

Later in the year, participants in another conspiracy, the Main Plot, sought to kill James and his children and put Lady Arbella Stuart (James’s cousin) on the throne. She was believed to be sympathetic to Catholics. These conspirators were not all Catholics; some were Protestants, including Sir Walter Raleigh, many of whose privileges had been withdrawn by James who disliked the dashing ‘lady’s man’. The plotters were betrayed by Arbella, and the leaders were arrested; some were executed, others were imprisoned. Raleigh was sentenced to death, but was instead confined in the Tower.

The fact that the Bye Plot had been revealed by a Catholic helped, particularly with James. It did not help with the Puritans (Protestants who believed that the Reformation had not gone far enough), so the chances of toleration were over.

Of course, some Catholics were not interested in mere toleration; they wanted a Catholic state.
When Essex made his ridiculous attempt to seize the throne from Elizabeth, most of the men who had supported him were fined and allowed to return to their homes. Some of them were Catholics, for Essex had been in favour of toleration. Among the hotheads had been Catholics Robert (also called Robin) Catesby, Francis Tresham, Jack Wright and John Grant. They had believed in James’s promises of toleration, not least because James’s parents were Catholics and his wife, Queen Anne, was believed to have converted to Catholicism. But Catesby was not just disappointed, he was angry.
Another angry man was a Catholic from York named Guy Fawkes. He had been fighting for Spain against the Protestants in the Spanish Netherlands. Fawkes then travelled to Spain, begging the authorities to invade England and enforce compulsory Catholicism. The only outcome was that he changed his first name from Guy to Guido.
With the 1604 Parliament increasing the level of fines payable for Catholic observance, it was clear that matters were only going to get worse. Catesby decided to act. He was a tall, good-looking man with a powerful personality, most of the conspirators later saying that for love of him they would do all he asked.
Catesby knew that not only the king had to be changed, but also the Council and much of Parliament. He told his second cousin Tom Wintour and Jack Wright of his plan to blow up Parliament and kill the King (and incidentally the Queen and Prince Henry), as well as his ministers and many lords and members of parliament, and both of them agreed to join him. Wright introduced his former schoolmate, Guy Fawkes, to the conspiracy. He was a useful addition, as his face was not known to the authorities because of his long absence abroad. Next to join was Wright’s brother-in-law, Thomas Percy.
On 20th May 1604, at the Duck and Drake Inn just off the Strand in London, the five original conspirators agreed to carry out Catesby’s plan. By October, they had a sixth member
– Robert Keyes. He was to take charge of Catesby’s house in Lambeth where the gunpowder was to be stored. Catesby’s servant, Thomas Bates, became the seventh conspirator.
In March 1605, the group increased to ten with the addition of Tom Wintour’s brother Robert, Wright’s brother Kit, and the Wintours’ brother-in-law, John Grant. Further details of the plan were now agreed. It was assumed that Prince Henry would be killed in the explosion. Prince Charles might or might not be in attendance, but he was only four years old, so it mattered little. Eight-year-old Princess Elizabeth lived outside London; the plan was to seize her and crown her queen under the regency of the Earl of Northumberland, who although a Protestant had sympathy for the Catholics. He was the second cousin once removed of Thomas Percy. The plotters believed that a nationwide Catholic uprising would come to their aid, possibly with assistance from Spain.
Next they rented a small house next to Parliament. This house had a storeroom on the ground floor that extended under the House of Lords. By 20th July, 36 barrels of gunpowder had been brought from Lambeth. Now a little more time as the final traces of plague led to a postponement of the opening of Parliament until the fateful day – 5th November. This gave Catesby time to recruit three more conspirators: Ambrose Rockwood (married to a cousin of Robert Keyes), Catesby’s cousin Francis Tresham and Sir Everard Digby – the man assigned to capture Princess Elizabeth.

With so many conspirators and such a long period of preparation, it is likely that a number of people knew something of the plot, perhaps wives, relatives, friends and priests. On 26th October, an anonymous letter was delivered to Lord Monteagle, whose wife Elizabeth was the sister of Frances Tresham. The letter included the advice:

Monteagle had his servant, Thomas Ward, read the letter out aloud. Then Monteagle took the letter to the King’s chief minister, the Earl of Salisbury.

Who wrote the Monteagle letter? Obviously someone who cared for Monteagle. Tresham, Catesby, Robert Wintour, Thomas Wintour and Grant’s wife were related to Monteagle’s wife. Lord Monteagle had been one of Essex’s hotheads, so Catesby, Tresham, Jack Wright and Grant had been his colleagues. Many of them, and others, are suspects; yet the identity of the author remains a mystery.

But another relationship was also relevant: Thomas Ward’s brother was married to the Wrights’ sister, and Ward’s sister was married to Kit Wright – Ward knew the conspirators and he knew of the plot. He rushed off to tell the plotters of the letter and of its delivery to Salisbury. Yet, despite objections from his associates, Catesby refused to abandon his plan.

Aware of what was intended, Salisbury decided to let matters develop so that he could catch the conspirators in the act. On 4th November, Fawkes (the man appointed to light the gunpowder) remained in London as the others headed for the Midlands, ready to start the uprising. Shortly before midnight, a search was carried out in Parliament and the surrounding buildings, and the searchers stumbled upon a man in a dark cloak and hat, holding touchpaper and matches. He called himself John Johnson, but it was Guy Fawkes. Next the gunpowder was found; it was enough to have blown Parliament sky-high, everyone within 100 yards would have been killed. Bonfires were lit across the country to celebrate the King’s deliverance.

Now that the game was up, Fawkes admitted that he had intended to blow up Parliament and the King. But he did not reveal his true name or the names of his colleagues, hoping to give them time to escape to the Continent. Yet Catesby took no advantage of Fawkes’s heroism, believing that an insurrection could be initiated despite the failure in London. The others knew that there was no hope, but still they followed Catesby.

After two days of torture, Fawkes’s body was broken on the rack, his arms and legs stretched until they were dislocated, and he revealed his name and the names of the others. The remaining conspirators were tracked down to Holbeche House in Staffordshire. Catesby and Percy were shot (killed by the same ball), and the Wright brothers were also killed. The others were captured and taken to the Tower, as were many of their friends.

Catesby and Percy were buried. Their bodies were later exhumed and the heads were cut off. Francis Tresham died in the Tower; his corpse was nevertheless executed. The surviving conspirators were tried and sentenced to death. It was the customary sentence for male traitors: to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
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First, to be tied to a horse and dragged backwards through the streets to the place of execution, the victim’s feet not being fit to tread on English soil, and face down so as not to breathe English air. The practice developed of dragging the condemned man on a wicker mat, so that he should not arrive unconscious, unable to make a speech or provide the necessary drama.

Second, the victim was hanged; suspended between heaven and earth, being unworthy of both. He was to be cut down before he was dead (friends sometimes managed to pull his legs so that he did die), the length of time hanging often depending on the contrition shown in his speech on the scaffold.

Third, to have his private parts cut off and burned in front of him so that he could not produce another generation. Fourth, to have his bowels and organs, where the evil had been harboured, cut out (withdrawn or drawn) and burned before his eyes. Fifth, to have his head, where the evil was conceived, cut off. For sure he was now dead. Yet it was still not over. Next his body was cut in quarters, and the four quarters and the head were sent for display in different towns to be devoured by the fowls of the air.