Babington conspiracy
The Babington Conspiracy ( also known as the Babington Conspiracy ) is the name given to a Catholic conspiracy in 1586 that aimed to assassinate the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I and free Mary Queen of Scots from prison at Chartley Manor for her to be bring English throne . The conspirators trusted that Philip II of Spain and the Catholic League in France would support them. Although Anthony Babington is named as the namesake, the real mastermind behind the conspiracy is John Ballard . The Babington conspiracy ultimately led to the execution of Maria Stuart.
prehistory
After Maria Stuart's abdication in Scotland in 1567, she was captured by Elizabeth I. Because of this, Mary Queen of Scots was primarily under the supervision of the Earl of Shrewsbury for 18 years . From 1580 control was transferred to Amyas Paulet .
1584 came the Throckmorton conspiracy of English Catholics who wanted to murder Elizabeth I and replace her with Maria Stuart. In the aftermath, Sir Francis Walsingham and William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , drafted the Bond of Association. Herein all signatories were obliged to execute anyone who attempted to usurp the throne or planned or successfully carried out an assassination attempt on the queen. Maria also signed this bond. In the following year, Parliament passed the relevant law on the basis of this bond.
As a further change after the conspiracy, the guarding and surveillance of Maria Stuart was tightened. Now their visitors and their correspondence were also closely monitored. She was also moved from Tutbury to Chartley on December 24th.
The conspirators
The core of the group consisted of:
- Anthony Babington
- John Ballard
- John Savage
- Thomas Salisbury (or Salesbury); he was the ward of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and thus had access to Elizabeth I.
- Edward Habington
- Chidiock Tichborne
- Charles Tilney; he was the cousin of Edmund Tilney , the director of the drama permits department .
Other people later joined the conspiracy. These were u. a.
- Edward Windsor; the younger brother of Lord Windsor
- Edward Jones; his father was a tailor Maria Stuarts
- Henry Donne (or Henry Donn)
- Robert Gage
- John Travers
- John Charncock
- Sir Thomas Gerald; he was suspected by the government of being involved in the conspiracy, was a Member of Parliament from Lancashire.
Gilbert Gifford was also a member of the conspiratorial group, but was actually a double agent in the service of Sir Francis Walsingham.
The dangerous thing about this conspiracy was that the conspirators came from around Queen Elizabeth. This was the first conspiracy that came not from outside but from young Catholic courtiers.
execution
The first goal of the conspiracy was the liberation of Maria Stuart. For this purpose, letters were exchanged with her. Since the last attempt to free Maria, not only have visitors been checked, but their mail has also been monitored. It was therefore necessary to send her the letters by other means. Cartley, now Maria's prison, was being supplied by a Burton brewer. The letters, encrypted with a nomenclator, were smuggled into his barrels in a hollowed-out bung and in a watertight casing. Gifford did not forward the letters directly to Mary, but to Francis Walsingham , Elizabeth's security minister. Since the letters were encrypted, Walsingham hired the experienced decipherer Thomas Phelippes as secretary, who succeeded in deciphering the messages with the help of frequency analysis. The postal service was organized so that Gifford received a letter and delivered it to Walsingham. Walsingham had the letter copied and deciphered, after which it was brought to Chartley by a fast messenger and handed over to Paulet there. He passed the letter on to Gifford, who then passed it on to the brewer, who hid the letter in the barrel. When Walsingham heard of the plot, he had the correspondence watched. He was pursuing several goals. On the one hand, he wanted to find out the names of as many co-conspirators as possible and, on the other hand, to induce Maria Stuart to make an overly careless statement. On July 17, 1586, Mary Queen of Scots replied to a letter from Babington. Walsingham caused Phelippes to add the following addition to the letter: "I will be glad to know the names and qualities of the six gentlemen, which are to accomplish the designment [the murder of the queen]". He wanted to get Babington to name his co-conspirators. The ruse failed, but Walsingham already had enough evidence.
Arrest and trial
Walsingham struck in early August 1586. Ballard was arrested first. Babington then induced Savage to put the plan into action and fled to avoid arrest himself. He and several companions went into hiding at the Bellamy family home and was arrested on August 30th.
All conspirators were interrogated for three days, from September 13 to 15, and confessed to the crime; except for Ballard, no one was tortured. They blamed each other. The trial opened in mid-September and all were found guilty of high treason. Babington, Ballard, Savage, and four other conspirators were executed on September 20, 1586. Babington, Ballard, and Savage are known to have been executed by hanging, eviscerating, and quartering . Elizabeth was so horrified after the description of the executions that she ordered a faster execution for the next day, on which another seven conspirators were to be executed.
Chidiock Tichborne wrote a poem in the Tower before his execution:
“I sought my death and found it in my womb,
I looked for life and saw it was a shade;
I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb,
And now I die, and now I was but made.
My glass is full, and now my glass is run,
And now I live, and now my life is done. "
Execution of Maria Stuart
After the conspiracy was discovered, the situation for Mary Queen of Scots became more and more threatening. Walsingham did everything to try and execute them on the basis of the law passed by Parliament. At the end of September 1586 she was brought to Fotheringhay. On October 25, she was found guilty of high treason for participating in the Babington conspiracy. It is still not clear whether the letters actually came from Maria Stuart. It was not until February 1, 1587 that Elisabeth's execution certificate was signed. On February 8, she was beheaded in the presence of nobles and others of lesser rank.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Personal data at www.luminarium.org (English)
- ↑ Text on www.tudorplace.com.ar (English)
- ↑ Peter Wende (ed.): English kings and queens of modern times; From Heinrich VIII. To Elisabeth II. Beck, 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57375-0 , p. 84
- ^ John E. Neale: Elizabeth I Queen of England. Diederichs, 1995, ISBN 3-424-01226-2 , p. 303
- ^ Enid Roberts, Salisbury, Thomas (1561x4–1586) , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 on March 1st, 2012 license required
- ↑ a b c Penry Williams, Babington, Anthony (1561–1586) , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , viewed March 1, 2012 License required
- ↑ Personal data at www.en.wikisource.org (English)
- ^ A b John E. Neale: Elizabeth I Queen of England. Diederichs, 1995, ISBN 3-424-01226-2 , p. 304
- ^ John E. Neale: Elizabeth I Queen of England. Diederichs, 1995, ISBN 3-424-01226-2 , p. 305
- ↑ Michel Duchein: Maria Stuart; The biography. Albertros, 2003, ISBN 3-491-96097-5 , p. 404
- ↑ Michel Duchein: Maria Stuart; The biography. Albertros, 2003, ISBN 3-491-96097-5 , p. 405
- ^ Alan & Veronica Palmer: The Pimlico Chronology of British History; from 250,000 BC to the Present Day. Pimlico, 1996, ISBN 0-7126-7331-8 , p. 161
- ↑ Michel Duchein: Maria Stuart; The biography. Albertros, 2003, ISBN 3-491-96097-5 , p. 406
- ↑ Michel Duchein: Maria Stuart; The biography. Albertros, 2003, ISBN 3-491-96097-5 , p. 429
- ↑ Stewart Ross: Monarchs of Scotland. Lochar Publishing Ltd, 1990, ISBN 0-948403-38-1 , p. 110
literature
- Penry Williams, Babington, Anthony (1561-1586) , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed March 1, 2012. License required
- Michel Duchein: Maria Stuart; The biography. Albertros, 2003, ISBN 3-491-96097-5 , p. 397ff.
- John E. Neale: Elizabeth I Queen of England. Diederichs, 1995, ISBN 3-424-01226-2 , pp. 305ff.